September 22, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



371 



are very much broader questions involved in 

 the investigation and the evidence there 

 brought out than in the present charge which 

 is narrower and definite and can now be prop- 

 erly disposed of. The broader issues raised 

 by the investigation, which have a much 

 weightier relation than this one to the general 

 efficiency of the department, may require 

 much more radical action than the question 

 I have here considered and decided. 



There is another charge against Dr. Eusby 

 for securing the appointment on the common 

 laborers rolls, of a physician and expert, 

 whom he could use to do his work at a very 

 small stipend when he himself was called 

 away in other employment. I regret to say 

 that the arrangement which Dr. Eusby thus 

 made is not especially creditable to him and 

 shakes in some degree one's confidence in his 

 avowed wish to make personal pecuniary 

 sacrifice in the public interest for the en- 

 forcement of the pure food law. But Dr. 

 Eusby's position as an expert of high stand- 

 ing is such that I do not think that any more 

 than this expression of opinion should be im- 

 posed as penalty. Mj information is that the 

 government needs his services and that he has 

 already rendered valuable aid. The error re- 

 ferred to, committed by him, does not call for 

 further action or remark. 



You will communicate the result to the Per- 

 sonnel Board, and also to the persons charged. 

 Sincerely yours, 



William H. Taft 



FSOFESSOB JOSIAH KEEP 

 Peofessor Keep, whose death, on July 27 

 last, at Pacific Grove, California, was re- 

 cently announced, was born in Paxton, Mass., 

 in 1849, and was a graduate of Leicester Aca- 

 demy and Amherst College (1874), taking his 

 Master's degree as a post-graduate student in 

 1877. In that year he married Amelia Caro- 

 line Holman, of Leicester, Mass., and went to 

 California. There he taught in the Golden 

 Gate Academy and the Alameda High School, 

 being principal of the latter from 1881 to 

 1885. In 1885 he became Prof essor of the Nat- 



ural Sciences in Mills College, which, from 

 small beginnings as a private seminary for 

 girls, has through the efforts and generosity 

 of its founders developed into a well-equipped 

 and charmingly situated coUege, the Wellesley 

 of the Pacific Coast. 



Here Professor Keep found his life work as 

 teacher and coadjutor with the still surviving 

 founder, Mrs. Mills, and saw the branches of 

 science originally confided to him alone, by de- 

 gree represented in the teaching force by a 

 number of competent instructors, while he re- 

 tained for himself the subjects of geology 

 and astronomy. 



With the wide general knowledge required 

 by his field of work, it was of course impos- 

 sible for him to be a specialist in any, but his 

 deep interest had been aroused in the study of 

 the mollusca in which the Pacific Coast is so 

 rich. Between 1881 and 1911 he published a 

 series of what might be called primers of 

 west-coast shells, illustrated with figures, 

 enabling the beginner to gain a preliminary 

 knowledge of the attractive shells of Cali- 

 fornia. To these little books we may fairly 

 ascribe much of the wide-spread interest which 

 is to-day found among Californians and 

 which by the cooperation of amateurs with 

 specialists, has immensely increased our 

 knowledge of the Pacific coast fauna. 



The last of these manuals was published 

 only shortly before his death. Professor Keep 

 was one of the founders of the Chautauqua 

 Assembly which meets at Pacific Grove, and 

 frequently lectured to its classes on his 

 favorite subject. He was also one of the most 

 earnest supporters of the Museum and Li- 

 brary at Pacific Grove. 



Modest, courteous, indefatigable and en- 

 thusiastic, he was primarily a teacher and or- 

 ganizer; beloved by his classes and appreci- 

 ated by those reached through his books and 

 so led to the study of nature. In his unas- 

 suming way he has done a good work and 

 found his reward in doing it. He leaves a 

 widow, son and daughter to mourn his loss. 



Wm. H. Dall 



