532 
appreciate his devotion to the science he loved 
and the fineness and strength of his character. 
Gro. H. AsHLrey, di. ©. Elovn: 
V. H. Barnett, L. O. Howarp, 
J. A. BonsTEEL, E. M. Kiypie, 
B. S. Butter, G. C. Martin, 
F. K. Cameron G. C. Matson, 
M. E. Evans, KE. S. SHEPERD, 
L. C. Graton, C. W. TuRRENTINE, 
R. T. Hit, Davi WHITE 
J. A. Houmgs, 
WASHINGTON, D. C., 
March 22, 1912 
CHARLES ROBERT SANGER 
In the untimely death of Professor Sanger, 
on February 25, 1912, the Faculty of Arts and 
Sciences of Harvard University lost a loyal 
and faithful member, the chemical laboratory 
of Harvard College an efficient director, and 
the class of 1881 a devoted secretary. 
Charles Robert Sanger was born in Boston 
on August 31, 1860. He graduated from Har- 
vard College in 1881, received the Harvard 
degree of Master of Arts in 1882, and attained 
that of Doctor of Philosophy in 1884. From 
1881 to 1882 and again from 1884 to 1886, he 
was assistant in the chemical laboratory of 
Harvard College, but in 1886 he went to the 
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
as professor of chemistry. Six years later he 
was called to Washington University, St. 
Louis, Mo., and remained there until 1899, 
when he came back to Harvard as assistant 
professor of chemistry. He was called here 
because his service as assistant in qualitative 
analysis fifteen years before had been so able 
that he was deemed the most suitable person 
to continue the instruction in this favorite 
course when Professor H. B. Hill was obliged 
by other duties to relinquish it. Professor 
Sanger’s return to Harvard was appropriate; 
he had never lost interest in the varied 
phases of our university life even when duty 
called him elsewhere. No son of Harvard has 
ever worked, according to his opportunity, 
more loyally in her behalf. 
When in 1903 Hill laid down his work for- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 901 
ever, Sanger was promoted to a full professor- 
ship, and on account of his marked executive 
ability and conscientious devotion, was the 
natural choice for the onerous directorship of 
the laboratory. Only those who have been 
privileged to work with him there can fully 
appreciate the extent to which he generously 
gave his time and thought in order to further 
the interests of all. 
While first at Harvard as an assistant, he 
worked under Professor Hill on the constitu- 
tion of pyromucic acid. In recent years he 
confined his work chiefly to the devising and 
perfecting of methods for the detection of 
minute quantities of arsenic, antimony and 
fluorine, as well as to the investigation of the 
chlorine derivatives of silicon and sulphur. 
Besides papers describing these researches, he 
wrote several laboratory manuals. His fine 
character was especially manifested in the 
great care he exercised in all his scientific 
work; he was determined that no untrue 
statement should ever escape his pen, and 
rigorous precautions and manifold repetitions 
of experiments doubtless prevented him from 
ranging over a wider field. As a teacher he 
tried to inculeate the same habits of method- 
ical painstaking work which he possessed him- 
self. 
He was a Fellow of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences and a member of the 
American Chemical Society and the Deutsche 
Chemische Gesellschaft. 
In 1886 he married Miss Almira Stark- 
weather Horswell, who died in 1905, leaving 
three children. Five years later he married 
Miss Eleanor W. Davis, of Cambridge, who, 
with the children, survives him. 
No one could watch his struggle against an 
insidious disease during these last years with- 
out a feeling of deep admiration for the cour- 
age with which he lectured and worked in spite 
of spasms of mortal pain and prostrating 
weakness; and the devotion and consideration 
of his classes was a striking testimony to the 
universal respect in which he was held. 
T. W. RicHarps, 
B. O. Peirce, 
G. P. Baxter 
