THIS BOOK IS THE GIFT OF

Dr. Louis Leibovitz
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In Memoriam

Leonard Pearson

Born August 17, 1868; Dien September 20, 1909

Atate Veterinarian of Penngsplvania
1895-1909

Dean of Weterinarp College of University
of Pennsplbvania

189721909
Contents

PAGE
Biocrapuicat Sketcw or Dr. PEARSON..........0000 0 cece nee eeee ss 6
Mewmoriat Exercises:
EDGAR Fs SMITH... accescdry saagennad de sabe se $4 a6 eemelentoes 10
JAMES JOA Wises ses toad Hibeeay Sa ca Aaa goa 4 ethan toa name s 14
THOMAS Fe FUNG s2:5 soca 3.053 4 peasnias sadnn sscarnain w-tiaje dato eae a ss 21
Wood OMGSPARRANS oocastahia ayo brated tian Gyeegany es gent Ene 23
Be Se BAVARD Ss sed eculdauads Sede aaenaecs o 34 SRE eS Roi EES 23
Se Hie Gipean Ds 6 yes giseeansis ces jusended wise autos wd 4 g.a vwiecay baeen 25
Depication or Lronarp Pearson HALL.............. aan 28
PRESENTATION OF Dr. PEARSON’S PORTRAIT............0.00005 29
TRIBUTES:
Ib, PA ROBERTS <2 2c cca iies 20 -ds Aaland de cehaweie bute name 31
SIMON HENRY ‘GAGW is ices sees Sewn oa Fale GARE Ses Gade go 32
Vpranvs A. MOoRB........0.. 00. ccccceccecececeeecsecseeues 34
DOAN: GUTTERS: 2.5 Says dates x ccese des staaieieceed son se acoun tana ialen wrote st alataceand eaaet 37
ALonzO ENGLEBERT TAYLOR.........0 0000 cece eee n cece e en ene 37
JOHN MARSHAD a's cavesie's nes see ad so ke RR Serena Meee eee ea ee 40
Ns. B: (CRITCHRIBLDS 4. a862-3 204 SAcsace: Gxdvesoineccn wad God audnaien a4 au 8 41
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JOHN TAMIUION seis cess setae o Lag aww gue oleae ay einere'e san balan Ges 45
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IMAZY CRE. BRAN ENED cssisisis, snc otexion nde ag abaieonn d tocdaas Rhee 4 Be 51
J: BERTRAM DEIPPINCOPD iyi cso cnatees sae gar ed@ae Goa eaEN aes 56
SamueL McCutntock HAMILL......... 0.00 cece eee eee 58
BB 95s, SDA VARDS 32.0.6 ois icavicald aca: Masses iad ass ancidnoheneal square baocaaons Boa 88> 60
ANG Cy BB ODE Se cod ct trees oe etecaaacth sored Garden heres cee iene 62
Duncan -McHacHRANy co's yocas daw scectuonew dives x seleaniens 64
Danint: Ey SAUMON acaacaaes statin dea 940d ORE ese R wee EEA 65
SamMuEL A. PENNYPACKER......... 00.0 cece eee eee 70
JOHN: Ri: MOBUER esiasis os uecisccea eee Mae Gegngs ees Seo ENS 72

LAWRENCE Bi PICK gcc cities cecaeedy tenn ess eee ee es 77
Contents

 

PAGE
W. Horace Hoskin........ 000. tee eee neee 78
GeorGE B. JOBSON........ 00 ccc ee ee eee e eens 81
BERNHARD BANG............ chin corpses i Gio aa casa ht hm Sas widens tee 82
Are TEERUTARD o5.5cccesss 3. ecb Sided Ne OPS AIRE YE ea PRONE ones 83
Facuity or tHE CoLiece or VETERINARY MEDICINE, GEORGE
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY........00 000 cece eee teen eens 83
American Veterinary Review........... 0.0 cece eee e eens 83
Veterinary: NGS: oissoce sakes: cont SEES GS OD He SEG MS SAG S EE 85
AMERICAN VETERINARY MeEpIcAL ASSOCIATION........--2-20--55 87
Avumni or ScHoot or VETERINARY Mepicine, UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYDVANTAied suena eukatiay oan goede Ry sau HARES Ge Sead 90
Veterinary Facuuty, UNIvERSITY oF PENNSYLVANIA .......... 91
TrustTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA...........00.00005 92
GreneraL ALUMNI Soctety, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA...... 92

VETERINARY Mepicau Society, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA... 93
ScHoot or AGRICULTURE AND EXPERIMENT STATION, PENNSYL-

VANIA STATE COLLEGE........... 0000s eee cence ee ene enes 93
RoyaL Huncartan VETERINARY COLLEGE OF BUDAPEST........ 94
State Boarp or AGRICULTURE OF PENNSYLVANIA.............- 94
Keystone VETERINARY Mepicant ASSOCIATION..............00 95
PENNSYLVANIA STaTE VETERINARY MepicaL ASSOCIATION....... 96
PaTHOLoGicaL SoctETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.............0000 0005 97
PennsyLvania Work Horse Parape ASSOCIATION............% 98
Prennsyivania Live Stock Sanitary Boarp................05 99
Henry Pureps INSTITUTE.......... 00 ee eee 99
New York Srate Verertnary Mepicau Society.............. 99
New York County Verertnary Mepicau ASSOCIATION........ 101
Massacuusetts VETERINARY ASSOCIATION.............-.--005- 102
Mrynesota State VETERINARY MEpIcAL ASSOCIATION.......... 102
Biographical Sketch of Mr. Leonard Pearson
Bp Clarence J’. Warshall, 0.99.D.

Professor of Veterinarp SMevicine, Aniversity of Pennsplvania, anv
State Veterinarian of Pennsploania

Dr. Leonard Pearson was born in Evansville, Indiana, Aug-
ust 17%, 1868. His parents were Leonard and Lucy Small
(Jones) Pearson, who were of Puritan ancestry. He died at
Spruce Brook, Newfoundland, Monday morning, September 20,
1909.

Much of his early education was by home instruction from
his mother. In 1884 he entered Cornell University, and was
graduated in 1888 as a bachelor of science in the agricultural
course. He was a member of the Chi Psi Fraternity and the
society of the Sigma Xi. While at Cornell he became interested
in veterinary work, and in 1887 he was employed by the United
States Department of Agriculture under Professor James Law,
his life-long friend, in assisting to stamp out contagious pleuro-
pneumonia of cattle in the vicinity of Chicago.

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, depart-
ment of veterinary medicine, with the class of 1890. The
following years of 1890-91 he attended lectures in the veter-
inary schools of Berlin and Dresden and studied bacteriology
in Koch’s laboratory and in the laboratory of the veterinary
department of the German army. On his return to America,
he was elected assistant professor of theory and practice of
veterinary medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, and
in 1894 was promoted to a full professorship. In 1897 he was
elected dean of this institution, a position which he filled with
conspicuous ability. In recognition of his research work, the
University of Pennsylvania, in 1908, conferred on him the

5
Jn fMemoriam

 

 

honorary degree of doctor of medicine. In 1892 he was ap-
pointed non-resident lecturer on veterinary science at the Penn-
sylvania State College.

He was a member of the Seventh International Congress of
Hygiene and Demography, held in London in 1891, and of the
Third International Congress for the Study of Tuberculosis
that met in Paris in 1898. In recognition of the services
rendered in the study of animal tuberculosis he was chosen
to preside over the section on animal tuberculosis at the congress
held in Washington in 1908.

He was one of the founders and editors of the Veterinary.
Magazine, as well as the author of numerous papers on veter-
inary and sanitary subjects. He was a prolific writer and con-
tributor to the literary field of veterinary sciences, the domain
of agriculture, the stock-breeding interests and the whole realm
of animal industry, justly earning for himself the proud title
of the leading “animal engineer” of America.

As secretary, then president, he filled the highest offices in
the American Veterinary Medical Association, and served two
terms as president of the Pennsylvania State Veterinary Medical
Association; the same may be said of him in reference to the
Keystone Veterinary Medical Society. He was an active mem-
ber and past president of the Guernsey Cattle Club of Phila-
delphia, a member of the Pennsylvania Live Stock Breeders’
Association, State Grange, the American Public Health Asso-
ciation, Philadelphia City Board of Health, advisory member
of the State Board of Health, and veterinarian to the State
Board of Agriculture. He was a member of Ivanhoe Lodge,
F. and A. M., and an active member of the Harrisburg Club,
the University Club and the West Philadelphia Republican
Club. In all these organizations his genial manner won him
hosts of friends. He was active and aggressive in his asso-
ciation work and furnished most valuable assistance in their
management and government. He organized the Pennsylvania
State Live Stock Sanitary Board in 1895 and was appointed

6
Heonard Pearson

 

 

its secretary and state veterinarian by Governor Hastings, to
which office he was reappointed by each succeeding governor.

Dr. Pearson’s illness dates back two years or more, when
his family and friends became aware of the fact that his
manifold duties and responsibilities were telling on him. With
his energy already taxed to the utmost, his exhausted condition
was greatly aggravated by the additional worry and effort in-
cident to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Pennsyl-
vania in the early part of the winter of 1908-09. This, com-
bined with his effort in securing from the last legislature much-
needed appropriations for buildings and maintenance for the
veterinary school, and also funds for the administration of the
work of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, called forth the
limit of his capacity. With this marvellous amount of work
accomplished, it was arranged to relieve him of much of the
routine work of his official duties.

At this time both Dr. Pearson and his mother narrowly
escaped asphyxiation, an accident caused by a fainting spell
which Dr. Pearson experienced while caring for his mother,
who was ill. After recovering sufficiently from. the acute effects
of the gas poisoning, he was persuaded to take the rest which
up to this time he had considered impossible. He decided
upon a sea voyage, a form of recreation to which he was most
partial, and, accordingly, sailed on a coast line steamer for
Savannah in the early part of July. On his return he imme-
diately embarked for England, returning by way of Halifax,
where, on the advice of his physicians and friends, he decided
to remain for an indefinite period. On account of an attack
of hay-fever he went to Newfoundland, and at the time of
his death was sojourning at the Log Cabin, Spruce Brook, a
secluded place on the southwest shore of Newfoundland, where,
it is said, this disease does not exist. The latest communica-
tions received from him indicated that he was improving and
that he hoped to be able to return to his office in Philadelphia
within a short time. It was gratifying to learn that he had

7
Jn Memoriam

received the best attention, medical and otherwise, during his
stay at the Log Cabin, which was found to be an ideal place
for rest and recuperation.

Dr. Pearson commanded the implicit confidence of all our
people, from the governors to the most humble farmers. Few
men were better known throughout our commonwealth and none
was more respected. By those interested with him in the
veterinary department of the University of Pennsylvania, the
State Live Stock Sanitary Board and similar organizations with
which his work has been so intricately woven, his loss is felt
with the keenest sorrow.

He knew how to think, speak and write, was conscientious,
farsighted, honest, possessed good judgment and enjoyed the
general esteem of all who knew him. He was a captivating
orator, precise, methodical and clear, and possessed to a high
degree the gift of analysis, synthesis and generalization. The
many abstract and complex problems filtered through his mind
as a pure crystal. Speaking or writing, he reflected the ex-
ceptional qualities of his beautiful intellect. There was exact-
ness and faithfulness to the rules of our language and a per-
fect fitness of words to express ideas in every sentence he used.
Dr. James G. Rutherford has well said of him:

“Dr. Pearson was in a class by himself among the veter-
inarians of this continent, while even in the Old World there
are few who rank anywhere near him. He was not only a
great veterinarian, but a great man in many other ways, and
one who, had he been spared, would have made a well-defined
mark on the national life of his own as well as on that of other
countries.”

His work has been unique in character from the fact that
through his conception most of it has been created. Much of
it has been completed, the greater portion planned, and years
of intelligent application will be required to carry it to a
successful fruition. May the same all-wise Providence who, in
His infinite wisdom, has removed this man in the prime of
life, direct those who are to take up his many burdens.

8
Leonard Pearson

 

 

Next to the members of his immediate family and personal
friends, it is our profession, over which his glory has thrown
a splendor so bright, that will feel his loss most deeply. He
was pleasant and affable in manner, generous in nature, thought-
ful and considerate of others at all times, and has won a
coveted place among the members of his chosen profession. In
the discharge of great responsibilities, full measure of which
he always accepted, he fulfilled every hope, and a nation’s
people have become his debtor. He has given his life in un-
selfish services for others.
fAemorial Crercises

Held in Houston Hall, Aniversitp of Pennsplvanta, on Wesnestap,
Februarp 2, 1910, at 8 7).sa.

Hon. W. C. Norton, Cuarrman: We are assembled here
to-night to pay tribute to the memory of the late Dr. Pearson.
I could not talk to-night, for my heart goes out to that loved one
who has gone from us. I will first introduce Dr. Edgar F.
Smith, Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

Vicr-Provost SmirH: I am only too glad to have the
opportunity of saying a few words about our friend, Leonard
Pearson. Since I was asked some weeks ago by the boys of
the veterinary department to speak to them about him, other
thoughts in regard to him have come to me, which, perhaps,
it will be proper for me to utter here.

I learned to know Dr. Pearson after he had taken his degree
in this university. I knew him, first of all, at a period in his
life when his thoughts were devoted to some of the great prob-
lems of the profession upon which he had entered. One of
the ambitions of his life was to create here in this vicinity a
school to train men who would lift his chosen profession to
the very highest plane. He thought, too, of the problems which,
arising all about him, were calling for solution, a solution to
be reached only through the efforts of trained men. I was with
him many times when he was pursuing his studies in those
unsightly buildings which long ago stood near by—the old
veterinary department. While I could not follow him in all
the details, I was able to comprehend some of the things
which he was striving to solve, and from that moment my
heart went out to him. He was giving most unselfishly a
work which appealed strongly to him, a work which, in the
end, was to redound to the good of his fellow-man.

10
Heonard Pearson

 

 

To me, Leonard Pearson was the embodiment of unselfish-
ness; he was not a self-seeker. His thought was constantly for
others. I try to recall whether at any time I ever heard him
say, “I did this thing,” and I fail to recall such a statement
from his lips. “The thing was done” was an expression he
often used. “Such and such a problem has been considered
-and been solved,” but, to judge from his words, no one would
have for a moment thought he was connected with the solution
of that problem or undertaking. He was not a self-seeker. He
was a simple-hearted, broad-minded gentleman and student. He
not only sought to do the work that came to him day after
day as a teacher, but he endeavored to extend the confines of
human knowledge. He engaged in research along the lines
which showed themselves constantly in this, his chosen pro-
fession.

I found him: to be a clear, earnest, enthusiastic teacher. I
shall never forget the hours that we spent together walking
up and down Walnut Street from Thirty-fourth to Thirty-eighth
—many times as late as one o’clock in the morning, and some-
times later. Nor shall I forget the hours that we spent there
in one of our offices, talking over the elevation of the veterinary
profession, the lifting up of this school of which he was a
graduate, of which he was the dean, of which he was the master
mind. Those things all worked constantly with him. When-
ever we were together, it would not be long before we fell into
conversation relating to this thing so near to his heart. I
often wished that I had it within my power to give him that
wealth which was so necessary to accomplish those ideals con-
stantly before him. Many times I have said, “Leonard, old
fellow, if I just had the means you should have them and
you might go ahead then and do as you saw fit in extending
your work.”

As a man, I think he was a man among men. Many times
we were placed in trying positions together. In the exasperating
matters which frequently arose he was always calm, collected

ll
Gn flemoriam

 

 

and cool, and there never dropped from his lips a hasty, un-
kind, harsh word in regard to anyone. Upon two or three
occasions when it seemed to me that it was almost impossible
to refrain from criticism of others, this noble man, in the
face of words that burned deep into the heart of everyone
present, was absolutely unmoved, and, with a smile spreading
over his face, spoke only gentle, kind words. It is but natural,
then, that he won for himself the friendship and regard which
such conduct will always develop.

He was beloved by men. He understood men. He was a
student, an earnest student, one who, through his investigations,
contributed much to the development of his particular field
of medicine. As a teacher he was clear and enthusiastic, and
aroused the interest of his students in the subject before them.

Some of us know that at one period in his life he was called
to what is regarded as the highest position which can be held
by a veterinarian in this country. To my question, “Are you
going, Leonard?” his answer was, “If it were not for
this school.” That school filled his heart; it was his constant
thought, day and night. “What is it,’ I asked, “that you
are striving to do?” “To build up here in our country the
best school of veterinary medicine that we can possibly have;
to send out men from that school into all parts of this country
who shall stand for the best things in veterinary medicine,
men who will not only prosecute their work as veterinarians in
the noblest manner, but men who will also endeavor to do
something for themselves or for all with whom they come in
contact.” And, while we all know what he has done for you,
what he has done for all persons who come in contact with the
subjects of veterinary medicine, I feel certain that he had no
ambitions for himself. It was for this school, and for those
who went out from it, and for his fellow-veterinarians all
over the country, whether they were graduates of our school
or not, that he strove.

He was the highest type of a gentleman. As I go about

12
Teonard Prargon

 

 

our veterinary school and note the great development for good
which has taken place in the department since the day he
assumed the deanship of that school, I am devoutly thankful
that it was possible for us to have had with us a man of his
type, his training, and his ideals. He was an example to every-
one with whom he came in personal contact. I feel that that
veterinary school of ours is a monument to Leonard Pearson.
I question whether without his unselfish, self-sacrificing efforts
with the men who control the politics of this state it would
have been possible for us to enjoy what we have to-day at this,
his school. And yet, he never claimed it. He never spoke of
“My school,” “My department.” He spoke of the veterinary
school of the university. Taking his own words alone, one
would imagine that he had had very little to do with the
school, that perhaps others had done this, and that he had
contributed in a minor sort of way. The fact is, however,
that he did the major part of the work.

There are with us this evening those of his immediate family,
and I wish I might say something of the manner in which he
spoke so frequently to me of them in connection with his life’s
work. Many times he would say: “I must telephone my
sister. She is waiting to hear what has been done. She is
waiting to do this or that upon which we agreed before I left
home in case this or that occurred.” And then the tender
manner in which he spoke of the dear mother, whose interests
were centred in the home. I am sure that that little family
group was keenly alive to the great work which this son of the
family was doing. They knew better than others the personal
sacrifices being made by him. They felt more deeply than
outsiders could feel what these burdens which he was carrying
meant to him.

When, just a year ago, I was lying stricken down in the
hospital, one of the first persons who was permitted to see me
was Leonard Pearson. I recall that Saturday night when, tak-
ing my hand, he said quietly, “ How are you?” “Oh,” said

13
Jn fAemoriam

 

 

 

I, “Leonard, I am well and hearty. How are you?” “ Well,”
he said, “to be frank, I would like to take a vacation for a
year.” “Take it,” I replied. “I will ask the provost to give
you leave of absence for a year.” “No, no, don’t. There is too
much to be done, and I am right in the midst of this work,
which needs my attention now.” Despite his earnest appeal, I
spoke to Provost Harrison, and, of course, the word came,
“Take the vacation.” He did not take it, as you know. He
went on until the burden became so great that he, too, suc-
cumbed and fell under it. When, two days before the first
accident befell him, he was in my office to lay before me his
plans for this magnificent school of ours, I little realized that
that moment was the last time my eyes should rest upon this
friend, this noble teacher, this splendid gentleman.

To me, friends, it seems that all I can say about Leonard
Pearson is fittingly presented in these few lines:

“So might I toil from morn to eve,

Some purpose in my life fulfil,

And ere I pass, some work achieve,
To live and move when I am still.

I ask not that with this work my name combined,
Shall down the ages move,

But that my toil some end may find,
That man shall bless and God approve.”

THe CHairMaNn: The next address will be by Dr. James Law,
of Cornell University.

