OBITUARY NOTICES. 
479 
through life to perform a prodigious amount of labor. In 
addition to these duties of close personal attention he pos¬ 
sessed in a marked degree the qualities essential to a good 
executive officer. He acted from reason, had a sound judg¬ 
ment, self-control, and a good memory. He was clear and 
explicit in giving directions and exacted of his agents spe¬ 
cific reports on the business intrusted to them. He was 
himself attentive to details, full of resources in emergencies, 
met difficulties promptly as they arose, inspired to their best 
efforts all engaged with him. His purposes were ever be¬ 
nevolent and his aims lofty. To all his duties and engage¬ 
ments he was attentive, earnest, and persevering; a man of 
reason and reflection, of stable opinions and persistent, un¬ 
ceasing efforts to accomplish desired ends. He had a com¬ 
manding manner, a gentle, kindly voice, persuasive in dis¬ 
course, and many of the higher characteristics of a leader 
and reformer. 
Doctor Nichols so administered the affairs of Blooming- 
dale asylum as to increase his already high professional 
reputation, and at the same time demonstrated his eminent 
fitness for the responsible duty of an enlightened superin¬ 
tendent and left no doubt in the minds of the governors that 
he was entitled to rank as one of the foremost alienists in the 
specialty. The Doctor never posed for admiration, but was 
a student and inquirer all the days of his life. 
Doctor Nichols, having in his own estimation reached a 
point in the progress of his studies where travel for the pur¬ 
pose of examining and comparing the merits of home and 
foreign institutions and the various methods of caring for 
and treating the insane would be serviceable to him, and his 
private affairs demanding some attention also, resigned his 
position at Bloomingdale for these reasons in June, 1852. 
He was not long left to indulge the dream of his personal 
preferences, but was almost rudely awakened to the con¬ 
sciousness that he was no longer an obscure physician, but 
had already, by his merits and studies, placed himself in 
touch with the foremost workers in the field of improvement 
