530 



PROCEEBINGS OF THE ALBUQUERQUE MEETING 



scientific zeal with their lives. Fortunately Heilprin was spared, and 

 lived to write his valuable papers dealing with the phenomena of this 

 extraordinary expression of vulcanism. 



Heilprin's excursion to British Guiana, in 1906, was designed as the 

 first of a series of expeditions wliich were to be made into tropical re- 

 gions. This expedition was, however, destined to l)e his last, for the 

 fever contracted at this time was never fully checked, and was one of the 

 chief causes which led to his death, on July 17, 1907. 



As an educator. Professor Heilprin's infliience was widespread. He 

 was one of the first to recognize the value of photographic reproduction 

 in the teaching of the earth sciences, and in this respect his "Principles 

 of Geology" has set the pattern for later successful works. The great 

 skill with which he was able to present important geological principles 

 by the use of the most common objects is well shown in his "Town geol- 

 ogy : the lesson of the Philadelphia rocks." Heilprin may well be called 

 the natural teacher. His manner of presentation was very effective, and 

 whether with the class in the field or conducting recitations, giving lec- 

 tures before teachers, or pul^lic addresses, the expounder of science as 

 well as the explorer and investigator was evident. In the experience of 

 the writer, no teacher of geography has been more effective with classes 

 than has Heilprin. Students readily recognized him as a master — 

 learned and cultured, and at the same time modest, sympathetic, and 

 democratic. As a teacher at Yale he never attempted to control his 

 classes or to secure good work by any of the devices of pedagogues, but 

 trusted to the value of the subject and to his method of presentation to 

 arouse interest in the student. 



Heilprin was a firm adherent to the doctrine that a knowledge of the 

 earth and its inhabitants is an essential part of a general education hav- 

 ing high cultural value. To him, therefore, a wide dissemination of the 

 results of geographical study was of the first importance, and small 

 groups of geographers devoting their attention to highly technical mat- 

 ters were of relatively minor importance. Wlien the Association of 

 American Geographers was formed — an association designed to separate 

 the jDrofessional geographers from those merely interested in geography — 

 Heilprin's objection was characteristic; he thought that such an associa- 

 tion might tend to limit the distribution of geographical information. 



Likewise a museum to him was a place for teaching the truths of na- 

 ture, not a place for storing and protecting specimens, and his successful 

 effort to open the museum in Phihidelplna on Sundays has been imitated 

 with advantage by other institutions. 



His influence as an educator was also exerted through societies and 



