No. 601] CHARLES OTIS WHITMAN 



25 



man, indeed, planned to publish far more than he did ; he 

 had accumulated materials that were nearly ready for the 

 printer. But the absence of the hyperkinetic drive com- 

 bined with the manifold duties of the moment led to pro- 

 crastination for the more convenient period of prolonged 

 quiet which an overactive world never afforded him. On 

 the other hand, had it not been for the exceptional pres- 

 sure brought to bear on him for an address or a contribu- 

 tion we might have had less than we have from his i3en. 

 Of his writings Lillie truly says (p. Ixxiii) : 



His published papers, mostly short, are models of condensed thought, 



voted to the form than to the substance, and some of his papers will 

 certainly endure as classics of the biology of his time. ... He rarely 

 had occasion to correct any published statement, and even less rarely, 

 perhaps, to change in any radical way a point of view to which he had 

 once committed himself. 



Conser\^atism, so frequently associated with hypoki- 

 nesis, was marked in Whitman. He was not very cordial 

 to developmental mechanics, and was critical of the en- 

 thusiastic rush to the mutation theory and Mendelism. 

 He could not easily abandon old ideas for new, and ally 

 himself with the latest biological fad. 



A strong philosophic and argumentative tendency is 

 found on both sides of the house. His mother's father 

 was much given to theological discussion, and was an ar- 

 dent adventist. Charles's father, too, was argumenta- 

 tive. The philosophic tendency in Whitman was marked 

 in his writings. In one of his manuscripts of Westford 

 days, at the age of 26, he discusses the topic "Progress 

 Has No Goal" and again ''Womanhood Suffrage," of 

 which the tenor is shown by the concluding sentence : 



Female suffrage . . . may meet with opposition, as indeed, every re- 

 form does, but all this opposition is but the alarm of the great clock of 

 human progress, which is soon to strike the hour when all enlightened 

 nations shall recognize not only manhood but also womanhood suffrage. 



This is quoted as an illustration of youthful style and not 

 a statement of his views in later life. 



Whitman's hypokinesis shows itself even in his hand- 

 writing. It altogether lacks the running dash of the 



