July 28, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



107 



Samuel Calvin was born in Wigtonshire, 

 Scotland, February 2, 1840. He came with 

 his parents to America when he was eleven 

 years of age. For three years the family lived 

 on a farm in the state of New York, then they 

 came to Iowa, where from that time until his 

 death Samuel Calvin made his home. 



He received his college education at Lenox 

 College, la. When he was twenty-four years 

 old he enlisted in the army and served for a 

 few months in the civil war. After returning 

 from the war, he was for four years a teacher 

 of science in Lenox College. He resigned 

 this position to go to Dubuque, where, for 

 seven years, he was principal of a ward 

 school. In 18Y4 he was elected to a professor- 

 ship of natural science in the University of 

 Iowa. Here, at first, he had charge of botany, 

 zoology, geology and physiology. Later, he 

 was made professor of geology, a position 

 which he filled with distinction until his 

 death. 



He received from Cornell College the de- 

 grees of M.A. and LL.D., and from Lenox 

 College the degree of Ph.D. 



In the year 1865 he married Louise Jack- 

 son, of Hopkinton, la. She, a son and a 

 daughter survive him. 



In the year 1892 Dr. Calvin was elected 

 state geologist of Iowa. This position he re- 

 signed in 1904 owing to the stress of other 

 duties. However, in 1906, upon the resigna- 

 tion of Professor Wilder, he was again 

 elected state geologist and continued to serve 

 until his death. The Iowa Geological Sur- 

 vey under his directorship published about 

 twenty volumes of reports dealing with the 

 geology and mineral resources of the state. 

 Of great scientific value have been his own 

 contributions to the geology of Iowa, espe- 

 cially those papers which have added to our 

 knowledge of the Pleistocene. His most re- 

 cent scientific publications, which deal with 

 the Aftonian mammalian fauna have done 

 much to unravel some of the difficult prob- 

 lems of Pleistocene paleontology. In all his 

 scientific work he was thorough, no details 

 were considered trivial — his one desire was to 

 discover truth — to find any facts which could 



make knowledge clearer, broader, more defi- 

 nite. That he had the power to clothe his 

 thoughts in beautiful language is clearly 

 shown in all his writings. 



Professor Calvin was a great teacher and 

 his students loved him. His simplicity, his 

 gentleness, his love of justice and truth, his 

 intolerance of deceit and sham, his deep 

 sympatliy, his high regard for religion, his 

 lofty ideals of life — these were the eharacteiv- 

 istics by which he influenced the lives of those 

 who had the privilege of knowing him. Only 

 such a man as he could have given expression 

 to the following tribute to noble manhood : 



Wherever noble deeds are done for truth and 

 right; wherever weak, despairing, fainting, falter- 

 ing men and women need encouragement to take 

 up heroically the burdens and duties of life; 

 wherever sorrow yearns for sympathy and conso- 

 lation, or sickness creates necessity for tender 

 ministrations, where the pestilence walketh in 

 darkness; where sin, foul and loathsome, waits for 

 victims; where overpowering temptation saps the 

 foundations of the better will and weaves in- 

 extricable toils; wherever, indeed, many-sided 

 humanity calls for help, there will you find some 

 messenger of truth, forgetting self, filled with zeal 

 for God and fellowmen, lifting, helping, encourag- 

 ing, consoling; pointing out the path of wisdom 

 and the path of peace; illustrating the importance 

 of right living, and leading all to the true appre- 

 ciation of the beauty of holiness. Such is the 

 noble side of human natiare, such is the grand side. 



In the death of Samuel Calvin the nation 

 has lost a distinguished scholar, an inspiring 

 teacher and a true and noble man. 



George F. Kay 



State University op Iowa 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Professor W. Johannsen, of the University 

 of Copenhagen, whose recent work on hered- 

 ity and pure lines has attracted much atten- 

 tion, is to give in October an(J November a 

 course of lectures and seminar conferences on 

 " Modern Conceptions of Heredity " at Co- 

 lumbia University, under the joint auspices of 

 the departments of botany and zoology. Four 

 public lectures will be given on the afternoons 

 of October 13, 20, 27 and November 3, and 



