258 Wolcott Gills. 



forced into the narrow limits of an hour. The effect was 

 wonderfully inspiring, when, as in this case, one did not have 

 to take notes. As already stated, his teaching was confined to 

 a few students, and it is a matter of regret that more did not 

 have the opportunity of profiting by contact with this great 

 mind. 



Of the various societies, to which he belonged, he was most 

 warmly attached to the National Academy of Sciences. He 

 was one of its founders in 1870, and at his death the last sur- 

 vivor of the original members. He served it as foreign secre- 

 tary, vice president, and from 1895 to 1901 president. He 

 was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences and of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, of which he was a vice president in 1866, 

 president in 1897. In addition to these his achievements 

 brought him honorary membership in the Philosophical Soci- 

 ety of Philadelphia, and the American, English, and German 

 Chemical Societies, and corresponding membership in the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the 

 Royal Prussian Academy. The most striking of these appre- 

 ciations of his merit was his election as honorary member of 

 the German Chemical Society, as he was the only American on 

 this list. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by 

 Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of 

 Pennsylvania in alsentia as a special honor, and the Colum- 

 bian University of Washington. 



During the Civil War he proved himself a public spirited, 

 patriotic citizen, devoting a large part of his time to service on 

 the executive committee of the Sanitary Commission. The 

 frequent meetings of this body suggested to him the idea of 

 a a club which should be devoted to the social organization of 

 sentiments of loyalty to the Union." A meeting to consider 

 this plan was called at his house on January 30, 1863, and led 

 to the formation of the Union League Club of New York. In 

 later life, although he took no prominent part in public affairs, 

 he always held his knowledge at the service of the govern- 

 ment, as was shown by an extensive report on the instruments 

 for physical research, prepared when he was a commissioner 

 to the exposition at Vienna in 1873, another on the tariff as 

 applied to seeds, and others on various chemical subjects. 