Dr. Law: Death has struck a shining mark. Our late
lamented friend, Dr. Leonard Pearson, from whom we might
still have expected a long and honorable career, has passed
from us in the full bloom of his manhood, in the midst of his
arduous labors, and with his plans for future achievements
undone. To us who have watched the gradual unfolding of
this man and his aspirations, the first feeling is that of arrested
and blighted development. With a prolonged life and con-

14
Aeonard Pearson

 

 

tinued mental vigor, and with the opportunities which were
placed in his hand, Leonard Pearson would, in the nature of
things, have rounded out a noble life by continual additions
to his achievements and left a record which his premature
death cut short.

The mills of God grind slowly. In these a thousand years
are but as a day; a long succession of generations are charged
with the elucidation of a great truth, and the preparation of
the human mind for its admission, and the merit accorded to
each is that of making a visible and lasting advance which turns
and passes it on a stage farther toward and nearer the ultimate
goal of triumph. In the case of the individual, how often do
we see the man who is cut off in comparative youth impress
on the coming generations and centuries an impulse for good
which the longest and most admirable lives have failed to
accomplish! It is as if the enthusiasm of youth, concentrated
in a strenuous though limited period, had made an irresistible
appeal to the imagination, the devotion and the will had
initiated a heroic work of an exceptionally lasting and fruitful
character.

My acquaintance with Leonard Pearson dates from 1884,
when, at the age of sixteen, he entered as a freshman in
Cornell University. He came of sterling New England stock,
modified, perhaps, by successful enterprise in what is now the
Middle West. He elected veterinary science as his life’s work,
took and excelled in such work in this line as Cornell then
offered and, when he graduated in science in 1888, he joined
me in Chicago, seeking a practical acquaintance with the work
of the federal government in the extinction of lung plague in
cattle, and he there assisted in a sanitary campaign which for
speed and thoroughness has been unparalleled elsewhere.

While an undergraduate of Cornell he was honored by the
insignia of the Sigma Xi, a lasting sign of the esteem in
which he was held in scientific circles. From Ithaca he went
to Philadelphia as offering, at that time, the most promising

15
Jn fAemoriam

 

fount in America from which to drink more deeply of veterinary
lore. Here he so highly distinguished himself that on his
graduation he was at once offered the chair of veterinary
medicine, to supersede the brilliant Huidekoper, with per-
mission to spend his first year in Europe to garner for the
subsequent profit of his alma mater such knowledge as the older
and maturer veterinary institutions of the Old World had
treasured.

Young as he was, with spurs untried, it was characteristic
of the man that he should consider the matter deliberately
before he entered on a race which he must perforce recognize
as a strenuous one. His most thought was the question of his
own fitness for the proffered position.

He was far removed from that overweening and ill-founded
conceit which will rest satisfied with superficial acquirements
dispensed with a glib confidence, which may momentarily re-
press inquiry and aspiration, but which cannot stand the test
of time with increasing knowledge and greater deliberation. I
shall always have the satisfaction of knowing that, in an hour
which called for an important decision, I gave my earnest
word toward saving Leonard Pearson for that work in which
he has served so faithfully and successfully.

It would be endless to enumerate the sowings and harvest
of even one life. Some, however, may be profitably recalled.

Students: The primary duties of our deceased friend centred
mainly along educational lines, and the students who came to
the veterinary department to drink of the Pierian Spring carried
away with them the memory of a true friend and inspiring
teacher which in different states and nations will make his
name a household word for many years to come. We recognize
these students and alumni in the bureaus of the nation, in
the sanitary work in the abattoirs and in the fields, on govern-
ment and private breeding farms, in experiment stations and
halls of research—men who took inspiration from his lips, ex-
ample and direction, and in whose minds his name will be

16
Zeonard Peargon

 

 

associated with all that they achieved and aspired after. He
finds here his truest living monument; and as many of these
men will furnish inspiration to others in their turn, who will
dare to say that we can judge of the volume and value of such
a life by what appears here and now?

College: The college buildings stand a solid monument in
stone and lime of the work of the man as it appealed to
trustees of the institution, and to friends outside. Perhaps
no veterinary college in the country has been more liberally
dealt with. We must go to Europe to find one that is better
provided for. This stands as a measure of how his qualities
impressed men at large, and though ostensibly a physical
memento, it is more, inasmuch as it is to be the centre of
college life for many coming classes of veterinarians, and, like
the minds of those who were his immediate pupils, though to a
less extent, they must carry down to coming generations the
memory of the man who was so intimately associated with
their construction.

Interary work: Coming to the literary work, I wish I could
name in a word the many different fields in which Dr. Pear-
son’s activities were called out. Scarce had he taken his
college position in Philadelphia before he was impressed with
the importance of a veterinary journal which would give the
best that America could produce in this line, together with
the cream of the veterinary journals of Europe. In seeking
to fill this gap he found the advantage of a working knowledge
of the more important of the tongues of Europe, and he
spared himself no effort nor toil in making these available to
his American colleagues. For years he conducted the Veter-
inary Magazine until induced to relinquish the labor by increas-
ing and imperative duties on the one hand, and by the
revitalization of competing journals on the other. Transient as
was the life of the Veterinary Magazine, it marks a stepping-
stone in the veterinary journalism of America, and is a lasting

2 17
Jn Memoriam

 

 

monument to the earnestness, the ability and the tireless devotion
of Dr. Pearson.

The interruption of the magazine did not interfere with his
literary labors for students and colleagues. Works on matters
of current interest to veterinarian, student and stock-owning
public came from his graceful pen as translations from Old-
World tongues, and in the fields of sanitation, the sanitation
of milk, of herds, and, interdependently of humanity, he became
well known to veterinary and medical readers. He no longer
tied himself down to the continuous grind necessary to go to
press on a given day each month; he could now work when a
spare hour came to him, and he could delay any undertaking
when lack of time or need of sleep rendered this imperative.
It thus became possible to do better work with less expenditure
of energy than when it had to be undertaken as a race against
time.

The profession: In his profession Dr. Pearson early took
and held a prominent place. As a practitioner in Philadelphia,
as a consulting veterinarian at the college and outside, as a
referee in public exhibitions and other collections of animals,
as an expert in connection with breeding problems, and in
other ways, his services were highly esteemed and largely in
demand. No less was this the case in connection with societies,
veterinary and medical. He was habitually the holder of some
office, from the presidency downward, in the state or national
societies of his own profession; he was directly associated with
the Henry Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment and
Prevention of Tuberculosis; and he was president of the animal
section in the International Congress of Tuberculosis at Wash-
ington, D. C.

Sanitary work in relation to infectious diseases: This is the
field which, of all others, Dr. Pearson most assiduously cul-
tivated. The subject was in the air. The sanitarian, medical
or veterinary, dreamed of the severe restriction, if not the

entire extinction, of infection. Dr. Pearson became a recognized
18
Zeonard Pearson

 

 

authority in such matters. He was repeatedly called by the
federal government to advise in cases of doubt. In Penn-
sylvania he was made secretary of the Live Stock Sanitary
Board, and, by right of skill and office, its executive officer.
It was his to form and direct a state veterinary sanitary
organization. He was especially fortunate in finding official
ears to the need of research in these lines, and a state farm
and a state laboratory of research were placed in his hands,
stocked for the purpose and with provision for maintenance.
Among other things, he availed himself of his opportunities
to place restrictions on tuberculosis. He procured a statute
providing that all dairy and breeding cattle entering the state
must be tested with tuberculin, by operators approved by the
state. In this he placed the stockmen and community under
a deep load of indebtedness.

Sanitary research: In the field of sanitary research, which
was liberally opened to Dr. Pearson, many lines of inquiry
were followed with excellent results. Among the notable things
done in the research laboratory were the identification of a
pestilence of horses in America with the contagious lymphan-
gitis of the Old World, and the future identification of the
deadly dysenteric affection of imported Jersey cows and others
that had lived with them with the disease of Johne, caused by
an acid-fast bacterium having a certain resemblance to the
bacterium of tuberculosis. But that which was aimed at im-
munization against the tubercle bacterium appealed most power-
fully to the great body of humanity. The great public, realizing,
rather dimly it is true, that certain diseases, like smallpox,
sheeppox, anthrax, measles, scarlatina, lung plague, rinderpest
and others, do not occur a second time in the same individual
system, a first attack being followed by a prolonged, often life-
long, immunity, entertained an earnest hope and expectation
that the “great white plague” could be met successfully by
immunizing measures, and that the greatest pestilence of man

and beast might be finally conquered in this way. The demand
19
Ju PMemoriam

 

 

became almost imperative on sanitarians to enter this field,
which to the average mind appeared so promising. To the
skilled and mentally well-balanced pathologist, however, the
field was less inviting than to the layman.

It was expected that Dr. Pearson should undertake this
work, and on it he went honestly to work. Like some others
working in the same field, he found that, under good hygienic
conditions, animals with strong natural resistance to tuberculosis,
under carefully graduated doses of tuberculin toxins, or when
injected with tubercle bacteria which had been long grown in
genera widely different from the stock experimented on, could,
in favorable cases, be started on a course of improvement, or
could be endowed with an increased power of resistance, so
that a percentage of animals with the incipient disease could
be said to be cured, and another percentage in good measure
immunized. But he could not shut his eyes to the facts that
a large portion of the infected animals were not cured, that a
number of the sound animals could not be immunized, even
in a measure, and that in those that did acquire a measure of
immunity, it was not sufficiently powerful and lasting to con-
stitute a satisfactory basis for a general sanitary system to be
carried out by a whole community or nation. For a year, or
while kept in very superior hygienic conditions, the manipulated
animals escaped, but in the lapse of time they gradually lost
their power of resistance, and when subjected to close confine-
ment or other specially unwholesome conditions, in the pres-
ence of the bacterium, they succumbed to the disease after the
manner of other cattle. This was a dénouement calculated to
try the experimenter’s soul. He had secured what might be
called a flattering success, but at best it was too partial, un-
certain and transient to be made the basis for a complete
extinction of the pestilence. There was a strong temptation
to make the most of it and come out as the conqueror of the
great white plague. But Leonard Pearson was made of nobler

stuff, and, while acknowledging favorable results, he never once
20
Zeonard Pearson

 

 

claimed that he had secured a good working basis for a system
leading to tuberculosis extinction in state or nation. The
most that he allowed himself to say was that the matter was
still undecided.

He kept his eye steadily fixed on the imperishable prize of
the true scientist and sanitarian. He swept aside every sug-
gestion of remunerative mercantilism, and, what would have
been perhaps more attractive, the public applause for one who
was reputed to have overcome the great white plague, and re-
mained true to his best ideals. Let us treasure this devotion
to trust as the crowning virtue of his career.

We lament his early death, but this is largely the fate of
humanity. We honor him for his faithful work during his all
too short existence. We recognize that real worth is shown by
doing well what each successive day brings to be done. He who
does this, be his life long or short, has well fulfilled his mission
and well deserves the victor’s crown. We cannot any of us
wholly control and determine our life. We cannot choose that
we shall be born in one century or land, rather than another;
that we shall grow to a given stature; that we shall have the
option of building on foundations laid by great men or small
ones; that we shall live and work thirty years or eighty; but we
can determine whether in our age and our country, with our
inherited knowledge, our years and opportunities, we shall make
the most and the best of what is placed in our hands. “ Act
well thy part; there all the honor lies.”

THE CHAIRMAN: The next address will be by Dr. Thomas
F. Hunt, of State College, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hunt: I did not know until this morning that I was
expected to make a few informal remarks on this occasion. It
is, perhaps, just as well, because no words of mine would be
adequate to express the sentiments and the feeling walled up
in our hearts at this time, and nothing, certainly, could be

21
Jn fAemoriam

 

 

added to the tender and scholarly addresses to which we have
listened.

Dr. Leonard Pearson had two qualities that to me were
eminently characteristic. The first of these was his lovableness.
If any more lovable man has lived, I have not made his
acquaintance. He had a charm which drew men to him. The
second quality was his devotion to service. I am well aware
that this word “service” is made to do duty on many occa-
sions, but I know of none more fitting when referring to Dr.
Leonard Pearson.

It was these two qualities which made him the friend and
counsellor of men. Dr. Leonard Pearson, as many of you know
as well as I, was probably the friend, adviser and counsellor
of more public men in the state of Pennsylvania during the
last decade than any man that has lived within its borders.
He had a capacity of knowing, of being deeply respected by
men who shaped the destiny of affairs beyond that of any man
I have ever known.

It was said that I was to speak here to-night as a repre-
sentative of the Pennsylvania State College. Dr. Pearson was
always helpful to that institution, and to the Department of
Agriculture, especially, he was of great service. In spite of
the difficult journey, Dr. Pearson was always willing to come
to us at State College and lecture for us, to help us; and,
what was more, we always felt that we had in Dr. Pearson a
friend, a counsellor and adviser who was interested in us and
helpful to us.

We have heard a great deal in the last two years about
conservation of natural resources. That subject just at present
occupies very much of the public press, and I believe that some-
thing will come out of it. If, however, nothing except the
realization that the most important thing in this world to
conserve is not trees and coal, oil and gas and soil, but human
life, that the most important thing to promote is human
efficiency, all of this discussion will have been worth while.

22,
Leonard Pearson

 

 

Now, Leonard Pearson was worth, as an investment to himself
and to his family, perhaps a hundred thousand dollars. To
the people of the state of Pennsylvania he was worth, as a
literal investment, millions of dollars in the service directly
rendered to the people. There can be no doubt about it. It
is a great heritage to the people, to the state, to the nation, to
have had Leonard Pearson in its midst. It is a heritage which
no money consideration can supply. There is but one way to
repay him and the ideals which he represented, and that is
for us, individually, to be inspired to the life which he en-
deavored to lead.

Tur Cuarrman: The next address will be by Mr. W. J.
McSparran.

Mr. McSparran:
Men come and go,
And other men come on to take their places
In the work of life. But not the kindly hand and lost
beloved faces.
We grope around as in the dark to find the hand that wrought ;
We strain the ear to hear the voice that spoke the kindly;
thought.
Of all who worked with brain and brawn, a fellow workman he,
His plowshare cut his furrow straight, his arm swung strong
and free.
He never shifted duty, work fell finished from his hand ;
With heart throbs as his trade mark, so that work shall stand.
On manhood’s highest altitudes he grew his greenest bays;
None knew him but to love him, none named him but to praise.

Tun CrarrMan: The next address will be by Mr. E. S.
Bayard, of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Bayarp: I have no address. As secretary of this asso-
ciation, however, I have two letters to read. The first is from
Honorable Boies Penrose, from the United States Senate:

23
Jn Memoriam

 

 

“TJ was shocked and grieved to hear of Dr. Pearson’s death.
The state of Pennsylvania has suffered a great loss. I am
familiar with Dr. Pearson’s career, and appreciate the devoted
service which he gave to the state for a number of years. He
was eminently fitted for his public duties, and he raised the
standard of his profession in Pennsylvania, so that we have
set an example for all the other states in the Union. It will
be difficult to fill his place, and I join with his many friends
in expressing regret at his untimely death.”

The second is from Honorable Edwin 8. Stuart, from the
executive chamber, Harrisburg:

“Dr. Leonard Pearson was appointed to the office of state
veterinarian in 1896, and served continuously in that capacity
until his death, in 1909. In the profession of veterinary medi-
cine there was no one more high-minded, enthusiastic and able
than Dr. Pearson, and no man ever served the commonwealth
of Pennsylvania more faithfully and unselfishly. His life work,
character, and integrity will always remain an example to be
emulated by every man entering the profession which Dr.
Pearson so signally honored.”

We have heard about Dr. Pearson’s attainments as a scholar
and about the great work he has done, and we realize that all
these things are true. But where I shall miss him most is as
a friend. His monument is in the hearts of every one of us.
That is where we miss him. And we, as an association, miss
the one who was our vice-president since the institution of this
association. Speaking for the breeders of Pennsylvania, I tell
you that his work was of the highest possible value, and it is a
pleasure for me to say here now that I believe we have appre-
ciated his labors, although perhaps not to the fullest extent,
for that, in all probability, would have been beyond us.

24
Leonard Pearson

 

 

THe CHarrmMan: The next address will be by Dr. S. H.
Gilliland, State Veterinarian.

Dr. Gintinanp: IJ feel that I have not the power of ex-
pression to convey to you in words my appreciation of and
respect for Dr. Pearson. He was a man I admired, loved and
looked upon as a father.

It is over fourteen years since I came to the University of
Pennsylvania, at which time our acquaintance began. My first
impression of him as he walked down the “bricks” of the old
veterinary school at Thirty-fourth and Pine streets was a
lasting one. It seems no longer ago than yesterday. His
strong, honest face and sincere manner made me feel at once
that he was the type of: man to take as an example to guide
one through life’s work. His encouraging words and the stimu-
lus he imparted by his interest in scientific work inspired many
a student who was not inclined to be a worker to put forth
greater efforts.

As a teacher, he was gifted with the ability to convey to his
students the subjects of his lectures in a most concise and
impressive way. He had the faculty of observing a student
who had not grasped the thought he desired to impart, and
would immediately present the same in another form in such
language that the meaning could not be lost. During my time
as a student in the veterinary school of this university, it was
considered among the students a treat to hear one of Dr. Pear-
son’s lectures upon contagious or infectious diseases. In the
clinics, which he conducted twice each week during the school
term, and which were well attended, his ability to make a
quick and accurate diagnosis was astonishing.

In 1901 I had the honor of becoming associated with him
in research work, and his foresight in planning experimental
work was marvellous. He was familiar with all experimental
work in comparative pathology that had been done in the past.
In fact, this knowledge was not only remembered in general,

but he had the minutest details in relation to certain phases
25 :
Ju Memoriam

 

of the work. I can well remember when we terminated the
first experiment upon the immunization of cattle against tuber-
culosis, and found that the ones that had been vaccinated or
immunized showed a high degree of resistance as compared with
the control animals. He was so interested in this work that
he at once set out to obtain funds to carry it along on a larger
scale, and you no doubt all know the result of his efforts,
which is the state experimental farm, located in Delaware
County, comprising over two hundred acres, with three distinct
groups of buildings. The earlier work along this line was
conducted on a rented pasture in the Perkiomen Valley, and
it appeared to give Dr. Pearson the greatest pleasure to visit
this pasture and observe the condition of the animals under
experimentation.

His work in connection with the International Congress on
Tuberculosis, held in Washington more than a year ago, will
always be remembered. As chairman of the section upon bovine
tuberculosis, he succeeded in having presented some papers by
a number of eminent veterinarians in this country and abroad,
which are considered classic. A friend of his once remarked
to me that if he desired to obtain any detailed information on
any particular phase of the tuberculosis problem, he would
confer with Dr. Pearson.

His capacity for work was most remarkable. In taking up
his duties at Harrisburg, I am impressed more each day with
his wonderful foresight in devising and organizing the work
of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board. I know I am safe
in saying that it is the desire of every veterinarian in this
state to see the good work he started continue. His life was
devoted to the welfare of the live stock industry. As a worker
under his direction for a number of years, I was in a position
to observe the kind consideration he showed his employees, even
though there were times when the circumstances were most
trying. I have many times seen him overcome difficulties that
seemed as large as a mountain.

26
Leonard Peargon

 

 

To him I feel my entire education is due, and if I have
contributed any service to the advancement of scientific knowl-
edge, it has come through the stimulus he gave me. I feel
that all the work I have done or may do in the future is
compensated for by having had the great privilege of knowing
him.

We cannot but deeply lament the great. loss—an irreparable
loss—the people of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in par-
ticular, and the world in general, have sustained. The greatest
blow comes to those who are interested in the advancement
of science, for his enthusiasm and energy, together with his
knowledge and ideals, made him an indefatigable worker. To
us who knew him as a friend and loved him as a brother, his
absence leaves a vacancy that can never be filled.

