344 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 383 



SCIENCE: 



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NEW YOEK, June 6, 1890. 



CONTENTS: 



New Series of Portable Test- 

 ing AND Resistance Sets 337 



The Cherokees in Pre-Colum- 

 bian Times. Cyrus Thomas .. . 338 



Notes and News 343 



Cornell and the Lost Will 344 



Health Matters. 



Another Forty Days' Fast 345 



Excision of Local Pulmonary 



Tuberculosis 345 



Letters to the Editor. 

 Practical Applications of Meteor- 

 ology. Frank Waldo 845 



Temperature in Storms and High 



Areas. H. A. Hazen < 



The Winnebago County (Iowa) 

 Meteorites. Jos. Torrey, Jr.; 



Erwin H. Barbour ; 



Book-Reviews. 



The Village Community I 



Electrical Influence Machines. .. S 



Among the Publishers ; 



Industrial Notes. 

 New Portable Photometer 1 



COENELL AND THE LOST WILL. 



The newspapers are publishing the customary type of absurd 

 stories about the history and loss of the great bequest of Mrs 

 Jennie McGraw Fiske, which has just been lost to Cornell Univer- 

 sity through the operation of a technicality in law, and the active 

 exei'tions of her surviving husband and of the next of kin, who 

 brought suit to secure what they, and all the world, knew that 

 they were not given by the deceased owner of the property. The 

 true history of the case in brief, as we obtain it from a reliable 

 source, is the following : — 



John McGraw was, at the time of his death, an old lumberman 

 who had made an enormous fortune in the North-west, working 

 in company with Henry W. Sage, Hiram Sibley, and a few other 

 equally successful comrades and friends. He was a friend and 

 fellow trustee with Ezra Cornell at the founding of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, and took great interest in that now great institution of 

 learning. He contributed largely to its treasury and needs, in its 

 early days, and finally died with fortune unimpaired, leaving it 

 mainly to his only child, Jennie. Miss McGraw had grown up in 

 the midst of the little circle of wealthy and liberal men who did 

 so much to make the university what it is, and from them (for she 

 was intimate with all) had received her inspiration. When her 

 father built what is now known as McGraw Hall, the largest build- 

 ing of the dozen scattered over the great campus, the child asked 

 the privilege of contributing the beautiful chime of bells which 

 now hangs in its tower, and calls the students to their daily tasks. 



This interest she never lost: it increased, rather than decreased 

 with time. 



Miss McGraw, a few years before her death, lost her health, and 

 remained in a critical condition to the end. Meantime she had 

 made the acquaintance of the librarian of the university. Pro- 

 fessor Fiske, and after a time, becoming interested in each other, 

 they were married, and the professor took bis bride to Europe in 

 the vain hope that her health might be restored. She failed 

 steadily, and finally returned with her husband to her home on 

 the university campus, to die. Her death took place within a few 

 days of their return. 



Meantime, under her directions, a large and beautiful house had 

 been built on a commanding site between the university and the 

 bank of Cayuga Lake, which was never occupied; the couple liv- 

 ing, in the interval, in a modest little cottage, still standing within 

 the university grounds. A pre-nuptial contract had been entered 

 into between the afSauced pair, by which Mrs. Fiske was per- 

 mitted to dispose of her millions as she might choose, and which 

 provided properly for her husband in case of her death. At her 

 death it was found that a will had also been made, giving liberally 

 to the natural heirs, and leaving her husband $300,000 and per- 

 sonal property. The university was given $40,000 to found a 

 hospital; and the residue of the estate, now amounting to nearly 

 two millions of dollars, after paying legacies, was to be devoted 

 to the building and endowment of a library for the university. 

 All legacies were promptly paid by the executor, and the balance 

 of the estate was in process of conversion into the university 

 treasury, when suit was brought by the husband to break the 

 will, — a suit in which be was presently joined by the heirs, to 

 whom, as well as to the husband, liberal legacies had been paid. 



It appeared that a clause existed in the charter of the univer- 

 sity, limiting its holdings of property to a gross amount of $3,000,- 

 000. This had been inserted in the document at the first, and had 

 never been removed, although it must have been known that the 

 holdings were approaching perilously near this limit. The plain- 

 tiffs in the case asserted that the university already possessed so 

 nearly this amount — above $2,000,000, as they stated — that it 

 was legally debarred from accepting the gift of Mrs. Fiske; and 

 the property must therefore go to the next of kin. The trustees 

 and the executor of the will, as defendants, asserted that this was 

 not the fact, the property inventoried including large amounts 

 held in trust for the State, and not the property of the university, 

 though its income was pledged to the university for educational 

 purposes. Other and technical defences were raised by the de- 

 fendants. No one, on either side, claimed or admitted that there 

 was any question of the intent of the testatrix; no one disputed 

 the fact that she had desired and intended to give her property to 

 the university, and that no one else had the slightest moral right 

 to it. The question was simply and solely whether a technical 

 interpretation of the laws affecting the holding of property could 

 be made to give to others what they had no moral claim upon, 

 and to take from the university, and to deflect from its great pur- 

 pose, a gift of enormous value and potential usefulness, which 

 was morally the absolute property of the institution, and pledged 

 to the specified purpose. 



The Surrogate's Court decided in favor of the university: the 

 higher courts of the State, and the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, reversed the finding, and gave the property to the claimants. 

 They now hold it, though every one gaining by the transaction is 

 fully aware that the deceased, if conscious of what is going on 

 here below, must feel that her intent has been defeated; that they 

 have no real right to her property; that the intent must always 

 stand a moral bar to their receiving the money for any other pur- 

 pose than to carry into effect her intention, defeated as it is, for 

 the moment at least, by the operation of an unexpected legal im- 

 pediment. 



The amount involved approaches $2,000,000; but legal expenses, 

 and losses in realizing on the property, may bring the net sum 

 below a million and a half. Had this great fund gone into the 

 hands of the trustees of the university, it would have founded 

 perhaps the noblest library on the American continent. As it is, 

 it may be seriously questioned whether it is likely to do much 

 good, even to the legal but yet false inheritors. The daily papers 



