Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/78

 74 In the earlier years there was very little help to be had, even of a purely mechanical sort, and he did most of the work with his own hands and with the aid of such friends as he could impress into the service. He was even obliged to pack up the Smithsonian exchanges; and for many years all his official letters were in his own hand. The first assistant curator of the embryo national museum was (speaking in wholly unofficial language) Mr. Solomon Brown, already mentioned. Appointed about two years after Baird took charge, for the purpose of assisting with the Smithsonian exchanges, this excellent colored man soon learned to skin animals and prepare skeletons, and was for nearly forty years Baird's right-hand man. If the assistance given by Brown lightened one side of the work, the other grew rapidly heavier, and for years it must have been a constant struggle for Baird and his few associates, such as Dr. Girard, to sort and label the specimens, and carry on the official correspondence. As one contemplates the old records, and remembers what was actually done and who there was to do it, it seems amazing that the mere routine work of the museum could be successfully carried on, and if ever a man had a valid excuse for not engaging in original research for lack of time surely that man was Baird. Original research, however, was the purposed end of all the accumulation. The materials obtained must be worked up and that with as little delay as possible. Baird was perfectly willing and glad to see this done by any competent person, but while securing cooperation wherever he could, he put his own shoulder to the wheel, and produced in rapid succession a series of works of the first importance.

This seemingly impossible achievement was due to the way he worked, after hours, during meals, and in fact to the limit of his capacity. Solomon Brown describes him to me as taking his coffee with one hand while he held his notes in the other; he could not stop even to eat. For nearly twenty years he kept this up; but after 1870 his executive duties having become very heavy, and the young men he had trained being well in harness, he ceased to engage in active research. That he felt obliged to do so, no naturalist can help regretting; for though it would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of his labors as head of the Smithsonian and Fish Commission, it is equally impossible to forget what we have lost in the way of illuminating investigations of our vertebrate fauna. It need not be considered an affront to those who came after him, to suggest that if Baird's time had been his own several groups would be in better order than they are to-day.

The task which Baird accomplished was, in brief, the putting in order of the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians of the North American continent, with the description of very numerous new species