Tre CHatrMAn: This concludes the exercises.

I cannot refrain from saying that although Dr. Pearson has
gone from us, his work will surely go on long after we are
all dead. I do not believe there was a man in this state who
could be more missed than Dr. Leonard Pearson. I do not
believe there was a man better loved by those who knew him
than Dr. Leonard Pearson.

27
Dedication of the Leonard Pearson Yall
(From Old Penn for June 18, 1910)

The Veterinary Alumni Society, including the class of 1910,
assembled at 8.15 p.m. in the Leonard Pearson Hall at the
veterinary school. The announcement of the dedication of the
hall to the memory of the late Dr. Leonard Pearson was made
by the acting dean, Dr. Carl W. Gay, on behalf of the board
of trustees of the university.

The Leonard Pearson Memorial Committee laid before the
meeting its report, which contains the following scheme of
memorial :

“1, There shall be procured for the department an oil paint-
ing of Leonard Pearson to be purchased by subscriptions from
the alumni.

“2, All funds so subscribed over and above the amount
necessary to the purchase of the painting shall be set aside as
the endowment fund of the Pearson Memorial Library, the
income from which is to be spent from year to year in keeping
this section of the general library of the department replete
with the most up-to-date books and periodicals in veterinary
literature.”

This report was unanimously adopted by the meeting as a
form of memorial in keeping with the desires and wishes of
Dr. Pearson.

The president of the graduating class, J. D. Cecil, presented
to the department a tablet inscribed:

Dedicated to the Memory
of
LEONARD PEARSON, B.S., V.M.D., M.D.
1868-1909
By the Class of 1910
The last class to which he gave personal instruction

28
presentation of Mr, Leonard Pearson's
portrait

Gniversitp Dap, Februarp 22, 1911, Antversitp of Pennsylvania

Dr. Joun W. Apams: Mr. Provost, Gentleman of the Board
of Trustees: I am honored by a request from the alumni of
our veterinary school, that I present to you, from them, a
portrait of the late Leonard Pearson.

Dr. Leonard Pearson was an able and distinguished veter-
inarian. During the twenty years of his professional activity
he served with conspicuous ability in nearly every position of
honor in the gift of his colleagues. He formulated the bill
creating a Pennsylvania state veterinary service, and was for
fourteen years the wise and efficient director of this service.
He organized the Pennsylvania Live Stock Sanitary Board,
which has done splendid work in conserving the live stock
interests of our commonwealth, and has been adopted without
essential alteration by several of our sister states.

Possessing by inheritance a keen, vigorous mind, with un-
usual analytic and synthetic power, his years of training in
laboratory and afield gave him a breadth of view, a clearness
of vision and a soundness of judgment quite remarkable.

It is rather of Leonard Pearson’s relations to the University
of Pennsylvania that I would speak to-day. For twenty-two
years—the entire span of his professional life—he was the
dominant figure in our veterinary school. As undergraduate
student he was diligent, thorough, brilliant; as investigator,
productive; as teacher, unexcelled. To the charm of a pleas-
antly modulated voice and purest diction he added a glow
and inspiration that quickened all to renewed effort. By nature
as sensitive and gentle as a woman, he could be firm almost
to obstinacy when the occasion seemed to demand it. Yet

29
Fn fAemoriam

 

it was by unfailing kindliness, considerateness, and by the
direct appeal to the manhood of his pupils that he led them
in the way he would have them go.

As dean of the veterinary school, Leonard Pearson will long
live in grateful memory. For to his clear perception of what
should constitute a veterinary curriculum; to his accurate
knowledge of the organization, equipment and aim of the best
veterinary schools of Europe; to his years of unremitting toil
for the school he loved so dearly; to this fair-haired, blue-
eyed, clear-minded, courageous, loyal som of Old Penn, we are
indebted, more than to any other one man, for the splendid
reorganization of our veterinary school, for the awakened en-
thusiasm of student and teacher, and for what is more tangible,
though not less real, a magnificent new veterinary building that
we can call our home. These are his achievements. These
are his enduring monuments.

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, I reverently commit
to your care this portrait of Leonard Pearson, that it may
be placed beside those other worthy sons of Penn, who, like
him, have wrought nobly for Alma Mater.

30
Cributes from Friends and Fellow-workers

The following tributes have been received from the friends
and fellow-workers of Dr. Pearson:

From I. P. Roperts, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University:

My first memory of Leonard Pearson goes back to the time
when I saw his kindly, intelligent face in my classroom at
Cornell University in 1884. He was an earnest student, and
even at that early age his examination papers gave evidence
of exceptional ability and faithful application. I soon dis-
covered that his first love was for the welfare of domestic
animals and for the people who had them in their care. This
naturally led him to elect all of the veterinary work which
was then to be had in the College of Agriculture. We had
with us at that time that great scholarly leader and practical
veterinarian, Dr. James Law, whose work ran parallel to mine
and extended over the same period of time, and naturally the
agricultural students of Dr. Pearson’s ability and tastes re-
ceived such inspiration and instruction under Dr. Law’s tutelage
as to make them markedly superior to most other students then
entering the veterinary colleges.

The good judgment and perseverance of Dr. Pearson were
shown while he was still an underclassman at .Cornell, for
instead of entering a veterinary college at the end of his
sophomore or junior year—and he was fully able to meet the
entrance requirements—he remained until he had completed
the four years’ course in agriculture, thereby securing that
knowledge of soils, crops, parasites, and the care and feeding
of animals which should precede a course in veterinary science
and medicine. I cannot but think that a large part of Dr.
Pearson’s power to accomplish so much and accomplish it so
well was due to his comprehensive preparation for his chosen

calling.
31
Jn flemoriam

 

As I sit here in my quiet and restful home near the shores
of the placid Pacific, I am sad. Not so much because my
friend has gone before me, but because, through the ignorance
and false economy of powers which should be well informed
and sympathetic, the life of my honored pupil and cherished
friend has been needlessly sacrificed in its prime. There always
appear to be enough funds available to pile stones uselessly
one upon the other, but when a ripe scholar and a lovable
man, an able leader and a most useful citizen, guarding the
lives of his fellows, breaks down and dies because those in
power have failed to provide him with a suitable number of
competent assistants, or even the money to carry on his work
in peace, it is a thing to make one doubt the sanity of our
times. A wise and able teacher in the domain of the greatest
industry of this great country has been lost to the world and
to his friends because those who might have helped failed to
relieve him from the drudgery of his calling—from the petty
details and financial worries of the numerous and varied activ-
ities which were thrust upon this one man whom the people
have long delighted to honor, love and follow.

From Simon Henry Gace, Professor of Histology and Em-
bryology, Emeritus, Cornell University:

In estimating a life with its many-sidedness, it certainly
helps in giving it its true place to know something of its
beginning or elemental characteristics.

Leonard Pearson came to me for work in comparative
anatomy and histology in 1886-87. He was a vigorous young
man, full of enthusiasm and with a very definite notion of
what he wanted to do. The veterinary profession, exemplified
by Dr. James Law, seemed to him a field for a life work where
one would have opportunity to do his best, and in doing his
best he would be of service to his fellow-men.

It does not take long for a teacher to find out the presence

of a rare spirit in his class. The willingness to make ready
32
Zeonard Pearson

for the work of life by a broad and solid foundation, and the
enthusiasm and intensity with which work is prosecuted,
although its direct bearing might not be evident at first, give
the certain sign of future success in life’s real work in the com-
munity and the state.

In those days all students wrote graduation theses. To my
gratification he chose to do his in comparative anatomy under
my direction. It was now time to take something valuable in
itself in his chosen profession, as well as valuable as training
for a young investigator. This subject was the structure of the
cesophagus in domestic animals. The results of this work were
published in the Proceedings of the American Microscopical
Society for 1888, and in the Journal of Comparative Medicine
and Surgery (vol. x) for 1889. The remembrance of the spirit
in which this work was carried on is one of the precious
memories which more than all else makes the profession of
the teacher truly remunerative.

It was not necessary for the laboratory to send a special
messenger to the butcher shop to get the specimens and then
to have them all prepared, so that if he should happen to find
a moment outside of “student activities” he could give them
a passing glance. No; he had time for this work, and knew
the way to the little abattoir where the native animals were
slaughtered; and the men in charge did everything they could
for the big, genial student, so interested in everything that
pertained to animals. In the laboratory where the work was
done, he soon won over the other students, especially by the
account he gave of its meaning in the students’ society of
comparative medicine. Soon they were ready to save any-
thing from their dissections that they thought Pearson wanted.

In working out his problem, many unexpected facts became
apparent, and complexities of structure not hinted at in the
textbooks of human, veterinary and comparative anatomy.
These difficulties brought out in relief his native honesty and
self-reliance, for he felt sure the specimens were right, what-

3 33
Ju fAemoriam

 

 

ever the textbooks might say. These complexities also brought
out his literary and historical instincts, which are shown by
the keen analysis of the views of the best men who had written
upon the subject, and by his restless search among the works
of the old anatomists, as shown by his bibliography.

One day a farmer brought into the laboratory the heart and
lungs of a cow that he had slaughtered. He had, brought
them to Dr. Law to see what was the matter, and not finding
Dr. Law he had brought them to us. I told Mr. Pearson that
here was some real work, like that which was sure to confront
him in actual life, and gave him the opportunity to determine
the trouble. A teacher never forgets the light that shines
forth from the eyes of some of his pupils in high moments;
and this was a high moment for him, for it was his first great
test. In meeting this test he showed another sure sign of his
future success. Everything he had already learned came
naturally into service. Only slight help was needed in the
processes he had not yet become familiar with. Tubercle bacilli
were demonstrated in the clearest manner possible in both
smears and in sections, thus making the diagnosis certain. Of
course, no one can estimate the effect of such an experience at
the beginning of one’s career. He, in after years, recalled this
incident as one of much importance in his life.

And now that Dr. Pearson’s work is done, it is only left for
us to put the wreath of affection and respect upon his tomb;
and, as I do my share of this, it is with feelings of gratitude
that there was granted me the privilege of teaching and en-
couraging this noble man at the beginning of his career.

From Vreranus A. Moors, Director of New York State Veter-
inary College and Professor of Comparative and Veter-
inary Pathology and Bacteriology and of Meat Inspection,
Cornell University :

My first remembrance of Dr. Leonard Pearson is meeting

him, during our college days, in a railroad train between Ithaca
34
Leonard Pearson

and Elmira, when he was about to take a trip with Dr. James
Law to investigate contagious pleuropneumonia. He was full
of enthusiasm over the possibility of a valuable professional
experience, and I have often thought of the wholesome joy
and delight radiating from his countenance on that occasion.
I remember how emphatic were his words of admiration and
devotion to our beloved teacher, Dr. Law. Throughout his life
he never lost his affection for the teacher who first stimulated
him to a fuller conception of the work and duties of his chosen
profession. From the days we met as students, until his un-
timely death, I enjoyed and fully appreciated his friendship.
During recent years I have often consulted him, worked with
him on committees and commissions, and always found him a
true and worthy leader.

The public eye was first drawn to Dr. Pearson in con-
nection with the use of tuberculin. The first herd of cattle
tested with tuberculin in this country was under his immediate
supervision. He was a firm believer in tuberculin as a diag-
nostic agent, and his writings and addresses gave character
and strength to the earlier work directed toward the control
and final eradication of bovine tuberculosis. His efforts to
produce a practical method for immunizing cattle against this
disease were characterized by calm but persistent determination
to succeed if success in that direction were possible.

Dr. Pearson was a trained man. His course at Cornell
University, where he stood high as a student, his professional
training in the veterinary department of the University of
Pennsylvania, and, later, his study in the Thierarztlich Hoch-
schule of Berlin, fitted him in a masterly way for his great
work. Because he was scientific as well as practical, he was
able to avoid many of the pitfalls that beset a professional
career. He had lofty ideals for the veterinary profession in
America. No one recognized more keenly than he the weakness
of American veterinary education. When it became my duty
to recommend to our president a man to succeed Dr. Law as

35
Ju fMemoriam

 

 

professor of veterinary medicine in our institution, I consulted
Dr. Pearson. After discussing the general situation and the
available men, he made this very significant statement: “If
you want a good teacher of veterinary medicine, you must make
him. Take one of your young men with a good preliminary
education and send him to Germany, where the methods for
teaching veterinary medicine are reduced to a scientific basis,
as they are in this country for chemistry and bacteriology.”
No one deplored more than he the fact that our veterinary
institutions and teaching were not on a higher plane. I remem-
ber so well hearing him in a private conversation give expression
to his deep disappointment after trying to interest certain
moneyed men in the endowment of veterinary colleges. He
felt that until we had adequate educational facilities the veter-
inarian would of necessity lack the training which makes a
practical man more practical and a noble profession still more
useful and ennobling. With ideals well founded in the teach-
ings of the best universities in the world, he was striving with
constantly increasing success to bring into existence a vet-
erinary college and a state veterinary service that should have,
from the point of view of efficiency, no superior and few, if
any, equals in the world.

The most gracious element in his overflowing manly nature
was his ability to meet disappointment and to accept adverse
decisions when they seemed to others to be in the direction of
the greatest good. No one familiar with the political and
professional battles that one in his position and with his ideals
had to wage can refrain from expressing the highest and
keenest admiration for his leadership. Fortunately for the
causes he represented, he so impressed himself upon his asso-
ciates that his motives are still operating, his plans are being
crystallized and his ideals are being attained. THis life was
short, but the generation to come will learn that it was by the
unselfish lives of such men as Leonard Pearson that progress
in veterinary medicine in America was made possible.

36
Zeonard Pearson

 

From Juan Gurreras, Professor of General Pathology and
Tropical Diseases, University of Havana:

I have not been able to follow closely Dr. Leonard Pearson’s
career during the later and more fruitful part of his life; nor
have I the data at hand to write a biographical article, nor
a laudatory one worthy of the subject.

It was my privilege to follow the first development of his
activities. I spent several months with him in Berlin, where
we pursued together the course in bacteriology at the Institute
of Hygiene, and, as a member of the veterinary faculty of the
University of Pennsylvania with him, I saw him throw his
powerful energies into the organization of that school.

In Europe, among all the fellow-students, I can see distinctly
standing out his fine, manly type of American worker; and
during our fellowship in the university faculty I hold dear the
memory of my relations with him, and the all-inspiring in-
fluence of his quiet, honest, well-directed and powerful de-
termination.

It is a pleasure to feel in communion, through the pages of
this book, with the family and the friends of such a man.

From Atonzo ENcLEBERT Taytor, M.D., Professor of Physio-
logical Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania:

In the autumn of 1890 two young American students met
by chance in a persionat in Berlin. They were Leonard Pearson
and the writer. During the months of the fall and early
winter this acquaintanceship developed into a firm and lasting
friendship. At the commencement of the new year, the two
students resolved to live together, and, securing quarters in
the Studentenviertel in the Linden Strasse, they lived together
until the close of the summer semester. They severed all
relations with the American colony, spoke German together
and associated almost exclusively with German students and
instructors. At the close of the summer semester of 1891 they

separated for travel, to meet by appointment in September
37
gn slemoriam
in Rotterdam. From there they returned to America, Leonard
Pearson to occupy his first official position in the University
of Pennsylvania, the writer to enter upon the study of medicine
in the same institution. During the years of the nineties it
was often the privilege of the writer to discuss with Leonard
Pearson his work in the state of Pennsylvania; and having
had the earliest insight into the conception of this work during
their student residence in Berlin, the writer feels himself in
a peculiar sense competent to indicate the course of develop-
ment of his undertakings, the magnitude and importance of
which only the future decades will fully estimate and measure.

Leonard Pearson came to Berlin, like most American stu-
dents, saturated with chauvinism. By ancestry strongly marked
with rugged Americanism, he had little patience with that
minute organization of German society that led to the factor
of paternal control in the most trivial details of life. Filled
with rich enthusiasm, imbued with high ideals, and possessed
of superior intellectualism, he represented the best product of
the American college education. Pearson had deliberately
selected for his life work the diseases of animals, largely, he
used to say, from a feeling of pantheism. In an age of pseudo-
sentimentalism, his sane and sympathetic appreciation of the
brothers of the animal kingdom was founded upon the natural
feelings of humanity and guided by the ideals of natural
science. To the German university he owed the trend his work
later assumed.

In the beginning, his work dealt largely with comparative
pathology, rather than with practical veterinary medicine. He
soon, however, came to recognize in sanitary science the real
discipline in which his interest was to centre. The German
system of meat inspection was first mastered. The science of
animal hygiene, correlated to the public health on the one hand,
and to industrialism on the other, had in Germany, under the
influence of the fostering care of the system of militarism,
developed to a state of high perfection at the time of his period

‘ 38
Zeonard Pearson

 

 

 

 

of study there. As a matter of fact, it was in the working
out of this branch of sanitary science that the remarkable
German development of organization was first fully applied to
the problems of hygiene. The organization of the Gesundheit-
samt, the establishment of the institutes for the study of
infectious diseases, and the popularization of the science of
bacteriology, all date from this general period. During the
latter part of his period of study in Berlin, Leonard Pearson
devoted much more time to the three named institutions than
to the study of comparative pathology. He found therein the
preparations for the work which he foresaw to be in the future
the necessity of the American state. He felt that for him and
his ideals in work the scholastic investigation into the causes
of disease was far less important than the organization of a
system of sanitary science which would enable the state to
protect itself from the ravages of disease. And thus the radical
and critical American youth became converted to the most
deeply-felt respect for the Teutonic system of sanitary organiza-
tion. He formed a pronounced interest in the details of
military organization, and whenever possible attended the
manoeuvres executed in the vicinity of Berlin. Realizing that
the more or less militaristic tools with which the operations
of the organization were executed in Germany were not avail-
able, nor, indeed, desirable in the United States, he devoted
himself to such reorganization and recasting of the German
system as would adapt it to the social and political conditions
of this country. This was the work of the nineties.

The work of the Live Stock Sanitary Board carried him
into all classes, and into many places to which he had not
been accustomed. He once said that his work brought him
into contact with individuals and conditions for which he felt
abhorrence rather than sympathy; but he felt it necessary for
the future good of the state to convert all classes, industrial
and. political, to the doctrine of modern sanitary science.

Discouragements were innumerable, the way was often hard

39
Jn HAemoriam

 

 

and beset with obstacles. It was under such circumstances
that the objective, optimistic nature made itself felt. Prac-
tically alone, Leonard Pearson accomplished a large work for
the state of Pennsylvania, for the University of Pennsylvania,
and for the advancement of sanitary science. J know of no
one in this country so admirably fitted to devise, organize and
carry into execution a large scheme of sanitary science applied
to animal industry. To have possessed his time and talents
was a great fortune for the state of Pennsylvania. The record
of work in this state will serve as an admirable model for
other states of the commonwealth. His death in his very prime,
before the time, indeed, at which men are called middle-aged,
is a heavy loss to the cause of preventive medicine in the United
States. Pasteur taught the world that the hand that masters
the scourge of the silkworm is qualified also to master the
scourge of hydrophobia. Of this point of view in science the
work of Leonard Pearson was an illustration. We are all
members of one guild, we follow one purpose, we aim at one
ideal. The share that fell to the mind and hand of Leonard
Pearson was a large measure, and large was the accomplish-
ment.

To the writer, the student friend with whom Leonard Pearson
shared cupboard and den, his death is a deep personal loss. In
one particular personal sense, the writer owes to Leonard
Pearson that which cannot be expressed in words or measured
with terms. As a slight expression of this obligation, the writer
records this appreciation of his character, his talents, and his
accomplishments.

