606 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XhlX. No. 1278 



Only a few days before his death, there came 

 to him the news of the highest honor that can 

 be given to an American scientist, election to 

 the National Academy of Sciences. His elec- 

 tion, furthermore, was by a unanimous vote 

 of the academicians present at the April meet- 

 ing in "Washington, and such a vote is rare in 

 the academy. 



Joseph Barrell, the son of a farmer, was 

 bom at ISTew Providence, E". J., December 15, 

 1869, and died of pneumonia and spinal men- 

 ingitis in 'New Haven on May 4, 1919. He 

 leaves a wife and four sons. Standing 5 feet 

 10.5 inches in height, of the blue-eyed Nordic 

 type, with a full head of wavy light-brown 

 hair, he was spare and slender in build, but 

 characterized by great muscular strength in 

 comparison to body weight. He was of the 

 eighth American generation from the Puritan 

 George Barrell, who migrated from Suffolk, 

 England, and settled at Boston in 1637. This 

 first American Barrell began as a cooper, but 

 most of his descendants have been sea-going 

 people and shipping merchants. The most 

 widely known and wealthiest was Joseph Bar- 

 rell of Boston, after whom the subject of our 

 sketch, his great-grandson, was named. This 

 Joseph Barrell is said to have " early espoused 

 and firmly maintained the cause of his coun- 

 try," and for a time represented the town of 

 Boston in the State Legislature. It was in 

 his splendid home that General George Wash- 

 ington was entertained during his visit to 

 Boston. 



Professor Barrell received the first part of 

 his collegiate education at Lehigh University, 

 taking in due course its B.S., E.M. and M.S. 

 degrees, and in 1916 this institution gave him 

 its doctorate of science. From 1893 to 1897 

 he was instructor in mining and metallurgy 

 at his alma mater, and then was given leave 

 of absence to go to Yale for graduate studies 

 in geology, taking his Ph.D. degree in 1900. 

 Eetuming to Lehigh, he was made assistant 

 professor of geology, and for three years 

 taught not only geology but zoology as well. 

 In 1903 he was called to Yale as assistant pro- 

 fessor of geology and in 1908 promoted to the 

 chair in structural geology. In the geological 

 department at Yale he was a unifying force 



and a tower of strength. During the summer 

 months from 1893 onward, Barrell spent 

 nearly all the time in the field, working at 

 first as an engineer in the coal mines of Penn- 

 sylvania, then in the mines of Butte, Montana, 

 devoting one summer to the geology of south- 

 ern Europe, and later studying widely the 

 geology of the Appalachians and of the New 

 England States. 



Professor Barrell's first publications, in 

 1899 to 1900, deal with mining, but since 1901 

 nearly all his work has been in geology. His 

 bibliography has upward of forty-five titles, 

 totalling more than 1,500 pages. Several 

 articles remain unpublished, at least two of 

 which it is hoped to print during this year. A 

 more detailed accoimt of his life and work will 

 appear in an autumn number of the American 

 Journal of Science. 



Barrell's most important work has to do 

 with the strength of the earth's crust. The 

 series of papers bearing that title examine into 

 " the mechanics of the earth considered as a 

 body under stress, owing to the variation in 

 density and form which mark its outer shell." 

 He was all the more able to handle this most 

 difilcult subject because of his thorough train- 

 ing in engineering at Lehigh. His last work 

 along this line wiU be published this fall. 

 From the manuscript we learn that " The 

 larger features of the earth's surface are sus- 

 tained in solid flotation, and at some depth 

 the strains due to the imequal elevations 

 largely disappear, the elevations being com- 

 pensated by variations of density within the 

 crust. In consequence, the subcrustal shell is 

 subjected to but little else than hydrostatic 

 pressure." Isostatic balance is, however, not 

 everywhere in adjustment, but the adjust- 

 ments are held to be irregular and imperfect 

 in distribution and mostly concentrated in the 

 outer one htmdredth of the earth's radius, 

 with a tendency to progressively disappear 

 with depth. On the other hand, "the outer 

 crust is very strong, capable of supporting in- 

 dividual mountains, limited mountain ranges, 

 and erosion features of corresponding magni- 

 tude." 



Barrell also did much toward working out 

 the criteria by which the climates, marine 



