December 22, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



867 



regular performance of my duties I was un- 

 wittingly forced to know of it, though then 

 I knew not the reason for it or the extent of 

 it. I was especially embarrassed to come 

 upon Professors Gibbs and Cooke, when they 

 were engaged in a gentlemanly, but very per- 

 sonal, altercation. 



Unknowingly to me, out of this came my 

 opportunity. While holding the position of 

 private assistant to Dr. Gibbs I was appointed 

 assistant in chemistry in the college under 

 Professor Cooke. With the courtesy that pre- 

 vails among gentlemen all these arrangements 

 were ostensibly in the hands of Dr. Gibbs and 

 it was from him that I received my instruc- 

 tions to make that visit to President Eliot at 

 which I received notification of my appoint- 

 ment to the college. Naturally and most 

 properly I reported to Dr. Gibbs that I had 

 obeyed his instructions, and the results of so 

 doing, and I can never forget his admonition. 

 Knowing my loyalty to him, knowing that 

 inadvertently I had become somewhat ac- 

 quainted with the distressing situation, he 

 said, " Mr. Munroe I have been deposed and 

 you are appointed to take my place. Tou 

 know that my relations with Professor Cooke 

 have not been entirely amicable, yet let me 

 say that you can serve me best by serving 

 him with entire devotion." Thus spoke the 

 man in Wolcott Gibbs. 



Were there time I should like to describe 

 the laboratory at the Lawrence Scientific 

 School and the manner in which it was di- 

 rected by Dr. Gibbs. Fortunately this has 

 been well recorded by Professor F. W. Clarke 

 in his memorial lecture before the Chemical 

 Society of Great Britain and by Stephen 

 Paschall Sharpies in his description of the 

 Lawrence Scientific School to the Cambridge 

 Historical Society. I may say that were it 

 to be investigated by an agent of the Car- 

 negie Foundation, armed with a pad and pen- 

 eil, it must have been condemned. I must 

 further say that after completing my fortieth 

 consecutive year of university teaching I 

 should, if put under oath, state that, measured 

 by pedagogical standards, it was unsound. 



But I must add that the results produced were 

 splendid and that the students that survived 

 the process went forth finely equipped to pur- 

 sue their chosen professions. Dr. Gibbs's 

 visits to us were infrequent, but the impres- 

 sion he made in these conferences were such 

 that he was an ever-living presence and a 

 constantly present example. Mendenhall's re- 

 mark that a student would prefer to be neg- 

 lected by Rowland to being taught by another 

 embodies the thought I desire to convey con- 

 cerning the relation of Wolcott Gibbs as a 

 teacher to his students. The pedagogue 

 trains his pupils as the military sergeant 

 drills the cowherd. But the educator educes 

 from his student his best capacities in the 

 line of his endeavor. He brings the within 

 without. He reveals to the student the lat- 

 ter's own capacities. He preserves to the 

 community that precious gift, individuality, 

 but arouses, and enlivens, and controls it so 

 that it may best serve the community in 

 which that individual may be placed. It is 

 impossible to formulate the manner in which 

 this may be accomplished, for the possibilities 

 vary with each student to be taught and with 

 him who teaches, and the teachers who com- 

 prehend this are rare, but such was Wolcott 

 Gibbs. 



It is said of Gibbs that he was not a " pop- 

 ular lecturer." I may say that this was most 

 unfortunate for the populace. It has been my 

 privilege to listen to a large number of those 

 public speakers who have commended them- 

 selves to the public. As a youth I reported at 

 length, for the newspapers, the lectures of 

 Tyndall and Proctor. I served as demon- 

 strator for Professor Cooke iij that charming 

 course of lectures at the Lowell Institute 

 which appeared as " The New Chemistry." I 

 sat at the feet of Edward Everett, Henry 

 Ward Beecher, Wendell Phillips and Emer- 

 son. I was enthralled by Julia Ward Howe 

 and Mary A. Livermore. Dr. Gibbs gave us 

 but few lectures, but those were enriched by 

 such a wealth of knowledge, graced with such 

 diction, planned in so thoroughly logical and 

 systematic a manner and presented with such 



