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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 727 



hospital and, after most severe attacks 

 there, rallied ; but in nine long months that 

 followed he scarcely left his wheel-chair. 



When he returned to his home he got 

 such comfort as might be from the advent 

 of spring, the passing of summer and the 

 long lingering of autumn, amidst scenes so 

 familiar and dear. Despite his critical 

 state he was deeply interested in such news 

 as came to him from the university. His 

 last official act was a strong, successful plea 

 for another when his own interests might 

 well have absorbed his attention. His was 

 real friendship growing out of his own 

 wide sympathies. 



While having some strength to correct 

 the proofs of papers in press he felt most 

 keenly his inability to put his last work 

 upon paper, and till this work was done he 

 would not deem it right to retire or seek 

 a pension. 



The end was imminent, but could not be 

 predicted. His mind was still interested 

 in books and objects of nature, down to a 

 week from the end. Back of the weakness 

 of organs, which he deplored, lay in- 

 domitable will and soul, masked not absent. 

 Finally came stuporous death. 



After services in Trinity Church, his 

 friends, the faculty and his students, fol- 

 lowed the body to its resting place, on the 

 bow of a hill overlooking a broad valley, in 

 the cemetery of the county seat of Balti- 

 more County. 



In person, Professor Brooks was of short 

 stature and with ruddy abundant flesh, but 

 yet with small refined boning. Early 

 photographs show him a strikingly thought- 

 ful, quiet but resolute man, with the see- 

 ing eyes that remained to the last. Later, 

 when first he came to Baltimore, Brooks 

 was a noticeable, short man, with bushy 

 beard and square, thoughtful brow, very 

 slow of speech, lacking in all superficial 

 conversational art, content with his own 

 thoughts and the worship of his college 



companion and long most faithful friend, 

 his great St. Bernard dog, "Tige." 



To many he is known only from Corner's 

 portrait, which recalls to his older students 

 his characteristic, Buddha-like, quiet and 

 peaceful absorption in thought, till some 

 inner conclusion, or strong outer compul- 

 sion caused the peculiar rising glance of the 

 eyes that saw so much and seemed to ques- 

 tion so strangely one's inner self. 



Born with a physical heart that failed to 

 become completed as in the average man, 

 he learned to conduct his life within the 

 limits set by his peculiar physical organiza- 

 tion and avoided all intense muscular 

 efforts and sudden movements. Owing to 

 these habits he was often misunderstood. 

 Yet on right occasion he could exchange 

 his slow rate of living for strong effort. 

 With sympathy for all suffering he once 

 lifted his great St. Bernard dog, "Jupi- 

 ter," when too tired to longer follow the 

 carriage, and thus he received a severe 

 strain that cost him weeks of pain. 



Knowing both the physical and the 

 financial handicaps of his life's race we can 

 appreciate his saying : 



The only necessary law of progress that I can 

 discover is that it is necessary to fight pretty 

 hard for everything worth the getting, and that 

 it is no light or easy task to keep what has been 

 won.' 



Brooks was no friend of conventionali- 

 ties, and at times might extend his ab- 

 sorption in the essentials of thought-life to 

 some neglect of many superficialities that 

 others highly prized. In the stress that 

 comes, at times, to those who live in the 

 country and journey daily, some factors of 

 his dress, such as a necktie, might at times 

 be forgotten, but if the loss were dis- 

 covered, replaced by quick purchase 

 through the faithful laboratory janitor, 

 who honored, and, with good cause, loved 



'Address Western Reserve University, 1899. 



