Sympathetic Person Research Articles

Health Insurance Loss during COVID-19 May Increase Support for Universal Health Coverage.

The United States is the only high-income country that relies on employer-sponsored health coverage to insure a majority of its population. Millions of Americans lost employer-sponsored health insurance during the COVID-19-induced economic downturn. We examine public opinion toward universal health coverage policies in this context. Through a survey of 1,211 Americans in June 2020, we examine the influence of health insurance loss on support for Medicare for All (M4A) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in two ways. First, we examine associations between pandemic-related health insurance loss and M4A support. Second, we experimentally prime some respondents with a vignette of a sympathetic person who lost employer-sponsored coverage during COVID-19. We find that directly experiencing recent health insurance loss is strongly associated (10 pp, p < 0.01) with greater M4A support and with more favorable views of extending the ACA (19.3 pp, p < 0.01). Experimental exposure to the vignette increases M4A support by 6 pp (p = 0.05). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, situational framings can induce modest change in support for M4A. However, real-world health insurance losses are associated with larger differences in support for M4A and with greater support for existing safety net policies such as the ACA.

Светлой памяти Юрия Михайловича Забродина

On December 8, 2021, our colleague Yuri Mikhailovich Zabrodin passed away. He was an outstanding scientist, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, 3rd Class State Advisor of the Russian Federation, Vice President of the Federation of Educational Psychologists of Russia, a wise and sympathetic person.

The Stories We Tell: Narrative, Policymaking, and the Right to Try

Personal stories that demonstrate public health problems can be a persuasive tool to obtain public support for a legislative, regulatory, or other legally oriented solution. Personal stories associate an identified life—a specific, inherently sympathetic person who needs help now—with a problem that can be solved by public action. This association enables us to draw parallels between ourselves and the identified life—the story’s protagonist. These parallels also motivate us to act on behalf of the identified life. The more emotionally charged the story, the more likely we are to credit the narrative as an accurate and representative portrayal of the problem. But public health focuses on the health of whole populations. Public health policies protect and promote the health of statistical lives, which are both numerous and invisible, and thus lack the immediate appeal of identified lives. For these reasons, personal narratives, while a powerful motivating force, can limit appreciation of the complexity of the public health issue and proposed policy to which they draw attention and sympathy. The Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act of 2017 and its forty-one state law counterparts offer a stark example of how tragic personal stories—rather than sound data and normative justification—created laws that are at best misleading and inefficient, and at worst, dangerous to public health. This essay examines the history of investigational drugs and expanded access through some of the stories that influenced FDA policy and practice. It then turns its focus to the right to try movement and explores some of the many personal stories that were used to propel the development of right to try laws by focusing exclusively on autonomy and access. Our focus then shifts to those whose personal stories—equally compelling—are not being told in the right to try discussions. These untold stories include narratives that highlight the need for careful science and the duties of researchers; stories that illustrate systematic disadvantage and structural injustice and can help demonstrate the need for a health care system that is meaningfully available to all from the outset; stories about unidentified statistical lives; stories from those who have come to regret the exercise of their right to try; and stories by and about those who have struggled between the do-everything mindset and the desire for a good death. We discuss the concept of identified lives and why the public supports “rescuing” individuals it deems attractive and deserving, and we address the problems associated with elevating these identified lives over other untold stories and statistical unidentified lives in the context of right to try laws. This essay concludes that personal narrative has a place in public health policy generally, and in the question of access to investigational drugs specifically. Personal stories, used judiciously, can be a powerful tool for advocating for needed change. However, in the context of access to investigational drugs, crafting policy with a sole focus on the primacy of personal choice and autonomy fails to incorporate the public policy mandate to base available choices on at least a minimal amount of safety data and a high degree of information transparency. Where research directed to improving human health is at issue, contributing to generalizable knowledge—the principal purpose of research—should not be minimized because patients with life-threatening illnesses believe that they have nothing to lose by trying. While personal narratives can and should be considered, they should be combined with acknowledgment of the complexities of the investigational drug and clinical trial processes, and with awareness of the perennial and inevitable tension between providing access and collecting data supporting safety and efficacy. Even in the most tragic of circumstances, health care policy in this area deserves to be made collectively, based on careful science, good research, and a fair allocation of resources.

