20 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



Mention may be made here also of the remarkable career of Professor 

 Newcomb, one of the most proditctiv investigators in the history of American 

 science. Early in life he set for himself the gigantic task of bringing the 

 observd motions of the members of the solar system into harmony with the 

 Newtonian law of attraction, and for nearly fifty years he was one of the 

 small number of leaders in this arduous branch of mathematical astronomy. 

 The harmony in question had been demonstrated to the first order of approx- 

 imation in that mightiest of all systematic treatises, the Mecanique Celeste of 

 Laplace. But the vast accumulations of precise observations of the planets 

 and their satellites during the nineteenth century showd the necessity for a 

 higher order of approximation, which could be attaind only by an insight and 

 an industry comparable with those of Laplace himself. How well Professor 

 Newcomb succeeded in this great undertaking is attested by the extensiv 

 additions he made to the lunar and the planetary theories and by the universal 

 recognition his work receivd from institutions of learning. He livd a life 

 of indefatigable research, making weighty contributions to almost every field 

 of mathematical and astronomical science. During the long period of his 

 activity he was occupied to an extraordinary degree by the capital gravita- 

 tional problem presented in the motion of the moon. This motion has baffled 

 the ingenuity of his most eminent predecessors and contemporaries and is not 

 yet fully harmonizd with the Newtonian law. He made great progress, how- 

 ever, in the treatment of this grand problem ; and his tenacity of purpose as 

 an investigator is well attested by the fact that his last, as well as his first, 

 more important memoir is devoted to this uniquely difficult subject of research. 



The more important events of the year are the completion of the Adminis- 

 tration Building in Washington ; the establishment and activ operation of the 

 observatory of the Department of Meridian Astrometry 

 Principal Events jj^ Argentina; the construction and putting into commis- 

 sion of the non-magnetic ship Carnegie of the Department 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism; and the inauguration of the project for the pub- 

 lication of an edition of the master-works on international law. Mention of 

 these will be made in detail in later sections of this report. Attention may 

 be calld here, however, to the fact that with these, and with the previously 

 establisht larger enterprises under way, the accumulated income of the Insti- 

 tution has been exhausted and that there will be no room for further expan- 

 sion under current income in the immediate future. 



In the last annual report a summary statement of the work of the Institu- 

 tion up to October 31, 1908, was given. A more detaild study of the scope 

 „ f w t ^^^ geografic range of this work shows that investiga- 



of Institution tions have been carried on under the auspices of the Insti- 



to Date. tution in more than thirty different fields of research and 



