146 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 813 



Then let all of us who are, or who may 

 be, examiners be merciful. 



At the end of a paper so long as this one, 

 and so full of the author's opinions, it may 

 seem insatiate in me to express the hope 

 that this discussion will not prove to be 

 the conclusion of the matter. But I have 

 not been concerned merely to express my 

 opinions or even to get them assented to. 

 I want to see a number of things done, 

 certain relations formed, certain practises 

 established, which I believe and which, 

 apparently, many others believe would be 

 greatly to the advantage of the elementary 

 teaching of physics in this country. Now 

 there is, of course, no individual or asso- 

 ciation of individuals having decisive gen- 

 eral authority in the questions here raised. 

 If anything much is to issue from this de- 

 bate, it must come as the result of action by 

 many institutions moving singly or, per- 

 haps, in groups. But the National Educa- 

 tional Association, if its council should 

 elect to consider the propositions of this 

 paper or any similar ones, would probably 

 have a good deal of influence. in deciding 

 their fate during the next few years. 



Edwin H. Hall 



Cambkidge, Mass., 

 April 2, 1910 



>i CHARLES ABIATEAR WHITE 

 Soon after coming to Washington in 1895 

 I formed the acquaintance of Dr. White 

 who then had an oiEce in the National Mu- 

 seum. As one of the older men he knew 

 many, if not all, of the distinguished geol- 

 ogists of the country, and especially those 

 who had been active in building up the great 

 state surveys and his fund of information in 

 regard to them was most interesting to me. 

 Among others he expressed his sincere admira- 

 tion for Professor J. S. NewlDerry, of Co- 

 lumbia University, for whom I, in common 

 with all of the older graduates of the School 

 of Mines, had the greatest affection. I learned 



from Dr. White that it was largely through 

 Professor Newberry that he obtained an elec- 

 tion to the National Academy of Sciences, 

 and I may add that Dr. White was quite 

 proud of the fact that for the first time in its 

 history the Academy by his election com- 

 pleted its membership; that is to say, he was 

 the first one hundredth member of that dis- 

 tinguished body. It may not be too much to 

 say that it was due to my efforts that Dr. 

 White was led to prepare the delightful 

 sketch of Newberry that appears among the 

 biographical memoirs of the academy. It 

 was the fact that among the older men none 

 was left save White who was in a position to 

 write from his own contemporary knowledge 

 the details of the interesting career of Pro- 

 fessor Newberry. It was also this argument 

 which I presented as strongly as I possibly 

 could to Dr. White that led him a few days 

 later to send to my of&ce the biographical 

 notes which I now have much pleasure in 

 presenting to the readers of Science, giving 

 in full detail the career of the oldest and one 

 of the ablest of our American paleontologists. 

 Marcus Benjamin 



Charles Abl\thar White was born at 

 Dighton, Bristol County, Mass., on January 

 26, 1826. He was the second son of Abiathar 

 White and his wife Nancy, daughter of Daniel 

 Corey, of Dighton. His ancestors were among 

 the early settlers of New England. Upon his 

 father's side he was descended from a line of 

 English- American yeomen, a leading object in 

 the life of each of whom was the establish- 

 ment of a family in a permanent home, with 

 the ownership of his land in fee simple. The 

 first of this line in America was William 

 White, who established himself at " Wind- 

 mill Point," in Boston about 1640. About the 

 year 1700, his grandson, Cornelius White, re- 

 moved from Boston to Taunton, Mass., whence 

 he purchased a tract of land for a homestead 

 farm, a part of which extended to the adjacent 

 town of Dighton. This homestead has ever 

 since, more than two hundred years, been 

 owned and occupied by descendants bearing 

 the family name. It was upon the Dighton 



