76 Transactions Texas Academy of Science. — 1908 - 1909 . 
families under his care, but who inevitably became the confidential 
adviser of the family in all its vitally important affairs. Hundreds 
of families today mourn him as their lost guide, counsellor and 
friend, whose great-hearted sympathy and ripe wisdom were ever at 
tl\eir service, not only for cure of bodily sickness, but for their pro- 
tection and help in all the issues of life. 
I am now brought to the last and highest point of view in con- 
sidering the place and worth of any man. I have spoken of J. W. 
McLaughlin as a soldier, as a scientist and as a doctor; it remains 
to speak of him as a man. But at this point, especially do I feel 
not merely my own oratorical weakness, but the absolute inadequacy 
of the words to describe a truly magnanimous man. 
Personal affection and bereavement also here tongue-tie me. I 
can only bear witness that J. W. McLaughlin was a true man, per- 
fect in all the “weightier matters” of character, justice, mercy and 
truth. One of the sincerest, truest and most modest of 
men, he was free from every tinge of vanity or other petty feel- 
ing. I never saw a man who thought so little about himself or his 
own concerns. His temper was imperturbably good, with the most 
winning and courteous manners; yet as I have seen, he could be 
aroused by any bad action to the warmest indignation and prompt 
measures. No one could be admitted to intimacy with him without 
enlarging ideals of courage and generosity — of all that we mean 
by manhood. Never did he show more nobly than as I saw him day 
by day through the last months when relentless disease had pros- 
trated even his enormous strength. Physical pain and weakness, 
however, could not impair his thoughtfulness for others and perfect 
courtesy, or abate his interest in the scientific problems upon which 
his thoughts and conversation dwelt to the very end : 
“For he preserved from chance control 
The fortress of his ’stablished soul, 
In all things sought to see the whole, 
Brooked no disguise, 
And set his heart upon the goal, 
Not on the prize.” 
His diligence and patient zeal in the search for the truth could 
not be more touchingly illustrated than by an episode of the last 
week of his sickness. We had a mutual friend well qualified to dis- 
cuss the scientific questions in which Dr. McLaughlin was most in- 
terested. Several letters dealing with certain points of such discus- 
sion had passed between them. Finally about six weeks before his 