THE ROLE OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION IN BUILDING STUDENTS’ CHARACTER AT SMP NEGERI 17 SURABAYA

Keywords: Islamic Education, Character Building, Role. It is an opportunities for educator to give contribution in effort to form character, hence expected formation of student character can be pursued through Islamic education taught in school. The formulation of the problem in this research, first, how is the learning process of Islamic education at SMP Negeri 17 Surabaya? second, how is the character of students at SMP Negeri 17 Surabaya? third, how is the role of Islamic education in building students’ character at SMP Negeri 17 Surabaya?Qualitative approach is used as the methodology in this research. Data are collected through observation, documentation and interview. The data are analyzed using descriptive analysis technique. Researcher describeds the creativity of the teachers of Islamic education in this school.The results of the study could be summarized as follows: first, in order to to keep the implementation of Islamic education run in accordance with the objectives: a) Prepare the instructional design as early as possible including: educational calendar, learning units and fun lessons; b) follow curriculum for Islamic education designed by Ministry of National Education; c) Use the following teaching method in learning process: lecturing, question-answer, demonstration and assignment; d) Conduct pretest and post test evaluation including formative and summative evaluations. Second, many variables show that students have had a good character although not all elements of their personality is good. Islamic Education has significant role in building the character of students for the provision of life in the earth and the hereafter in accordance with the guidance of Al-Qur'an and Hadith. This is all also because of the encouragement of the principal and other teachers. Basically every human wants to have a sympathetic personality, because, with it, humans will be respected, and loved by people around.

Children Without Childhood: The Emotionality of Orphaned Children and Images of Their Rescuers in Selected Works of English and Canadian Literature

This article deals with literary depictions of social, political, cultural and religious circumstances in which children who have lost one or both parents at birth or at a later age have found themselves. The weakest members of society, the children looked at here are exposed to dangers, exploitation and violence, but are fortunate enough to be rescued by a relative or other sympathetic person acting out of benevolence. Recognizing that the relationship between the orphaned child, who is in mortal danger, and a rescuer, who most frequently appears unexpectedly in a relationship, has been portrayed in narratives throughout the ages and that we can therefore speak of it as being an archetypal one, the article focuses especially on three novels by Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist (1837–1839), David Copperfield (1849–1850) and Great Expectations (1860–1861) – and in Fugitive Pieces (1996) by Canadian writer Anne Michaels. Charles Dickens earned the reputation of a classic writer through his original literary figures of orphaned children in the context of the rough capitalism of the Victorian era of the 19th century. Such originality also distinguishes Anne Michaels, whose novel Fugitive Pieces portrays the utterly traumatic circumstances that a Jewish boy is exposed to after the Germans kill his parents during the Holocaust. All the central children’s lives in these extreme situations are saved by generous people, thus highlighting the central idea of both selected authors: that evil cannot overcome good. Rescuers experience their selfless resolve to save extremely powerless and unprotected child victims of violence from life-threatening situations as a self-evident moral imperative. Through their profound and deeply experienced descriptions of memories of traumas successfully overcome by central literary figures in a spirit of compassion and solidarity, Charles Dickens and Anne Michaels have left testaments of hope against hope for future generations.

The Emperor’s Ostrich by Julie Berry

Reviewed by: The Emperor’s Ostrich by Julie Berry April Spisak Berry, Julie The Emperor’s Ostrich. Roaring Brook, 2017[288p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-59643-958-0 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-59643-959-7 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4–6 Begonia is a girl in search of a cow, Key’s a boy in search of an adventure, and the emperor, who is far from his kingdom with only an ostrich for company, just wants to get back home but there are dramatic political forces conspiring against him. Once the cow and ostrich fall in love, the three humans’ lives are intertwined. Since the emperor is under a spell that prevents him from revealing his true identity, Key and Begonia know him only as Lumi, the arrogant, spoiled, helpless man who orders them around. Soon Begonia is deeply embroiled in an entertaining and somewhat perilous effort to save Lumi (who is, in a clever coup attempt, imprisoned and falsely charged with killing the emperor), especially now that his exposure to the real world has changed him into a much more caring, open, and sympathetic person. Berry balances humor, drama, and poignancy effectively, keeping things moving along even while dropping key life lessons about kindness and inclusivity along the way. The baddies are super bad (they want the emperor dead so they can rule), the good guys are blindingly so, and the magic is nicely woven in throughout—this novel is fantasy gold for readers who want a straightforward tale told well. [End Page 445] Copyright © 2017 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Complex Landscapes, Big Thinking, and Insects—Agroecology, an Evolving Field: The Established Researcher

