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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 258 



the great libraries of the world. But, however exalted the feeling 

 of admiration we may entertain for Baird as an eminent scientific 

 man, it is to his attributes as a man as disclosed in his personal 

 relations with friends, associates, and contemporary men of affairs, 

 that we most fondly turn, since it is in these relations that he most 

 clearly exhibited those kindly and modest traits of character which 

 made him so universally beloved. 



As a man of affairs, Professor Baird exhibited great sagacity. 

 His plans for the organization of scientific work were of great mag- 

 nitude ; and had they been presented to the administrative officers 

 of the government or to legislative bodies with exaggeration, or 

 even had they been presented with the glow of an enthusiastic 

 missionary of science, they might well have encountered opposition. 

 But Baird had a wonderful faculty of presenting his plans with 

 extreme modesty, and with a degree of under-statement but sug- 

 gestive explanation of possibilities which speedily caused him to 

 whom the appeal was made himself to become an advocate of the 

 professor's measure. He had traits of character in this respect 

 which are hard to explain, and which seem at first to be contra- 

 dictory. In the advocacy of measures his modesty amounted 

 almost to timidity, and he avoided alike argumentation and notoriety, 

 and he presented his measures with the directness of a child. 



Notwithstanding all this, there was such a poise of faculties, 

 such dignity of mien, that he impressed those with whom he came 

 in contact as a venerable and wise patriarch. He seemed devoid 

 of personal interest or feeling, and solicitous only for the welfare of 

 those to whom he was in fact appealing, and he conveyed the im- 

 pression that he was giving benignant advice. Thus the shrinking, 

 sensitive man, who could not even stand before a public body, such 

 as a committee of Congress or a scientific society, and advocate a 

 cause, could, from his seat by the fireside or at the desk, so illumine 

 the subject with which he had to deal that men stood round him to 

 gather his words, that nothing should be lost ; for in the exposition 

 of his subject he illumined ever thing with clear statement, arising 

 from an exhaustive knowledge and full understanding of results. 



As the director of the work of research in which other men were 

 engaged. Professor Baird had marvellous insight and skill. The 

 appliances of modern research, alike in the inorganic world and in 

 biology, have come to be multifarious and diversa; and there is this 

 peculiarity about their use : that once used, so that the secret of 

 nature which they were planned to unlock has been revealed, they 

 speedily become obsolete, and immediately new keys, new appara- 

 tus, new devices, are necessary. Thus to a very large extent skill 

 in research is absorbed in the skill necessary for the development 

 of the agencies of research. A continuous line of research, prose- 

 cuted by a corps of men so that the boundaries of knowledge are 

 carried far forward, can result only from a continuous line of in- 

 ventions in the apparatus of research; and it was here that Baird 

 exhibited his skill. His own devices were many and constant, and 

 even he was fertile in suggestions to his assistants. No wonder, 

 then, that so many of the secrets of nature were unlocked through 

 his agency. It was in the direction of this work of research that 

 the man Baird stood forth as a giant ; it was where his vast knowl- 



edge of details was most apparent ; it was where his marvellous 

 skill was most shown ; it was where his insight into human char- 

 acter was most exhibited. With clearness he formulated his inter- 

 rogatories ; with aptness he selected his course of procedure ; with 

 judgment he sought the aid of others, and with suggestiveness di- 

 rected their work. And, lo ! his questions were speedily answered. 

 It was in this manner that his own good hands were supplemented 

 by the hands of many, that his own great mind was re-enforced by 

 the best mental activity of many assistants ; and thus the whole 

 body of men under his control worked together as one organic in- 

 teger for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 



In his work with his assistants he scrupulously provided that 

 every one should receive the meed of honor due for successful re- 

 search, and treated all with generosity. Many an investigation be- 

 gun by himself was turned over to assistants when he found that 

 valuable conclusions could be reached ; and these assistants, who 

 were his warm friends, his younger brothers, reaped the reward ; 

 and he had more joy over every young man's success than over the 

 triumphs and lionors heaped upon himself from every quarter of 

 the globe. He was the sympathetic counsellor of many men ; into 

 his ears were poured the sorrows and joys of others, and he 

 mourned with the mourning and rejoiced with the rejoicing. To 

 those in need his hand was ready and his purse was open, and 

 many and many were the poor who called him ' blessed.' Though 

 a man of great force of character, a man of great learning, a man 

 upon whom had been showered the honors of the scientific world, 

 in character he was as simple as a child. He had a fund of 

 ' folk-lore,' and loved the books and papers written for children. 

 In his later years, weakened with disease and burdened with many 

 labors, he still read Si. Nicholas from month to month, and kept 

 the run of every little story, and was glad to be ' a child again.' 

 His life at home was pure and sweet, and full of joys, for he gave 

 and received love and trust and tender care. But the history of his 

 home life is sacred. Its words and acts abide in the hearts of the 

 husband, the wife, and the daughter. 



For many long months he contemplated the day of parting. Labor 

 that knew no rest, responsibility that was never lifted from his 

 shoulders, too soon brought his life to an end. In the summer of 

 the past year he returned to his work by the seaside, that he might 

 die in its midst. There at Wood's Holl he had created the greatest 

 biologic laboratory of the world ; and in that laboratory, with the 

 best results of his life-work all about him, he calmly and philosoph- 

 ically waited for the time of times. Three days before he died 

 he asked to be placed in a chair provided with wheels. On this he 

 was moved around the pier, past the vessels which he had built for 

 research, and through the laboratory, where many men were at 

 work at their biologic investigations. For every one he had a word 

 of good cheer, though he knew it was the last. At the same time, 

 along the pier and through the laboratory, an invalid child was 

 wheeled. " We are rivals," he said, " but I think that I am the 

 biggest baby." Then he was carried to his chamber, where he 

 soon became insensible, and remained so until he was no more. 



" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 



