4 SCIENCE. 
the school was concerned, his always 
rather delicate health giving way to such 
an extent as to make a prolonged period of 
rest imperative. Accordingly he resigned 
his presidency of the Institute in 1870, and 
lightened his labors as much as was pos- 
sible. In 1876 he presided over the meet- 
ing of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science in Buffalo, a meet- 
ing which was distinguished by the attend- 
ance of many foreign savants who were 
drawn to this country by the Centennial 
Exposition, held that year in Philadelphia. 
He had been specially chosen by his fellows 
to preside on that occasion, because of their 
desire to put forward the best available 
representation of American science. 
In 1878, on the resignation of Professor 
Runkle, who had succeeded him as President 
of the Institute of Technology, he was in- 
duced to accept that office again, with the 
understanding that his holding should be 
but temporary. In 1879 he was elected by 
the National Academy of Sciences to suc- 
ceed Professor Henry as its President, the 
highest honor which can be conferred upon 
aman of science in this country. In 1881 
he again resigned his presidency of the In- 
stitute of Technology, General Francis A, 
Walker having been selected by him and 
appointed on his recommendation as his 
successor. A year later, at noon of May 
30, 1882, came his tragic death. In the 
midst of an address to the graduating class 
of the Institute, in which his hearers were 
delighted with an apparent revival of the 
spirit and eloquence with which he was ac- 
customed to enrich every occasion for dig- 
nified address, he fell upon the platform of 
Huntington Hall, surrounded by the ma- 
terial realization of his dreams of nearly 
forty years earlier and by those who by the 
closest associations had learned to love him 
as few are loved in these days. 
Fit into this skeleton sketch the interest- 
ing letters which happily have been pre- 
[N.S. Von. VI. No. 131. 
served, mostly being correspondence with 
his brothers or family friends, and the story 
of his long and useful life will be fairly 
well told, although to form an adequate 
idea of his accomplishments in science 
and education one must consult the ap- 
pendices to the two volumes where will be 
found a list of his scientific publications 
and one or two of his more important 
educational papers. I may venture, how- 
ever, to give the reader of this notice a little 
taste of what the volumes have in store for 
him, and at the same time illustrate the re- 
markable biographical value of the pub- 
lished letters by quoting from a few of 
them. 
Mention has been made of his power as 
a lecturer on scientific subjects and of his 
ability to stir with eloquence even when 
comparatively dry and interesting material 
was under discussion. One of his early 
pupils at the University of Virginia says of, 
him that he was endowed with ‘not alone 
an imagination which ever clothed truth 
with beauty and made the dullest fact 
radiant with a significance illimitable and 
imperishable, but also every personal gift 
which can enhance the power of the orator. 
Tall in stature, with a figure of the type 
known to us through the pictures of Henry 
Clay ; with a face that, destitute of all as- 
sumption or arrogance, was singularly com- 
manding; with a voice whose compass and 
quality were capable of producing at once 
the largest and the finest effects of speech, 
William Barton Rogers was, in the height 
of his powers, without a peer among the 
scientific men of his age in addressing an 
intelligent and cultivated audience.”’ This 
remarkable faculty for teaching was appre- 
ciated by all who came in contact with him. 
Theodore Parker wrote to him in 1859, 
when just on the point of starting for Lon- 
Glog te a ES ES ee Be OT rey, Wb 
Owen’s remarkable pamphlet. What an 
instructive thing it is! 
