534 
tury will be applied again, and the prizes of 
industrial and commercial leadership will fall 
to the nation which organizes its scientific 
forces most effectively. 
MAXIME BOCHER!?! 
Maxime BocuErR was born in Boston on Au- 
gust 28, 1867. His father, Ferdinand Bécher, 
came to this country from France at the age 
of fifteen. His mother was Caroline Little, of 
Boston, a descendant of Thomas Little, who 
came to Plymouth in the early days of the 
colony and in 1633 married Anne Warren, 
the daughter of Richard Warren, who came 
in the Mayflower. Ferdinand Bécher was the 
first professor of modern languages at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he was 
ealled to Harvard shortly after Mr. Eliot be- 
came president. Thus Maxime grew up under 
the shadow of the college, attending various 
schools in Boston and Cambridge; but it was 
chiefly by the stimulating influence of his par- 
ents, he tells us in the vita of his dissertation, 
that his interest in science was awakened. 
He graduated at the Cambridge Latin School 
in 1883 and took the bachelor’s degree at Har- 
vard in 1888. Then followed three years of 
study at Gottingen, where he received the de- 
gree of doctor of philosophy in 1891, and at the 
same time the prize offered in mathematics by 
the philosophical faculty of the university. 
From 1891 till his death, which occurred at his 
home on September 12, he was a member of 
the department of mathematics. He married 
Miss Marie Niemann, of Gottingen in 1891. 
His wife and three children, Helen, Esther and 
Frederick, survive him. 
He came to Gottingen at a time when Felix 
Klein was probably the most inspiring teacher 
of mathematics in the whole world. Breadth 
and accuracy of scientific knowledge and a 
true sense of proportion, combined with extra- 
ordinary powers of presentation, were char- 
acteristics of this great leader, whose scientific 
1 Minute on the life and services of Professor 
Bocher placed upon the records of the faculty of 
arts and sciences, Harvard University, at the 
meeting of October 22, 1918. 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIII. No. 1248 
productivity had already secured for him high 
standing among mathematicians. 
It was from this environment that Bocher 
came to Harvard to take up the profession of 
mathematics. His skill as an expositor in the 
classroom, before a scientific audience, and on 
the printed page shone out from the beginning 
of his career, but the originality of his mind 
saved him from ever becoming a mere exposi- 
tor. As a lecturer he was preeminent among 
American mathematicians. 
It is not difficult in science to find important 
problems which can not be solyed, or unim- 
portant ones which can be. Bédcher was suc- 
cessful in discovering subjects on which the 
advanced student could work with a reasonable 
prospect of securing results of value. He did 
not foster research by excessive praise, and his 
pupils sometimes felt that he was unapprecia- 
tive. But a scientific contribution of real 
merit never failed to secure his attention, and 
he had infinite patience in helping the student 
who was really making progress to develop his 
ideas, to see that which was new in its true 
perspective, and to put his results into clear 
and accurate language. 
As a scientist Bécher was highly critical. 
It was, however, the constructive work called 
for when criticism has exposed errors or dis- 
closed deficiencies, not the destruction with 
which an unimaginative mind is content, that 
to him was the important thing. He had ex- 
traordinary powers of judgment, both within 
the domain of pure science, and in things re- 
lating to the policies of institutions. His judg- 
ment of men, too, was accurate. For these rea- 
sons he was unusually well qualified to take a 
leading part in the affairs of the American 
Mathematical Society, which came into exist- 
ence at the beginning of his scientific career. 
He became its president, and he served with 
marked success on the editorial board of its 
Transactions. He also contributed in no small 
measure toward helping the university to build 
up a strong department of mathematics. 
The decade in which Bécher’s career as a 
university teacher began was marked by an 
awakening of the science of mathematics in 
this country. His scientific contributions were 