When I started my Ph.D. in 1981, ecology as a biological discipline in Germany was in its infancy and still stuck in traditional ecophysiology, faunistics/floristics, and phytosociology approaches. While my enthusiasm for insects and, in particular, parasitic wasps had been aroused by inspiring university teachers, I found the interactions between organisms and their resources to be much more interesting and key to understanding ecosystem functioning than sheer estimates of patterns in species richness and distribution. Organisms’ lives are not independent of their biotic and abiotic environment, but are interwoven with many parts of their habitat, which determines ecological functions. That is why I started reading the book, “Insect Ecology” by Peter W. Price, together with my Ph.D. colleague Stefan Vidal. As we went carefully through all the pages and chapters, we were introduced to a new world of building and testing ecological hypotheses related to the functional role of biodiversity and the complexity of multitrophic interactions. Peter and his colleagues wrote a seminal paper on “Interactions among three trophic levels: influence of plants on interactions between insect herbivores and natural enemies” (Price et al. 1980), which embodied the main focus of his work on tritrophic plant–herbivore–predator/parasitoid interactions and greatly influenced my choice to study Phragmites-consuming gall midges and their rich parasitoid complex for my doctoral thesis. I was particularly interested in how trophic interactions are shaped by plant growth and other insects in Phragmites stands. Later, I expanded my studies to include the trophic interactions of insect communities of 10 additional grass species, following Price's method of using comparative approaches. Unfortunately, both my doctoral thesis in 1986, and later my habilitation, an independent peer-reviewed postdoctoral thesis in 1992, were written as monographs in German. At that time, writing in German was expected by the university and German was the language for professional meetings in ecology or entomology. As a result, publishing in English was very unusual for German ecologists in the 1980s (and still in the 1990s), due to not only language problems but also a simple lack of experience with the scientific writing style. This is why most of this research has been never recognized internationally. Starting in 1993, I got the chance to establish my agroecology laboratory with a new focus on how landscape structure affects local patterns and processes. However, all doctoral theses were still written in German, but since 2000, theses are composed of a series of chapters or manuscripts in English. Colleagues outside of Germany are now aware of our work. Many smart colleagues have influenced my research, which has shifted during my career from sociology to biology, from faunistics to multitrophic interactions, from a local to the landscape perspective, from temperate to tropical ecology, and from pure ecology to socioeconomic-ecological trade-offs. My approach to science has been most influenced by Peter Price and his hypotheses-driven view of how to best understand complex interactions. In 1993, I met him for the first time during a challenging Trans-Siberian Railway trip to a gall maker conference in eastern Siberia. I realized then that he is not only a keen thinker, but also has a most hospitable, entertaining, open-minded, and sympathetic personality.

Narrative Methods and Sociocultural Linguistic Approaches in Facilitating In-depth Understanding of HIV Disclosure in a Cohort of Women and Men in Cape Town, South Africa.

The South African National Department of Health has rapidly extended free public-sector antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV from 2007. Approximately 6 million people are living with HIV in South Africa, with 3.1 million currently on treatment. HIV disclosure stigma has been reduced in high prevalence, generalized epidemic settings, but some remains, including in research interviews. This paper documents the unexpected reactions of people living with HIV to interviewers. It highlights shifts over time from discussing daily events with researchers to later expressing distress and then relief at having an uninvolved, sympathetic person with whom to discuss HIV disclosure. While there are commonalities, women and men had gendered responses to interviewers. These are apparent in men’s uncharacteristic emotional responses and women’s shyness in revealing gendered aspects of HIV acquisition. Both women and men expressed stress at not being allowed or able to fulfill dominant expected masculine or feminine roles. The findings underline the role of research interviewers in study participants confiding and fully expressing their feelings. This greater confidence occurred in follow-up interviews with researchers in busy health facilities, where time of health-care providers is limited. It underlines the methodological value of narrative inquiries with research cohorts. These allowed richer data than cross-sectional interviews. They shaped the questions asked and the process of interview. They revealed participants’ increasing level of agency in expressing feelings that they find important. This research contributes to highlighting pivotal, relational aspects in research between empathetic, experienced researchers and study participants and how participant–researcher relationships progress over time. It highlights ethical dilemmas in roles of researchers as opposed to counselors, raising questions of possible blurring of lines between research and service roles. This requires further research exploration. It additionally underscores the importance of “care for the carer.” Furthermore, it emphasizes that cultural sensitivity to language involves more than merely speaking the words in a language. Culture, humor, dialects, conceptual issues, wordplay, common sense, and respectful attitudes to other languages, resonates.

