REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67 



building. In 1887, after the death of Commissioner Baird, he served for 

 a time as Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries, under Commissioner 

 Goode. While connected With the Fish Commission he carried on a 

 successful series of experiments to solve the problems relative to the 

 temperature of living fishes, which have been made public through the 

 reports of the Fish Commission. Besides the reports just referred to, 

 Dr. Kidder contributed valuable papers to various professional and 

 educational publications, and held for years a place on the literary staff 

 of the New York World, and maintained membership in many learned 

 societies. He was one of the founders of the Cosmos Club, and among 

 the organizers of the Harvard Club in Washington, and a prominent 

 member in the Masonic fraternity. 



In 1888 Dr. Kidder accepted from the present Secretary the ap- 

 pointment of curator of laboratory and exchanges. His pleasant past 

 relations to the Institution, and the esteem in which he was held 

 by those connected with it, made the closer connection thus estab- 

 lished agreeable to all ; and the writer can not speak in too warm 

 terms of the character of Dr. Kidder as shown in their business rela- 

 tions. His liberal education and views, served by the " capacity for 

 taking pains " already referred to, were all under the control of the 

 most conscientious regard for duty, and made him a valued administra- 

 tor of the department under his charge. He knew how to maintain, to- 

 gether with exact order, the kindliest relations with all employed in it, 

 who, it is safe to say, remember him with an affection and regard due 

 to his excellent personal qualities, an affection and regard which the 

 writer profoundly shares. Just in his best work, in his fullest physical 

 vigor, Dr. Kidder was stricken with pneumonia, and died after a brief 

 illness on the 8th of April, 1889. ' 



His attachment to this Institution, which had always been of the 

 peculiarly intimate character, was also shown in a bequest of which I 

 shall elsewhere have to speak. 



In conclusion, I can not but add to the statement of this great 

 deprivation to the Institution an expression of my sense of personal 

 loss in the parting with a friend who, in every relation of life, was 

 a man as honorable and worthy of trust as any I have ever known. 



JAMES STEVENSON. 



In recording the death of Mr. James Stevenson, which occurred on 

 the 25th of last July, I have to announce the loss of one of the most 

 valuable as well as one of the oldest and most active collaborators of 

 this Institution. 



Mr. Stevenson was born in Maysville, Ky., in 1840, and while still 

 little more than a boy, in the spring of 1857, ascended the Missouri 

 River with the Warren Expedition ; and from that time, with the ex- 

 ception of the interval caused by his acceptable services in the civil war, 



