WILLIAM BOWER TAYLOR. 651 



His eulogy of Professor Baird was published in the Bulletin of the 

 Philosophical Society, Vol. X, 1888 ; also in the Smithsonian Miscel- 

 laneous Collections. 



He was president of the District of Columbia Alumni Association of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, and presided at its annual banquets. 



During the life of Professor Henry no formal office existed as 

 "editor" of the Smithsonian publications. Every article submitted 

 for publication was carefully examined by Professor Henry himself, all 

 doubtful points discussed with the authors, and every line closely 

 scrutinized in the proof sheets, independent of, and in addition to, the 

 examination made by his assistants. Mr. Taylor's distinctive labors as 

 "editor" commenced with Professor Baird's accession to the secre- 

 taryship. 



Perhaps very few persons have an idea of the scope of this part of 

 the operations of the Smithsonian. It may be well, therefore, to refer 

 briefly to it, as by Professor Henry it was considered the most impor- 

 tant part of the operations of the institution, he giving it the first 

 place in his reports, because he believed it was to its publications 

 mainly that the institution owed recognition and fame throughout the 

 world. 



During the last half century the relations of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution considered as a publishing agency, to the scientific public of 

 America has been essentially that held by the great European acad- 

 emies to the scientific men of Europe. So far as works of great 

 importance, of high cost, and appealing to a limited but the most 

 learned class, are concerned, its record is excelled by none, if indeed 

 equaled by any other establishment. 



Of the Smithsonian publications, Mr. Taylor thus speaks in his 

 eulogy on Henry : 



To attempt the recapitulation of the various branches of original 

 research initiated or directly fostered by the institution would be to 

 write its history. Scarcely a department of investigation has not 

 received, either directly or indirectly, liberal and efficient assistance. 

 The various works submitted to the institution, even after approval, 

 entail a vast amount of unrecognized and little appreciated labor in 

 the elimination of obscurities, of redundancies, or of personalities, and 

 in the pruning of questionable metaphors, of perfect or hasty generali- 

 zations, or of incidental inaccuracies of statement or inference. 



The most important duty Mr. Taylor performed as editor while at 

 the Smithsonian was the collection and publication of the Scientific 

 Writings of Professor Henry. To this labor of love, for which he was 

 perhaps better fitted than any other person, he gave a year or two of 

 untiring devotion. He was scrupulously careful to verify every refer- 

 ence and to recalculate every mathematical formula used by Henry in 

 any of his papers, and without his abundant knowledge of Henry's 

 researches and his familiarity with the whole history of discovery in 

 electricity and magnetism he could not have produced this valuable 

 work. 



