The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-20

New Haven, Nov. 1S.-Deep interest
has been aroused at Yale by the con-
test begun by Robert H. Waters of the
will of his uncle, the late Prof. o. c.
Marsh, whose property was bequeathed
to the university. The complaint says:
yale university induced Prof. Marsh
to give his time labor and money to
the university without salary or COM
pensation, and thereby impoverished
him for many years. That Prof. Marsh,
on account of his hard and nerve-shat-
tcring work for the university, labored
under the delusion that there was no
hereafter, and that Immortality could
be obtained by human agencies. That
Yale, taking advantage of this delu-
sion, encouraged him in it, and induced
him to give all of his collections, his
personal effects and his remaining
property to the university, under the
promise that such gifts would gain for
him immortality"
Prof Marsh came here in 1866, six
years after he was graduated, to ac-
cept the chair of paleontology and re-
mained in that place until his death.
lie was Independently wealthy, and
was reputed at that time to be worth
al least 100000. He was an ardent
student Of science, and literally dedi-
Gated himself and his fortune to sci
er &C. He never married and was wont
TO say that he had married science, as
he had dedicated his life to her service.
He spent his whole fortune in his work,
and 1T the time of his death was lit
orally a poor man, Had he lived a
year or two longer, it is probable that
he might have been in debt.
In the first decade of his life at Yale,
he announced his determination to his
closest friends to leave all that he had
to Yale, and he never wavered from
this decision. He was without family
ties with the exception of a single
nephew. 1t was his lifelong ambition
to build up at Yale a department of
natural science that should be second
to mono in the country, and it was to
bring this about that in 1866, when he
was made professor in the scientihc
school, he induced his uncle, George
Peabody, the philanthropist, to give to
Yale 100000 with which to build mu-
scum. With all his fine qualities, Prof.
Marsh was peculiar in many ways. He
was siDguiarly careless in money mat
ters and literally threw away much
OF his fortune on purchases which have
since proved to be almost worthless.
He never hesitated to spend large sums
on rare objects of scientific interest, and
some of the stories about his dealings
in this line are classic at Yale He
had logged convictions on all subjects,
and particularly on matters of science.
During his years at Yale, Prof. Marsh
spent upward of half a million dollars
on scientific expeditions and in the pur-
chase Of fossils and rare specimens of
vertebrate and invertebrate life. He
valued his collections thus gathered at
81, 900, 900, figure which it has been
necessary to reduce to more modest
proportions since his death. The value
of his collections is, however, not to be
estimated accurately, as the greater
part is of entirely new material, and
there is no criterion by which it can be
valued.
That Prof. Marsh spent his fortune
improvidently is not denied by close
friends. His love for science was so
great that he refused to see the COM
mercial side of his profession at all