322 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1266 



come into action wlien medicine still feels the 

 impulse of these strenuous years. 



The laboratory and the clinic have collabor- 

 ated as never before and the future is full of 

 promise. 



Under these conditions it has been my 

 privilege to give you encouragement and a bit 

 of counsel, and I feel indebted for the 

 opportimity. Henry H. Donaldson 



WILLIAM ERSKINE KELLICOTT 



A CONSTANTLY lengthening list of scientific 

 men who have surrendered their lives in varied 

 war services, or in that harder, more exacting 

 fight with microbial enemies, is one of those 

 news columns which our eyes have come to 

 scan with a strange mingling of suspense and 

 unwilling, silent complacency. The world, and 

 each o-f us in it, has become immeasurably 

 poorer because of this great drain upon poten- 

 tial mental energy; and the lost men, as a rule, 

 have had capacities for friendship directly 

 commensurate with their intellectual powers. 



ISTot a few American zoologists were partic- 

 ularly moved by a recent item of this sort; 

 and to the list we are now compelled to append 

 the name of William Erskine Kellicott, who 

 was taken away by pneumonia, after illness of 

 a week, at his home, in Hastings-on-Hudson, 

 ]Sr. T., January 29, 1919. Though but forty 

 years of age, he, among scientists, teachers, 

 critics and friends, had become to many their 

 great, to some their greatest, satisfaction. 



His career may be briefly summarized as fol- 

 lows: he was born in Buffalo, N. Y., April 5, 

 1878, the son of David Simmons Kellicott and 

 Valeria Erskine Stowell. His father, at that 

 time, was head of the science department in the 

 Buffalo State ITormal School. His earlier edu- 

 cational training was received entirely at home, 

 so that he began his high school studies, at the 

 age of twelve years, directly from his mother's 

 tuition. This occurred at Columbus, Ohio, the 

 second year of his father's appointment to the 

 chair of biology in Ohio State University. 

 After completion of his high school course, he 

 entered the university, from which he received 

 the degree of Ph.B. in 1898, with election to 

 Sigma Si. Later, on organization of a chapter 



of Phi Beta Kappa at Ohio State, he was 

 chosen to that society also. 



His undergraduate work was shaped and pur- 

 sued with entire reference to a future career in 

 surgery; but his father's death in his senior 

 year changed this cherished plan, and he spent 

 his first post-graduate year in teaching bio- 

 logical subjects in the high school at Marys- 

 ville, Ohio. The following summer he was a 

 student in the invertebrate zoology course at 

 the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 

 Mass., and it was at this time that Kellicott 

 decided to devote his energies to zoological sci- 

 ence. In the autumn of 1899 be began grad- 

 uate study at Columbia University, and re- 

 ceived the doctorate in 1904, his major thesis 

 being entitled " The Development of the Vas- 

 cular and Respiratory Systems of Oeratodus." 

 The following positions were occupied by 

 him for the term of years indicated : 



In Barnard College, assistant in zoology, 

 '01-'02; tutor, '02-'05; instructor, '05-'06. 



In Goucher College, professor of biology, 

 '06-'18. 



In College of the City of Ifew York, pro- 

 fessor of biology, '18-. 



In the Marine Biological Laboratory, in- 

 structor in embryology, '11, '12, '14; in charge 

 of the embryology course, '15—. 

 ' For the year 1912-13 he was fellow of the 

 Kahn Foundation for the Foreign Travel of 

 American Teachers, and as such was enabled 

 to visit many European countries and numer- 

 ous centers of interest in Siberia, China, Japan 

 and India. His report to the foundation offers 

 interesting proof of his discriminating analysis 

 of human nature. 



In July, 1918, he resigned as assistant sta- 

 tistician of the U. S. Food Administration, 

 having served one year; during this time he 

 devised and put into operation a thorough and 

 efficient system of gathering data from dealers 

 in food aU over the country, definitely stamp- 

 ing the square dealer and the profiteer. 



He was a fellow of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, a member of 

 the American Society of Zoologists, of the 

 American Naturalists, and of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences. 



