Morning journal and courier., 1894-06-08
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL
 ID PUpLIsHED EVERY THURSDAY MORNING. Single Copies 5 cents.
WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY.

W "A MI D W "
 William Dwight Whitney, who died yes- terday, had lived life of unusual indus. try and unusual achievement. By the persistent and well directed exercise of his great natural and acquired pow. CTS he had raised himself to the chief place among American lin. guists and to fellowship with the great European students of language. The bare record of his labors Is impressive, from the time he came to New Haven to study Sanscrit under Professor Salisbury until the end of his last great work, the editing of the magnificent Century Dlction- ary. During the forty years between those two events he was prodigiously active and prodigiously efficient. We find him in 1853 preparing an edition of the Athsrvs- Veda Sanhita with Professor Roth. In 1854 he became Professor of Sanscrit at Yale, and he has made that professorehip famous in the world of learning. The study of the modern languages at Yale, es- pecially in the Sheffield Scientific School, also owes much to him. His Ger man and French text books are used the cHuntry. The Sanscrit grammar which in 1878 he was selected by German schol- srs to prepare Is monument of scholar ship and intellectual toll, and is recog- mixed authority in Germany and in England, as we'll as in this country. The great Sanscrit dictionary plb liehed at St. Petersburg between 1852 and 1875 contains many contributions from him. His book entitled "The Life and Growth of Language" issued In 1875, has been translated into French, Italian, German, Swedish and Russian. The jour- nal of the American Oriental Society from 1857, when he became president of the society, to the present time, Is noted chiefly for his papers, which are fully one half of the entire contents of the journal during that period. His wonder full learning and industry also find fre- quent expression in the journal of the American Pathological association, whose first president he was In 1869. The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Lon don, the Contemporary Review, the North American Review, the New Epglsnder, the Bibliotheca Sscrs, and other periodi- calls contain contributions from him, ss do various encyclop go 1iss, including the En- cyclope 1ia Britannica. His labors for his own language, besides his great work in the Century dictionary, are conspicuous in Webster's dictionary, in his well known and widely used "The Essentials of English Grammar" and in other books and papers. This partial list of his deeds feebly indicates the quality and the scope of his activity. Most of the time while doing these and other similar feats, he has been faithful and enthusi astic teacher of the many who have sat at his feet at Yale since he began to teach there in 1854. He has conducted an immense correspondence with kindred spirits and seekers after knowledge all over the world. He has made many excursions into fields of knowledge with which his name and fame are not conspicuously con.
 
 much out-of-d doors studying nature and gaining pleasure and vigor from such study.
 Professor Whitney was a modest man, and did not seek honors. But they were thrust upon him and he died full of them as well as full of years. He re- oeived the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy from Breslau University; the degree of doctor of laws from his alma mater; from William and Mary College in Virginia, from St. Andrews Universi- ty in Scotland, and from Harvard; He was an honorary member of the Orien- tai or Asiatic societies of Great Britain and Ireland, of Germany, of Bengal, of Japan, and of Peking, of the Pathological Society of London, of the literary societies of Ley den, Upssls, and Helsingfors, member or correspondent of the Institute of France, and Foreign Knight of the Prussian order pour le merite for sciercs and arts, and so forth and 90 on.
 A great vacancy has been made in the world of letters by the death of this famous citizen of New Haven, and there appears to be nobody in this country who can fill 1t. Ills influence will long con- tinue to be felt wherever his work is known, and that is throughout the civil fixed world. He has nobly earned the rect into which be has entered.