SIMON NEWCOAIB, F.R.S., LL.D., D.C.L. v 



In Newcomb's accounts of the early years of his life we are 

 impressed by the small amount of encouragement and assistance 

 which he found in his vague aspirations toward something better. 

 He seems to have read everything that came within his reach. This 

 included a number of very uninviting works on geometry and 

 algebra, navigation and the like, which very few boys would have the 

 courage to attempt without a teacher. But the entire absence of 

 anyone capable of directing him in his studies, is perhaps even more 

 marked than the absence of books. Everyone in this primitive 

 region where his early life was passed, seems to have been so 

 absorbed in the struggle for existence that very little energy remained 

 for anything else. If during the first eighteen years of his life, he 

 ever met anyone who had seen a college, I have found no mention 

 of the fact. 



In 1856 Mr. Newcomb found himself teaching in the family of 

 a planter named Byran, fifteen or twenty miles from Washington. 

 He could, therefore, readily visit this place at frequent intervals. 

 He tells us that, up to this time, he is not aware that he had ever 

 seen a real live professor. He had, however, had a little correspond- 

 ence with Professor Henry, which is so characteristic of the kindly 

 and genial nature of the latter as to be worth relating. While 

 teaching at Sudlersville, Mr. Newcomb made what appears to have 

 been his first serious attempt at an original mathematical investiga- 

 tion, viz., " A New Demonstration of the Binomial Theorem." This 

 he sent to Professor Henry, asking whether he considered it suitable 

 for publication. Instead of consigning it to the waste paper basket 

 and giving it no further attention, as many a man in Professor 

 Henry's position would have done, he gave a negative reply, but as 

 mathematics was not his specialty, offering to submit the document 

 to some one better informed than himself in such matters. As was 

 to have been expected, an adverse report came to hand in due time, 

 which Professor Henry transmitted, accompanied by a pleasant note 

 from himself to the effect that, although not so favorable as might 

 have been expected, it was sufiiciently so to encourage further effort. 

 Soon after this Mr. Newcomb took what was for him the bold step 

 of calling on Professor Henry, who not only received him with 



