May 29, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



779 



ports favoring opinions from a large ma- 

 jority of those holding the most important 

 scientific chairs in the country. In his re- 

 port for 1911-12 as president of Cornell 

 University, Dr. Schurman writes: 



The only ultimately satisfactory solution of the 

 problem of the government of our universities is 

 the concession to the professorate of representation 

 on the board of trustees or regents. 



Such agreement in a recommendation is 

 a prophecy of its acceptance. 



When the day of the expert arrives, every 

 corporation employing specialists will have 

 its class of professional members, whether 

 in a majority or a minority, whether chosen 

 within or outside the stafi:, whether for lim- 

 ited periods or without term. Historical 

 causes have both denied and begun to re- 

 store to expert ability in this country a 

 place in the corporations to whose work it 

 is necessary. The system of positive con- 

 trol by mixed boards is a final settlement 

 of the question of the corporate sphere of 

 the expert because the right settlement, 

 granting to competence its share in the 

 management of competence. The day of 

 the expert brightens on the horizon. Let 

 us welcome its advancing beams. Either 

 we ourselves, or our early successors, will 

 be called to labor in its full sunshine. 

 Benjamin Ives Gilman 



April 15, 1914 



A TEIBVTE TO DR. HENBY P. WALCOTT 

 The following letter was presented to Dr. 

 Henry P. Walcott on the occasion of his re- 

 tirement from the Massachusetts State Board 

 of Health: 



To Henry P. Walcott, M.D., LL.D., Chairman, 



Massachusetts State Board op Health; 



PROM Twenty-two Hundred Members of the 



Medical Profession of the State,— Greeting. 



Sir: On the 19th day of May, 1914, your term 



as a member of the State Board of Health ends, 



and we understand you are not a candidate for 



reappointment. 



Such an occasion can not be allowed to pass un- 

 noticed, at least by those citizens who, as a class, 

 should be most competent to gauge the value of 

 such services to the state as yours have been. 



The best appraisal of those services is the men- 

 tion of some of them, with a brief statement of 

 your relations to the board. 



Your connection with the board began in 1880, 

 33 years ago, when, after ten years of independent 

 existence, it had been merged with the conjoined 

 Board of Lunacy and Charity, and you were unan- 

 imously elected its health ofllcer. At this time, 

 you served on a commission for the sanitary im- 

 provement of the Blaekstone Eiver, a precursor of 

 your subsequent labors on similar problems. 



In 1886, by an act of the legislature, the Board 

 of Health once more entered upon an independent 

 existence. Yon were appointed a member for a 

 seven years' term by Governor Robinson, a Eepub- 

 liean, with the advice and consent of the senate, 

 and became the chairman. You have since been re- 

 appointed three times for terms of seven years: 

 onoe by Governor Russell, a Democrat, in 1893; 

 once by Governor Crane, Republican, in 1900; and 

 once by Governor Guild, Republican, in 1907. 

 Since 1886, you have always continued as chairman 

 of the board. 



Early in 1894, you began to consider the advisa- 

 bility of establishing a laboratory for the free pro- 

 duction and distribution of diphtheria antitoxin ; 

 and such curative serum was actually distributed 

 early in 1895, being the first so distributed in any 

 state. This was made possible through the co- 

 operation of Harvard University, secured by your 

 influence, at the Bussey Institution, and was car- 

 ried on for nine years — during this time as well as 

 later under the personal direction of Dr. Theobald 

 Smith — until 1903, when the legislature enacted a 

 law authorizing the State Board of Health to pro- 

 duce and distribute antitoxin and vaccine virus. 

 Again through your influence, a laboratory was 

 built on the grounds of the Bussey Institution 

 where the preparation of antitoxin and animal vac- 

 cine was carried on together. 



Within the last four years, you have served as 

 chairman of two state commissions appointed to 

 consider various important tuberculosis problems: 

 one in 1910, and one in 1912. Reports were made 

 to the legislature and printed as public documents. 



It is impossible to separate your work in con- 

 nection with the Board of Health from that in con- 

 nection with the North and South Metropolitan 

 Sewerage Systems, the Charles River Valley Sys- 

 tem, the Charles River estuary improvement, the 



