RECORDS 149 



Optics. The organization of this particular laboratory at the 

 new site of Columbia largely fell to him, and in the work he 

 displayed administrative abilities which won for him the warm 

 commendation of his superiors. 



As a boy Dr. White early manifested a special interest in natural 

 science, and was an earnest worker in a chapter of the Agassiz 

 society, which made its headquarters in the parish house of Dr. 

 Mottet's church, and from which have been recruited several of 

 our vigorous younger worriers in science. While an under- 

 graduate, he began investigations both geologial and botanical. 

 His Ph.B. thesis was a description of the geology of Essex and 

 Willsboro, towns on Lake Champlain, and was published in our 

 Transactions, XIII., p. 214. His work led him to take up the 

 study of the faunas of the Trenton in the Champlain valley for 

 his doctorate. In the end he studied them not alone in this 

 district, but all around the Adirondack crystalline area. He 

 also carried on work for the State Museum under the direc- 

 tion of Dr. F. J. H. Merrill. In association with Professor 

 Crosby, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he de- 

 scribed the petrographical characters of the Quincy granite. 

 His complete work upon the Trenton remains to be issued as a 

 posthumous paper. 



Dr. White was a man of indefatigable industry and of great per- 

 severance. Besides his efforts in geology, he had a number of 

 additional undertakings in hand. He was especially interested 

 in the parish work of the church with which he was connected 

 (Church of the Holy Communion, Rev. Dr. Mottet, Rector, 

 6th Avenue and 20th St.), and the past spring he made up his 

 mind to devote himself to a life-work among its young men. 

 He was largely instrumental in founding Gordon House, a club 

 house and centre of interest for them, and to it he has bequeathed 

 his estate. Indeed, during an excursion to the neighboring sea- 

 shore with his young men friends in the club, he became exhausted 

 while bathing in the salt water, and took a cold, which dev^el- 

 oped into pneumonia, and caused his death after a brief illness. 

 He has left a large circle of sincere and devoted friends, who can 

 with difficulty reconcile themselves to his loss. 



