MEMOIR OF JOHN HENRY CASWELL 
353 
versity. In this position he supplanted Professor Whitman and was one of 
the first of his countrymen to carry on the highest educational work on 
foreign lines without the help of Europeans. Mitsukuri trained most of the 
younger generation of Japanese zoologists, and he sacrificed to no little 
degree his important researches in his time-consuming devotion to his pupils. 
He was in the laboratory at all times and always accessible, and he had an 
affectionate friendliness of manner which means so much to the student, be 
he foreign or Japanese. Then, too, he had the gift executive; he accom¬ 
plished things,— in many regards he reminded one of Spencer F. Baird. 
He could make converts who worked, he made friends who supported his 
plans, he could be diplomatic without sacrificing an atom of principle, he 
had zoological argosies sailing to all parts of the island empire, even to 
remote Tai Wan or to Sagahlien, he was big enough not to despise applied 
zoology, even to be willing to lend it his own strong hand. As an instance 
of this he showed keen interest in the pearl problem — wdiich his pupil Dr. 
Nishikawa finally solved. And he sacrificed much of his time in accepting a 
commissionership in the Behring Sea seal inquiry at the time it was causing 
international unrest. To zoologists, Mitsukuri will ever be known for his 
researches in reptilian embryology, for his work was accurate, philosophical 
in its bearings and carried out with artistic completeness. In a word, 
Mitsukuri did much and in many directions. Perhaps at the end if we 
could have read his mind we would have found that what he prized most 
highly in his life work was his successful patriotism, not at home, of course, 
where all are born patriotic, but in teaching to a foreign world the ideals of 
Great Japan. For everyone who knew Mitsukuri knew something of the 
real Japan, and from it came to many Europeans a higher regard and respect 
for the Japanese, whether poor or rich, peasant or scholar. We may 
altogether safely say that in the death of Mitsukuri our Academy has lost a 
member whom it was an honor to honor. 
MEMOIR OF JOHN HENRY CASWELL . 1 
By James F. Kemp. 
John Henry Caswell, in whose memory these lines are prepared, was born 
in New York City December twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred forty six. 
With the exception of several years of student life abroad and of occasional 
1 Dr. Caswell died October 16, 1909, having been an Active Member of the Academy since 
1869. This memorial was read at the Academy meeting of December 6, 1909. 