Medical ethics and the media: the value of a story.

Media coverage of a sympathetic person's illness experience can trigger changes in public opinion and even public policy.

Medical Ethics and the Media: The Value of a Story

Media coverage of a sympathetic person's illness experience can trigger changes in public opinion and even public policy.

The impact of voice characteristics on user response in an interactive voice response system

System voice within interactive voice response systems (IVRs) was investigated in order to determine if voice impacts a user’s input responses. In a medical setting, it is possible that a particular voice personality and/or gender may induce more or less disclosure, thus driving a patient to relay more or less sensitive information. In the IVR setting, one could determine this via examination of a user’s button-press responses. In this study, a male and female voice personality expressing an upbeat, professional, and sympathetic personality recorded a script for a medical IVR. Users were randomly assigned to one of these voice personalities when completing a health survey over that IVR. It was found that disclosure rates were not affected by the type of voice heard, nor did they differ by user gender. Additionally, disclosure was higher on the IVR version of the health survey than on a web-based version, further recognizing the privacy offered by IVRs. These findings indicate that designers of IVRs may not have to put additional effort into the selection of voice talent and can instead focus on the design of the IVR, itself.

Catherine Walpole (1703–22), an 18th-century teenaged patient: a case study from the letters of the physician George Cheyne (1671 or 73–1743)

In 1720 Catherine Walpole the 16-year-old eldest daughter of Robert Walpole, later to become Prime Minister, became very ill. She was unable to eat, fainted, took fits frequently, and had a persistent pain and swelling in her side. Sir Hans Sloane, the Walpole's doctor, referred her to Dr Cheyne in Bath because he specialized in dietary problems and nervous diseases. Cheyne kept in regular touch with Sir Hans by letter and this correspondence tells the story of Catherine's treatment from her first referral to Cheyne to her death in 1722. The contents and purposes of treatments he used are identifiable in dispensatories of the period. The letters reflect Cheyne's medical skills and knowledge as well as his sympathetic personality. Catherine's family loyalties, personal concerns and personality also emerge as the correspondence progresses. The limitations of 18th-century diagnosis and treatments available are clear but Cheyne is always concerned with Catherine's quality of life, even when he becomes aware that he cannot cure her.

A Colloquium on the Congress “A Gift for Life. Considerations on Organ Donation”

Alessandro Nanni Costa, J. M. Simon i Castellvi, Antonio G. Spagnolo, Nunziata Comoretto, Jean Laffitte, Hakan Gabel, Francis L. Delmonico, Ferdinand Muehlbacher, Walter Schaupp, Alexandra K. Glazier, Valter D. Garcia, Mario Abbud-Filho, Jose O. Medina-Pestana, Mariangela Gritta Grainer, Pier Paolo Donadio, Anna Guermani, Riccardo Bosco, Francesco Giordano, Blanca Martinez Lopez de Arroyabe, Marco Brunetti, Marti Manyalich, Gloria Paez, Ricardo Valero, Rafael Matesanz, Elisabeth Coll, Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Beatriz Mahillo, Eduardo Martin Escobar, Gregorio Garrido, and Felix Cantarovich

In memory of professor Valerii Mikhailovich Borisov (1939–2008)