From JoHnN Marsuatt, M.D., Professor of Physiological

Chemistry and Toxicology, University of Pennsylvania:

Others more familiar with his work will speak of Dr. Pear-

son’s scientific attainments and achievements. My feelings

incline me to speak of him as a man. It was my good fortune

to be associated with him as my pupil, as my colleague in the
40
Zeonard Pearson

faculty of the veterinary school, and as my friend. Through
all these years of association, and they were rather close, not the
slightest thought or semblance of misunderstanding occurred.
No man had a more punctilious respect for righteousness in the
everyday things of life and for honorable behaviour towards
his fellow-man than Dr. Pearson. This was not an assumed
quality, but undoubtedly was innate, and unconsciously
throughout his life he carried out the precept, “What you
do not want done to yourself do not do to others.” He was
a manly man, with a sweetness of disposition rarely found
among men. His passing away was a sad, deep loss to me,
but the remembrance of the sunny warmth of his friendship
stays with me as a sweet memory.

From N. B. CritcHFIELp, Secretary of Agriculture of Penn-
sylvania :

It is most fitting that we should now and then, in the midst
of our work for the welfare of humanity, pause and give a
moment’s thought to the memory of the noble men who in the
past have been associated with us in this work, and whose
wise planning has made it possible for us to do much more
for the generation to which we belong than could have been
accomplished without their help.

Most prominent in the list of men whose wise counsel and
unselfish devotion have been a guide and inspiration to their
companions we enroll the name of Dr. Leonard Pearson. He
was a prince among men, and his death was a personal loss
to every one of his associates.

My acquaintance with Dr. Pearson began in 1891. Although
by many years his senior, I soon discovered that he possessed
qualities of mind and heart which, by natural impulse, drew
me to him, and there sprang up between us a friendship warm
and cordial that continued until the day of his death.

No one could know him without appreciating his great
worth. In every relation of life his true manhood was apparent

41
Ju sAemoriam

 

 

and, in the fullest meaning of the word, he was a gentleman.
In all my associations I have never known anyone who, in so
rare a degree, possessed the faculty of making friends of all
whom he met. His native candor and open-heartedness drew
men to him and made them feel that they could trust him,
and no man who gave to him his confidence was ever deceived.
With his superior traits of character were combined remark-
able scholarly attainments, by which he was peculiarly fitted
for the research work in which he took great interest and in
which he was successful in extending the limits of human
knowledge and improving the condition of our race.

The man who discovers some new method of preventing dis-
ease or alleviating suffering leaves a memorial of himself
which can never be forgotten; he contributes to the happiness
of generations yet unborn, and so becomes a fellow-worker
with the Divine Father in caring for His creatures. Such was
the work of Dr. Pearson and such the memorial he has left us.

We cannot know a man thoroughly without meeting him
in his own home. In his home more than anywhere else the
genuine qualities of the true man are to be seen. It was my
privilege to meet Dr. Pearson frequently in his home; and
to witness his devotion to his mother and sisters, who occupied
the home with him, was an inspiration. The gentleness of
spirit and manner that was always apparent was especially
noticeable in the home. I recall, as though it were but yester-
day, the incidents connected with my first visit to his home,
and especially the affectionate manner and manly pride that
were manifest when in introducing me he said, “ This is my
mother.” It may seem like a trifling fancy, but I cannot
avoid the disposition to estimate a man, to some extent at
least, by the regard he manifests for his mother. To that
mother whose home has been made desolate by the removal
of my dear friend, my heart goes out in sympathy as I write
these lines, and I trust that in her great sorrow she may have

the comfort that comes from the assurance that no event can
42
Zeonard Pearson

 

 

come to us in this world without the permission of Him who
is too wise to err and from whose care none of His creatures
are absent for a single moment of time.

From Pror. Dr. Ropert OstertTag, Geh. Regierungsrat u.
Direktor der Veterinar-Abteilung d. Kaiserl. Gesund-
heitsamts zu Berlin:

Twenty years ago, when municipal veterinary surgeon of
Berlin, I made the acquaintance of an interesting young man,
Leonard Pearson, who had come from the United States to study
the German methods of teaching and of scientific research.
His sparkling, soulful eye, indicative of determination, his
delightful personality, his noble character, charmed everyone
who came in contact with him and gained for him friends at
once. JI, too, became his friend at our first meeting which our
mutual desire for knowledge brought about; I remained his
friend as long as he lived and shall continue to be such beyond
the grave which unfortunately closed upon him so prematurely.

A journey to London, to attend the Seventh Congress for
International Hygiene, brought us into closer relations. We
lodged together and spent happy and harmonious days in the
city on the Thames, where he proved a faithful mentor for
me, who was but slightly acquainted with English. At that
time, too, I formed the resolve to visit the United States at the
first opportunity, to gaze upon the marvels of the New World
and to see the development of veterinary medicine in the new
veterinary schools which were endeavoring, with the wonted
energy so characteristic of the United States, to substitute a
veterinary science for empiricism. What noble ardor possessed
this youth, with the bearing of a man, when he explained to me
how much, indeed how everything, still remained to be done
for veterinary medicine in the United States! How he fairly
glowed with the desire to undertake this task!

Thanks to his learning, his scholarly attainments, his inde-
fatigable zeal, his faithful work and his winning manner, which

43
Ju fAlemoriam

 

won for him friends and protectors, he attained his goal. He
did not strive in vain for recognition in his native land, to
which we Germans are so attached through the manifold bonds
of relationship on both sides of the water. John Marshall,
who was at that time dean of the veterinary school of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, recognized at once that in Leonard
Pearson he had found a representative of the youthful science
of veterinary medicine, who was well grounded in his science,
reliable and ambitious, and he furthered him in every possible
way.

How proudly Leonard Pearson wrote me that he had been
made dean of the veterinary faculty of the University of Penn-
sylvania, and that the way was now open for a further develop-
ment of veterinary medicine in Pennsylvania. How gratefully
he acknowledged the kindness of the state of Pennsylvania in
making him state veterinarian and in placing at his disposal
the necessary means for carrying out experiments on a large
scale.

Through his labors as a teacher, scientist and organizer,
Leonard Pearson fully justified the confidence placed in him
in such large measure. His scientific work has found recog-
nition far beyond the borders of his native land—I call to
mind in this connection especially his able investigations of
tuberculosis—his efforts as a teacher and organizer have to a
large extent formed the basis of the present standing of vet-
erinary medicine in the state of Pennsylvania and form for
Leonard Pearson a monumentum aere perenmius.

In 1904 I fulfilled my promise, given to Leonard Pearson
in London in 1891, and visited him at the seat of his activities.
With justifiable pride he showed me the veterinary school of
the university and introduced me to his family, where I met
his idolized mother and adored sister. He conducted me to his
numerous friends in whose midst I was privileged to spend a
memorable evening. His friends became my friends. I know

how delighted Leonard Pearson, to whom I was attached by
44
Heonard Pearson

 

 

 

constant correspondence, and who never failed to visit me when-
ever he went abroad, was that I had come to the United States.
He helped me to plan my trip in advance, and made my journey
more agreeable by means of letters of introduction to his friends.

After my visit in Philadelphia I saw Leonard Pearson but
once more. Three years later he visited me in his accustomed
manner in Berlin, where we revelled in old memories, made new
plans and promised ourselves the pleasure of meeting again at
the International Veterinary Congress which met last year at
The Hague. Providence ordained it otherwise. Leonard Pear-
son, the indefatigable, overtaxed his strength and a sad fate
snatched him from the circle of his family, friends, pupils and
colleagues, from the midst of his scientific activity and his work
of organization.

We, the friends of this man, who may be justly called a man,
stand as mourners beside the grassy mound that covers his
mortal remains. But we stand united by the love and the
memory which we have preserved for him beyond the grave,
and by the consoling consciousness that our friend, of whom
death has deprived us all too early, has not lived in vain.
Leonard Pearson’s labors will speak for him even in far distant
times. Sleep gently, beloved friend, the never-ending sleep,
which after life’s fitful fever gives us eternal repose, gently
sleep !

From Joun Hamitton, Farmers’ Institute Specialist, United
States Department of Agriculture:

I had known Dr. Pearson casually as he visited the Penn-
sylvania State College to lecture to its winter classes as far back
as 1892. Our real acquaintance, however, began in the winter
of 1896, when he was first appointed to the position of veter-
inarian in the Department of Agriculture at Harrisburg. For
over seven years we were associated in that department, and
for almost four years of that time we were both members of
the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, the duties of which

45
Jn femoriam

= ——

x

required us to confer frequently in respect to the administration
of the live stock sanitary laws, and to codperate in formulating
and securing new legislation along these lines. I had there
full opportunity for knowing him both as a public official in
the organization and administration of his office, and as an
expert in the practice of his profession.

The injunction of the law under which his office was created
was: “To protect the health of the domestic animals of the
state and to determine and employ the most efficient and prac-
tical means for the prevention, suppression, control or eradica-
tion of dangerous, contagious, or infectious diseases among
domestic animals.” Although the act was very comprehensive
and clear in its provisions, it nevertheless left the devising of
methods and the prescribing of regulations for carrying it
into effect to the judgment of those who were to administer it.
Other states had laws of similar character, but they differed
so radically in important particulars that there was practically
no agreement as to the best methods of carrying on this kind
of protective work. It was a new field in sanitary science with
no satisfactory precedents to guide.

Dr. Pearson immediately took up the task of organizing
his department for administering the law, and the efficient
manner in which he performed this duty is attested to by the
results accomplished after thirteen years of effort. Prejudice
against the tuberculin test, at first very general throughout the
state, gave way to recognition of its value. In consequence of
its use and the measures that he took for the eradication of
the disease, the percentage of tuberculous animals in the state
was greatly reduced. Legislation for protection against glanders,
anthrax, rabies, tuberculous milk and meat, was enacted at his
instance, as well as laws prohibiting the introduction of in-
fected or diseased animals from other states, and for raising
the standard of qualification of practitioners in veterinary medi-
cine and surgery. He established a bacteriological laboratory
at the University of Pennsylvania for scientific investigation

46
AReonard Wearson

 

 

and for the production of mallein, tuberculin and vaccine, and
conducted experiments with tuberculosis of animals both at the
university and later, on a more extensive scale, upon a farm
purchased and equipped for the purpose by the state.

A force of veterinarians in the state was selected and organ-
ized by him, until at present an outbreak of dangerous disease
in any section of the commonwealth can be promptly diagnosed
and skilled men sufficient in number to control and suppress
it can be immediately had. The entire organization of live
stock sanitary control in the state is the work of Dr. Pearson.
It is acknowledged to be a model of its kind, and has been
largely copied by other states. His interest in the public wel-
fare was sincere, and he possessed with it an enthusiasm for
rendering service that never failed; at the same time he was
neither visionary nor hasty in his decisions or action, but was
studiously conservative in all his plans, and extremely careful
and painstaking in carrying on his work. He was a good judge
of human nature, believed in men and trusted them to do
what was right if the right was clearly shown. Out of this
confidence in others grew much of his ability to interest and
secure the codperation of all classes, skilled and unskilled, in
administering the law. He was methodical in the conduct of
his office; was a clear, well-balanced thinker; a patient and
painstaking ‘experimenter; an agreeable and fluent speaker;
and a logical and forceful writer, as his numerous published
reports and addresses abundantly show.

Dr. Pearson’s standing from a professional point of view
may be briefly and truly stated in the words: “He stood at
the head.” Immediately upon his return from attending the
veterinary schools in Germany, in 1892, he was appointed non-
resident professor of veterinary medicine in the Pennsylvania
State College, and four years later to the position of state
veterinarian. In 189% he was made dean of the School of
Veterinary Science in the University of Pennsylvania in which
he had been a professor since 1891, and at the age of forty-one,

47
Jn Memoriam

the time of his death, only seventeen years out of college, he
was recognized both in this country and abroad as a leading
authority in several important branches of veterinary science.
At the meeting of the International Congress on Tuberculosis
in Washington, in 1908, at which were assembled leading men
in sanitary science from all over the world, Dr. Pearson was
selected for president of the section on Tuberculosis in Animals
and its Relation to Man, and was called to preside over the
joint session of the sections at which Dr. Robert Koch, of
Berlin, appeared as the principal speaker. When the vacancy
occurred in the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department
of Agriculture of the United States, through the resignation
of Dr. Salmon, Dr. Pearson was tendered the position of chief
of that bureau, but declined because of his obligations to the
university in which he had worked so long, and the opportunities
for usefulness that presented themselves in connection with his
official position at the head of the veterinary department in
his state. He was frequently consulted by both state and
national authorities in diagnosing new diseases and in prescrib-
ing for the treatment of outbreaks of such as were highly con-
tagious or infectious and that threatened widespread damage
and great pecuniary loss to the animal industry of the country.
His efforts to stamp out the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease in his own state, added to duties that had already
overtaxed his physical and mental powers, are no doubt respon-
sible for the breakdown that ended in his death.

However much he will be missed in his official relations and
be regretted by his profession, he will be most mourned by
those whom he had, endeared to himself as personal friends,
and their number is very large. He was a refined and cour-
teous gentleman, a sincere and sympathetic friend. He was
clean of speech and pure in thought and life, considerate in
dealing with the opinions and prejudices of those with whom
he differed, and always charitable in his judgment of other
men.

48
Leonard Pearson

 

Our relations, begun in an official way in 1896, soon ripened
into close friendship that remained unbroken to the last. We
exchanged confidences with entire freedom, assured that noth-
ing that might prove embarrassing for others to know would
be revealed. When I last saw him we met in the new National
Museum in Washington, D. C., at the time of the Tuberculosis
Congress, a little over one year ago. We spent possibly a
half-hour together, talking over his work and mine, and in-
quiring about old friends whom we had both known so well,
but who had passed away. I then cautioned him against over-
work, little thinking that the breaking-point was so near. His
death is to me a personal bereavement. Most of us come in
contact with but few such men in a life of mingling with others,
and very rarely indeed are we privileged to claim one such as a
personal friend.

His short career can most truthfully be summed up by saying
that he was a model in official life; he always set for himself
a high standard in professional work; he was a gentle, un-
assuming and faithful friend, a noble example of true man-
hood, and an inspiration for all public men to emulate in his
unselfish devotion to the general good. In his death the state
lost a most efficient officer and public servant, the veterinary
profession, one of its most capable and distinguished scientific
workers, and those of us who knew and loved him, a most
charming and helpful personal friend.

From W. H. Datrymptz, M.R.C.V.S., Veterinarian, Louisiana
State University :

The untimely demise of Dr. Leonard Pearson has left a
blank in the ranks of the veterinary profession that will be
most difficult to fill, and has occasioned a loss that is incal-
culable. No man of his years, on this continent at least, nor,
perhaps, on any other, had attained to such prominence and
leadership in the chosen lines of his life’s work. In America
the name of Leonard Pearson had become known in every

4 49
Jn HMemoriam

 

section; and to professional men, and sanitarians generally,
abroad it was hardly less familiar. He ranked high among the
giants of his chosen profession.

To have merely known Dr. Pearson was an honor, but to
have known him intimately and to have been associated with him
was more; it was a privilege of the highest order, and a pleasure
that never waned.

The writer had known, and at times been more or less closely
associated with, our deeply lamented friend and colleague for
in the neighborhood of fifteen years, and the longer we knew
him, the greater became our love, admiration and respect for
him.

Some who might have achieved such great things as Pearson
had, would have permitted their successes to change their de-
meanor. Not so with him. He was always possessed of the
spirit and characteristics of the true scientist—meekness,
modesty, forbearance, realizing that special gifts and endow-
ments, and the ability to execute, called more for gratitude and
thankfulness than for a show of empty pride.

It is not the writer’s intention to try to enumerate in detail,
nor to enlarge upon, the varied phases of Dr. Pearson’s great
work. This must be left to his more immediate confréres in
the city and state of his adoption, who shared with him, or
assisted in, his varied labors in behalf of the public good—nay,
the good of humanity.

The writer was brought more closely in touch with Dr. Pear-
son in work along sanitary lines. And, as is well known, he
was always deeply interested in any phase of endeavor that had
a bearing upon veterinary sanitary science. His plans of in-
vestigation were always practical, and marked by sound judg-
ment and carefulness as to detail and execution.

As a friend, Pearson was staunch and true; once his friend-
ship was gained, it was lasting, as can be testified by all who
were in that privileged category, and their name is legion.

A valuable life has been cut short in the pride of strong

50
Deonard Pearson

 

 

manhood. Pearson has gone to his reward to “that country
from whose bourn no traveler returns.” And yet he lives, and
will live on, in the memories of those who knew him, and in
the hearts, as well, of those of us who were his friends. His
life and character were shining examples of the manly man, and
such as to richly merit our emulation. May we all strive to be
like him!

From Mazycx P. Ravenet, M.D., Professor of Bacteriology,
University of Wisconsin:

In speaking of Leonard Pearson I am at a loss where to
begin. One scarcely knows on which phase of his character
to dwell most—his personality, his power as an organizer, or
his scientific foresight and ability. On each one of these much
could be said. I must content myself by giving in my feeble
way a general view of the man as he impressed me in my daily
association with him for upwards of ten years. If the personal
element enters too much into what I have to say, it must be
overlooked, as my: scientific life was so closely bound up with
his during all these years, and our aims and objects were so
closely united, that it is impossible to speak of his scientific
work without bringing myself in to some extent. In fact, much
of my scientific work was the carrying out of ideas originating
in his mind.

Although I had known Dr. Pearson very pleasantly almost
from the beginning of my connection with the University of
Pennsylvania, in 1892, my intimate association with him began
in 1895, when I became bacteriologist of the State Live Stock
Sanitary Board of Pennsylvania, of which he was secretary and
executive officer. After a hard struggle, Dr. Pearson had suc-
ceeded in obtaining sufficient funds for the beginning of a
bacteriological laboratory in connection with his work as state
veterinarian. With that foresight which characterized all his
public work, he insisted on the necessity of such a laboratory.
His recognition of the importance of this science came to him

51
Jn HAemoriam

 

 

 

 

daily in his professional career, and had been fostered during
his studies in Germany, where he himself carried out notable
experiments in regard to several diseases, especially glanders,
and he was the first to produce the substance now used uni-
versally for the diagnosis of this disease, known as mallein.

With each successive legislature Dr. Pearson continued to
impress on the public and the legislators the importance of
this branch of work, and through his masterly efforts funds
were given with a liberal hand, not only for the equipment of
the laboratory itself, but also for the establishment of an ex-
perimental stable, and finally the purchase and equipment of
an experimental farm. As these features of his work will no
doubt be spoken of more fully by others, I will only mention
them in this connection.

While the laboratory which he established was concerned
largely in diagnostic work and in the manufacture of tuber-
culin, the experimental side of medicine was never lost sight
of. Again the evidences of Dr. Pearson’s foresight are most
striking, for from the beginning he insisted on the urgency
of studies in connection with the relation of bovine to human
tuberculosis. He held always that the diseases were practically
one and the same, and that bovine tuberculosis constituted a
serious menace to public health. The verdict of the world
shows how correct he was in these views.

Coupled with this belief, was his recognition of bovine tuber-
culosis as an economic scourge. From both standpoints the
necessity of its eradication was apparent. Dr. Pearson’s organ-
ization of the office of state veterinarian of Pennsylvania,
with its numbers of inspectors and agents for the enforcement
of quarantine, was in every respect a stupendous piece of work.
He made a careful study of the systems and laws of every
foreign country and of states in our own country. The laws
of the state of Pennsylvania on this subject since 1894 were
practically drawn by him, and their enforcement has been in
his hands. It is not too much to say that they have been the

52
Leonard Pearson

 

most successful tried in the United States, and have had a
marked influence in shaping legislation elsewhere. He regarded
the question as one to be handled largely by education, and
did a giant’s work in going out among the people of the state.
His arguments were clear and irrefutable, his manner in lay-
ing them before an audience impressive and earnest, but ex-
ceedingly genial, so that he never failed to make friends, even
among those who did not entirely accede at first to his beliefs.
The work in Pennsylvania will always stand as a monument to
his foresight and ability in the administration of important
public matters.

