Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/719

 Rh of international copyright at the hands of Messrs. Appleton by a systematic voluntary arrangement.

“The Popular Science Monthly” was started by the Appletons, at the suggestion of Professor Youmans, in 1872. The leaders of scientific thought in Europe were actively publishing their views in periodicals and in the transactions of learned societies, but the American public were without any means of keeping up with the drift of the new movement. Professor Youmans had persuaded Herbert Spencer to write the volume of “The Study of Sociology” for “The International Scientific Series,” and it had been arranged that the chapters should first appear serially in “The Contemporary Review” in London and in some American magazine. Professor Youmans made arrangements for its publication in “The Galaxy,” to which advance-sheets were to be sent. But the first installment came too late, it was said, for publication at the time agreed upon, and it was at this juncture that the necessity of establishing a new scientific journal in this country became apparent. In less than two weeks from the first conception of the project, and two days before “The Galaxy” appeared which was to have contained the delayed article, the first number of “The Popular Science Monthly” appeared. Considering that it was a scientific periodical, its success has been unprecedented.

But in the height of its usefulness the busy life is ended. Professor Youmans's constitution, originally robust, had been impaired by his sedentary habits. Want of sight left no inducement to out-of-door pursuits, while his chosen work always kept him in-doors; and it was not strange that, when exposure came, as it did in the winter of 1880-81, his system should yield to the strain. He suffered a severe attack of double pneumonia early in the season, and this was followed by a succession of relapses, which left his lungs in a state so diseased that they never recovered. He was told by his physician that his chance for long life lay in the country and in open-air occupations; but conformity to these requirements seemed to him impracticable, and he went on with his usual work, though failing gradually in strength. In the late winter of 1885 he went South, but derived little benefit, and the following season declined to repeat the journey. About a year ago he was overtaken with loss of appetite, and consequent loss of flesh and strength, and then realized that his days were nearly numbered. During the last six months he was very feeble and emaciated, but his long sickness was borne without complaint, and his unselfishness and care for others were conspicuous to the last.