RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF PROFESSOR WELLS

The sense of loss which the College and community feel in the death of Professor Wells is shown in the two resolutions which follow. The first is a resolution adopted by the faculty June 24, 1911:

The faculty of Dartmouth College, deeply touchd by the death on June 11, 1911, of David Collin Wells, Professor of Sociology since the establishment of that chair in 1893, desires to place on record its sense of personal loss of a friend and its appreciation of the character and services of a colleague.

Professor Wells' wide learning had given him an established position of influence in Dartmouth and among the leaders in his chosen field. His singleness of purpose, manifest sincerity, and instinct for service have made him, though always voicing strong convictions with utmost frankness, for the past eighteen years a constructive force in the civic and religious life of the community.

His breadth of training, interest in all forms of intellectual activity, love of out-door life, and his warm heart and quick sympathy with the welfare of all people with whom he came in contact, united to win for him the affectionate regard of undergraduates, alumni, faculty, and townspeople. While his greatest and most permanent service to the College was that of a scholar, teacher, and friend of undergraduates, his strong personality, fairmindedness and independent judgment, early secured for him a distinctive and honored place in the councils of the faculty , and made him a constant and large contributor to the discussions of educational problems. His capacity for affairs, aptitude for harmonizing the relations of his fellows, and willingness to bear more than his full share of all forms of collegiate work led to his appointment by the faculty, year after year, to its most important standing committees. In the discharge of these administrative duties, as well as in those of a teacher, he always exhibited a fidelity, thoroughness, and conscientious devotion to high ideals which leave his associates, as well as the College his permanent debtors. His patient endurance of physical pain and weakness during the past three years, and his dauntless courage, though realizing that he faced death, in persisting till the last week of his life in his teaching and administrative work, is an example which will be cherished by his colleagues and pass into the permanent possessions of the institution to which he gave without stint the best in a man of large brain and broad human sympathy.

At the first meeting of the Dartmouth Scientific Association the following resolutions were adopted:

David Collin Wells entered upon his duties as Professor of Sociology in Dartmouth College in September, 1893, and as soon as possible thereafter—on October 18—became a member of the Dartmouth Scientific Association, and continued in both his relations until his death, June 11, 1911, in his fifty-third year.

He served the association as secretary in 1897 and as president in 1901-2, and during the eighteen years with the society he was an efficient member of a large proportion of its committees for important special services. He presented to the association five formal papers, each the topic for an evening, and upon other occasions, when the time was shared with others, he gave special reports to the number of fortysix. The titles of these papers and special reports are in an appended list which shows the broad field he surveyed while maintaining a general unity of plan. The last report was given April 5, 1911, when his illness was far advanced.

Even more important than the performance of these well-defined duties was his whole attitude toward the maintenance of the society. He was most regular in his attendance, absent only for imperative reasons. His genial and simulating presence made itself felt by all. So broad was his outlook that nearly all the topics presented by others at once engaged his interested attention. In any case he was a ready listener, generally sympathetic, sometimes critical, but always thoughtful and appreciative. No one more frequently made pertinent and pointed contribution to the discussions aroused by the papers or reports, or asked more central and discriminating questions.

The association is under special obligation to him for his deliberate and persistent support during a period when interest flagged and the future of the society seemed uncertain; and its present flourishing condition is largely due to his efforts and influence. As we come together again for the first meeting since his death our sense of loss is very keen, and it will be long before we who were associated with him cease to notice at each meeting, that he is not with us.

(Signed) EDWIN J. BARTLETT

Committee for the Dartmouth Scientific Association.

The following list of papers shows the broad field of Professor Wells' interests:

Papers: "The Veddas of Ceylon," "Urban Selection," "What Is Sociology?" "The Conflict of Races and Cultures," ' Evidences of Physical Degeneracy."

Special Reports: "Account of Ethnological Expedition to. Sumatra," "Failure of Search for Traces of Primitive Man in Caves of Kentucky," "The Ainus of Japan, "Ethnology of Corea, Japan, and China, "Prof. J. D. Dana of Yale," "The Pigmies, "Kaffirs," "The Pithecanthropus," "Recent Social Economic Literature," "Fluctuation in the Production of Silver and Gold, and in the Price of Silver," "Herbert Spencer, "The African in America," "Cloud Burst in Onondaga County, New York," Swastica in America," "The Play of Animals, The Natives of the Philippines," "Java Skulls, "Sound but Immoral (?) Sentiments, Report on Sociology," "Our Inheritance, Discussion—"Is the New England Community Degenerating?" "Military Selection" "Fossil Limestones from Manlius, N. Y„ The Chinese in America," "Improving the Human Breed," "Chinese Cannibalism, The Colored Death Rate," "The Physical Deterioration of the City Population," "Barrabas, "The College Course—a Distinction and. Extinction," "A Railroad for Naturalists, "Are the Russians Europeans?" "The Connection Between Head Circumference and Mental Ability," "A Peculiar Aurora of April 1, 1905," "The Serum Proof of the Relation of Men and Apes," "The Fathers Have Eaten Sour Grapes," "Do the Families of Men of Genius Continue or Die Out? "Political Anthropology," "Prof. W. C. Haddon," "The Ethnology of the Japanese, "Individualizing the Family," "The Jews."