104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON MEETING 



petus he gave to this particular method of attack. Like other sciences, 

 geology must grow out of the purely descriptive and qualitative stage, 

 into a more exact science. Van Hise saw this at a time when few Amer- 

 ican geologists were interested in such development. 



Van Hise's method of scientific attack explains some of his character- 

 istics as teacher and administrator. His constant effort was for positive 

 and simple results, thought out long in advance and based on the broadest 

 principles. Daily routine and detail interested him only in this relation. 

 I have sometimes thought that critics of his administration in certain 

 stages of University of Wisconsin history were paying too much attention 

 to current incidents and were not, as Van Hise was, looking forward to 

 an ultimate outcome. His purpose was simple and definite — to make 

 the University of Wisconsin (a State institution) of broader and more 

 fundamental service to the State. During the early part of his presidency 

 his attempts to extend the scope of the university and bring it closer to 

 the State were opposed in many quarters and there were political storms 

 in which he was bitterly attacked. Long before the end of his adminis- 

 tration, however, these vicissitudes had been passed and both the president 

 and the university had won a position of influence and respect with all 

 factions in the State. The university became a mecca for educational 

 specialists from all parts of the world interested in the particular kind 

 of university development which Van Hise so steadfastly advanced. 



In the class-room he sought for results by inspiring the student, not 

 by disciplinary methods. The success of this plan is testified to by the 

 number of professionally successful geologists who date their choice of 

 profession to moments in the class-room when Van Hise touched their 

 imaginations. 



The effort to get at fundamentals, so well shown by Van Hise's scien- 

 tific record, was closely related to certain other qualities arid methods 

 of work which I will indicate very briefly. 



There was almost a complete lack of petty jealousy or animosity in 

 his make-up. He never felt that any field of investigation was over- 

 crowded ; the more in it, the better. For him, no one had ever ^^skimmed 

 the cream" from any scientific opportunity. His thought was always 

 that all the knowledge available was to be regarded as the starting point 

 for further effort toward ascertaining fundamental laws. He often said, 

 "The man has not yet lived who can adequately describe a grain of sand," 

 and he was apt to be impatient with anybody who complained of lack of 

 opportunity for investigation. In his administrative work, all factors 

 were regarded objectively as a means toward an end, and it apparently 



