Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs.djvu/33

Rh the mechanical nature of the systems considered, except that they are mechanical and obey Lagrange's or Hamilton's equations. In this respect it may be considered to have done for thermodynamics what Maxwell's treatise did for electromagnetism, and we may say (as Poincaré has said of Maxwell) that Gibbs has not sought to give a mechanical explanation of heat, but has limited his task to demonstrating that such an explanation is possible. And this achievement forms a fitting culmination of his life's work.

The value to science of Professor Gibs's work has been formally recognized by many learned societies and universities both in this country and abroad. The list of societies and academies of which he was a member or correspondent includes the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Dutch Society of Sciences, Haarlem, the Royal Society of Sciences, Göttingen, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Cambridge Philosophical Society, the London Mathematical Society, the Royal Academy of Amsterdam, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Prussian Academy of Berlin, the French Institute, the Physical Society of London, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Williams Colege, and from the universities of Erlangen, Princeton, and Christiania. In 1881 he received the Rumford Medal from the American Academy of Boston, and in 1901 the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London.

Outside his scientific activities, Professor Gibbs's life was uneventful; he made but one visit to Europe, and with the exception of those three years, and of summer vacations in the mountains, his whole life was spent in New Haven, and all but his earlier years in the same house, which his father had built only a few rods from the school where he prepared for college and from the university in the service of which his life was spent. His constitution was never robust—the consequence apparently of an attack of scarlet fever in early childhood—but with careful attention to health and a regular mode of life his work suffered from this cause no long or serious interruption until the end, which came suddenly after an illness of only a few days. He never married, but made his home with his sister and her family. Of a retiring disposition, he went little into general society and was known to few outside the university; but by those who were honoured by his friendship, and by his students, he was greatly beloved. His modesty with regard to his work was proverbial among all who knew him, and was entirely real and unaffected. There was never any doubt in his mind, however, as