Charles B. Penrose / [Edward Martin].

  • Martin, Edward, 1859-1938.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Charles B. Penrose / [Edward Martin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/14 (page 6)
    medicine were so applied that, among other betterments in animal health, tuberculosis in the monkey was practically abolished. C. Y. White, the first pathologist, was succeeded by Dr. Herbert Fox, whose studies and publications have proved Penrose’s belief that a zoological garden may be not merely an exhibit, but a school, having as its main function, contribu¬ tions to science. His struggle for health was amazingly successful. When after a period of in¬ tensive work his warning came, he hunted, fished, and explored; in the Rockies, the uplands of the South, once in Venezuela. After months of life in the open he came back well. In the spring of 1920 his warnings came and more urgent than ever before—he planned a longer trip than usual, but was held all that summer by the illness of his brother. Nights and days of unremitting care accomplished the impossible. None knew better than Charles Penrose that he was giving his own life for that of the Senator, and that when the time of rest came the sun and air could no longer bring back that which was so far spent. A banker once spoke slightingly of Abraham Lincoln “ because he left a small estate.” Lincoln left a continent in peace and honor to now one hundred and ten million people. No larger legacy is recorded in history. Even from the narrow standpoint Penrose would have commanded the banker’s respect. From the broader one, to many millions he left a longer life, a better health, forests, game in abundance, a zoological garden of first rank contributing largely to science, and a department of research. Penrose was strikingly handsome, standing six feet and of powerful build. Till within a year of his death, he presented the color, bearing, and appearance of rugged health. He was unemotional, undemonstrative; on the birth of his son, a lady whose life he had saved and who spoke of him as having the face of Endy- mion, hands of velvet and the tread of a marching regiment, said: “Aren’t you thrilled at the coming of Little Boy Blue?” He answered, “He is not a blue baby; I am not thrilled; but, of course, the young of all vertebrates are interesting.” With him all policies were subject to cold deliberation. When approved by reason they were followed by prompt action, the details of which were carefully planned and carried out with a tireless persistence which neither hurried nor delayed. He loved power, but never its display. He shunned publicity and condemned with extraordinary vigor of diction those to whom it came either by choice or chance. Law-abiding, he bitterly opposed the encroachment of national authority over that of the state; and the interference of both with individual rights and privileges. He shot in perfect form, deliberately and with deadly accuracy. He was a good farmer and gardener; a good horseman; a good fisherman; an admirable host, skilled in cooking, exacting and securing the best; a good sailor. All things he did well; deliberately and efficiently.