Apeil 28, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



649 



which I could ascertain how many of the 

 professional botanists — those who have 

 passed out from under our hands within 

 the past ten or fifteen or twenty years, or 

 longer — how many of these were young in- 

 vestigators before they went to the high 

 school. I will venture to guess that I 

 could pick out in this room fifteen or 

 twenty of the men who sit right here whose 

 youth I know something about, who made 

 collections of plants and insects and ham- 

 mered up rocks to get the fossil shells out 

 of them before they went to the university 

 or came within three or four years of it. 



If statistics should bear out my belief, 

 we should find that most scientists are so 

 born and not given their bent by training, 

 and that the few turned by training in the 

 direction of professional science are thus 

 influenced by the teacher who knows how 

 to make the student an investigator at the 

 same time he is pupil. 



LEONARD p. KINNICOTT 

 In the issue of Science of February 17 there 

 appeared a brief notice of the death of Pro- 

 fessor L. P. Kinnicutt, director of the depart- 

 ment of chemistry in the Worcester Polytech- 

 nic Institute. 



Leonard Parker Kinnicutt was born in 

 Worcester, May 22, 1854, the son of Prancis 

 H. and Elizabeth Waldo (Parker) Kinnicutt. 

 He received his early education in the schools 

 of Worcester, graduating from the high school 

 in 18Y1. He went at once to the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, where he devoted 

 himself chiefly to the study of chemistry. 

 Following his graduation, in 1875, with the 

 degree of bachelor of science, he spent four 

 years in professional studies in Germany. At 

 Heidelberg he came under the inspiring influ- 

 ence of Bunsen from whom he acquired an 

 appreciation of the value of earefid and accu- 

 rate analysis. Here also under Bunsen's guid- 

 ance he was initiated into the refinements of 

 gas analysis. This was the period when 

 organic chemistry was developing with tre- 



mendous rapidity especially in Germany. 

 Bunsen had passed the zenith of his career 

 and was not in sympathy with the new tend- 

 ency which was manifesting itself in chem- 

 istry. It is not surprising then to find the 

 young Kinnicutt leaving Heidelberg and 

 matriculating at Bonn. Only ten years be- 

 fore, Kekule had been called to the University 

 of Bonn to take charge of the newly built lab- 

 oratory, which at that time was the finest in 

 all Germany and after which later laboratories 

 were patterned. Kekule's was a charming 

 personality. His lectures were a model for 

 simplicity of arrangement and clearness of 

 presentation, and the experimental demonstra- 

 tions were carried out with such fascinating 

 ease and dexterity that the young Kinnicutt 

 was captivated by the spirit and beauty of or- 

 ganic chemistry and devoted himseK diligently 

 to its study. 



He was fortunate in being accepted into the 

 private laboratory of the master, where he 

 became associated with Richard Anschiitz, the 

 present director of the Chemical Institute at 

 Bonn. In collaboration with Anschiitz he 

 published a number of papers, chiefly on 

 phenyl-glyceric acid. This association ripened 

 into a lasting friendship. Returning to the 

 United States in 1879, he spent a year in 

 study with Ira Remsen at the Johns Hopkins 

 University, and then three years at Harvard, 

 where he served as instructor in quantitative 

 analysis and as private assistant to Woleott 

 Gibbs, at that time Rumford professor of 

 chemistry. In 1882 he received from Har- 

 vard the degree of doctor of science and in 

 September of the same year accepted an ap- 

 pointment as instructor of organic chemistry 

 at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In 

 the following January he became assistant 

 professor of chemistry; three years later he 

 was made full professor, and since 1892 has 

 been director of the chemical department. 



As early as 1885 Professor Kinnicutt began 

 to give attention to the question of sewage dis- 

 posal and sanitary problems. He became an 

 authority on the sanitation of air, water and 

 gas; on the methods of analysis and on the 

 disposal of wastes. He paid particular atten- 



