REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1914. 11 



association with the Institution arose through the pubhcation 

 of his '^Collected Works" (Publication No. 9, 1905-1907) in four 

 quarto vokimes, having an aggregate of 1 ,770 pages. His career 

 in research was extraordinarily fruitful, extending with but few 

 and brief interruptions for fifty-five years from the time of attain- 

 ment of a baccalaureate degree at Rutgers College, in 1859, at 

 the age of twenty-one years. His contributions to mathematico- 

 physical astronomy are held to be the most important of any 

 individual investigator of the nineteenth century after the epoch 

 of Laplace. His researches relate to nearly every branch of 

 celestial mechanics, ranging from the figure of the earth up to 

 the most difficult problems presented by the solar system. He 

 is best known, however, for his theories of planetary motions 

 and for his theory of the moon. This latter alone, according to 

 his eminent contemporary Poincare, has rendered Hill's name 

 immortal in the annals of astronomy. 



Investigators of such high rank are in general little known 

 and hence little appreciated by their contemporaries. Those 

 who are extending the boundaries of knowledge are of necessity 

 often in intellectual isolation. The advances they accomplish 

 are less for themselves than for mankind. Adequate recognition 

 of their labors is possible only from their successors. Hill under- 

 stood well, and accepted without protest, these conditions of his 

 chosen occupation. He asked only for opportunity to investi- 

 gate unceasingly. The publication of his ''Collected Works" by 

 the Institution was an unexpected honor he esteemed very highly 

 and an undertaking to which he gave characteristic attention, 

 extending and completing for this purpose several unpublished 

 memoirs. It would seem also that this recognition prompted 

 him to further productivity, for since 1907 he has published a 

 sufficient number of researches to make an additional volume 

 for the series already issued by the Institution. 



Under the terms of the will of Mr. Richard T. Colburn, a resi- 

 dent of New York City, who died December 9, 1913, the Amer- 



The Colburn ^^^^ Associatiou for the Advancement of Science 



Bequest. ^ud the Carnegie Institution of Washington are 



designated as residuary legatees of his estate, the proceeds of 



