842 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



parent from the coincidences of the early observations (the observed 

 and calculated values were 29' and 28' respectively). These calcula- 

 tions of Professor Adams, which fix beyond a doubt the position of the 

 mean orbit of the November meteoroids, were made shortly after their 

 appearance in 1866. The publication, about the same time, of the 

 orbit of the first comet of 1866 revealed the fact that that comet and 

 the meteors travel in nearly coincident orbits, and have an intimate 

 relation one with the other. To appreciate the rapid advance of this 

 department of astronomy, we must contrast this certain knowledge 

 with the conflicting views which prevailed at the time of their first 

 appearance, in 1833, with respect to the nature of the phenomenon of 

 which they were the cause. In recognition, presumably on his part in 

 these achievements of science, Professor Newton was elected, in 1872, 

 associate of the Royal Astronomical Society." 



Professor Newton has been for more than a dozen years one of the 

 associate editors of the " American Journal of Science," and most of 

 his scientific articles have been written for its pages. He was one of 

 the fifjy members appointed by the act of Congress constituting the 

 American Academy of Sciences. In 1860 he was elected a corre- 

 sponding member of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. He served in 1875 as Vice-President of Section A of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its Detroit 

 meeting. 



His address on this occasion took the form of a strong plea for 

 more study of mathematics by American men of science ; not for the 

 sake of its place in education, but for the advancement of the science 

 itself, and for the assistance that might be derived from it in the 

 pursuit and enlargement of other branches of knowledge. Whatever 

 might be the reasons for it, he said, "the unpleasant fact is that the 

 American contributions to the science of quantity have not been large. 

 Three or four volumes, a dozen memoirs, and here and there a fruit- 

 ful idea having been selected from them, there is left very little that 

 the world will care much to remember. I refer, of course, to addi- 

 tions to our knowledge, not to the orderly arrangement of it. To 

 make first-rate text-books, or manuals, or treatises, is a work of no 

 mean order, and I would not underestimate it. In good mathematical 

 text-books we need not fear comparison with any nation. But so 

 few additions have been made to our knowledge of quantity that I 

 fear that the idea has been quite general among us that the mathemat- 

 ics is a finished science, or at least a stationary one, and that it has 

 few fertile fields inviting labor and few untrodden regions to be ex- 

 plored. Hence many bright minds, capable of good work, have acted 

 as though the arithmetic, the algebra, and the mechanics which they 

 studied covered all that is known of the science. Instead of going on 

 in some path out to the bounds of knowledge, as they had perhaps 

 the ability to do, they dug in the beaten highways, and with care 



