May 31, 1901.] 
ment. He possessed great skill in the 
planning of apparatus and methods and 
remarkable judgment as to the processes 
best suited either for purposes of instruc- 
tion or for the securing of accurate scien- 
tific results. To the development of the 
Laboratory of Electrical Measurements in 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
he gave for years his best endeavors, and 
to him is due the success of its work. He 
was also placed in charge of the newly in- 
stituted Laboratory of Heat Measurements, 
and though prevented by failing health 
from developing this as he would have 
chosen, he laid a solid foundation for those 
coming after him. 
Professor Holman was born a teacher, 
and never grew weary in his profession. 
_His personal relations with his pupils were 
very intimate. By that example which is 
better than the wisest precept, he impressed 
upon them the preeminent necessity of thor- 
oughness, accuracy and honesty in all the 
work which they might be called upon to 
perform, either as students or in profes- 
sional life. He is remembered by them 
with the most affectionate regard. 
Reference has already been made to the 
interference of ill-health with the prosecu- 
tion of the labors of Professor Holman. In 
fact, after reaching manhood he was never 
in good health, and during almost the 
whole of his active life as a teacher he 
struggled with a painful chronic disease, 
which gradually, though with some inter- 
missions, sapped his strength. His cheer- 
ful disposition and persistence in carrying 
on his work were such that none but those 
who knew him well were aware of the fact 
that it was only his indomitable courage 
which prevented him from yielding to his 
malady for some years before it finally over- 
came him. In the spring of 1890 he was 
obliged to discontinue work foratime. He 
spent the following year abroad and came 
home much improved in health; but the 
SCIENCE 
859 
relief was only temporary. In 1895 he 
finally gave up his work of instruction. 
For some years after this, however, though 
confined to his chair and at last even de- 
prived of his sight, he continued to labor 
diligently and published the tables of loga- 
rithms and the work on matter and energy 
mentioned above. His latest years were 
his best ones, and his whole life was a fine 
illustration of the manner in which a noble 
spirit may rise superior to circumstances 
and produce the best results under condi- 
tions to which an ordinary mind would ut- 
terly succumb. 
Cuas. R. Cross. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Botany—An Elementary Text for Schools. By L. 
H. Barney. New York, The Macmillan 
Company. 1901. 8vo. Pp. xvi-+- 356. Price, 
$1.10. 
Foundations of Botany. By JosrPH Y. BERGEN, 
A.M. 
School, Boston. 
Company. 1901. 
Price, $1.50. 
Within the past three or four months two 
notable text-books on high-school botany have 
appeared, the one from the ready pen of Pro- 
fessor Bailey, of Cornell-University, to whom 
we are already indebted for so many helpful 
and suggestive books on various phases of plant 
life, the other from Instructor Bergen, of one of 
the Boston High Schools, who also has the dis- 
tinction of having written acceptably in the 
preparation of an earlier, very useful, although 
much simpler, text-book for high-school stu- 
dents. 
The two books are quite different in both 
content and mode of treatment. Professor 
Bailey takes the quite extreme position that 
‘the schools and teachers are not ready for the 
text-book which presents the subject from the 
viewpoint of botanical science,’ and is par- 
ticularly opposed to the use of the compound 
microscope in high schools, as when he says: 
‘‘The pupil should come to the study of plants 
and animals with little more than his natural 
Boston, U.S. A., Ginn & 
8vo. Pp. xii+ 412+ 258. 
Cc 
Instructor in Biology, English High ~ ? 
