ADDITIONAL TEIBUTE TO THE MEMOEY OF DE. LAPHAM. 



BY E. K. LELAND, ESQ., EAU CLAIllE, WIS. 



Me. President: — I cinnot let tlii.s occasion go by without trying to pay some 

 tribute to the memory of our lamented and revered fellow- member, whom it wa,i 

 long my privilege to call a fiiend. 



Known to the world ns an able scientist; to the many who casually met him, as a 

 modest, manly, cultured gentleman; by the few he was honored and beloved as it 

 falls to the lot of few men to be, for virtues that were not worn upon his sleeve — for 

 a nobility that intimacy alone could reveal. 



I do not, however stand here as his eulogist. I sliould feel that to be a sort of im- 

 pertinence in me — even if the work had jiot already been done far better than I 

 could hope to do it. 



I desire only to make some acknowledgement of the obligation — now never to be 

 discharged — which Dr. Lapham has laid upon rue by many acts of kindne.ss and as- 

 sistance through all the years since I first knew him. An obligation which, I think 

 many others mu.st share with me, for he was over ready with kind and helpful sym- 

 pathy for all. The merest tyro in natural history was sure of warm welcome and 

 encouragement at his hands, and his collection, hi.s library, and above all his valua- 

 ble time and experience were placed freely at the disposal of the seeker for knowl- 

 edge. 



And he taught wisely; for his nature had nothing of the pedant, his spirit nothing 

 of dogmatism. His was the open mind; ready to learn from all sources, not prone 

 to theorizing nor swift to draw conclusions. He had learned to wait — and there waa 

 in his attitude no posturing, nor bidding for popular applause in anything which he 

 did. He toiled for science, from a love of Science, but with a thorough and intelli- 

 gent comprehension of the great possibilities that lie in this field of research. 



And it has alwavs seemed to me that when he came to die, the manner of his 

 death was a serene and most fit ending of a life thus .spent. No prolonged, distress- 

 ful struggle, no whispering, crowded room ; there were bending over him no beloved 

 faces, agonized with a grief which he could do nothing to assuage. No doctor came, 



"With phrase and fame, 

 To shake hi.s sapient head and givo 



The ill he could not name, 



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No brother doctor of the soul. 



To canvass with official breath, 



The future and the viewless things. 



Which one who fe Is death's wionowins wings, 



Must needs read clearer, sure, than he!" 