Closely allied to this were his studies on immunity, a masterly
piece of work done in conjunction with Dr. 8. H. Gilliland,
which attracted the keenest interest of the whole scientific
world. Dr. Pearson was regarded not only as a pioneer in this
work, but as one of the great authorities on the subject.

In 1904 it was my great good fortune to take part with him
in a collective investigation on the subject of immunity. We
spent several months in Europe, he devoting himself almost
entirely to the animal side of the question, while I took up
the human side. His report on this subject was perhaps the
best piece of work which he ever did, and was masterly in
every detail, not only in the collection and assembling of his
data, but also in the keen analysis he gave of the results. It
will be many years before this piece of work needs revision or
has an equal in the literature of the subject.

I cannot think of this study without referring to the per-
sonality of the man. Nothing appeared to escape his observa-
tion, and in every phase of his life, from the highest scientific
work to the commonplaces of everyday life, the human side
of his character was evident. Hosts of friends greeted him in
practically every place he visited. Even where he had not previ-
ously been known personally his work had gained recognition
for him and insured a cordial and enthusiastic welcome from
men in scientific life. His versatility was most evident during

53
Jn Pemoriam

travel. During one hour we would be in the company of a
savant, discussing the abstruse theories and questions of im-
munity; the next hour we would be in some book shop, rum-
maging piles of old books; and soon after in another establish-
ment, looking for the latest publications on scientific matters.
From books we would go to articles of woodwork, curiosities
in metal—in fact, everything seemed to hold an interest for
Dr. Pearson, and on many of these subjects he had information
scarcely to be expected in a man devoted to a single profession.
The evenings would be spent in some public resort, where again
his keen insight into human nature was every minute shown
by his observations on the passing throng. It seemed an endless
delight to him to study every phase of human nature. No
doubt this faculty and interest was the secret of one of his
most striking characteristics, namely, his power of gaining the
confidence of people and his control of those with whom he was
associated. He was a student of human nature and had a re-
markable faculty of judging men.

Coupled with his boundless enthusiasm and his honesty of
purpose, this insight into human nature made him one of the
most potent factors in dealing with men individually or with
bodies of men that I have ever come in contact with. No
doubt much of his power in this respect was due also to his
transparent honesty of purpose and the absence always of any
suspicion of self-seeking. The things he worked for were
always matters of enormous public necessity, affecting intimately
the public welfare. It was evident to even the most casual
observer that the salary he drew as a public officer was trifling,
and it was known to everyone that he had abandoned a
private practice, which insured him a very handsome income
and was constantly growing, to take up public work. Much
of his public work was done without any remuneration what-
ever, solely because it was needed and was right. The same
devotion and self-sacrifice were given to work carrying no
remuneration as to his other duties. All of this was patent

54
Heonard Pearson

 

to everyone and, in giving money for objects advocated by
Dr. Pearson, the legislator always had the assurance that he
was putting public funds where they would be spent entirely
for the public good and to the greatest advantage. Dr. Pearson
was extremely successful in shaping and obtaining legislation
that did not carry appropriations. His work in this direction
was always for the public good.

I could speak at length on his services to veterinary medicine.
Again, however, I must yield to members of that profession to
give an account of his achievements. As an outsider, I can say
with confidence that America has produced no veterinarian who
has done as much to elevate the teaching of veterinary medicine
as Dr. Pearson. He stood always for the dignity and honor of
his profession, and by precept and example led his professional
brethren to higher standards than had been before known in
America. It is gratifying to note that his profession recog-
nized him as a leader, and early in his professional career
gave him the highest offices in its gift.

In writing this brief appreciation of Dr. Pearson, I have
felt the keenest regret at my inability adequately to express his
real worth. His loss seems irreparable. One’s regret seems
to be more keen when one remembers that his early death
was due to overwork and too close devotion to the interests
which had been placed in his charge. We praise the individual
who saves another’s life at the risk of his own, and medals
are given by governments for such service. More often we fail
entirely to recognize the quiet, yet unceasing and untiring work
of a public servant, such as Dr. Pearson was, and we overlook
the fact that a life may be given in this way, just as truly as
in the case of the man who goes into a burning building to save
others, or hurls the dynamite bomb away from the crowd it
is intended to destroy. Laurels and rewards are given to the
soldier who fights with the blare of trumpets, yet it takes more
courage and more devotion to fight silently against disease than

to go into the carnage of battle. The work of our friend has
55
gn Memoriam

been recognized the world over by scientific men, and we believe
that his devotion to the public welfare of his adopted state and
city will receive the recognition it so well deserves.

I cannot close this imperfect tribute to Dr. Pearson without
a word in regard to my own feelings. I found him always
strong intellectually and personally, genial and kindly, always
ready with his interest and advice. Personal intercourse was
always marked by those endearing personal qualities which made
him hosts of friends wherever he was known. In common with
many others, I feel his loss as a scientific man, as an investigator,
as a public servant, but I have a deep sense of personal bereave-
ment in knowing that the big-hearted friend with whom I was
so long associated is no more. Peace to his ashes!

From J. Bertram Lippincort, Trustee of the University of
Pennsylvania:

As I look back on my association with Leonard Pearson,
there comes to me the sensation of wasted opportunity on my
part, the feeling of “why did I not see more of him?” Our
friendship dates back to the time when he became house sur-
geon of the veterinary hospital, University of Pennsylvania.
As a manager of that hospital, I was in the habit of going for
information in regard to cases to the house surgeon, who had
it in his power to make my visits there interesting or not,
according to his willingness to explain the cause of suffering
of the various patients. Dr. Pearson made these visits very
pleasant, causing me to visit the institution very frequently.
At that time I recognized in him the coming man of the
department, if not of veterinary science, but I had no idea he
would become a factor so soon. I feared he would not adhere
to the care of animals, but would branch off into some other
profession. On his return from his first sojourn abroad, how-
ever, when he was made assistant professor of medicine, and
afterward full professor, it was clear that he intended to devote
his life to the veterinary profession, and that he would be a
credit to it, as well as make it a credit to the sciences.

56
Leonard Pearson

—

 

 

His great interest in the study of tuberculosis and the result
of his efforts in regard to that disease soon classed him among
scientists. When he became dean of the veterinary depart-
ment, he was made a manager of the hospital, and came more
in contact with members of the board. I think it was about
this time that Joseph EH. Gillingham, recognizing in Dr. Pearson
a man competent and superior in his vocation, decided to be-
queath to the veterinary department fifty thousand dollars under
certain conditions, one of them being that Dr. Pearson should
be connected with the department at the time.

When the veterinary department moved from its first quarters,
Thirty-fourth and Spruce, to Woodland Avenue, the magnetism,
force and loyalty of Dr. Pearson were put to a hard test. The
conditions there for accommodations were so crude that it
required an able man to hold the teaching force together and
keep the student body from disbanding. Dr. Pearson not only
did this, but at the same time succeeded in persuading the
legislature to make appropriations with which the university
was able to construct and equip the present buildings. These
buildings are practically a monument to Dr. Pearson, the result
of weeks of argument and persuasion with members of the state
legislature. A friend of mine who had been to Harrisburg at
that time said to me, while discussing appropriations, “It was
the personality of your man Pearson that got the university
that money.” He had the quality of inspiring confidence. His
manner of meeting men was affable and pleasing to all.

With the new veterinary buildings came additional cares. As
state veterinarian much of his time was taken from the uni-
versity. Yet he stuck to it in spite of a brilliant offer from
Washington to become director of agriculture. Nevertheless,
the combined cares wore on him, and it became clear that he
needed the rest which he refused to take.

At the April meeting, 1909, of the board of managers he
turned over his appeal for complete radical changes in the
veterinary hospital and veterinary department. It was one of
the ablest letters I ever read. As a supplement to this he had

57
Ju PMemoriam

 

 

 

 

plans for the reorganization and strengthening of the depart-
ment, making it equal to any in the world. One set of these
plans, which were given to certain members of his faculty for
criticism and suggestion, fell into my hands.

Shortly after that came the blow which forced him to drop
everything and rest for his life. But his plans were clear and
plain and could be carried out. I think he intended they
should be accomplished by his successors, for they covered all
details, costs and receipts, almost to a dollar.

While discussing these plans with Dr. John Marshall one day
last fall, the message came to me that Dr. Pearson had died
that morning. It was a terrible shock, for, although I had
counted upon his not taking an active part in his plans, his
death was wholly unlooked for. Wanted by his university, his
state and his country, the tax was too much for him. He who
finally secured him no one can outbid. Through the ability of
this man veterinary science had been raised to a much higher
plane, and the University of Pennsylvania had suitable buildings
in which to teach it. I often think that Dr. Pearson died,
like Wolfe and Nelson, after the victory had been won.

From SamvueL McCuintock Hamiuu, M.D., Secretary of the
Milk Commission of the Pediatric Society:

I esteem it a very great privilege to be able to contribute
a few words to a memorial volume to Dr. Leonard Pearson.

It was my good fortune to know Dr. Pearson intimately for
a number of years—a privilege I shall always appreciate deeply,
for, from him, more than from almost any man I have known, I
learned the value of true living.

First and foremost, I found him a man of high ideals and
sterling integrity. His judgment of men impressed me as
remarkable. However much of evil there was in men, he always
found something of good in them, and that something he
often made useful to his fellow-men. Because of his honesty

men trusted him, and instinctively revealed to him the better
58
Leonard Pearson

 

 

side of their natures. In the trying position which he occupied
in life—endeavoring to direct politics toward the uplifting of
mankind—this quality in him was invaluable. It enabled him
to accomplish things single-handed which few men, perhaps no
other man, could have accomplished. He dealt with a class
of men who through training and environment—and some per-
haps by instinct—viewed men’s motives with suspicion. Many
of them were antagonistic to each other and jealous of each
other’s prestige; and yet, from these warring factions and
difficult types he secured enthusiastic and helpful support with-
out ever for a moment departing from his rigid ideas of honesty.
In truth, it was this very honesty, coupled with his keen
appreciation of men, that enabled him to accomplish his results.

He had indomitable energy and limitless perseverance. [
very well recall a remark he one time made to me regarding
the third legislative defeat of one of his pet measures: “It is
somewhat discouraging, but we will accomplish what we want
in the end. These men will be educated gradually to the value
and justice of the cause.” And they were.

I frequently sought Dr. Pearson’s advice in matters pertain-
ing to the policy of the milk commission of the Philadelphia
Pediatric Society, and I never failed to secure wise judgment,
based always upon the effect that such policies might have
upon the commission, the producer, and the general public. His
opinions in all matters seemed to me to be based upon the broad
foundation of justice to all men.

His big, honest face, his gracious manner, his charming
personality, his keen sense of justice, his broad viewpoint, his
energy, his perseverance, his charity, and his cheerful, hopeful
disposition marked him “a man among men.” Those who knew
him well, knew him but to love him. For all of us his memory
is a stimulus and a benediction. His death is a loss to science
and a blow to the uplifting of mankind. A few men of his
type could leaven the world.

59
Gn PMemoriam

 

From E. 8. Bayarp, Editor of The National Stockman and
Farmer:

From his friends Leonard Pearson deserves words in
memoriam equal to those of Tennyson. None of us can pay
him a tribute worthy of him save in one respect—sincerity.
But, after all, sincerity is the best part of anything we say of
our departed friends. No matter how inadequate our words
may be—and we know they are inadequate here—they have the
superlative merit of sincerity. I know that in all this book
there is not one perfunctory word. I know it because I knew
Leonard Pearson—and his friends are writing about him.

Memory fails to record the date of my first acquaintance with
Leonard Pearson. But soon I felt that I had always known
him, would always know him to admire, respect and trust him.
Longer and more intimate acquaintance with him meant merely
increasing admiration for his talents, respect for his character
and faith in his friendship. It takes a man to win for him-
self the respect and loyalty and love of those who know him
best and longest, and he was a man in all things, everywhere.
Like all true men he had difficulties to overcome, he met op-
position and perhaps made enemies. His troubles he met
bravely. His eminent honesty and fairness left little room for
bitter or long-continued opposition. And the enemies of such
a man merely serve to increase the confidence of right-minded
people in him.

It is useless to attempt to record here his virtues. They are
known to all who read this. But those who knew him best can
never forget the ability and faithfulness with which he carried
forward his great work; the patience and kindness which he
showed to all men on all occasions; the rare social hours en-
riched by the sparkle of his humor; and the quiet times, when
to his intimate friends he revealed more and more of the
qualities that endeared him to them.

This memorial, however, calls for more than a personal
tribute. Leonard Pearson’s work for the farmers and stockmen
of Pennsylvania and the world cannot be fully appreciated be-

60
Zeonard Peargon

cause it is not yet complete. He gained their confidence and held
it when radical men had shaken their faith in veterinary officials.
He was always fair, he never lost his balance, he oppressed
none, but helped many. To-day Pennsylvania stands at the
front in its record of progress in the eradication of diseases
of domestic animals, and he did it. He imparted the true con-
ception of the importance of animal health. He dignified his
profession by revealing to the world what veterinary science
means to humanity in the preservation of the health of domestic
animals. His investigations were long; his conclusions
announced only when he felt sure they were right. He was a
great investigator, but he never tried to acquire fame pre-
maturely or at the expense of the truth. For some years his
work on vaccination to prevent bovine tuberculosis has attracted
much attention; but he never mentioned it as complete, always
ag an experiment, with a possibility of the verdict “ not proven”
awaiting it. He was a true scientist as well as a true man.
The work he did for Pennsylvania was done, as all his friends
knew, at a great financial sacrifice. He was repeatedly offered
positions which carried with them much more salary than he
had here; yet his heart was in his work here and he never
considered for a moment the greater financial attractions else-
where.

Who can estimate the worth of his study to provide immunity
against bovine tuberculosis? Who can reckon what he saved
this country by his prompt identification and eradication of foot-
and-mouth disease? Who knows what distress his sane yet
efficient work has spared the stockmen of his state? What
prophet can reveal the outcome of his teaching in the schools
and on the platform? There are no words or figures or com-
parisons whereby we may estimate such things. They belong
to that greater book in which all true services for humanity
are recorded. But we do know that the interests to which
Leonard Pearson devoted his life have suffered an irreparable
loss, and that his works live after him as the best memorial
of his life among us.

61
Jn Memoriam

 

 

From A. C. Assorr, M.D., Sc.D., Professor of Hygiene and
Bacteriology, University of Pennsylvania:

In the death of Leonard Pearson preventive medicine ex-
perienced a loss from which it will be difficult to recover.
Though trained in the school of veterinary medicine and un-
tiring in his activities for the uplifting of his profession,
Pearson’s work and that of his assistants and pupils bore
evidence of his keen appreciation of the close interdependence
between the health of man and that of the animals on which
he depends for food, energy and companionship. A thorough
training, a rare degree of natural intelligence, a striking clarity
of perception and an enthusiastic interest in the manifold ad-
vances of modern biological science gave to him an unusually
broad mental horizon.

Fixed in the belief that the scientific study of animals in
health and disease promised results of fundamental importance
to the correct interpretation of physiological and pathological
phenomena peculiar to man, his work and that of the school
with which he was so honorably identified was in large measure
projected along those lines. It is mainly through his efforts
that the modern school of veterinary medicine has become so
important a factor in the great biological problem of medicine
as a whole.

To the casual observer, an easy-going, mild-mannered, some-
what reticent man, Pearson had an amazing capacity for work,
and always for work that told. In the dual capacity of dean
of the veterinary school of the University of Pennsylvania and
of veterinarian of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he not
only performed his manifold duties with signal credit to himself
and full satisfaction both to his alma mater and to the state,
but found time to direct uninterrupted researches that early
gave to the organizations with which he was identified impor-
tant places in the ranks of contributors to the literature of
preventive medicine.

His sterling honesty and frank manner endeared him to all
62
Leonard Pearson

 

 

with whom he came in contact, and it was probably to these
qualities as much as to his acknowledged abilities that he owed
the full confidence and respect of the several administrations
under which he held office as state veterinarian, and through
which he was enabled so to organize the sanitary control of
food-producing animals in this state that the Live Stock
Sanitary Board, of which he was the executive officer, became
recognized as a model throughout the country. It was through
his efforts that state appropriations were secured for the pur-
chase and maintenance of a farm, the equipment of a laboratory
and the employment of assistants for the exclusive study of
bovine tuberculosis and the possible means for its prevention.
Time has shown this outlay to have been fully justified, for
from no source, here or abroad, have contributions been made
that are of greater importance to the subject than those result-
ing from Pearson’s clear conception of the requirements of
the problem.

As dean of the veterinary school of the University of Penn-
sylvania, he stood always for the highest ideals, and at the
time of his death he was actively engaged in a plan of re-
organization which, if consummated, will not only reflect credit
upon its author, but result in placing the school on a higher
plane of efficiency than even that hitherto enjoyed by it.

When in 1903 the Department of Public Health and Charities
of Philadelphia was created, Pearson was immediately chosen
as a member of the board of health, and, notwithstanding the
many other demands made upon his time and energy, he was con-
spicuously active in the organization of a bureau to which the
city may point with some degree of honest pride.

As a public speaker Pearson never lacked an appreciative
audience. His remarkable grasp of any subject on which he
engaged to speak was a topic of general comment. He was a
clear thinker, possessing the happy faculty of going straight
to the heart of his subject, and of putting whatever he had to
say in direct, forceful and simple, yet correct, English. This,

63
Jn fAemoriam

combined with his evident honesty of purpose, made of him
one of our most effective factors in the educational campaign
for preventive medicine.

As a companion, as a man, little need be said. To know
him was to love him. Loyal to his friends, faithful to his
trusts, and ever ready to help the unfortunate, there is little
wonder that his enemies were few. The breach made by his
death will not be readily filled.

From Duncan McEHacuran, LL.D., F.R.C.V.S., V.S., Edin-
burgh, D.V.S., Emeritus Professor and Dean, McGill
University :

Very few except those who have been engaged in the struggle
to raise the profession of veterinary medicine from an art to a
science can realize the amount of never-ceasing, self-denying
labor devolving on men like Dr. Pearson.

As I knew him he was a man of high ideals and a devoted
student who aimed to place veterinary science on a par with
the other liberal professions. His scientific attainments were
of the most advanced order, and he is one of the few veter-
inarians whose works will live after him. Others, who had
the advantage of a longer and more intimate association with
him, will no doubt record his invaluable services as a teacher
and investigator, and point out the incalculable loss comparative
medicine in North America has sustained by his early decease.
His work on tuberculosis alone places him in the front rank
of investigators on this all-important subject of comparative
medicine, and his writings on this disease will take a place in
the classic literature of the future.

In the position of state veterinarian he was, in all he did,
thoroughly painstaking and sincere, correct in his decisions and
eminently successful in his results. The benefits of his work in
this one department of his labor to his state and country cannot
be estimated by any financial calculation.

As one of my colleagues in prosecuting the scientific investiga-

64
Leonard Peargon

 

 

tions 1n connection with the now historical “Smelter Smoke
Case” (the Farmers of Deer Lodge County vs. the Anaconda
Mining and Smelter Company, Montana, 1905, 6, 7 and 8), he
rendered valuable service by his thorough methods of investiga-
tion, correctness of deduction, honesty of purpose, and clear-
ness of testimony on the witness stand.

Dr. Pearson’s life and work should long be cherished and
held forth as an example worthy of emulation by every member
of the profession to which he devoted his life.

From Danizt E. Satmon, Director Veterinary Department,
University of Montevideo:

In offering a tribute to the memory of Leonard Pearson,
the writer could not pretend to do justice to his character nor
to his work, even if he devoted much more time and space to
the effort than is possible on this occasion; but, fortunately,
both are so well known that it is not necessary for him to do
more than briefly record those personal impressions which come
most vividly before his mind as he thinks of the friend whose
genial countenance will no longer inspire and whose sympathetic
voice is forever hushed.

