ATWATER, Wilbur Olin, chemist, born in Johnsburg, New York, 3 May 1844. He was graduated at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1865, then studied chemistry at New Haven, and received the degree of Ph.D. from Yale in 1869, after which he spent some time at the universities of Leipsic and Berlin, Germany. Subsequent to his return to the United States, during 1871-'2, he held the chair of chemistry in East Tennessee University, and in 1873 he was called to fill a similar appointment in the Maine state College. In the same year he returned to Wesleyan University as professor of chemistry. From 1875 to 1877 he was director of the Connecticut agricultural experimental station. His published papers are very numerous, and have appeared in the scientific journals of Germany and France, as well as in those of the United States. In conjunction with G. born Goode he is the author of "The American Menhaden" (New York, 1879). He has made a special study of the composition of food material, and constructed charts to show the relative values. See "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1883.