December 12, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



831 



negie Institution of Washington, it wa.s 

 permanently established at the cost of some 

 twelve thousand dollars a year and con- 

 tinues to be a helpful aid to scholarly 

 physicians all over the world. 



It was thus that Dr. Billings got his 

 trainings for the still larger task which 

 awaited him when he was chosen as libra- 

 rian of the Astor-Tilden-Lenox library in 

 New York. There at once this great enter- 

 prise found in him all the varied qualities 

 which were needed in the construction of 

 the building, the classification of its con- 

 tents, the effieient administrative grasp on 

 the forty outlying libraries of New York 

 connected with the triple library, and in 

 his singular power of uniting strict disci- 

 pline with a capacity to attach to him those 

 under his control. 



Throughout his life he was a busy writer 

 of essays on hygiene, hospital construction 

 and administration, the statistics of war 

 and addresses or essays such as his histoiy 

 of surgery, perhaps the best presentation 

 of this subject ever made. 



To comprehend the character of a man, 

 he must have been seen in his relation to 

 the various duties which test the qualities 

 of both heart and head. The charge of 

 suffering, crippled, wounded soldiers is a 

 trial to the surgeon and here he showed the 

 man at his best. He was patient with the 

 impatient, never irritable with the unrea- 

 son of sufferers, never seeming to be in a 

 hurry, and left at every bedside in the 

 long sad wards the impression of being in 

 earnest and honestly interested. 



It was thus I first knew John Billings 

 when in the crowded wards wearied, home- 

 sick men welcomed his kindly face and the 

 almost womanly tenderness he brought to 

 a difficult service. 



My own personal relations with John 

 Billings began in the Civil War when he 

 had for a time the care of my brother, a 



medical cadet, during a mortal illness con- 

 tracted in the Douglas Hospital, Washing- 

 ton. I saw then how gentle-minded was 

 this man and how he realized the pathetic 

 disappointment of a highly gifted young 

 life consciously drifting deathward. I saw 

 thus a side of John Billings he rarely re- 

 vealed in its fullness. Generally a rather 

 silent man, he was capable now and then of 

 expressing in eloquent brevities of speech 

 the warmth of his regard for some one of 

 the few he honored with his friendship. In 

 the last talk I had with him, he said to me 

 some things which remain as remembrances 

 of this rather taciturn and reserved gentle- 

 man. I had asked him how many degrees 

 and like honors he had received and, con- 

 sidering these notable recognitions, I re- 

 marked on the failure of popular apprecia- 

 tion. He replied with a jesting comment 

 and then said, after a brief silence, that he 

 was far more proud of his capacity to win the 

 friendship of certain men and of the service 

 he had been able to render to science in his 

 connection with the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington. There indeed his always wise 

 and broad-minded interest will be greatly 

 missed. I served with him from its founda- 

 tion on the distinguished executive com- 

 mittee of this body. Here, among men he 

 liked and trusted, we saw him at his 

 familiar best. Always a patient listener, 

 his decisions as chairman were expressed 

 with his quiet, courteous manner, and 

 many times his large knowledge of the 

 science of the day left me wondering how 

 it could have been attained amid the amaz- 

 ing number of occupations which had filled 

 his time. But in fact he was intellectually 

 sympathetic with every form of scientific 

 research, a somewhat rare characteristic 

 among investigators. I ought also to say 

 that the men of our committee and of the 

 board of trustees felt at times a little sur- 

 prise at the shrewdness, the common sense 



