10 
WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 
of mind and enough elementary training to handle books and 
journals which record the actual state and progress of zoology. 
Of lectures there was one now and then from Professor Brooks on 
any subject. A round of lectures by older students in the de- 
partment was given some years, and this was excellent practice. 
The journal club was serious. It met weekly and the arrange- 
ment was such that .each graduate student reported a number of 
times during the year. A reading club met weekly in the even- 
ing at Professor Brooks' house. Some pleasant book of general 
zoological interest, often one of travel, was read, after which came 
tea. In the laboratory again once a week readings of a more 
serious nature and with some discussion were held. The ^'Origin 
of Species" was in this way gone through, and ^^Igassiz's Essay 
on Classification." 
Professor Brooks had compiled an elaborate list of the litera- 
ture, with which it was supposed candidates for the doctor's 
degree were to make themselves familiar. It included the 
text-books of the period and important memoirs on the various 
subdivisions of zoology. The list was long. Perhaps some stu- 
dents completed it. But we all read with considerable diligence 
and it was the custom to make careful abstracts. On the basis 
of this common reading a good deal of informal talk and dis- 
cussion was maintained among us. 
We lived in the laboratory all day and the younger men learned 
much from the older, especially in matters of technique. Brooks 
gave excellent suggestions on drawing and would occasionally go 
through the form of taking a micro-photograph. A beginner in 
my time was usually given some material, referred to a paper or 
two on comparative anatomy or embryology, and told to verify 
the research. At intervals, frequent enough, Brooks looked at 
his figures, notes, and preparations and had something to say 
about the matter. Frequently before this first testing and form- 
ing exercise was completed, the man would be put at another. 
Two or three filled the year. Then came a long season at the 
seaside laboratory, in all probability the first for the student and 
teeming with experience. There was daily collecting, much study 
of live animals, much rearing of embryos and larvae. The pelagic 
