Mat 14, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



703 



medicine — a method which relied chieiiy on 

 individual instruction and laboratory work, 

 Minot's careful study of the best labora- 

 tory conditions for small sections, in well- 

 lighted and well-ventilated rooms, with a 

 desk for each student, was taken up again 

 and contributed much to the final success of 

 the architect's plans. The accommodations 

 for the department of histology and human 

 embryology conformed to Minot's concep- 

 tion of the present and future needs of his 

 department and served as a type for the 

 laboratories of other departments in the 

 school. 



It became possible to enlarge the number 

 of teachers employed in the department, 

 and its intimate connection with the teach- 

 ing of anatomy was recognized. When Dr. 

 Thomas Dwight, professor of anatomy since 

 1883, died in 1911, the school was fully pre- 

 pared to recognize the fact that anatomy 

 and histology belonged together. In the 

 mean time, the James Stillman professor- 

 ship of comparative anatomy had been en- 

 dowed and to that Professor Minot had 

 been transferred in 1905. No professor of 

 anatomy was appointed to succeed Dr. 

 Dwight, but in 1912 Minot was made di- 

 rector of the anatomical laboratories in the 

 Harvard Medical School. This action of 

 the faculty and the corporation crowned 

 Minot's professional career as a student and 

 teacher of natural history, applied in med- 

 ical education. By clear merit he had made 

 his way and the way of his department in 

 the school and without a medical degree had 

 become the head of anatomical teaching in 

 a medical school. Under him in the anat- 

 omical department were two assistant pro- 

 fessors, one of whom was called assistant 

 professor of anatomy and the other of his- 

 tology. Fourteen other teachers were em- 

 ployed in the department of anatomy and 

 histology, three of whom bore the title of 

 histology and embryology, Minot 's original 

 subjects in the medical school. 



Minot's advance through the medical 

 school was not facilitated by a yielding or 

 compromising disposition, or any practise 

 of that sort on his part. On the contrary, 

 he pursued his ends with clear-sighted in- 

 tensity and indomitable persistence ; suavity 

 and geniality were not his leading char- 

 acteristics in discussion or competition and 

 he often found it hard to see that his oppo- 

 nent had some reason on his side. Like 

 most independent and resolute thinkers, he 

 had confidence in the soundness of his own 

 reasoning, and in the justice of the cause 

 or movement he had espoused. 



He was upright in every sense of that 

 word. His loyalty was firm and undevi- 

 ating, whether to an ideal or a person or an 

 institution, and affection and devotion, once 

 planted in his breast, held for good and all. 



His book on "Human Embryology" pub- 

 lished in 1892 made him famous throughout 

 the learned world, so that he was elected 

 to learned societies in Great Britain, Italy, 

 Prance, Germany and Belgium; as well as 

 to all appropriate American societies. He 

 also received honorary degrees from the 

 universities of St. Andrew's (Scotland), 

 Oxford (England), Toronto (Canada), and 

 Tale. He enjoyed calmly and simply the 

 honors thus paid to his scientific attain- 

 ments and services by well informed and 

 impartial judges. 



In 1913 he was Harvard exchange pro- 

 fessor at the universities of Berlin and 

 Vienna, where he gladly availed himself of 

 many opportunities to expound to his Ger- 

 man colleagues the advances in natural his- 

 tory, including medicine, which were due to 

 American investigators. 



His hair and beard were now whitening, 

 but he felt all the ardors of youth, and 

 among them, fervid patriotism. In scien- 

 tific investigation Minot showed imagina- 

 tion, penetration and eagerness, but also 

 caution. In 1907 he gave a course of lec- 

 tures at the Lowell Institute on "Age, 



