April 25, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



393 



JOHN WALLACE BAIRD 



John "Wallace Baird, professor of experi- 

 mental psychology in Clark University, died 

 at Baltimore on February 2, 1919. 



Baird was born on May 21, 1869, at Mother- 

 well, western Ontario. From the local school 

 he passed to the high school at St. Marys, and 

 thence to the University of Toronto. His 

 undergraduate course was prolonged, partly 

 by disability due to eye-strain and partly by 

 ventures in teaching; he took his B.A. in 1897. 



In his senior year at Toronto Baird came 

 under tlie influence of Professor A. Kirsch- 

 mann, who aroused in him the psychological 

 interest that was to dominate the rest of his 

 life. After graduation he spent a further 

 year with Kirschmann, and then — working his 

 passage on a cattle-boat — made his way to 

 "Wundt at Leipsic. On his return, he was 

 api)ointed fellow in psychology at the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin. This appointment was re- 

 newed for the following year; but a position 

 fell vacant at Cornell, and Professor Jastrow 

 generously consented to release Baird from 

 his obligations in order that he might accept 

 it. He accordingly came to me as personal 

 assistant in ifarch, 1901, and was made fellow 

 for 1901-02. In 1902 he took his Ph.D. de- 

 gree. He remained two more years at Cor- 

 nell, first as assistant in the department of 

 psychology, and then as research assistant on 

 the Carnegie Foundation. From 1904 to 1906 

 he was instructor in psychology at the Johns 

 Hopkins University, and from 1906 to 1910 

 assistant professor in the University of Hli- 

 nois. In 1910 he was called as assistant pro- 

 fessor to Clark University, and in 1913 was 

 advanced to the rank of professor. 



Baird's productive work is shown by his 

 own writings and by the publications of the 

 students he inspired to have covered a wide 

 range. He spoke with especial authority on 

 the phenomena of visual sensation and per- 

 ception and on the processes of memory and 

 learning. His interest in vision dates from 

 his Toronto time; a study of abnormal color- 

 sense, published in collaboration with E. J. 

 Richardson in 1898, is, I believe, his first essay 

 in psychological research. He took as the sub- 



ject of his doctorate thesis the influence of 

 accommodation and convergence on the per- 

 ception of depth, and his Carnegie Foundation 

 memoir — an admirable bit of work — is an ex- 

 perimental study of the color-sensitivity of 

 the peripheral retina. On the side of memory 

 and learning we have his translation of 

 Meumann's " Psychology of Learning " (1913), 

 and the yearly simmaaries of experimental 

 papers which he furnished to the Psychological 

 Bulletin from 1911 to 1917. Baird's advanced 

 lectures on memory and learning and on the 

 higher intellectual processes would have 

 ripened into books, and indeed would be well 

 worth publishing in the form in which they 

 were last delivered. Unfortimately, he ap- 

 pears never .to have written them out in full. 

 He was a born debater, and was openly proud 

 of his ability to speak logically and fluently, 

 on a complex topic, from the scantiest and 

 raggedest of notes. The pride, in a man of 

 extreme modesty, was delightful, and the lec- 

 tures were always as clear and interesting as 

 he could have wished; but it is doubtful 

 whether enough of their substance can now 

 be recovered to warrant publication. His two 

 latest articles bear witness both to the range 

 of his interest and to the generosity which was 

 an abiding trait of his character. They are 

 entitled " Memory for Absolute Pitch " and 

 " The Role of Intent in Mental Functioning," 

 and appear in volimies of essays dedicated to 

 former teachers. 



Baird's scientific output, considerable as it 

 was, fails — even if we add his students' work 

 to his own — adequately to reflect his ability 

 and industry. He suffered for many years, 

 and he suffered more than any of us knew, 

 from the malady that was to prove fatal. He 

 seemed able, however, to meet the attacks as 

 they came, and at the time of his marriage 

 in 1914 his friends had reason to hope that his 

 recovery was complete. He threw himself, 

 with zest and humor, into the task of build- 

 ing a house — a house whose hospitality was 

 to rival those other Worcester houses that 

 many psychologists have come to look upon 

 almost as second homes. The house was built, 

 but, alasl was hardly occupied before it was 