Professor Valerii Mikhailovich Borisov, a remarkable mathematician, leading researcher of the Dorodnicyn Computing Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CC RAS), and doctor of physics and mathematics passed away after a serious illness at the age of 69. His family has lost a wonderful husband and father, and science has lost a hard-working researcher in aerodynamics, gas dynamics, and computational mathematics. Many CC RAS employees with whom Borisov worked during his scientific career cannot reconcile themselves to a world without this charming man and scientist of versatile talents. The life of this seemingly healthy well-grown man was cut short by an insidious disease. His colleagues will remember Borisov as an energetic, kind, and sympathetic person. In his research activities, Borisov proposed original approaches to solving scientific problems, insisted on the purity of scientific results, and exhibited vast erudition. I was a close friend of Borisov from his first working day at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences (CC USSR AS) after he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1962. We often discussed various scientific issues. So I am especially deeply grieving over the death of this remarkable man. In Memory of Professor Valerii Mikhailovich Borisov (1939–2008)

Nerve Blocks in Palliative Care

It was a pleasure to review this book on nerve blocks in palliative care, written by two renowned specialists, Fiona Hicks, who is a consultant in palliative medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust and Karen Simpson, a consultant in pain medicine within the same trust. Nerve Blocks in Palliative Care has been composed primarily for those who are not familiar with the full potential and risks of nerve blocks in patients with neoplastic disease. As such, the book is aimed primarily at those involved in the day-to-day specialist care of cancer patients such as palliative care doctors, oncologists and specialist nurses, as opposed to pain medicine anaesthetists. This is not a ‘cook book' as to how to perform the procedures, rather it is an excellent guide on how and when to refer a patient and as such should probably be compulsory reading for those who assess patients for referral to specialist pain teams. The book starts with a very general section on the philosophy behind the use of interventional blocks. I was amused by the paragraphs on team issues and communications. Many of the problems that are alluded to in these paragraphs are all too familiar to those of us who perform pain medicine interventions. Reading this book prior to referral would help prevent some of the many misunderstandings that pain specialists come across in our practice of pain medicine. The miracle pain relieving injection with no risks does not exist! Similarly, there is no such thing as a ‘simple injection'. Team members can disagree on what is the best way of managing a particular problem and they need to be involved in discussions, in addition to the patient and the relatives. There is also a very good chapter on the assessment of pain, which is something that is often poorly performed by the nonpain specialist when you take into account the multiple pain mechanisms that may be present at any one time. There now is a wealth of information about the aetiologies and underlying mechanisms of pain in cancer patients and to try and summarise this in a chapter was obviously difficult. The chapter on pain syndromes covers this area well for the nonpain specialist. The central part of the book then proceeds to cover individual invasive procedures, ranging from trigger point injections through to the more complex neurolytic blocks and intrathecal infusions. These chapters have involved a significant amount of thought and work. Each technique is introduced by comments on specific indications and contraindications; it could be argued that these are the most important points for a non-specialist in pain medicine to take on board. Understanding the limits of any procedure and the complications that may occur are also vital. The limits and complications need to be discussed by a sympathetic person prior to referral to a pain specialist, as the patient needs to be prepared to participate in a discussion with the pain specialist in greater depth. Currently, it is not uncommon for the pain specialist to have to break the news that severe complications can occur and that there is a failure rate; the myth of the ‘miracle risk free injection' is broken, which may result in profound disappointment and occasionally increased patient distress. Finally, the book finishes with a chapter, albeit brief, on the ethics involved in pain medicine and the terminally ill. Once more, we are urged to consider not only the potential benefits but also the risks. At the end of the day, those performing the procedures are best suited to tackle the issues around interventions for pain management. However, it is important that the potential for improved pain relief and reduced suffering are not missed by those involved in the day-to-day management of cancer patients. Also, patients need to have an understanding of what may be involved prior to meeting the pain team. Recently, I have been asked to give a talk on invasive procedures to our palliative care team. I have responded by asking that they read this book on nerve blocks in palliative care – I feel that would provide them with more education than I could provide in an hour. My talk will be around this excellent book!

Caregivers' perceptions of case management and community-based services: barriers to service use.

This study explored the use of case-managed services for dementia patients and their families. Forty-six primary caregivers, recruited from five case-managed programs and from independent sources, participated in a structured interview. The findings suggest ways in which case-managed services might be structured more effectively for caregivers to dementia patients. Specifically, families seek greater flexibility and increased family input into the service package. Further, caregivers emphasize the need for more information about service eligibility and availability, and the importance of finding a sympathetic person within the system.

