Januabt 13, 1911] 



8CIENGS 



55 



which he sought to realize with rare single- 

 ness of purpose. Not only did he devote him- 

 seK to personal research with extraordinary 

 enthusiasm and thoroughness, but he had an 

 almost prophetic comprehension of the ways 

 and means for furthering biological investiga- 

 tion, and he was able to secure the coopera- 

 tion of his colleagues in his enterprises by 

 virtue of a personality that was both singularly 

 winning and compelling. In 1887 he founded 

 the Journal of Morphology, now in the twenty- 

 second volume, for the publication of research 

 in zoology, and established it at once on so 

 high a plane that it took rank with the fore- 

 most journals of zoological research of the 

 world. It has since served as model for newer 

 research iournals in America. In 1888 he was 

 called to be director of the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory of Woods Hole, then newly es- 

 tablished, and presided over its fortunes for a 

 period of twenty-one years, during which time 

 it came to be the leading center of biological 

 research in America with a unique and in- 

 teresting form of organization described more 

 particularly farther on. Before any one else 

 in America, he also urged the need of the es- 

 tablishment of an experimental station for the 

 study of problems of evolution, heredity and 

 animal behavior, a " biological farm " as he 

 preferred to call it, and although he was not 

 successful himself in establishing such a sta- 

 tion, others have since brought it about. In 

 the later years of his life Professor Whitman's 

 personal researches became continually more 

 engrossing and he gradually relinquished his 

 other undertakings into the hands of younger 

 men. 



Professor Whitman belonged to no narrow 

 field of zoology. His scientific interests were 

 broad and they were continually bringing him 

 into contact with workers in other fields. He 

 had a very deep interest in all the fundamental 

 problems of biology and we thus find him 

 forming close scientific association with work- 

 ers in the fields of botany, physiology and 

 psychology as well as in his owa field of zool- 

 ogy. 



In many respects the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory constitutes Professor Whitman's 



chief monument. Here his ideas had their 

 fullest scope. His fundamental idea in the 

 conduct of the laboratory was cooperation; 

 and he succeeded in establishing what has well 

 been called a marine university, in which the 

 ownership and control as well as the conduct 

 of afi'airs is vested in the body of active sci- 

 entific investigators. The entire body of past 

 and present investigators with few exceptions, 

 constituting the corporation, is the court of 

 last appeal; it elects the board of trustees 

 mainly from its own membership, and the im- 

 mediate control of laboratory affairs is car- 

 ried out by the board through their appointive 

 agents, the directors and members of the staff. 

 The result has been the realization in our 

 own time and country of the ancient ideal of 

 the university, a republic of scholars. 



Such an organization is exposed to dangers 

 internal and external, and though both kinds 

 appeared at various times Professor Whitman 

 always refused to compromise any fragment 

 of his fundamental idea. He was therefore 

 often called an impractical idealist by men 

 both within and without the organization. 

 Idealist he was, whether impractical or not 

 was none of his concern. He often seemed to 

 be most resolute when he stood almost alone, 

 as when a safe harbor of refuge for the labora- 

 tory appeared within the protecting break- 

 waters of an established and endowed insti- 

 tution, and nearly all were ready to put into 

 port. Yet he preferred liberty and the storm, 

 and all finally stood by him. 



Professor Whitman instantly recognized 

 creative ability in an investigator, and his ap- 

 preciation was invariably hearty, and his sup- 

 port ever ready to the fullest extent. It is no 

 accident that many of the important discov- 

 eries in biology in America during the last 

 twenty years were made at Woods Hole. Pro- 

 fessor Whitman had early recognized the abil- 

 ity of the workers in question, and had in- 

 vited them to work at Woods Hole and 

 secured their allegiance to the laboratory, and 

 to himself; for his was a most magnetic per- 

 sonality. Thus he gradually attached to the 

 interests of the laboratory an increasingly 

 strong body of scientific investigators. 



