THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



influence, having appeared in many 

 editions and having been translated 

 into a dozen different languages. 

 Finally he devoted ten years of his life 

 to a history of the American civil war. 



Draper's early scientific work was 1 

 concerned with the chemical action of 

 light. In 1837 he investigated the 

 growth of plants exposed to the light 

 of the solar spectrum. He at that time 

 also studied the action of light in 

 changing the color of metallic salts 

 and applied the photographic process 

 to the solution of physical problems. 

 When Daguerre 's discovery was an- 

 nounced he improved the process and 

 took in 1840 the first portrait of the 

 human face, at a time when this was 

 regarded as impossible in Europe. In 

 the same year he took the first photo- 

 graph of the surface of the moon. 

 Draper was also the first to obtain 

 photographs of the diffraction spec- 

 trum, and of the ultra-red and ultra- 

 violet lines. In 1857 he wrote that the 

 occurrence of lines in the spectrum is 

 connected with the chemical nature of 

 the substance and that ' ' if we are ever 

 able to acquire certain knowledge re- 

 specting the physical state of the sun 

 and other stars, it will be by an exam- 

 ination of the light they emit." It is 

 an interestitng fact that his son, Henry 

 Draper, in 1872, was the first to obtain 

 photographs of the fixed lines in the 

 spectra of stars. 



Draper 's work in physiology was of 

 importance; he made many new discov- 

 eries and consistently used physico- 

 chemical explanation in the place of 

 the vitalism of those days. In like 

 manner he applied causal principles to 

 the evolution of society. Draper 

 played an important part in the devel- 

 opment of modern science at a time 

 when America was represented by but 

 few leaders. 



HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH 



Henry Pickering Bowditch was a 

 member of one of those families which 

 in Boston and in Philadelphia have 

 maintained the traditions of the Eng- 



lish aristocracy. His grandfather was 

 the eminent mathematician, Nathaniel 

 Bowditch, and his father and his 

 brothei s have like himself always been 

 ready in the performance of public 

 service. Bowditch was born in Boston 

 in 1840; on graduating from Harvard 

 College in 1861 he volunteered for 

 service in the civil war, and at its close 

 retired as major of the Fifth Massa- 

 chusetts Cavalry. He then passed 

 through the Lawrence Scientific School 

 and the Harvard Medical School and 

 spent three years abroad working 

 under Carl Ludwig at Leipzig. When 

 he returned to Boston in 1871 the 

 chair of anatomy and physiology held 

 by Oliver Wendell Holmes was divided, 

 physiology being assigned to Bowditch. 

 For thirty-five years he was a leader 

 in education and research in the med- 

 ical sciences, and the physiological 

 laboratory that he founded was the 

 pioneer of laboratories in the medical 

 sciences. He was largely responsible 

 for the medical school building, com- 

 pleted in 1883, the laboratories of 

 which were admirably equipped for 

 that time, and again was largely respon- 

 sible for the magnificent buildings and 

 laboratories of the new medical school 

 opened in 1906, the year in which, 

 owing to failing health, he became pro- 

 fessor emeritus. As dean of the med- 

 ical school and in other ways he exer- 

 cised an enormous influence on the 

 improvement of medical education and 

 medical science in this country. His 

 own researches on the growth of chil- 

 dren, on vision, on the knee jerk and 

 on other subjects were of great impor- 

 tance, but in a brief biographical 

 notice, it seems more fitting to dwell 

 on his great public services for physi- 

 ology, for medical education, for the 

 city and for the country. Of his per- 

 sonality Professor Charles S. Minot, 

 a student under him and for many 

 years his colleague, says : ' ' He found 

 great happiness in his home life, in his 

 children and grandchildren, and also 

 in the numerous friends, whom he at- 

 tached not only by his unusual abilities 