Don Charles Foote (1931-1969)

In the tragic death at the age of thirty-seven of Don Foote, the Institute has lost one of its more recent active Fellows, the polar world has lost a vital force in geographical research, and his friends have lost a well-loved man. One is agonised by the stroke of fate which permits a man to live life dangerously in the Arctic, travelling by dog team, tossing in small boats, walking through sub-zero blizzards, and then allows him to be struck down by that modern civilised killer, the automobile. ... Don was a product of Dartmouth College, which above all institutions in the United States has given so much to northern enterprise, including the first Executive Director of the Institute, and many subsequent Governors and Fellows. From there, we know, come not only well-trained and intelligent graduates, such as other American Universities produce, but above all real men. Don was such a man, powerful physically, a well-rounded human person, a leader who led by his personality rather than by his intellectual status which was indeed high. His early research work, stimulated by Dr. Trevor Lloyd, was in far northern Europe. He was a Summer Scholar at the University of Oslo and spent two further years travelling and working in high subarctic Scandinavia and Spitsbergen. Then he came to McGill University, where as a student taking higher degrees, and later as a member of staff, he spent the best part of ten years, and became, despite his youth, the doyen of arctic studies in the field of Human Geography. During this time his areas of research lay in Alaska and later Baffin Island. In Alaska his prime concern was with the economic base of the Eskimo hunter, caribou, whales, bears and seals. As a dedicated conservationist he was appointed in 1966 by the Canadian Government to head an Area Economic Survey of Baffin Island, and two years later under the International Biological Programme to study the 'adaptability' of the Igloolik people. Then came a sabbatical leave to join the University of Alaska's social research programme; an assignment tragically cut short. We at McGill University had missed him badly during his absence, and were looking forward to his return in 1969 to rejuvenate, as he could so well do, the basic elementary course in geography. In these days of sometimes difficult student-staff relationships Don, with his immensely sympathetic personality, was a force for mutual respect and a generator of enthusiasm. The Fellows of the Arctic Institute offer their profound sympathy to his artist wife Berit and their young son, whose father was such a fine and friendly man.

Teaching Psychiatric Interviewing Techniques to Medical Students

RAPPORT between a physician and a patient depends upon the use of appropriate interviewing techniques. A physician does not become proficient in the use of these techniques solely through experience or by being endowed naturally with a sympathetic personality. These techniques must be taught. It is only recently, however, that methods of teaching these techniques have begun to evolve, 1 although others have previously stressed the importance of the doctor-patient relationship. 2-4 At the New York Medical College in 1962, a course was initiated for the purpose of teaching to all medical students interviewing techniques which they could use to obtain information about the mental and emotional status of all patients. While this was done under the aegis of the Department of Psychiatry, these techniques, once learned, could be incorporated in the examination of all patients, not only those with primary psychiatric difficulties but also those with primary somatic illness.

Prof. Douglas Hay

IN these days, when the appeal is for men of experience to run the world's industries, the sudden silencing an authentic voice is a matter for sorrow deeper than the grief so often hidden beneath the vesture of public or official mourning. The death, on February 24 at the age of sixty, of Prof. Douglas Hay, one of the two chief mining engineers of the National Coal Board and a past-president of the Institution of Mining Engineers, has left a gap in the industry that will be hard to fill. For he had travelled the trying road of experience and passed the milestones of change in mining until he reached the highest position in his profession. Those who knew that quiet, unassuming charm which was so big a feature of his life understood fully that it was an advancement due not only to his great technical and administrative ability, but also to a sympathetic personality that enabled him to get on well with those with whom he came into contact. He won the affection of miners through sympathetic personality, Em unending thought for others, and a friendship that had no bounds.

Sylvanus Griswold Morley, 1883-1948

The death of Sylvanus Griswold Morley on September 2 brought to a close a brilliant career and probably also an important phase of Maya research. His achievements are outstanding in the fields of archaeological exploration and epigraphy; and he had a talent for imparting to others his intense concern for everything pertaining to the Maya people, whether ancient or modern. All was grist that came to his mill, if it had any bearing on this subject; and where there was an application to the hieroglyphs, he ground to exceeding fineness. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that he has done more to spread an intelligent interest in Maya civilization than anyone since Stephens, over a century ago.He was a winning and sympathetic person and made friends in every quarter. He was open-handed to a fault, not only with his material possessions, but also with unpublished scientific data that he had acquired the hard way, even when he knew it would be used to question some cherished thesis of his own.