WIUJAM KEITH BROOKS — CONKUN 



was not equal to the task. Sudden attacks confined him to his home, 

 but yet his will brought him back to his laboratory, till one last day, 

 February 12. After preparatory rest, driven by his conscientiousness, he 

 forced himself to attend an oral examination of a candidate for the 

 degree of Ph. D. Then walking to the train that brought him home, he 

 was there overcome by a serious collapse. He was persuaded to go to 

 the hospital and, after most severe attacks there, rallied; but in nine 

 long months that followed he scarcely left his wheel-chair. 



When he returned to his home he got such comfort as might be from 

 the advent of spring, the passing of summer and the long lingering of 

 autumn, amidst scenes so familiar and dear. Despite his critical state 

 he was deeply interested in such news as came to him from the Univer- 

 sity. His last official act was a strong, successful plea for another when 

 his own interests might well have absorbed his attention. His was real 

 friendship growing out of his own wide sympathies. 



While having some strength to correct the proofs of papers in press, 

 he felt most keenly his inability to put his last work upon paper, and till 

 this work was done he would not deem it right to retire or seek a 

 pension. 



Professor Brooks once told the writer of this memoir that 

 he proposed to retire from his professorship when he had 

 reached the age of sixty, and thereafter devote himself entirely 

 to philosophical and scientific work. He reached the age of 

 sixty in March, 1908, but how different was his realization 

 from his plan. His retirement was not to the scholarly leisure 

 for which he longed, but to pain, weakness, and mortal sick- 

 ness. For nine months he struggled against a complication of 

 organic heart trouble and kidney disease ; he was unable to 

 walk or lie down, but lived in a reclining chair. For a month 

 before his death he was often in a semi-comatose condition, and 

 for the last three or four days was unconscious. The end came 

 at last at sunrise on Thursday, November 12, 1908. 



The autopsy revealed chronic diffuse nephritis, arterioscle- 

 rosis, congenital malformation of the heart with open septum 

 ventriculorum, cardiac hypertrophy, atrophy of the olfactory 

 lobes, and atrophy of the cerebral cortex. The heart was enor- 

 mously enlarged, and with the opening in the septum between 

 the two ventricles it is surprising that he lived as long as he 

 did. He had for years expected death at any time, and at forty 

 congratulated himself on having lived so much longer than any 

 one acquainted with his condition could have expected. It is 

 the opinion of experts that the explanation of his living to such 



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