December 22, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



865 



eminent chemist America had produced and 

 to-day revered for his splendid contributions 

 to science. On his graduation from the Col- 

 lege of Physicians and Surgeons, Gibbs went 

 to Europe, where, until 1848, he continued his 

 studies under the direction of the eminent 

 chemists, Eammelsberg, Heinrich Rose, Lie- 

 big, Laurent, Dumas and Eegnault, whose 

 names are each inscribed upon the honor roll 

 of those to whom the chemistry of to-day owes 

 its place among the sciences. 



Broadened by travel, by contact with these 

 eminent investigators, and the students that 

 gathered about them, Gibbs returned to his 

 native country for service in his profession, 

 and found his first opportunity in the delivery 

 of a short course of lectures in a minor insti- 

 tution in Delaware, but very shortly after, in 

 1849, he was appointed professor of chemistry 

 in the Free Academy, now the College of the 

 City of New York, where he remained until 

 1863, when he accepted the Eumford pro- 

 fessorship, requiring service in chemistry, in 

 the scientific school of Harvard College. 



His term of service in New York was dis- 

 tinguished, for, while his duty to the college 

 demanded only that he teach its students the 

 elements of chemistry, he began in 1851 as 

 associate editor of the American Journal of 

 Science^ the preparation of abstracts of for- 

 eign literature in chemistry, and he engaged 

 in research, with the result than in 1857 there 

 was given to the world the first memoir on a 

 notable and systematic research in chemistry 

 from America, when the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion published the memoir of Gibbs and Genth 

 on " The Ammonio-Cobalt Bases," which has 

 ever since served as a model for the presenta- 

 tion of results by investigators in chemistry. 

 La 1861 his independent paper on the plat- 

 inum metals appeared and, as Clarke says, 

 "firmly established his reputation." 



Gibbs was in New York when our Civil 

 War came on and, devoted as he was to his 

 profession, he was also a patriot. It wiU be 

 recalled that in broadly fitting himself for his 

 profession he had at the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons pursued that branch of Applied 



Chemistry styled medicine and qualified in it, 

 hence he could serve his country best and 

 most by the exercise of his special linowledge 

 and attainments. When men are rushing to 

 expose themselves as targets for the enemy it 

 requires a high degree of courage to offer on 

 the altar of one's country one's special talents 

 in service outside the firing line. But this 

 Gibbs did and the U. S. Sanitary Commission 

 stands to-day as an epoch in the civilization 

 of man. By its work it proved, perhaps, to 

 be the greatest good for mankind that was 

 realized from that dreadful period of labor in 

 which a great nation was born. It has been 

 a model for other nations that have subse- 

 quently, unfortunately, been engaged in war. 



Not content with applying his acquired 

 knowledge, especially in that branch of ap- 

 plied chemistry known as medicine, to the 

 amelioration of the " horrors of war " and to 

 the aid of those that conquered, Gibbs sought 

 to organize and crystallize opinion and effort 

 by bringing together those of influence in 

 New York who favored active military opera- 

 tions against the seceders and thus the Union 

 League Club, which met, to organize, in his 

 home, was formed. And throughout his life 

 he was an organizer, or member, of bodies of 

 men through which, by investigation, consid- 

 eration and discussion, issues of moment in 

 science were carefully wrought out, while 

 social relations were conserved and promoted. 



He was born and reared under conditions 

 that could have bred an aristocrat. His 

 father was in affluent circumstances. His 

 progenitors had served their country and man- 

 kind in positions of importance. He inher- 

 ited a competency. His associations from 

 earliest youth were with the cultivated, intel- 

 lectual and forceful. He was in person im- 

 pressive and engaging. He was in taste and 

 dress discriminating; but he was in his deal- 

 ings with and estimates of man democratic. 



As a prospective student I met him in 1868 

 and he looked to me god-like. It was my 

 good fortune not only to be received as a stu- 

 dent by him, but later to become his assistant 

 and, through other fortunate circumstances. 