When I last saw Dr. Pearson he was apparently in perfect
health—a model of strength and mental power; and when the
unexpected tidings of his death reached me, I was overcome
with the feeling that his death was untimely, that his life work
was far from completed and that, with the facilities which he
had recently acquired, he would have been able to use his great
talents much more effectively than ever before for the solution
of those problems in which he was so deeply interested. With
his experience, his influence, his opportunities, how much he
could have accomplished for his profession, his state, his coun-
try and for humanity, if it had been permitted him to live the
full measure of man’s career on earth!

Later, there came the more comforting thought that it is a
higher power and a greater wisdom than ours which measures

5 65
Jn HMemoriam

—

 

the years of our friends and decides when they have accom-
plished their earthly tasks. In this case, while at first we
think of the career interrupted in the prime of life, of the
problems on the eve of solution, on further consideration we
cannot but be impressed with the number and importance of
the things which were actually achieved and with the effect of
his influence in shaping public thought and policy, not only
in his own state, but throughout the whole country.

A man of high ambition, of great enthusiasm, he had hesi-
tated neither because of the labor nor the responsibility in-
volved in the tasks which presented themselves to him, and he
had condensed within a comparatively few years a work and
an achievement which would have been remarkable, even if it
had occupied all the period of a long life. If the labor had
been less intense and the effort extended over a greater number
of years, who can say that more would have been accomplished,
or that the total would have been so great?

Whether under different circumstances he would have accom-
plished more or less, it is, then, idle for us to speculate. What
we know is that his ideals were of the highest, his enthusiasm
unbounded and his labor incessant. Now that his task is
completed, some idea can be formed of the results of these
labors, but it is too soon to appreciate his career in all of its
magnitude and importance.

I became acquainted with Dr. Pearson during the eventful
days of 1887, when the Bureau of Animal Industry was en-
gaged in a desperate struggle for the eradication of the con-
tagious pleuropneumonia of cattle from the city of Chicago
and its suburbs, a task which required not only all of its
resources but a great deal of patience and diplomacy as well.
The state authorities at the beginning of this work had assumed
a position of hostility from which they had not yet entirely
recovered, and this greatly increased the difficulties and re-
sponsibilities of those in charge of the operations conducted
under the authority of the federal government. It was neces-

66
Leonard Pearson

sary that every move should be carefully made and that the
office records should show a full history of every transaction.
At this time Dr. Pearson was taking his course at Cornell, but
he temporarily accepted a position in Chicago, and remained
there a sufficient time to study the practical work of eradication
of this redoubtable disease, and during this time rendered
important assistance in the office work. Although he was then
but nineteen years of age, I was much impressed by his earnest-
ness, the carefulness with which his work was done and his
grasp of the many details as to the inspections, the quarantine,
the disposition of infected cattle and the relations with the local
authorities.

Our next meeting occurred in Washington, soon after his
graduation from the veterinary department of the University
of Pennsylvania, in 1890. Having always received the most
favorable reports of his work while a student at Cornell and
at the University of Pennsylvania, I now offered him a position
in the laboratory of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and, as a
special inducement to accept it, presented the prospect that he
might soon become my principal assistant. He decided, how-
ever, to cast his lot with the University of Pennsylvania, and
he soon after departed for Europe to complete his studies in
the great schools of Germany.

Again, J saw him for a few days at the International Con-
gress of Hygiene and Demography at London, in 1891, when
he was about to return to the United States to take up the
active duties of his profession. At this time he gave an im-
pression of the most thorough preparation, of a wonderful
grasp of all the fields of veterinary knowledge, and of a quiet
self-reliance which enabled his friends to safely predict an
exceptionally useful and brilliant career.

Of the manner in which he fulfilled these early promises,
and more than fulfilled them, I shall only write in the briefest
terms. His devotion to the veterinary department of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania is shown by the years of labor which

87
Jn fMemoriam

 

 

he gave to it under discouraging circumstances, when the sup-
port which he received was most inadequate, and when appar-
ently his efforts brought little appreciation. But this devotion
in the end led to magnificent results. Resources were found,
and aggregated and utilized, and the veterinary school was
provided with a building and other facilities which are not
only a monument to his wide learning and skill, but which
should be a source of pride to his university, his city and his
state.

If the success of this school had been his only achievement, it
would nevertheless have been notable and worthy of the greatest
admiration; but in his work as state veterinarian he also
and at the same time accomplished results which, while per-
haps less conspicuous to the world at large, were no less remark-
able and valuable to the state and, as an object-lesson, to the
country. In other states the work for the repression of cattle
tuberculosis had been tried, had excited widespread opposition
and violent hostility, and had failed. It seemed that notwith-
standing the advantage in accurate diagnosis which had been
furnished in the discovery of tuberculin, notwithstanding the
willingness of the states to expend large sums of money for the
discovery and proper disposition of diseased animals, nothing
of practical value could be done, because no one was able to
conduct this work efficiently and at the same time retain the
respect and support of the dairy interests. This seemingly
impossible task Dr. Pearson accomplished, and for years the
work of repression went on actively under his direction. Not
only was his intervention in tuberculous herds permitted, but
it was eagerly sought for as the most desirable culmination for
the owner as well as for the state.

As to Dr. Pearson’s work in veterinary associations, sanitary
organizations ‘and live stock conventions, I have had many
opportunities for observation, and have always had occasion to
admire the confidence and dignity of his manner, as well as
the ability, clearness and comprehensiveness with which he

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Zeonard Pearson

 

 

treated his subjects, both in his formal addresses and papers
and in extemporaneous remarks. He was notably successful
in securing the attention, the sympathy and the confidence of
his audience. In all of these organizations he was a natural
leader, both in thought and in action.

In addition to all of this work, we know that Dr. Pearson
also found time to contribute to our stock of scientific knowledge
by observations and experimental investigations of great im-
portance. Of the thought which he gave to these experiments
and the care with which they were planned and carried out,
none but his most intimate friends can tell. The world knows
only the general results, but it does not know of the hours of
study and anxious care which were required to make these results
possible. On various occasions the writer discussed the details
of these experiments with Dr. Pearson, and, therefore, knows
something of what he hoped to accomplish by their continuation ;
but, at this time, it is only possible to express admiration for
the methods and surprise that one already overburdened with
administrative duties could devote so much time and mental
activity to original scientific investigations.

There was one service which Dr. Pearson rendered to his
country which is fixed in my mind with especial clearness.
When, in the autumn of 1902, word came to us at Washington
that foot-and-mouth disease existed in New England, that the
contagion was already widely disseminated and that the whole
country was threatened, and when it was of the greatest im-
portance to have quick and accurate information as to the
actual facts, he was one of the two men to whom this responsible
task was confided. That the diagnosis was speedy and accurate,
and that owing to this it was possible to avert the danger, are
matters of history which do not call for elaboration.

Dr. Pearson appeared upon the scene as a veterinarian at a
time when his services were greatly needed. Not only were
there the local problems to which allusion has been made, but
in the development of veterinary ideas and veterinary service

69
Jn Memoriam

in the country at large there was a great field, the cultivation
of which had already been delayed too long and for which the
laborers were all too few. He entered this field with zeal and
enthusiasm, and, coming with a thorough training and imbued
with the most advanced ideas, he was at once recognized as a
leader, and was for years one of the most influential, active and
useful members of his profession. The tasks which he accepted
for himself, especially the reconstruction of the veterinary school
and the organization of the veterinary sanitary service of the
state, did not admit of easy or procrastinating methods; it
was necessary to work at them intensely and constantly, year
after year, or to fail. He would not admit failure and he put
aside discouragement, working with all his energy until he
compelled success.

In thus striving, in ignoring the rebuffs and discouragements
which he so often encountered as but the inevitable incidents
that must be philosophically accepted, and throwing his whole
strength and energy into his efforts for the advancement of his
profession, he remained true to his early ideals and to his
original plan for their development. He had evidently de-
termined that nothing should deter him from the accomplish-
ment of those great purposes which he had in view from the
beginning of his professional career, and that there might be
no failure in the realization of these purposes, he gave to them
his whole time, his whole strength, his health and his life.
And, while we mourn his early death and are overcome with
sorrow at the thought that we shall forever miss the inspiration
of his presence and his wise counsels, let us rejoice that he
accomplished so much, that he was able to put his ideas on so
many subjects into concrete form, and that his influence will
endure for many years.

From Samvuet A. Pennypacker, Ex-Governor of Pennsylvania:

The acquirements and services of Dr. Pearson, of very great

benefit to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, extended her
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Leonard Pearson

 

 

reputation along certain lines of research and of practical work,
not only among other states of the American Union, but over
the world. In connection with the executive departments of
the state, he held three responsible positions requiring capacity,
learning of a special character, and that kind of tact for want
of which the efforts of able men so often fail to accomplish
results. In all three of them Dr. Pearson was eminently suc-
cessful. Originally appointed state veterinarian by Governor
Daniel H. Hastings, January 2, 1896, he was reappointed for
three terms of four years each by three successive governors,
and continued in that office until his death. At the time of
the organization of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, in
1896, he became its secretary and executive officer. The Depart-
ment of Health of Pennsylvania, organized in 1905, has been
recognized by the national government and by other states as
probably the most efficient in the country, and certainly as
unsurpassed by any other in what it has accomplished. Its
system of securing vital statistics is almost perfect. From the
beginning Dr. Pearson was one of its advisory board, where his
practical experience was of valuable assistance.

In the effort to suppress tuberculosis in cattle, some states
made the application of the tuberculin test compulsory. The
enforcement of such a law aroused much opposition from the
resident farmers, and in some instances led to the repeal of
the law. Dr. Pearson formulated a plan of codperation between
the farmers and the state which, designated as the Pennsylvania
method, has been accepted and followed in many other states.
Experience has shown that under this plan more tuberculin than
the state can supply has been demanded. By the Act of May 15,
1903, the state appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars “ for
the purpose of conducting investigations concerning the causes,
nature, treatment and prevention of the diseases of the domestic
animals of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and especially
for the investigation of tuberculosis of cattle.”

An experimental farm and laboratory were established in

71
Jn Memoriam

 

 

Delaware County, a herd of cattle was purchased and Dr.
Pearson there conducted investigations under the most favorable
conditions, resulting in great practical advantages. He dis-
covered a method of preventing tuberculosis among cattle by
a system similar to vaccination. He discovered the presence
in the United States of bacterial dysentery of cattle, a disease
known in Europe, but unknown on this side of the Atlantic
until found among cattle in Pennsylvania. He established a
state service for the inspection of meats which has done much
to prevent the sale of diseased food supplies. In 1905 he was
offered the position of Chief of Animal Industry of the United
States Department of Agriculture, but, after consultation with
the governor then in office, he declined to abandon his work in
Pennsylvania, where ample facilities had by this time been
afforded him.

In 1906 he attended a congress of veterinarians held in
Prussia, at which he was received as a distinguished representa-
tive and accorded exceptional honors.

In 1908 an outbreak of what is called the foot-and-mouth
disease, a virulent and contagious affection, occurring in Penn-
sylvania through the importation of a number of cattle from
New York, put an end to the exportation of cattle from that
state. Dr. Pearson took hold of the situation with such in-
telligence and energy that, although on account of the scattering
of the cattle the disease appeared almost simultaneously in
many different places, it was thoroughly eradicated within the
short period of five months.

The attainments and good judgment of Dr. Pearson led
men to place confidence in the correctness of his conclusions.
He was ever affable and courteous in his relations with all
people.

From Joun R. Monier, V.M.D., Chief of the Pathological
Laboratory, Bureau of Animal Industry:
By the sudden and lamented death of Dr. Leonard Pearson,
a great leader and an eminent authority in the ranks of the
72
Leonard Pearson

 

 

veterinary profession has fallen at the early age of forty-one
years. Although my late colleague had referred to his illness
for some time before his death, and had suffered greatly, yet
no one, not even himself, suspected that death was so near. He
was not only a brilliant worker in the field of veterinary science,
but a deep and earnest student of all problems of sanitary
medicine and of the live stock industry in this country. His
eminence as a teacher, investigator and sanitarian is known to
every veterinarian in North America and to all the leading
men of the profession abroad. With that tenacity of purpose
and unswerving loyalty to his friends and to every righteous
cause which he supported, he resolved always to put forth his
best effort. He was infused with the indomitable Puritan spirit,
which had descended to him from his ancestors, and which
formed a not unimportant element in his achievements. Veter-
inary science has of late years made immense progress. Within
the lifetime of Dr. Pearson it passed from a mere business to a
recognized and eminent profession, now acknowledged as essen-
tial not only to animal life, but to the health of the public;
and it was Dr. Pearson’s good fortune to assist in bringing in
this new era.

As a teacher, he occupied a foremost place in his profession,
and no one was more highly gifted with a general knowledge
of the branches of the science he taught. He was a good dis-
ciplinarian, but acted justly with all, and even the reckless
student never thought of taking a liberty with him. He was
profoundly respected among his students, all of whom felt the
benefit of his large experience and ripened knowledge, coupled
with common sense in great abundance. He possessed the
power of impressing his classes in a remarkable degree and was
an inspiration to those under his teaching. He had a high con-
ception of the profession of veterinary science, a true idea of
its importance to mankind, which he inculcated in the minds
of those whom he taught. His lectures were always marked
by a lucidity of style, geniality of expression, methodical arrange-
ment of ideas, and precision of statement which made them

73
Jn flemoriam

readily understood by his students. He gave his classes the
benefit of his extensive reading and of the most advanced teach-
ings of the Old World, with whose literature he kept himself
familiar through his ability to read the original works. His
kindly personality had a stimulating influence, enabling the
men to put forth their best efforts and to realize their ideals.
Mere contact with his strong and noble individuality was an
educational stimulus of the highest order. He possessed qual-
ities which inspired his students to pure living and high think-
ing, which expressed themselves in acts of mutual confidence,
helpfulness and sympathy. He gave of his counsel most un-
grudgingly, and of his time unsparingly and unselfishly to all
who consulted him. Dr. Pearson possessed both the knowledge
of the scientist and the rare faculty of the successful teacher,
implanting in his students a desire to progress, an eagerness
to discover and to delve deeply into the hidden fields of knowl-
edge. They have always valued his instruction and have taken
great pride in his many achievements and the well-deserved
honors that came to him unsolicited. He was a pioneer of his
time, continually urging us forward, pointing out the way to
success, and swaying us in the proper direction by his influence.
We all possess a feeling of deep gratitude toward him and a
great sense of personal loss and of profound sorrow.

As a colleague, his great experience, sound knowledge and
clear logical intelligence rendered his advice most valuable. He
was admired and respected alike for his genial personal qualities,
his sound scientific instincts and accomplishments, his remark-
able memory, his organizing abilities, and his marvellous ca-
pacity for hard and continuous effort. The offices which he
held came to him because of universal recognition of his eminent
fitness for the duties by virtue of his talents, his great ver-
satility and his devotion to duty, in which he was unremitting
and enduring. He had established his position as one of the
master minds connected with the problems of veterinary science.
His active perception, his quickness and firmness of decision,

74
Leonard Pearson

his wide experience and sterling ability were ever at the call
of his colleagues. His activities were for the benefit of his
country as well as of the profession with which he was identified.

To a few it is given to make life steadily productive, to make
one’s self a factor in more than one important cause, to be at
the centre of many and useful activities without ostentation,
presumption or notoriety. Dr. Pearson was so distinguished.
During his student life, and subsequently, he acquired both
in this country and abroad a vast amount of knowledge in
various branches of science, which by virtue of his natural
ability enabled him to become an original investigator, prolific
writer and brilliant educator. Possessing at the same time
exceptional executive ability and natural intuition, he was able
to cope with public questions in a masterly manner.

His contributions to veterinary literature, which were always
of interest and value, are far too numerous to specify individually.
The first, entitled “Muscular Coats of the Cisophagus of
Domesticated Animals,” appeared in January, 1888, when a
student at Cornell, while the last completed publication, en-
titled “The Vaccination of Cattle Against Tuberculosis,” was
presented at the recent International Tuberculosis Congress,
before Section 7%, of which he was given the distinguished
place of honor as president. His services as president of the
local, the state and the American Veterinary Medical Association
are too well known to need comment. In all these positions,
and as a useful member of many other learned societies, he
added much to the progress and development of his chosen pro-
fession. The veterinarians in general, and the citizens of Penn-
sylvania in particular, are indebted to him for the passage of
the excellent Pennsylvania state meat inspection law, and also
for securing the appropriations which made possible the con-
struction and maintenance of the new veterinary department
of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the purchase of
a state experimental farm and the administration of the work
of the Live Stock Sanitary Board, of which, as state veter-

75
Jn PMemoriam

 

 

inarian, he was secretary. He will always be remembered for
his indefatigable efforts in stamping out foot-and-mouth disease
from Pennsylvania last winter, and for his work on tuberculosis,
which may result in the solution of the tuberculosis problem.
He was among the first to prove that immunity to this disease
could be secured by vaccination, but his work along this line was
left unfinished. By his death we miss a brilliant man of science,
a loyal colleague and a warm supporter of the veterinary pro-
fession.

As a friend, Leonard Pearson will never be forgotten. He
was amiable, true to his associates and to all his obligations,
earnest, diplomatic and sturdy in the maintenance of principles.
To thousands the announcement of his death brought a sense
of personal bereavement. He was unswervingly faithful to his
friends and was of a helpful, hopeful nature. He possessed
much personal magnetism, through which he established a sym-
pathetic bond with all his friends. It is only those who have
been intimately associated with him who can appreciate to the
full his value and the really great work he has accomplished. He
was endowed with a genial and lovable disposition and was a
man of integrity and most exemplary habits. His love and
devotion to his brothers and sisters, and especially to his mother,
were beautiful traits of his character, and the untimely close
of his career was unfortunately far removed from that domestic
association which was undoubtedly one of his chief pleasures
in life.

He earned his way forward, and those whose relations
with him were exclusively official came soon to know almost as
well as his friends how every step of that progress was a reward
for an unusual accuracy and trustworthiness and a personality
as strong and sincere as it was gentle. He stood modestly, but
earnestly and effectively, for the larger and better veterinary
profession. Further, he had placed himself abreast of the
progressive movement in veterinary science, and his death is a
distinct loss to that movement. It will be regarded as such

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Leonard Prargon

 

 

by all who knew him, and will be felt with especial keenness
by that large body of our profession who looked upon him as
one of the foremost of their representatives. His pleasure in
rendering assistance or loaning the power of his ever helping
hand was always manifest, and won for him much favor and
many friends. Kind-hearted, thoughtful and considerate, when
his advice was sought he displayed rare resourcefulness and
conscientiousness. His wide knowledge, his wisdom and tact,
his unselfish generosity and love of justice, will keep his
memory green forever with all those who have enjoyed the
privilege of his friendship.

From Lawrence F. Frrcx, M.D., Former Director of the Henry
Phipps Institute:

Dr. Leonard Pearson was an honorary member of the staff
of the Henry Phipps Institute, where his great intellect and
many noble qualities endeared him to the rest of the staff. His
loss affects each individually as well as the world at large.

When the Phipps Institute began its work it invited a number
of prominent workers in the tuberculosis field from different
parts of the world to Philadelphia to give a course of lectures
on the various phases of tuberculosis, with a view to stimulating
interest in the subject. One of the men invited was Maragliano,
of Genoa, Italy, who had attracted the attention of the world
for some time by his claims for the serum which he had dis-
covered. Dr. Maragliano did not deliver his lecture in person,
but had it read by proxy. It was specifically stated in that
lecture that it is possible to produce a specific therapy for tuber-
culosis, that it is possible to immunize animals against tuber-
culosis, and that there is good reason to hope for an anti-
tuberculosis vaccination for man.

