May 10, 1912] 
mendation of the International Commission. 
But the congress itself has decreed that “no 
proposition for change in the code is per- 
mitted to come before the congress unless it is 
presented to the Permanent Commission at 
least one year before the meeting of the 
congress.” 
A letter from Dr. Stiles, the secretary of 
the commission, informs me that the congress 
has gone on record to the effect that it de- 
mands “a unanimous vote of the commission 
before any matter will be considered by the 
congress.” 
It is interesting to speculate at this point 
whether there is any conceivable method by 
which a dignified body of scientists could more 
completely and finally tie its own hands than 
the one here solemnly consummated by the 
International Congress of Zoologists. The 
method, in brief, is as follows: 
1. Appoint a commission with power to for- 
mulate a code. 
2. Formally adopt that code. 
3. Forbid any amendment to be introduced 
except through the commission. 
4. Declare that nothing will be considered 
unless brought before the congress with the 
unanimous vote of the commission. 
I submit, most respectfully, that nothing 
more perfect of its kind has every been per- 
petrated by any political machine or autocrat. 
All that the commission has to do is to 
“stand pat.” The congress has done the rest. 
C. OC. Nurrine 
HENRY JAMES CLARK: TEACHER AND 
INVESTIGATOR? 
Henry JAMES CrarK, or H. James-Clark as 
he often wrote his name, sometimes called, not 
inaptly, the first professor of natural history 
at this college, was the first trained zoologist 
to occupy a chair here. But hardly had he 
An address delivered at the dedication of the 
building for entomology and zoology at the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College, November 11, 1910. 
In the preparation of this sketch I am indebted 
to Dr. Edward S. Morse and Professor A. E. 
Verrill for much valuable information. 
SCIENCE 
725. 
entered upon its duties when he was called 
from this life in the flower of his age. 
Born at Easton, Massachusetts, on the 
twenty-second of June, 1826, the son of a 
clergyman, his father moved to Brooklyn, 
N. Y., where he lived many years and where 
the son received much of his early training 
and was fitted for college. After completing 
his preparatory studies, he entered the Uni- 
versity of the City of New York, and was 
graduated thence in 1848. From college he 
went as a teacher to White Plains, and while 
engaged in the study of botany, made obser- 
vations upon the structure of Chimaphila and 
Mimulus, which he communicated to Dr. 
Gray. These and subsequent observations 
upon the flora of the neighborhood attracted 
to him the favorable notice of the latter, who 
invited him to Cambridge. Thither he went 
in 1850, and enjoyed for a time the advan- 
tages of a pupil and private assistant at the 
botanic garden. While a student there he 
taught, for a single term, the academy at 
Westfield, achieving much success as a 
teacher. Soon after this a taste for zoological 
studies, developed by the lectures of Professor 
Agassiz and frequent visits to the zoological 
laboratory, led him to abandon botany for 
what appeared the more fascinating study of 
animal life. Graduating from the Lawrence 
Scientific School in 1854, he became immedi- 
ately after the private assistant of Professor 
Agassiz. Three years later Agassiz spoke of 
him enthusiastically, remarking to a friend, 
“Clark has become the most accurate ob- 
server in the country.” In June, 1860, he 
was appointed assistant professor of zoology 
in the Scientific School at Harvard Univer- 
sity, a position he held until the expiration of 
his term of office. 
A few weeks following his appointment he 
went abroad, mainly for his health, traveling 
in England, France, Germany and Switzer- 
land, often on foot, and visiting the leading 
universities and museums. He met many 
scientific workers, including Allman, Alex- 
ander Braun, Gegenbaur, Haeckel, Huxley, 
Leuckart, von Martius, Milne-Edwards, 
Schleiden, but especially Owen, whose guest 
