purposes, he did his best work for agriculture in the University by making the greatness of its future secure.

Thus, friends and admirers of Hilgard, have I tried to give you simply a few glances at the life which you honor and for which you are thankful. I have chosen to dwell upon remoter phases of his activity because only a few share with me the deep joy of having been with him then. I do not try to measure his achievements in science or technology, nor even to indicate them. It seems to me that we think first of the man, of the purpose that was in him and of the development of that purpose under his environment. Phases of that development which were precedent to your own periods of observation, therefore, have seemed most fitting to present. And yet I may say, confident of your approval, that the results of Hilgard's labors are in the warp of California's first half-century of intellectual and industrial life and upon such enduring work as he achieved will be spread the splendid fabric of the coming advancement and development of our state. He was quick to see his opportunities of public service, to recognize his duty therein and he was masterful and tireless in pursuit of it. He was bold in conquest of truth and fearless in his use of it for the interest of mankind-seizing gladly the smallest fact from research and pressing it to the humblest service but always perceiving and enforcing the relations of both the fact and the service to the broadest interests of his state and of his fellowmen. Thus all came to know him as richly wise, unswervingly true and deeply patriotic and humanistic-a man whose thinking was as clear and whose motives were as unselfish as his service of them was forceful and effective. His achievements were great and diverse and his honors therefore great and widely bestowed.

California has lost a citizen of great achievement and influence, whose monument will be the greatness of his work for California which can never be forgotten because it was so great, so everlastingly sound and true and so closely related to the happiness and prosperity of his fellow-citizens

and of all who shall come after him. It is most fortunate that he was allowed to approach as near as man ever comes to the completion of his work, and to enjoy the realization of remarkable public advancement along lines which he clearly discerned, forcibly marked out and labored to deeply impress upon this great institution, of whose history his life and accomplishments will always be recognized as an integral part.

THE LIFE-WORK OF PROFESSOR HILGARD

R. H. LOUGHRIDGE

Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Chemistry in the
University of California

"of

Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, the "grand old man" of agricultural science, the youngest of nine children, developed a love for the natural sciences in his boyhood days on his father's farm near Belleville, Illinois. He received instruction in mathematics and the languages from his father, his home library giving ample opportunity for reading and study, found time from his farm work for riding and hunting, botanizing and insect collecting, and during a period of ill-health from malaria, read works on chemistry and botany. At the age of sixteen his eyes failed and for a change he was sent to Washington, D. C., to visit his brother Julius, then assistant in the U. S. Coast Survey. Attending lectures on chemistry in the Homeopathic Medical college and the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, he soon became lecture assistant in the former. went to Germany and entered the University of Heidelberg, but on account of political troubles then existing, went to the University of Zürich, completed his studies in mining and metallurgy in the royal mining school of Freiberg, and later returned to Heidelberg, where he graduated in 1853, with the degree of Ph.D., at the age of twenty. In his graduating thesis he was the first to distinguish and define the four parts of the candle flame and the processes

In 1849 he

occurring in each. While a student his early desire for investigation and research manifested itself in an experiment on himself with a poisonous dose of arsenic to ascertain its effects; it is needless to say that at the critical moment he took the antidote.

He had intended making the practice of medicine his life profession, but after a two-year course of lectures gave up the plan, as he felt that he could not have human life entrusted to his skill and dependent upon the uncertainties of his correct diagnosis and prescription. He then turned to chemistry, geology and botany as giving a broader, more accurate and more interesting field for investigation and research.

On account of continued ill-health, he went to the coast of Spain and spent two years interesting himself in geological observations. He was an intense lover of music and this happily brought him an introduction to Miss J. Alexandrina Bello, daughter of Colonel Bello, of Madrid, who in 1860 became his wife. In 1855 he returned to Washington, D. C., and fitted up a small chemical laboratory in the Smithsonian Institution, but very soon accepted the position of assistant state geologist of Mississippi. Thus at the age of twenty-two years, well trained in the natural sciences especially chemistry, geology, botany, and physics, with a keen mind, quick and accurate in his observations, and with a remarkable memory, he began his life's work and entered upon the survey with enthusiasm, although the field seemed very unpromising from a geologist's standpoint. With a traveling outfit consisting of an old ambulance, two mules, and a negro driver, who also was the cook, he explored portions of the state, making observations and collecting material for study. In 1857 the survey was suspended by the legislature, and Hilgard returned to Washington as chemist in the laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution and lecturer on chemistry in the National Medical College.

In 1858 he was appointed state geologist of Mississippi by the governor and resumed his detailed investigations