As these claims necessitated a further inquiry into the subject
of immunization in tuberculosis by the institute, it was decided
to send Dr. M. P. Ravenel and Dr. Leonard Pearson to Europe
to study the entire subject for the benefit of the medical pro-

17
Fu Memoriam

 

 

fession in the United States. Accordingly, these gentlemen left
for Europe in the summer of 1904, Dr. M. P. Ravenel going
to Italy and Dr. Leonard Pearson to Germany, England and
Belgium.

Dr. Leonard Pearson’s report was published in the second
annual report of the Henry Phipps Institute, in 1906, under
the heading of “A Review of Recent Investigations and Ob-
servations Upon the Immunization of Animals Against Tuber-
culosis.” In this report he gives a complete picture of the sub-
ject of immunization against tuberculosis, using much of his
own work for building up the picture. He handled the subject
in a masterful way.

The facts gathered and reported by Dr. M. P. Ravenel and
Dr. Leonard Pearson left in doubt the value of Maragliano’s
serum as a practical remedy in tuberculosis, but threw much
light upon the subject of immunization. They pointed the way
for further study and called attention to the part which in-
vestigators in the United States had played in the elucidation
of the subject.

Dr. Leonard Pearson was one of the most original and
painstaking investigators in the tuberculosis field, in his own
country and in the world. He had a strong instinct for truth
and always brought a logical mind to its pursuit. The crusade
against tuberculosis has indeed lost in him one of its noblest
workers.

From W. Horace Hosxins, D.V.S., Lecturer and Demon-
strator of Veterinary Jurisprudence, Ethics and Busi-
ness Methods, University of Pennsylvania:

During his period of service as dean of the Pennsylvania
Veterinary School, the school maintained a high standard and
a curriculum that was one of the broadest in the land. Largely
through his personal efforts, aided by the profession in the
state, whose admiration and appreciation he fully enjoyed, he
obtained state aid toward the erection and completion of build-

78
Leonard Pearson

 

 

ings for the veterinary school that promise to make it, in equip-
ment and teaching facilities, unsurpassed in the world. As
teacher and instructor, his wide range of experience, his exten-
sive investigations in the field of original work among animal
diseases, with the happy faculty of conveying this knowledge
to others, impressing strongly the student mind, he rendered
services of special value to the profession, and many states and
many people in our land are reaping a rich reward through
the efficient work done by alumni of this school which he so
successfully directed.

As secretary of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, he so
organized the work of this section of the Department of Agri-
culture that the methods and plans of dealing with animal
diseases have become favorably known as the Pennsylvania
system. Under his direction this department developed plans
for dealing with contagious and infectious diseases that have
saved the people of our commonwealth from untold losses. The
better scientific study of the causes and methods of dealing
with these diseases has been materially added to, at the same
time eliminating the inaccurate and misleading theories and
methods that prevailed.

The establishment of a state farm where many of the impor-
tant infectious and contagious diseases are being studied under
farm conditions, and methods developed whereby they may be
controlled and eradicated, was made possible by his efforts.
Though but a few years in existence, it has added a wealth of
valuable knowledge to the more accurate study of these diseases,
determined the practical value of vaccination for tuberculosis
in cattle, and settled many obscure points in that ever-present
and all-important malady. His discovery of the true nature of
the disease long described under the synonyms of spinal menin-
gitis, cerebrospinal meningitis, putrid sore throat, spotted fever,
and many other equally indefinite names, and the placing of it
under the single nomenclature of “ forage poisoning,” has added
to the knowledge of its control and methods of prevention which

79
Jn femoriam

 

 

means a great saving to those engaged in equine animal in-
dustry.

Under his directing hand a meat hygienic service was estab-
lished in Pennsylvania which has returned to the state untold
benefits, and is rapidly developing public sentiment in favor of
municipal and local meat inspection. In establishing this
system he brought forcibly to the attention of the people of
Pennsylvania the fact that the federal inspection service of our
land covered about forty-five per cent. of our animal food
supply, and that there was but slight protection to the remaining
fifty-five per cent. He showed also that the large cities of our
state, in consuming meats principally from the great killing
centres of the West, were favored to the added danger of those
who lived in the small towns, where no inspection service
existed.

Much of the increased interest among breeders of pure-bred
animals in our state is due to his active interest in animal in-
dustry, and the establishment of the present stallion inspection
service and register in our state was strongly urged and ad-
vocated by Dr. Pearson in the legislature of 1907. This measure
has already borne good fruit and given a new impetus to horse-
breeding in our state, as well as afforded the breeder accurate
knowledge of the blood lines of the animals that stand for
public service. The more accurate determination of the part
heredity plays in the transmission of predisposition to certain
unsoundness is a subject he strongly recommended to the atten-
tion of the various breeders’ associations of our state. In all
the world he justly earned for himself a place among the
leading “ animal engineers.”

In 1907 his alma mater, in recognition of the splendid work
done in the veterinary sanitary control service and of his achieve-
ment on behalf of higher medicine, conferred upon him the
honorary degree of doctor of medicine. It can be truly said
that no more worthy honor was ever bestowed by our state
university, and in no case was it more justly earned by earnest,

80
Leonard Pearson

 

 

successful work, fidelity to great principles and the faithful dis-
charge of the most exacting obligations.

As a delegate from the United States to the two last inter-
national congresses on tuberculosis held abroad, his work on
animal tuberculosis was of such import as to attract world-wide
attention, and, as a result of this splendid work, at the recent
congress held in Washington, D. C., he was given the distin-
guished place of honor at the head of this section of this
greatest of congresses.

He helpfully filled the position of president of the Keystone,
Pennsylvania and American veterinary medical associations,
adding to their better growth and advancement. His contribu-
tions on many aspects of veterinary science and education have
attracted universal attention and consideration.

Pleasant and affable in manner, generous in nature, thought-
ful of others at all times, he has won a coveted place among
the members of his adopted vocation. In the discharge of
great responsibilities, a full measure of which he always accepted,
he has “made good,” and a nation’s people has become his
debtor.

From Gzorcre B. Jonson, Veterinarian, Ex-President Pennsyl-
vania State Veterinary Medical Association:

It is beyond the power of the writer to express the feeling
of gloom and sense of intense loss upon being apprised of the
sudden death of our beloved friend, Dr. Leonard Pearson. Com-
ing at a time when we had fondly hoped that his vacation would
be the means of restoring him again to health, with the ability
to resume his duties, the sad news of his sudden demise, shatter-
ing these happy expectations, was a severe shock to his friends.

An indefatigable worker, his life was spent on the altar of
service for the good of the state in his chosen line of work.
In his profession he was recognized as a leader, both in this
country and in Europe. The state of Pennsylvania owes him
much, it being very largely through his efforts that she occupies

6 81
Fu Memoriam

 

 

the position which she now does of the leading state of the
Union in veterinary sanitation for the protection of the public
health. Again, the appropriations for the veterinary school in
Philadelphia, which when completed promises to be the best
equipped veterinary school on this continent, were made by the
several legislatures almost entirely on Dr. Pearson’s representa-
tion and because of the confidence which the legislators had in
his judgment and ability as dean of the faculty.

A thoroughly good judge of farm stock and its management,
outside of the veterinary profession, no class of citizens will
miss him so much as the farmers of this commonwealth, his
counsel and advice on the breeding and management of stock
being eagerly sought for by them. At stockbreeders’ meetings
no speaker was more welcome than Dr. Pearson.

While the public at large recognized the ability of our be-
loved friend and the commanding position which he occupied
as the leader in his profession, it was the sterling qualities of
the mind and heart which endeared him to his intimate asso-
ciates. Sympathetic and affectionate, he was ever ready to listen
to and to help those who were unfortunate or in distress. Loyal
and true to his friends, patient and considerate to those who
sorely tried his patience, he was one of nature’s noblemen, and
in his death we mourn the loss of one of the brightest lights
in the veterinary profession, as well as a tried and true friend.

From BERNHARD Bane, Professor at the Royal Veterinary and
Agricultural College, at Copenhagen, Denmark, and

Chief Veterinarian to the Danish Government:
He was a good and a wise man, and I loved him sincerely.
I am highly indebted to him not only for the warm interest he
always took in my studies in tuberculosis, but for the great kind-
ness he always has shown to me. I venture to believe that he
considered me a personal friend, just as J had the same feeling
for him. It is one of the greatest pleasures in our life to get
true friends, even if they live far away, so that we rarely see

82
Zeonard Pearson

them. I have had the great fortune to get friends in different
countries, but Dr. Pearson was one of the best. I therefore feel
it as a great sorrow that I shall never meet him again. I
considered it a great fortune that I could spend some little
time in his company last year, and I shall always remember his
great kindness to me most thankfully.

From A. Liaurarp, M.D., V.M., editor of American Veterinary
Review:

I love Pearson. I watched his work, his progress, his success
—everything in him. He worked so hard. His efforts were so
congenial with the work of my days in America. And then he
deserved so much for what he did. The state of Pennsylvania
has lost one of her best sons. The veterinary profession will
for a long time to come miss him, one of her strongest supports.

From the Faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine of the
George Washington University:

Individually and as a faculty we mourn, with the family and
the veterinary profession throughout the world, the loss of an
unexcelled leader whose efforts and results in the rapid progress
of our profession will ever stand as a memoriam which will not
grow less as generations come and go.

From the American Veterinary Review, for March, 1910:

All the veterinary publications of Europe have expressed their
regrets and given proper obituary notices for the loss that the
profession in the United States has sustained in the death of
our dear departed friend, Dr. Leonard Pearson.

There is no person whose privilege it was to have known the
late Leonard Pearson but who gauged his ability above that
of the average man and thoroughly appreciated the masterly
work he was doing in veterinary and sanitary medicine; but
few there are who could have measured the extent to which
his plans were projecting into the future, while he was per-

83
Jn fAemoriam

—

forming his duties in the present. Now that he has passed
into the golden realms of immortality, his mortal plans are
being gradually unfolded by thobe into whose keeping his
precious legacy has passed.

The new buildings of the veterinary school at Philadelphia,
of which he was dean, were planned by him, and, while he
was called to his Maker long before their completion, yet he
had carefully planned every detail, so that as the work goes
on from time to time it is making material the creation of
his fertile mind.

In many instances the uses for which he had designed certain
parts of the buildings had not presented themselves at the time
of his death, and are now coming into evidence as such occasions
as he had anticipated present themselves. An example is the
dinner given by the Keystone Veterinary Medical Association
to the two gentlemen who have succeeded him as dean of the
veterinary school and as state veterinarian, which was held in
Alumni Hall, a room in the veterinary building “planned by
Dr. Pearson for just such occasions,” as was feelingly remarked
by Dr. John Marshall at that dinner.

Another impressive example of the fruition of his plans was
the congregation, upon the campus and within the buildings
of the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, in the first
days of February, of the Pennsylvania Live Stock Breeders’
Association and the Pennsylvania Dairy Union. Not only were
these two important organizations in session within the buildings
of the veterinary school, but had with them an exhibition of
several breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and even a
variety of fruit. With his broad conception of things, Dr.
Pearson had appreciated the mutual advantages that must accrue
from such an arrangement. The great benefit to the student
body of that school that must result from the presence of the
farm animals and the association with those bodies of men
familiar with their care, habits, and various productive qual-
ities is pleasant to contemplate. He had, however, more than

84
Leonard Pearson

— —o

 

that in mind. He realized the benefits to the veterinary pro-
fession that must result from the stockman’s becoming some-
what familiar with what constitutes a veterinary school, its
course of construction, equipment, etc.

He had planned to have those organizations meet there, just
as they did last month, calculating for their accommodation in
the plans of the veterinary building. Fruition! Ah, but who
can measure the extent of the fruition? It certainly is not
measured by the benefits derived by that student body through
the presence of those organizations and the live stock exhibit
in their midst, and the benefit to the veterinary profession and
the stockman because the latter has conceived hy his visit to
that institution a higher regard for the veterinarian, much as
that means. No; it will continue to bear fruit by a perpetua-
tion of such a custom in that institution and by its emulation
by others, and is beyond calculation.

The Live Stock Breeders’ Association, of which Dr. Pearson
was vice-president, and the Pennsylvania Dairy Union paid
their respects to his memory in a memorial service on the even-
ing of February 2 at Houston Hall, just as respect is paid to
his memory and his name revered whenever or wherever there
is a congregation of veterinarians. These two examples of
the fruits of the labor of this great man, which are being har-
vested by the profession in whose fields he so earnestly and
unselfishly labored, are infinitesimal as compared with what the
vineyards of the future hold in store for them; but they will,
perhaps, serve to remind the great army to which he belonged
of their everlasting obligation to him and to stimulate its mem-
bers to higher ideals.

From Veterinary Notes, for December, 1909:

In the recent death of Dr. Pearson the veterinary profession
has lost one of its brightest ornaments—a man of world-wide
reputation and of distinguished services. He was greatly missed
last September at the Chicago meeting of the American Veter-

85
Jn Hemoriam

 

 

inary Medical Association, but those in attendance little realized
the permanent loss which was 80 soon to be suffered by them.

Dr. Pearson had seriously impaired his health from overwork,
and last spring had decided that he must have a complete rest.
Just about that time he was nearly asphyxiated in efforts to
save his mother’s life when she had been overcome by gas from
a stove in her private room. Altogether his constitution was
so undermined that he decided on a trip to Newfoundland.
There, after some months had passed, he died on September 20.
It is thought that the cause of his death was heart disease.

Dr. Pearson was born in 1868 in Indiana. In 1888 he was
graduated from the agricultural course in Cornell University,
and in 1890 from the veterinary department of the University
of Pennsylvania. During 1890-91 he attended lectures in the
veterinary schools of Berlin and Dresden and studied bacteri-
ology in Koch’s laboratory. In September, 1891, he returned to
this country, and was elected assistant professor of the theory
and practice of veterinary medicine at the University of Penn-
sylvania. Three years later he was promoted to a full professor-
ship, and later on was made dean of the veterinary school.

Dr. Pearson was chiefly known, indeed, as the dean of this
great school of veterinary medicine, and, in addition to this, as
the state veterinarian of Pennsylvania. His activities were
exerted, however, in many other directions. For five years he
had been a member of the Board of Health of Philadelphia and
a member also of the advisory board of the State Department
of Health. At the time of his death he was the representative
for North and South America on the permanent board of the
International Veterinary Congress. He had served for two terms
as president of the Pennsylvania State Veterinary Association
and the Keystone Veterinary Society. He was president of the
American Veterinary Association in 1899-1900. He was presi-
dent of Section 7 of the International Congress on Tuberculosis
which was held during September and October of last year in
Washington. He was a member of the Guernsey Cattle Club

86
Leonard Pearson

 

of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State Breeders’ Association,
the Pennsylvania State Dairy Union, the Pennsylvania State
Grange, the American Public Health Association, the Patho-
logical Society, and the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. Pearson had been abroad on several occasions as a repre-
sentative either of his profession or of the government, attend-
ing meetings of such bodies as the International Veterinary
Congress, the International Tuberculosis Congress, and the In-
ternational Congress of Hygiene and Demography. He had
visited nearly all of the veterinary schools of Europe, some of
them many times, and he had a wide acquaintance with leading
foreign veterinarians and veterinary systems. First appointed
state veterinarian in 1895 by Governor Hastings, he had been
successively reappointed by three other governors, and for some
years previous to his death he had been secretary of the State
Board, and in this capacity had directed its veterinary and
executive work.

At the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical
Association, held September 7, 1910, the following reso-
lutions were adopted:

Wuereas, It has pleased Almighty God in His infinite wis-
dom to remove from our midst our friend, co-worker and
fellow-member, Leonard Pearson, therefore be it

Resolved, That in his death this association mourns the loss
of a valued member, each member of the association mourns
the loss of a personal friend and co-worker, and that the pro-
fession in general has suffered the loss of one zealous for and
active in its upbuilding; and be it further

Resolved, That we extend to the family of our departed
member the assurance of our sincere and heartfelt sympathy in
our common bereavement, and that a copy of these resolutions
be spread upon the records.

A. D. Meuvin, President
Ricuarp P. Lyman, Secretary
87
Jn HAemoriam

 

 

The following was presented by Dr. Hoskins at the meeting of
the American Veterinary Medical Association, held
September 5 to 9, 1910, San Francisco:

Leonard Pearson, devoted student, successful graduate, skilled
practitioner, able instructor, patient investigator, eminent public
official, true diplomat, profound teacher, sincere friend, strenu-
ously consecrating his life to the broader development of veter-
inary science. ‘Thrice blessed indeed is the field of any work
for such a man. Stricken indeed, injured beyond the hope of
repair, must be the cause, in the loss of such a helper. Timely
is the occasion to pay tribute to such a fallen leader. He was
not a man without honor in his own country, for he was as
deeply loved and admired by those who were closely associated
with him in service as he was honored and appreciated by those
at home and abroad who were permitted from time to time to
realize and measure the progress of his work, and gaze upon
the magnificent plans he unfolded to the world as the triumphant
march of veterinary progress. Simplicity and gentleness were
as much a part of his daily life among men as were the earnest
work, untiring energy, and deep devotion to every aspect of the
field of veterinary science, to which he added the touch of
progress, advancement and achievements that seemed to be
boundless in their limits. His childhood days were idealistic,
spent in great part in the loving companionship and tutoring
of his saintly mother, for whom he maintained until his un-
timely death the most profound devotion, tenderest solicitude
and loving attention, and in his own life was reflected the
gentleness and simplicity that so markedly characterized his
attitude toward all with whom he daily came in close com-
munication.

His work as an instructor will never die, for men will
ever emulate his rich and exemplary life. His fortitude
and forbearance will ever be remembered and the softening and
benign influences will continue to spread their soothing unction

88
Leonard Pearson

—
—

 

over the body of men who honor and revere his name. As an
investigator his splendid contributions to the field of original
research will ever be a beacon light to the true investigator and
a stimulus to the genius of others, for he ever loved to share
the glory and renown of his achievements with those who in
some part contributed to their successful attainment. As a true
diplomat he had accomplished in his adopted state a work in
the field of veterinary sanitary control excelled by no sister
state of our Union and scarcely equalled by any other. Legis-
lative bodies would come and go; state officials would fulfil
their terms of office and others would succeed them; he won
them all in their turn to his cause, and each successive change
was marked by greater achievement, broader lines of work and
stronger pecuniary support to the work he advocated and opened
up for the welfare of the people of the commonwealth of Penn-
sylvania, and established a system that has been many times
deservedly honored by the name of the Pennsylvania system.

Untiring and ceaseless were his labors for our common calling.
The goal he sought seemed ever to be just beyond, like the ignis
fatuus, and he bent every energy that he might hasten its
accomplishment. Strong and brilliant in mind, powerful and
resourceful in his physical strength, bearing the burdens of
many, sharing the labors of all with whom he worked and
labored, he tried all these powers to the breaking point, and in
the seeming hour of his greatest strength, with a more restful
period beyond, he paid the penalty of an overtaxed mind and
body, and his own state, our country, a nation’s profession,
witnessed the fall of the ablest and greatest leader of his day
and generation that our profession has known. As an in-
vestigator we owe him a lasting debt of gratitude. We owe him
much for the splendid methods he inaugurated. A state farm,
where, under ordinary conditions, the many unsolved problems
of our long list of contagious and infectious diseases might be
more successfully studied, was one of the earliest of his plans.

