WIUvlAM K^ITH BROOKS — CONKUN 



all living things, plants as well as animals, as if they may have 

 some small part of a sensitive life like my own, although I 

 know nothing about the presence or absence of sense in most 

 living things ; and am no more prepared to make a negative 

 than a positive statement." 



Professor Brooks was interested in the welfare and practical 

 needs of his fellow-men. In 1879 ne gave part of an element- 

 ary course in biology for the teachers of the Baltimore schools. 

 In 1882 he lectured before the employees of the Baltimore and 

 Ohio Railroad on "Methods of locomotion in animals." He 

 was also instrumental in establishing a public aquarium in 

 Druid Hill Park. But his principal work of a practical char- 

 acter was on oyster and fish culture. By lectures, newspaper 

 articles, and books he sought to arouse public interest in the 

 great possibilities for public good which lay in these "harvests 

 of the seas." 



His sense of honor and justice was highly developed and his 

 indignation was aroused when any case of injustice or abuse 

 of power came to his notice. In particular he respected the 

 rights of servants and the poorly educated, and he resented 

 any infringement of these rights. While at Nassau, a mer- 

 chant of the town tried to compel Doctor Brooks to pay him 

 the wages of a negro servant of the laboratory. Doctor Brooks 

 refused to do this unjust act, as he regarded it, and he resisted 

 all pressure which was brought to bear to compel him to do 

 this, even at the risk of being unable to sail on the steamer on 

 which he had engaged passage. With a sense of obligation, 

 unusual and perhaps exaggerated, he held that the university 

 which employed him was entitled to all that he might earn by 

 outside work ; fortunately for him his university recognized no 

 such obligation. 



He was occasionally very happy in the use of scriptural lan- 

 guage, illustrations, and quotations. He acquired his familiar- 

 ity with the Bible in his grandfather's family, where it was 

 read daily. His familiarity with the scriptures was often 

 shown in his writings and conversation. On one occasion, in 

 a discussion of Weismann's essay on "Life and Death," in 

 which, as is well known, Weismann claims that death is not a 

 necessary and primary characteristic of living things, but one 



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