SPECIAL MEETING. Ixxxi 



If MacGregor's laboratory and library equipment was so 

 mean and inadequate, liis mental equipment was of the very 

 best. The characteristic I should put first is alertness; he saw 

 your point before you made it; he saw every side of it; and 

 almost instantaneously' saw the correctness or the flaws in it- 

 His reply came back like a flash, and almost beat you with its 

 suddenness: he fairly overwhelmed you with his arguments 

 drawn from many points of view. This mental alertness, acute- 

 ness and keenness was a part of his whole, quick, nervous 

 make-up; he was built of springs, bodily and mentallj-. Such 

 an alert and nervous temperament meant that he was not 

 satisfied until a physical conception was absolutely clear to 

 himself; he possessed no mist}' or foggy notions; he either knew 

 a thing or did not know it. This characteristic was chiefly 

 the secret of his excellence as a lecturer, when combined, as 

 it was, with a good command of fluent expression. He was 

 probably the best lecturer on Physics I ever heard; even the 

 dullest bo}' thought he understood mechanics while at Mac- 

 Gregor's lecture (but he didn't); the presentation was absol- 

 teh' logical, the illustration was apt, and there were no super- 

 fluous words to becloud it all. This type of mind is usually 

 extremely impatient of dullness of intellect; but ^lacGregor 

 possessed the necessar}' patience to make hira a great teacher. 

 I would add to this quality an abounding energy and a great 

 power of concentration and great tenacity of purpose. Given 

 these and his enthusiasm, it is easy to realize that the cause 

 of science was assured of progress in this part of the world, 

 no matter how much opposition and stubborn stupidity 

 and prejudice it had to encounter. We, who have followed him 

 owe him an unpayable debt for the easy path left for us to 

 tread. 



I would not place MacGregor so high as an original think- 

 er. Keen and analytical as were his faculties, enabling him to 

 see the bearing of all his knowledge, and, therefore, seemingly, 



