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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 362. 



as if he had been another person, and this 

 gave rise to a frankness of expression re- 

 garding his own performance which some- 

 times impressed strangers unpleasantly, but 

 which, to his friends, was one of his most 

 charming qualities. 



Much of his success as an investigator 

 was due to a firm confidence in his own 

 powers, and in the unerring course of the 

 logic of science which inspired him to cling 

 tenaciously to an idea when once he had 

 given it a place in his mind. At a meeting 

 of the National Academy of Sciences in the 

 early days of our knowledge of electric 

 generators he read a paper relating to the 

 fundamental principles of the dynamo. A 

 gentleman who had had large experience 

 with the practical working of dynamos 

 listened to the paper, and at the end said to 

 the academy that unfortunately practice 

 directly contradicted Professor Eowland's 

 theory, to which instantly replied Rowland, 

 ' So much the worse for the practice, ' which, 

 indeed, turned out to be the case. 



Like all men of real genius, he had phe- 

 nomenal capacity for concentration of 

 thought and effort. Of this, one who was 

 long and intimately associated with him 

 remarks, " I can remember cases when he 

 appeared as if drugged from mere inability 

 to recall his mind from the pursuit of all- 

 absorbing problems, and he had a triumph- 

 ant joy in intellectual achievement such as 

 we would look for in other men only from 

 the gratification of an elemental passion." 

 So completely consumed was he by fires of 

 his own kindling that he often failed to give 

 due attention to the work of others, and 

 some of his public utterances give evidence 

 of this curious neglect of the historic side of 

 his subject. 



As a teacher his position was quite 

 unique. Unfit for the ordinary routine work 

 of the class room, he taught, as more men 

 ought to teach, by example rather than by 

 precept. Says one of his most eminent 



pupils, ''Even of the more advanced stu- 

 dents, only those who were able to brook 

 severe and searching criticism reaped the 

 full benefit of being under him, but he con- 

 tributed that which in a university is 

 above all teaching of routine, the spectacle 

 of scientific work thoroughly done and the 

 example of a lofty ideal." 



Eeturning home about twenty years ago, 

 after an expatriation of several years, and 

 wishing to put myself in touch with the de- 

 velopment of methods of instruction in 

 physics, and especially in the equipment of 

 physical laboratories, I visited Rowland 

 very soon after, as it happened, the making 

 of his first successful negative of the solar 

 spectrum. That he was completely absorbed 

 in his success was quite evident, but he 

 also seemed anxious to give me such infor- 

 mation as I sought. I questioned him as 

 to the number of men who were to work in 

 his laboratory, and although the college 

 year had already begun he appeared to be 

 unable to give even an approximate answer. 

 * And what will you do with them ? ' I said. 

 ' Do with them ? ' he replied, raising the 

 still dripping negative so as to get a better 

 light through its delicate tracings, ' Do with 

 them? — I shall neglect them.^ The whole 

 situation was intensely characteristic, re- 

 vealing him as one to whom the work of a 

 drill-master was impossible, but ready to 

 lead those who would be led and could 

 follow. To be neglected by Rowland was 

 often, indeed, more stimulating and in- 

 spiring than the closest personal supervision 

 of men lacking his genius and magnetic 

 fervor. 



In the fulness of his powers, recognized 

 as America's greatest physicist, and one of 

 a very small group of the world's most emi- 

 nent, he died on April 16, 1901, from a 

 disease, the relentless progress of which he 

 had realized for several years and opposed 

 with a splendid but quiet courage. 



It was Rowland's good fortune to receive 



