MEMOIR OF W J MC GEE 23 



without substantial reward. He was a good conversationalist and a 

 ready public speaker, having at command a splendid memory and a really 

 wonderful vocabulary; in fact, in the use of the latter he sometimes 

 seemed to border on the pedantic, yet when a new or unfamiliar word 

 was used it was usually found in last analysis that it was a fitting word 

 for the shade of meaning desired to be conveyed. 



McGee was a helpful man, ever ready with counsel and information to 

 assist whomsoever might come to him. To the younger men he was 

 especially considerate and helpful, drawing freely upon his vast store- 

 house of information without thought or regard for personal credit. 

 When the so-called conservation movement was launched a few years ago, 

 the exigencies of public life made it impossible for full credit to be given 

 to all who had a guiding hand in the work, but from one in position to 

 know it appears that the success of this movement was in large measure 

 due to the far-sighted, comprehensive policy and sterling advice of Doctor 

 McGee. Many of the activities of the Inland Waterways Com mission, 

 of which, as already mentioned, he was the Vice-Chairman and Secre- 

 tary, were due to his energy and initiative. Laborious statistical tables 

 were compiled and scattered information brought together in usable 

 form. During all these later years, although not engaged in active geo- 

 logical investigation, he was always willing and anxious to discuss the 

 newer results in the several fields and to accept without question or re- 

 sentment those which offered a surer solution than any he had himself 

 proposed. 



Although it is said of Doctor McGee that in early life he was dis- 

 tinctly averse to manual labor, in later life he certainly developed un- 

 tiring energy, as a glance at his many and varied accomplishments will 

 show. He was also a good organizer and was systematic and painstaking 

 in all he undertook. His last work on "Wells and Subsoil Water;' the 

 proof-sheets of which lie before me, was recalled during the last weeks o( 

 his illness and was finally submitted, hut (wo weeks before his death. 

 complete to the last detail. 



It is perhaps fitting in this connection that a word should be said of 

 the remarkable courage and fortitude exhibited by Doctor McGee during 

 the progress and culmination of the insidious malady (cancer) which 

 caused his death. For the benefit of humanity he made a special study 

 of his own case, setting down calmly and imperturbably the progress of 

 the disease from its first observed inception, in 1894, to its obvious domi- 

 nance, in April, L912, this diagnosis being published a fe* days after bis 

 death (Science, September L3, L912). It thus appears thai for the Last 

 fifteen years of his life his work -some o\' it the most exacting o\' bis 



