Morning journal and courier., 1894-06-08
DEATH OF PROF. WHITNEY.

- Amertca-For Forty Years a Resi- dent of New Haven-A Brief Sketch of His Life.
 The death of Prof. William D. Whitney occurred at his home, 227 Church street, yesterday morning shortly after 10 o'clock after an illness of about two weeks, during which he had been confined to his bed. Wednesday afternoon pneumonia set in, owing to the weak condition which arose from an affection of the heart, and he failed rapidly, although he had been rather im- proving before.
 Prof. Whitney had been a resident of this city for forty years. He formerly lived on the west side of Church street, but upon the death of his wife's mother, the widow of the late Governor Baldwin, the family removed to the Baldwin home stead, where he had since resided.
 William Dwight Whitney, the greatest of American philologists, was born Fsbru- ary g, 1897, at Northampton, Mass. He was prepared for college entirely in the free schools of Northampton, his most in- huential teachers being Rodolphus B. Hub bard, head of the high school, and John B. Dwight of New Haven, Yale 1840.
 Most of Professor Whitney's leisure time while in college was spent in collect ing and mounting birds for the Natural History society. On leaving college, being undecided ss to profession, he entered his fathers bank temporarily, but re- mained there more than three years. During the first year he entered doctors office to take up the study of medicine, but long illness began the very next day, and on his recovery he re. turned to the bank. His position gave him considerable leisure, which he devoted to the study of natural history and languages. At this time he made the principal part of his complete collection of the birds of New England, which, be. cause of the skill and taste shown in the mounting, h one of the most interesting objects in Peabody museum at Yale. The inclination toward out-of-door studies, ee strong in his distinguished brother, led him to join the expedition sent out by the government under the charge of J. D. Whitney and J. w. Foster in 1849 to sur vey the wild, unexplored Lake Superior l regions.
 In the autumn of 1850, feeling the neet ! of greater linguistic advantages, he sailed for Bremen. He spent three winter semes | ters at Berlin under the instruction O Albrecht Weber, Franz Bopp and Kar l Richard Lepsius, and two summer semes l ters at Tubingen under Rudolph Roth an, ! others. Having copied all the manuscript In Berlin of one of the oldest and most i'm | portant Hindu scriptures, the 'Atharvs Veda Ssnhita," then unpublished, h. planned an edition of 1t in conjunction wit Professor Roth.
 Before leaving Germany Whitney ha. accepted the offer of the profsssorship o Ssnscrit in Yale college, but he did no enter upon his duties there until August scientific work. The winter of 1S56' was spent in travel and study in southern Europe, and on his return to Yale he too the junior optional classes in modern Ian gusges, continuing as their instructor ur til the appointment of regular professo of modern European languages in 1864 He organized the department Q modern languages in the Shef6sl Scientific school when that institution be came fairly established In 1862, and has been from the first continuously COZ nected with that department. One resul of tines labors is series of text books fo the study of German. It began with | 'Compendious German Grammar in 1869 and in 1870 appeared his German Reader
 with an elaborate vocabulary on a som,
 what new plan. The meaning of a wor
 was taught by reference to the root whic gave the key to whole family of words and nearly related words iu English an other languages. Following the same plar | with the assistance of bis pupil, Dr. A. Edgren, he published 8 German Englis snd English German Dictionary in 1877 From 1876 on, number of annotste German texts have been added to th series. In 1885 condensed German gran
 mar appeared, and in 1886 French gran
 mar was brought out. These German tex
 books are used In the United States in tn greater number of institutions whel German Is taught.
 In 1850 Professor Whitney was electe a member of the American Oriental st ciety.
 l Professor Whitney aided in founding tt American Pathological association in 186! and was its first president.
 A high compliment was paid to Amer can scholarship when, in 1878, Professc
 Whitney was selected by German scholar to prepare Ssnscrit grammar as one ( series of grammsrs of the principal la1 | guages related to our own. In order { attend to the publication of this work h
 went abroad with his wife and daughter spending fifteen months chiefly fin Bsrli | and Gotha.
 In18S5 large supplement, "Roots, Verl forms, and Primary Derivatives of tn Sanskirt Language" was issued at Leir sic.
 Although he paid chief attention to ol Sanscrit and to Hindu astronomy, yet hi writings treat almost every subject ope to the student of language. He lent at distance to the edition of Webster's dictior ary published in 1864, and was editor ir chief of the Century dictionary. Tn funeral will be at the house at 8 o'cloc Saturday afternoon.