Ogden Nicholas Rood. 73 



OGDEN NICHOLAS ROOD. 



Ogden Nicholas Rood, Professor of Physics in Columbia 

 University, New York, died at his residence in New York, on 

 Wednesday, November 12, of pneumonia, after an illness of 

 but a few days. He was at the head of the Department of 

 Physics, and the senior officer in the faculties of the university. 



Professor Rood was born in Danbury, Connecticut, Feb. 3, 

 1831, and was the son of Rev. Anson Rood, a Congregational 

 clergyman, and Aleida Gouverneur (Ogden) Rood. He entered 

 Yale College in 1848 as a member of the Class of 1852, but 

 did not remain longer than one year, subsequently entering 

 Princeton College, where he graduated in 1852. The autumn 

 of this year he spent in New Haven, pursuing scientific 

 courses of study as a graduate student, in the Department of 

 Philosophy and the Arts, of Yale. Although his name appears 

 upon the college catalogue as a member of this department for 

 the two college years 1852-3 and 1853-4, he spent but a por- 

 tion of this time in New Haven. During several months in 

 the early part of 1853 he was at the University of Virginia, 

 acting as assistant to Professor J. Lawrence Smith. Later in 

 the same year he was for some months in New York, as the 

 assistant of Professor B. Silliman, Jr., who was in charge of 

 the Chemical, Mineralogical and Geological Department of the 

 Crystal Palace, in that city. His scientific tastes had already 

 declared themselves at this time, and his earliest contributions 

 to this Journal were two papers, which he had read before the 

 Eerzelius Society of Yale, and which, even thus early, fore- 

 shadowed the direction his later studies would take. The first 

 was " On the Paramecium aurelia" and gave an account of 

 the microscopic study of the organism. The second was " On 

 a method of exhibiting the Phenomena of Diffraction with the 

 Compound Microscope." Both were published in 1853. 



The four years, from 1854 to 1858, were spent in Europe at 

 the universities of Munich and Berlin, in the further prosecu- 

 tion of his scientific studies. On his return to this country, 

 in 1858, he accepted the position of Professor of Chemistry 

 and Physics in Troy University, which he occupied until 1863, 

 when he resigned. The institution had been suffering from 

 lack of resources, and finally ceased to exist. Not long after 

 this he was elected Professor of Physics in Columbia College, 

 entering upon his duties early in 1864. This position he con- 

 tinued to hold during the remainder of his life. 



Professor Rood was a born investigator, full of enthusiasm 

 for scientific studies, with an uncommonly clear perception of 



