1895.] [Hartshorne. In 1852 he entered the Pennsylvania Hospital as Resident Physician, and remained there till 1854. The death of Dr. Ashmead, the leading practitioner of medicine in Germantown, Phila., made an opening in that place, which induced Dr. Rhoads to begin general practice there. Hav. ing all the qualities and preparation needful for the make-up of a successful physician, in the midst of a growing population, including some of the most cultivated people of the neighborhood of Philadelphia, he obtained rapidly a large and engrossing practice. In 1860, he married Margaret W. Ely, of New Hope, Pa.; who survives him, with two daughters and a son. One limitation, which could not be called a fault, existed in Dr. Rhoads' adaptation to medical practice. He was too absolutely self-forgetful for long continued endurance; too sympathetic not to be worn by the sufferings of others; too ready to answer every call to obtain for himself sufficient rest. In 1862, his health and strength gave way; and he sought recuperation in a six months' tour in Europe. That time, however, was not enough for a full restoration of his constitutional energy; and he found it necessary to retire altogether from medical practice. Incapable of idleness, philanthropy soon gave him abundant occupation. The Civil War and its results made the Southern freedmen objects of active solicitude among benevolent people in the North. Dr. Rhoads was one of the earliest and foremost of those who, by visitation, instruction and earnest advocacy at home, promoted the advancement of the colored people in every way. At Washington, in Hampton, Virginia, and in Philadelphia, he was among the freedmen's most devoted and practically useful friends. When General Grant inaugurated his policy of justice and kindness towards the Indians of our Western country, a leading part in its realization fell to the Quakers of the State founded by William Penn, as well as to members of the same religious body in the Western States. In this work Dr. Rhoads took a large part, during all the latter part of his life. The several local organizations of the Society of Orthodox Friends formed, by delegations, an Associated Executive Committee on Indian Affairs. Of this body Dr. Rhoads was, from the start and for many years, the Secretary; virtually its presiding officer. More than half of all the important work of that Committee rested with him; consisting of the supervision of educational, missionary and other labors for the benefit of the Indian tribes, the record of which might fill a volume. He was also for several years President of the Indian Rights Association, whose headquarters are in Philadelphia; its active labors on behalf of the Indians, both at Washington and in the far West, being of great importance for their welfare. In 1876, Dr. Rhoads was called upon to edit a denominational weekly journal in Philadelphia, the Friends' Review. The religious as well as literary aims of that periodical accorded well with his predilections. For a number of years he had taken part, with much acceptance, as a preacher, in the congregations of the Society of Friends. Although not officially recorded as a minister, in the manner customary in that denomination, he gave demonstration of his eminent qualification for such service. In 1883, he was appointed President of Bryn Mawr College for Women ; of which he had been already one of the original Board of Trustees. This college was founded by means of a liberal endowment left for it by Dr. Joseph W. Taylor, who during his lifetime chose for it an admirable situation a few miles from Philadelphia, and began the construction of its principal buildings. The selection of Dr. James E. Rhoads for the office of its first President was greeted on all sides as the best that could have been made. Although not himself a college graduate, he had long been one of the managers of Haverford College, a kindred institution for young men; and his fine intellectual qualities, broad culture, and still more, his elevated, attractive and inspiring personal character, made him peculiarly adapted to such a position. Opened for students with a well-chosen faculty in 1885, Bryn Mawr College rapidly grew in favor and prosperity. Halls and dormitories have, year after year, been added for the accommodation of its students, of whom now nearly three hundred are engaged in advanced studies under competent instructors. At the time when the organization of this college was effected, the higher education of women was still in a comparatively early stage of development; and the theory of curricular arrangement in colleges for men was undergoing revision, and, in most places, revolutionary change. With a new institution, the question was open: Shall it be, in its plan of study and instruction, constructed on the old basis of uniform and symmetrical culture, maintaining the principle that, as judged by the experience of ages, there is one culture better than all others for students of the collegiate age, leaving free selection and specialization for the postgraduate work in universities or elsewhere; or shall the newer principle of free electivism be adopted, providing for undergraduates a number of optional courses, such as are now offered at Harvard, Johns Hopkins and nearly all the other colleges of the United States? As two of the Trustees of Bryn Mawr College, appointed by Dr. J. W. Taylor for that duty in his will, were also members of the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, it was not strange that the new college for women should follow closely in the line of its development. A "group system" of classified studies was adopted, including some branches which have mostly, hitherto, been regarded as better suited for special postgraduate work than for the general training of youth of either sex before maturity. While there is room for diverse opinions in regard to the extent to which this now prevailing change in college curricula has been carried, it is certain that it is prevailing; and from no standpoint can fault be found with a new institution for women, because it followed in the wake of the most honored universities, the oldest and the newest, in this country. On the line of development thus chosen, Bryn Mawr College has 1895.] [Rosengarten. met with success and distinction. Along with Vassar, Smith and Wellesley Colleges, it may claim peership with the strongest of American colleges for either sex, in the ability of its professors, the quality of its material equipment, and the scholarship of its graduate and postgraduate students. Among the honors achieved by the latter is the recent appointment of one of its fellows to the headship of Barnard College, a Department for Women in connection with Columbia College in New York. President Rhoads' labor and responsibility, with his unsparing devotion to every duty, were very exacting; and, after an illness which impaired his strength, he felt compelled to resign the Presidency of the college in 1894. He was retained as Professor of Ethics, which he had long taught, and as President of the Board of Trustees. In the department of Ethics he was unquestionably a superior teacher. Although, in his own convic. tion, the "ethics of Jesus" are sufficient for all human needs, his breadth of mind led him to do justice to all side lights upon his subject, from Confucius, Plato and Marcus Aurelius down to Martineau and Herbert Spencer. There was a warmth and radiance in his personality; the man being more always than his teaching or his preaching; so that it was said that no one could be an hour in his company without being the better for it. In 1890, Union College, in the State of New York, awarded to him the well deserved honorary degree of LL.D. With an increased measure of rest, though still maintaining his interest in philanthropic work, especially in connection with the Indians, and being often engaged in the ministry of the gospel, he seemed, at the beginning of the year 1895, to be gaining in health. On the second of January of this year, however, having walked from his residence to the railway station at Bryn Mawr, intending to go to the city to attend a lecture on a sociological subject, while seated awaiting the coming of the train, his head fell forward, and almost in a moment he expired. His work was done. Although not a very aged man, it may be said, changing somewhat the words of a familiar line, that "his toil was as the toil of ten, because his heart was pure;" not only pure, but animated by a noble devotion to God and to his fellow-men. Obituary Notice of Henry Coppée, LL.D. By J. G. Rosengarten. (Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 17, 1895.) Henry Coppée, LL.D., was born in Savannah, Ga., October 13, 1821. He spent two years at Yale College, in the class of 1839, then studied engineering, and was employed in the construction of the Georgia Central |