208 
He was actively engaged in the civil 
war, first in the defenses of Washing- 
ton and later as chief engineer and 
senior aide-de-camp to General Grant. 
Later he became superintendent of the 
geodetic survey of the great lakes and 
of the improvements at the mouth of 
the Mississippi, and published works 
on these and other engineering topics. 
He was elected to the National Acad- 
emy in 1884, and in 1907 gave the 
academy a fund of $10,000 for the 
promotion of researches in electricity 
magnetism and radian energy. 
Charles Abiathar White, born in 
1826, though early interested in sci- 
ence, was late in beginning professorial] 
work. He received a degree in medi- 
cine at the age of thirty-seven and 
three years later became state geologist 
of Iowa and professor of natural his- 
tory in the state university. He ac- 
cepted a chair in Bowdoin College in 
1873 and two years later became geol- 
ogist in the surveys of Powell and 
Hayden. For many years he was con- 
nected with the Geological Survey, the 
National Museum and the Smithsonian 
Institution. He was elected to the 
National Academy in 1889. He pub- 
lished over two hundred contributions 
to geology, zoology and botany, main- 
taining his scientific activity to the 
end, as is indicated by an article in a 
recent volume of this journal. 
Mr. Agassiz and Professor Barker 
died at the age of seventy-five, Gen- 
eral Constock at the age of seventy- 
nine, Dr. White at the age of eighty- 
five. Another American scientific man 
who played an important part during 
the second half of the last century and 
died with his life work fully accom- | 
plished was Professor William Phipps 
Blake. He was born in 1826 and made | 
valuable studies in the mineral de- 
posits and geological structure of the 
Rocky Mountain and Pacifie coast 
regions. Dr. Amos Emerson Dolbear, 
for thirty-six years professor of phys- 

ies at Tufts College, known for inven- | 
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
tions and other work in physical sci- 
ence, has died at the age of seventy- 
three years. Professor Robert Parr 
Whitfield, of the American Museum of 
Natural History, eminent as a geol- 
ogist, has died at the age of eighty-two 
years. Dr. Cyrus Thomas, archeologist 
in the Bureau of American Ethnology 
since 1882, well known for his con- 
tributions to anthropology, has died at 
the age of eighty-five years. 
More grievous than the death of 
veteran men of science is the loss of 
those whose work is not accomplished. 
Charles Reid Barnes, professor of plant 
pathology in the University of Chicago, 
dying after a fall at the age of fifty- 
two, was among our leaders in botany 
in both performance and promise. Dr. 
H. T. Ricketts, also of the University 
of Chicago, but called to the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, died in Mexico 
City at the age of thirty-nine years 
from typhus fever contracted as a re- 
sult of research work on that disease. 
Even this partial list shows how severe 
have been the losses by death from 
among American men of science during 
the past six months. 
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 
Tue Paris Academy of Sciences has 
conferred the Janssen Prize, consisting 
of a gold medal, on Director W. W. 
Campbell, of the Lick Observatory.— 
Professor Theodore W. Richards, of 
Harvard University, has been invited 
by the Chemical Society (London) to 
deliver the next Faraday lecture. This 
will be the tenth Faraday lecture, the 
others having been given as follows: 
Dumas, 1869; Cannizzaro, 1872; Hof- 
/mann, 1875; Wurtz, 1879; Helmholtz, 
1881; Mendeléef, 1889; Rayleigh, 1895; 
Ostwald, 1904; Emil Fischer, 1907.— 
Dr. John Benjamin Murphy, professor 
of surgery in Northwestern University, 
has been elected president of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association, for the meet- 
ing to be held next year at Los Angeles. 

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