Aprit 5, 1912] 
lustrations by neglecting to use the manu- 
script that would make his discourse coherent? 
Perhaps mere notes would save him from 
helpless verbal floundering. 
What shall we say of that misguided per- 
son, who, having at least eighty pictures to 
illustrate his lecture on Alaska, or some other 
far-away place, throws in about forty more, 
to show how he got there? Half a dozen to 
get the ship away from the dock at Seattle, 
half a dozen shots at the city as he steams 
away, a few more at passing vessels, another 
half dozen at the members of his party (in 
which he is careful to show up in most of the 
groups himself), a few pictures of the captain, 
and about a dozen showing the Indian villages 
of the British Columbia islands, as he steams 
kodaking along, and all of which have been 
kodaked by a dozen tourists on every steamer, 
every week for the past twenty years. 
I witnessed such a performance at the 
afore-mentioned meeting in Philadelphia. 
The exhibitor of slides held the platform 
for an hour and a half, until even the picture- 
bewitched ornithologists were audibly in re- 
volt. 
»How shall we use the lantern slide? Is it 
not possible for the lecturer to first present 
his matter, so that it will appeal to the mind 
of his audience, and then follow his discourse 
with a limited number of illustrations se- 
lected for their fitness rather than their 
beauty? It would be quite useless to show 
pictures first. No audience will stay after the 
last picture. The unceremonious exit stam- 
pede begins at once, even if the distinguished 
president of the society has risen to make 
some concluding remarks. 4 
And how about manuscript which is un- 
fortunately often necessary? There is no need 
for a slavish use of manuscript, if the matter 
is good and delivered in a vigorous manner. 
Many speakers use it effectively. Ingersoll 
never spoke without it, and Roosevelt uses it 
for all lengthy discourses. 
Our museum lecturer should unquestion- 
ably devote more time to preparation. He 
should make his address worth hearing with- 
SCIENCE 
531 
out illustrations at all. He should be able to 
get the same applause for his matter that he 
gets for his pictures. When he does that he 
will be on a dignified basis himself, and will 
pay a long-deferred compliment to the intelli- 
gence of the audience, that it will be likely to 
appreciate. 
I should like to see some of our museum 
men doing their platform work without pic- 
tures, and J am sure that some of them are 
capable of doing it. Most of those who try 
it should write out their lectures in full, and 
thus get the benefit of the work of arranging 
their matter and becoming familiar with it. 
There must, of course, be reference to the 
manuscript, but the audience will not mind 
that if the subject is of real interest and the 
speaker deals with it in a forcible manner, 
impressing his hearers with the fact that they 
are listening to a man filled with his subject 
and sure that it is a good one. Lack of 
earnestness means that the audience will get 
weary or begin to slip out. I am sure that a 
good lecture half an hour long, followed by 
half the usual number of illustrations, will be 
an improvement on the present method, 
Should we not illustrate our lectures, and 
cease to lecture about our illustrations? 
C. H. Townsenp 
N. Y. Aquarium 
RALPH STOCKMAN TARR 
As Cornellians and former students of Pro- 
fessor Ralph Stockman Tarr we learn with 
sorrow of his death and extend to his family 
our heartfelt sympathy and condolence. We 
feel keenly the loss to the university of his 
unselfish service and forceful personality, and 
we regret that his brilliant contributions to 
geology and geography have been cut off at a 
time when they were most fruitful and con- 
vineing. Above all we deplore the loss of the 
personal influence which we have found so 
helpful and inspiring in his home, in the class 
room and in the field. Those of us who have 
known him under the trying conditions of life 
in northern ice fields, where no hardship was 
too great to be cheerfully borne, can most fully 
