JAMES CRAIG WATSON. 457 



America and their pronunciation. The diversity of his tastes and 

 learning is further shown in his " Tours of a Chess Knight" (1864), 

 a volume of ninety pages, illustrated with 114 figures, and containing 

 a bibliography including sixty references. 



JAMES CRAIG WATSON. 



Jajies Craig Watsox was born Jan. 28, 1838, in the part of 

 Canada now known as the Province of Ontario. His family removed 

 in 1850 to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was prepared for college, 

 entering the University of Michigan in 1853, and graduating in 1857. 

 His collegiate career was highly successful in the department of lan- 

 guages, as well as in that of mathematics ; but before its close he had 

 already formed a decided taste for astronomical pursuits, and had ac- 

 tually entered upon the course of observation in which he was after- 

 wards distinguished. He discovered a comet April 29, 1856, and the 

 asteroid Aglaia (found a few days previously in Europe) on October 

 20, 1857. He is said to have read the whole of the " Mecauique Celeste " 

 before the end of his Junior year in college, although a portion of his 

 time was occupied in earning the means requisite to provide in part 

 for his expenses. 



After completing his college course, he entered the Ann Arbor 

 Observatory as an assistant, and two years later, on the temporary 

 retirement of Dr. Briinnow, succeeded him in the management of the 

 institution. From 1860 to 1863, Dr. Bruunow was again Director 

 of the Observatory, Professor Watson having been transferred to the 

 department of Physics. At the end of this interval, he returned to 

 the Observatory, which he continued to direct till 1879. During his 

 term of office, he made the numerous discoveries of asteroids (twenty- 

 two of these planets being first observed by him) which rendered his 

 name familiar to astronomers and to the public at large. In 1869 

 appeared his great work on " Theoretical Astronomy," then and ever 

 since the only text-book upon the subject of which it treats which can 

 be called complete, in the sense of comprising in one volume of mod- 

 ei'ate dimensions all the knowledge essential for the computation of 

 planetary and cometary orbits by modern methods, and including the 

 topic of perturbations. It was of course impossible for the author to 

 describe, or even to enumerate, all the special methods occasionally 

 brought into use for the solution of these problems ; but his unusual 

 mathematical attainments, and the quickness and penetration of his 

 intellect enabled him to succeed in selecting, arranging, and, where 



