November 4, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



425 



nous and widely scattered literature. As lie 

 studied this problem in various countries, tlie 

 need grew upon him and the thought he had, 

 even in student days, of some agency to 

 handle the material in broad and comprehen- 

 sive fashion took form gradually in the great 

 Concilium Bibliographicum which he con- 

 ceived, founded, and organized, an enter- 

 prise which testifies eloquently to his suc- 

 cessful efforts for the advancement of science 

 and the assistance of his coworkers in biol- 

 ogy. 



Dr. Field was a fine-looking man. Of 

 large size and good figure, with dignified 

 bearing, he attracted attention in any group 

 even though in later years he had manifested 

 a tendency to increase in weight which was, 

 in fact, a trait inherited from his father. 

 Two physical defects are worthy of note. He 

 suffered from a constantly recurring migraine 

 of great intensity. In the early days his 

 friends and associates noted a marked ten- 

 dency to stammer which became painful at 

 times when he was involved in a vigorous 

 argument. He studied the situation inten- 

 sively to rid himself of the defect and it did 

 largely disappear. It was, however, striking 

 to those who had noted this peculiarity, to 

 find that his conversation in other languages 

 was entirely free from the difficulty. He 

 spoke withal in an easy, flowing style which 

 was vivid and sparkling, commanding the at- 

 tention of the listener and carrying convic- 

 tion to those with whom he was conversing. 



His gift of tongues was indeed extraordi- 

 nary, for in his college days he utilized Latin, 

 German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Russian 

 with apparently equal ease, and he is said to 

 have been accustomed to write his diary in the 

 last-named language. When the seventh 

 International Zoological Congress met in 

 this country it held a session at Cold Spring 

 Harbor, and the delegates were received at 

 Sagamore Hill by then President Roosevelt. 

 At that time Dr. Field, who had known most 

 of them for years, was called upon to intro- 

 duce the foreign delegates to the President. 

 He conversed readily with those whom he 

 did not know, addressing each in his own 



language and telling Mr. Roosevelt about 

 them. His exceptional memory was conspicu- 

 ous to every one who came into contact with 

 him, but most of all, perhaps, to those of us 

 who were his associates day after day in the 

 laboratory at the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology. He would not only repeat para- 

 graph after paragraph from various lectures 

 but would dazzle us by a record of scientific 

 facts from papers and references to out-of- 

 way publications with a completeness and 

 precision that were remarkable in fields out- 

 side of the particular territory in which he 

 was doing his own work. I have been told 

 that his musical memory was even more 

 remarkable. It is said that he would listen 

 to a symphony concert and on returning 

 home would play on any sort of a musical 

 instrument not only the motif and its numer- 

 ous variations but also whole sections of the 

 composition even though he had just heard it 

 for the first time. 



Combined with this fine endovsrment of a 

 precise and retentive memory was a sense of 

 order and system that was equally conspicu- 

 ous because of its contrast with the habits 

 of the ordinary man. He was fond of system 

 and had remarkable power for outlining and 

 installing a plan, to organize any given 

 material; this was coupled with unusual 

 power in following out the system and apply- 

 ing it in detail to complex series of data. It 

 must be confessed that in his own work he 

 was not always so systematic. In the labora- 

 tory at the Agassiz Museum he worked with 

 the greatest pertinacity and concentration, 

 often not even stopping for lunch. But 

 after some days of such effort, he might 

 absent himself for two or three days at a 

 stretch and would be found visiting or read- 

 ing at home with equal intensity. Further- 

 more, he sometimes manifested that absent- 

 mindedness, which some attribute to genius 

 and which affects tlie little things of every- 

 day life that seem of importance to a smallei- 

 man. He would lose one object or another 

 and, after failing to find the thing for which 

 he was looking, would exclaim : " Never mind ! 

 I think I left it on the train," or somewhere 