89
Jn fAemoriam

f

 

To Pennsylvania he rendered services of untold value, and when
successfully applied there, he modestly, without any ostentatious
display, gave the results of his work to the entire field. He
gave the name of forage poisoning to one of our most disastrous
diseases by proving that it belonged in that category for its
development, and brushed away the mystery of that disease, as
well as the confusion engendered by the names of cerebrospinal
meningitis, spinal meningitis, spotted fever, putrid sore throat,
ete. A successful practical method of vaccinating cattle, where-
by immunity might be given to the greatest and most destructive
enemy of our dairies, tuberculosis, made its richest and best
progress under his directing mind, while methods for its better
control, without disturbing the equanimity of a people, found
successful fruition at his hands.

At the annual meeting of the Society of the Alumni of the
School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of
Pennsylvania, held June 15, 1910, Dr. John W. Adams
offered the following resolution, which was unanimously
adopted :

During the past year we have suffered an unexpected and
almost irreparable loss in the death of our late fellow-alumnus
and colleague, Leonard Pearson, B.S., Cornell University, 1888,
V.D.S., University of Pennsylvania, 1890, M.D., Causa Honoris,
1908, Professor of Principles and Practice of Comparative Medi-
cine and Dean of the Veterinary School, University of Penn-
sylvania, Secretary of the Pennsylvania State Live Stock
Sanitary Board, State Veterinarian of Pennsylvania. Occupy-
ing with marked distinction at various times during his all too
short career nearly every position of leadership and trust in
the gift of his fellow co-laborers, in the zenith of his life, with
honor and opportunity of greater accomplishments crowding
thick upon him, he has been taken from us. He has left
enduring monuments of his wisdom and untiring energy in
this, our own veterinary school, which he loved so dearly; in

90
Leonard Pearson

 

 

the magnificently organized Pennsylvania system of veterinary
control; and, more enduring and of vastly greater import, he
has lived his strong, pure, hopeful, wholesome, helpful, inspiring
life in our midst and impressed his splendid personality upon
all who knew him intimately.

The society does hereby gratefully acknowledge its great in-
debtedness and its profound sorrow, and records this slight
tribute to our late brother, Leonard Pearson.

The following resolution was adopted by the Veterinary Faculty
of the University of Pennsylvania:

The strange mutations of Providence have stricken down, in
the seeming hour of his greatest strength, our acknowledged
leader, esteemed colleague, and fellow-worker, Leonard Pearson.
At noonday of his greatest usefulness and most serious need,
he has paid the final summons to the last sleep.

To this school, for whose advancement he knew no limit of
service, his profession, to which he brought the highest honors
and greatest progress, his fellow-workers, to whom he brought a
rich measure of reward for services well done, and to the well-
being of all mankind, he added much to make life better worth
living. Personally rich in the precious gifts of a kindly dis-
position, a genial manner, a charming grace, and the deepest
love for his fellow-man, his career among us stands out a
shining example of a life well lived, and a companionship too
short, too early severed.

Preciously indeed must the coming years enhance the priv-
ilege to have been numbered among his friends. Exemplary as
were his character and stewardship, stronger and better must
our service be in our common field of labor, that he shall not
have lived in vain. Sweet and enduring the memories of his
untiring zeal and fidelity, enshrined in our safekeeping, to open
up to us a higher sense of duty and consecrated services, for
which he labored and toiled.

In the evening shadows of our deep sorrow, as we record

91
Jn Hemoriam

 

 

this minute of our great loss, we are sustained by the spirit of
him for whom we mourn, and out of the mist and shadows let
us endeavor to discern the pathway which he would have us
tread.

The trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, having learned
with sorrow of the death of Dr. Leonard Pearson, M.D.,
V.M.D., Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine,
adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That in the death of Leonard Pearson the university
mourns the loss of one of her best-known and most active pro-
fessors, and the veterinary department its foremost and ablest
member, one to whose energy, decision of character and fore-
sight is in a great measure due the material advancement of
the veterinary profession in the United States.

Straightforward in all his undertakings, frank, courteous, and
genial in his manner to all, he ever held to the high principle
that the best should be the standard for his vocation, and
devoted his life to that end. His name will be one of the
memories of the veterinary profession in America, and the
buildings which he was instrumental in obtaining, his lasting
monument.

The following resolution was adopted by the General Alumni
Society of the University of Pennsylvania:

WHEREAS, By the death of Dr. Leonard Pearson, the General
Alumni Society, University of Pennsylvania, has suffered the
loss of one who was for many years a vice-president of the
society, representing the veterinary school, and

Wuereas, The General Alumni Society was benefited in
association with Dr. Pearson, a man of strong personality, skill
as a veterinarian, and possessing marked enthusiasm for the
University of Pennsylvania, therefore be it

Resolved, That the General Alumni Society record sentiments
of deep sorrow; and that expressions of sincere sympathy be

92
Zeonard Pearson

tendered Dr. Pearson’s mother; and, further, that these resolu-
tions be published in the university periodicals.

At a regular meeting of the Veterinary Medical Society of the
University of Pennsylvania, held December 17, 1909,
the following resolution was adopted:

Wuerzas, Almighty God in His wisdom has removed from
us our beloved and esteemed honorary president, Dr. Leonard
Pearson, who organized and founded the Veterinary Medical
Society of the University of Pennsylvania, and who by his
kindly and able advice contributed so largely to the good and
welfare of this society, therefore be it

Resolved, That the officers and members of the Veterinary
Medical Society of the University of Pennsylvania do hereby
express their profound sorrow and deep sense of loss sustained
by the death of Dr. Leonard Pearson, and that a copy of this
resolution be placed upon the records of this society, also a copy
be presented to his bereaved mother.

Joun N. RosensBercer, President

Puit H. Fuustow, Secretary

Wittiam §. GIMPER
Committee « Wittiam H. Ivens

Hue W. Barnes

The following resolution was adopted by the School of Agricul-
ture and Experiment Station of the Pennsylvania State
College:

WuereEas, Death has removed from the midst of his useful
career, Dr. Leonard Pearson, State Veterinarian of this Com-
monwealth, and Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine of
the University of Pennsylvania, who has frequently rendered
valuable aid to the work of the School of Agriculture of the
Pennsylvania State College,

Resolved, That the members of the School of Agriculture
hereby express their deep sense of loss at Dr. Pearson’s death,

93
Jn fMemoriam

 

and their high appreciation of his noble character and of the
value of his services to the state in his able management of his
responsible office, and to the profession of veterinary medicine,
to which he devoted himself with lofty ideals, and tireless
energy as a fruitful investigator, an inspiring teacher, and a
courageous organizer.

The Royal Hungarian Veterinary College of Budapest sent this
letter :

C. J. MarsHa.t, Esq.,
Philadelphia.
Dear Sir:

The Teaching Body of the Royal Hungarian Veterinary
College of Budapest, at the sitting of the 8th of last month,
took note, with sincere sorrow, of the unexpected decease of
Professor Leonard Pearson. The sad event made upon the
members an impression all the more painful from the fact that
the deceased gentleman, though so young, had already rendered
to science distinguished services; they feel, too, that in him
they have lost a colleague whose genial personality endeared
him to all who met him.

On behalf of the teaching body, whose condolences I am
empowered to express, I beg that these condolences may be
duly taken note of and imparted to the teaching body of the
veterinary college at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tam, Dear Sir, yours faithfully,
Franz Hotyra.

The following resolutions were adopted by the State Board of
Agriculture of Pennsylvania:

Resolved, That the State Board of Agriculture profoundly
regret the death of Dr. Leonard Pearson, late veterinary surgeon
of this board, and extend to the family of the deceased sincere
condolence in their bereavement.

Resolved, That we are deeply conscious of the loss sustained

94
Leonard Pearson

 

 

by his death, and desire to bear witness of his sterling worth
as a man, his integrity and ability as an official, and his
courtesy and fidelity toward those with whom he was here asso-
ciated.

Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the minutes,
and that a copy of these resolutions, with the action of the
board, be forwarded to the family of the deceased by the
secretary of the board.

S. S. BiyHonpeEr, Chairman
M. P. SHOEMAKER
MarrHew Ropeers

The following resolution was adopted by the Keystone Veterinary
Medical Association, November 9, 1909:

Out of the seeming unknown there ever comes forth at times
of a nation’s great needs men strong and specially fitted for
distinguished services for a country’s people.

Into the domain of veterinary science there stepped, in the
early nineties, one whose taking away we now mourn with a
deeper sadness and keener appreciation of a greater loss than
has ever fallen upon the profession of our land.

With all the priceless heritage of a mother’s training and
education, and the filial devotion that steadfastly sustained him
through life, he grew up with all the charm of a loving and
sweet disposition, the kindliest of manner and most considerate
forethought for others, and passed from our midst too soon,
more widely lamented than the boundaries of our own country.

With a wonderfully trained mind, he portrayed the future
of veterinary science, and fashioned his own life work to com-
plete the structure that he conceived.

Endowed by nature with great physical powers, he labored
with incessant zeal, unmindful of the inexorable laws of rest
and work, straining his wonderful storehouse of strength to the
breaking limit, that he might compass the magnificent plans,
constantly unfolding from his great creative mind.

95
gn flemoriam

 

 

Blessed are they who were privileged to bask in the sunshine
of his life, for he ever lifted men to higher planes of service
and of usefulness. Enduring must ever be the memories of
his crowded life of rich tributes to his profession. Nameless
and unnumbered the little acts of kindness and of love his
bounty spread on every side.

May we in this hour of irreparable loss find, in the example
of his life of unselfish devotion to our interests, a firmer bond
of union that will make for our calling a progress and devotion
as a fitting monument for the blessings he gave, in some measure
a testimonial of our esteem and admiration.

Joining with those who were bound to him with ties of
blood and loving affection, we mingle our sorrow with theirs,
sincerely trusting that they may to some degree be sustained
by increasing realizations of greater and greater achievements
and more widespread influence and progress of our profession
that received at his mind and hands the stimulating touch of
genius and of power. W. H. Ripge

W. L. Reopzs
W. Horacr Hoskins

The following resolution was adopted by the Pennsylvania State
Veterinary Medical Association, March 8, 1910:

Simplicity is one of the greatest charms of man’s nature;
modesty ever sets as a jewel of the most brilliant radiance;
loyalty to purpose and to friends is the sweetest attraction of
which one may be possessed; faith in others, forbearance under
failure, are the richest qualities of the fellowship of man. Of
such were the best parts of Leonard Pearson’s life, that charmed
every member of the Pennsylvania State Veterinary Medical
Association.

These were the attributes of his remarkable career, that will
live in our memories so long as veterinary science stands in
our commonwealth among the galaxy of sciences.

96
Leonard Pearson

The theatre of his actions is represented by the stage of
advancement of agriculture, of the wealth of animal industry,
of the growth of comparative medicine, of the worth of sanitary
control work, of veterinary progress at home and abroad.

While a nation mourns his loss, and sister nations of the
earth pay splendid and well-deserved tributes to his great achieve-
ments, this state, this association, the centre of his richest and
best work, is crushed by the realization day by day of their
great and irreparable loss.

Let us, in this hour of his untimely passing away, build a
monument to his memory, by a closer commingling and a firmer
determination to rear here, for veterinary medicine, the great
structure his masterly mind conceived, the plans and speci-
fications his creative genius fashioned and bequeathed to us,
as the final acts of his beautiful but crowded life.

To his devoted mother, his aggrieved sisters and brothers,
may we link with their sorrow our sincere sympathies and
pledge our devotion to the completion of his consummately
skilled plans, as a testimonial of the place he filled in our
hearts.

The following resolutions were adopted by the Pathological
Society of Philadelphia:

In the death of Dr. Leonard Pearson there has been lost to
science a worker widely and honorably known, to this state and
community an untiring, efficient and sound-minded medical
official, to his profession and school a warm-hearted, sympathetic
and beloved colleague and teacher, and to this organization an
associate whose membership had reflected honor upon the
society and whose participation in our work was uniformly
profitable, illuminating and inspiring. Typifying in ideal
manner the dignified modesty of the truly great, he has by his
force of character, his spirit of advancement, his readiness to
serve and his innate and great ability, proved his right to be spe-
cially honored by those who have known him. Therefore, be it

7 97
Ju #Memoriam
Resolved, By the Pathological Society of Philadelphia to set
aside a page in its records for this minute, expressive of our
sense of loss in the death of Leonard Pearson, our sincere sorrow
and our sympathy with his dear ones in their bereavement.
ALLEN J. SMITH
W. M. L. Corrin
JosEPH ‘McFarLanp

 

The following resolution was adopted by the Pennsylvania Work
Horse Parade Association, June 8, 1910:

Animal industry in its broadest sense knew no stronger sup-
porter and advocate of its worth to a state than our late col-
league, Leonard Pearson.

With all the limitless wealth of this great Keystone State
hidden in the bowels of the earth as mineral resources of untold
value, he conceived that truer and better wealth fostered and
encouraged by the hand of man lay in the domain of animal
husbandry.

This association, but a single link in the chain of organiza-
tions for greater achievements among Pennsylvania’s allied re-
sources of agriculture, he supported and promoted with the
keenest interest and highest conception of its possibilities for
valued services to the state of his adoption.

The worth from a humane point of view he fully appreciated,
and the value as an educational factor for schooling horse
owners and users as to suitable types of animals for varied
fields of service, and the encouragement of breeding our own
horses in the Keystone State held out to him a more than
sufficient guarantee in multiplying work horse parades through-
out our commonwealth.

We shall miss his wise counsel, his warm sympathy, and
grateful appreciation so often given and shown to those to
whom he entrusted responsibilities and cares.

His memory of splendid work well done can best be en-
shrined among our people in the maintenance of the Pennsyl-

98
Leonard Pearson

vania Work Horse Association, to fulfil the purposes he destined
it to accomplish.

At a meeting of the Pennsylvania State Live Stock Sanitary
Board, held at Harrisburg, Pa., October 15, 1909, the
following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That we have heard with profound regret the
announcement of the death of Dr. Leonard Pearson, State Veter-
inarian and Secretary of this Board;

Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Pearson this board has
lost one of its most efficient members and the state of Penn-
sylvania has suffered the loss of a valuable public-spirited citizen
and an able, faithful and conscientious public officer;

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the
family of the deceased and that the same be spread upon our
minutes.

The following resolution was adopted at a staff meeting of the
Henry Phipps Institute, on Monday, September 20, 1909:
Wuereas, Information of the untimely death of Professor
Leonard Pearson is conveyed to us and we thus learn of the
loss which the veterinary and medical sciences have thereby
sustained, therefore be it
Resolved, By the Staff of the Henry Phipps Institute that it
has lost one of its most valued friends, and the crusade against
tuberculosis, one of its most earnest supporters and investigators.

At a meeting of the New York State Veterinary Medical
Society, held in Ithaca, N. Y., August, 1910, the com-
mittee on necrology made the following report:

The committee on necrology has to perform the sad duty of
officially calling the attention of the society to the loss it has
sustained during the past year through the death of one of
its members and of two distinguished leaders in the profession.

99
Jn fMemoriam

 

 

The phenomena of life and death are constantly before us, but
not until those who are trained to do humane service are
called to the “Great Beyond” do we fully realize the exacting
demands of the irretrievable law that sooner or later terminates
all individual activity. There were living among us a year
ago those interested and active in the attainment of professional
service and ideals, who to-day are known only by their works
and the memories of their personal friendship and helpfulness.
Thus it is that our ranks are ever being broken and the real
progress made by the fallen becoming crystallized as funda-
mental knowledge for the new recruits. In the inventory of
our professional estate we should ever be mindful of the two-
fold origin of our possessions; the lesser of them is found in
our individual efforts and discipline; the greater springs from
the life work and sacrifices of others. In the struggle for
professional preferment there is a tendency to forget the con-
stantly increasing inheritance that is being handed down from
the lives of other members.

As we assemble for the first time after the departure of our
member and co-workers, we are depressed by a sadness that
words cannot express. In our absolute wonderment as to why
valuable young lives should be striken out or the years of the
worthy be ended, the words of the prophet of old that “at
evening time it shall be light” suggest that eventually the
mysteries of life and death may be explained. To-day, as we
mourn the loss of a member and co-workers, we should be
mindful that by their departure we are obliged to make our
lives more valuable because of the inheritance they have left us.

DR. LEONARD PEARSON

Early in the fall of 1909, the news reached us that Dr.

Leonard Pearson had died at Spruce Brook, Newfoundland.

. . Possessed of a logical understanding of his profession

and its needs, eloquence and perfect clarity of expression, a

large intellectual and social sympathy and a dominant instinct
100
Heonard Pearson

for progressive action, he was accorded a foremost place by his
fellows and co-workers in the field of veterinary education and
practice. These same attributes won for him a like regard in
the deliberations of all bodies having to deal with veterinary
sanitary science. His memory is cherished as a man whose
life, though short, stands as a notable example of one who gave
his years unselfishly and devotedly to the upbuilding of his
chosen profession. Measured by years his life was short; by
achievement, he lived long. As a scientific veterinarian in the
broad sense we honor his memory; as a man and co-worker
we mourn his loss.

It seems fitting that this society should spread upon its
minutes this expression of our appreciation of the life and of
the work of the departed, and of our sorrow at the loss of our
member and of these distinguished leaders, whom in life we
honored as conscientious workers and pioneers in their respective
fields of veterinary activities.

VY. A. Moors, Chairman
Committee on Necrology R. W. Exits
J. A. McCranx

At a meeting of the New York County Veterinary Medical
Association, the following resolution was unanimously
adopted :

Wuereas, The late Dr. Leonard Pearson having been an
honorary member of this society, be it

Resolved, That a record of his death be written in the minute
book, and be it further

Resolved, That a committee of three members be appointed
to prepare and forward a message of condolence to his bereaved
brother, the Honorable Raymond A. Pearson, a copy of which
shall be inscribed in the minutes of this association.

101
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The letter sent is as follows:

Hon. Raymond A. Pearson,

Albany, N. Y.

Dear Sir:

Through the death of your brother, Dr. Leonard Pearson, the
New York County Veterinary Medical Association has lost not
only an honored member, but an enlightening and encouraging
professional counsel and guide.

We hereby express our deepest sympathy and condolence, at
the same time consoling you with our belief that the radiance
of Leonard Pearson’s mortal acts will continue to live.

‘We venerate his memory.

{ Harry D. Gini

Comenities 1 Rosert W. ELtis

The following resolution was adopted by the Massachusetts
Veterinary Association:

Wuereas, The Massachusetts Veterinary Association has
learned of the death, September twentieth last, of an honored
and able member of the veterinary profession, Dr. Leonard
Pearson,

Resolved, That this association deplores his death as a great
loss to the veterinary profession, the scientific world and to
humanity. Be it further

Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the records
of this association and that a copy, together with the sympathy
and condolence of the Massachusetts Veterinary Association,
be sent to the members of his bereaved family.

AusTIN Prters, M.R.C.V.S.
DanieL Emerson, M.D.V.
Francis ABELE, Jr., V.S.

The following resolution was adopted by the Minnesota State
Veterinary Medical Association, January 31, 1910:
102
BZeonard Pearson

 

 

Wuereas, It has pleased Almighty God to remove, in the
prime of useful life, one of our most eminent and lovable col-
leagues, Dr. Leonard Pearson, be it

Resolved, That the Minnesota State Veterinary Medical Asso-
ciation spread upon its minutes as a memento of love and re-
gard, the profound regrets of this association, and extend its
deep sympathy to his bereaved relatives.

: ; J. W. Coox, Chairman
Resolution Comittee : Se -, Wern
The following resolution was adopted by the Alpha Psi Chapter
of the Chi Psi Fraternity:

Wuereas, The Chi Psi Fraternity and we, his brothers in
Alpha Psi, have suffered a great loss in the death of Brother
Leonard Pearson, a true and beloved member of the fraternity,
now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That in humble expression of our sincere and
heartfelt sympathy for those of kin afflicted, we forward to them
a copy of these resolutions and cause the same to be printed in
the Purple and Gold.

Pavut K. CLYMER
THEODORE WHITE
WALDEMAR O. Van Cott