PROCTOR, RICHARD ANTHONY. 



707 



and hundreds of Canadian fishermen also were 

 employed in this busiiK'xs. '1 he coast-line was 

 patrolled by Canadian cutters, but no seizures 

 were made. 



PROCTOR, RICHARD AXTHOXY, astronomer, 

 born in Chelsea, England, March 23, 1837; died 

 in New York city, Sept. 12, 1888. He received 

 his early education at home, being a sickly child, 

 and then attended the academy in Wilton-on- 

 Thames. The death of his father unsettled his 

 school life, the patrimony became involved in 



RICHARD ANTHONY PROCTOR. 



a chancery suit, and in 1854 he entered the 

 London Joint-Stock Bank as a clerk. In 1855 

 be began studying at King's College, London, 

 and a year later went to St. John's, Cambridge, 

 where he took a high stand in mathematics, 

 and was graduated in 1860 among the wran- 

 glers. For three years he devoted his time to 

 historical and literary studies, when the bank 

 in which his money was deposited failed. He 

 had begun the study of astronomy, and in 

 December, 1863, published in the " Cornhill 

 Magazine" a paper on "Double Stars." In 

 1864 he began a series of investigations in re- 

 gard to the great ringed planet of the solar 

 system, the fruits of which were ultimately 

 embodied in his treatise of "Saturn and its 

 System " (London, 1865). In preparing this 

 work he had to make many maps, and from 

 these grew his " Gnomonic Star Atlas" (1866). 

 which in turn suggested his " Hand-Book of 

 the Stars'' (1866). Thereafter his literary in- 

 dustry was very great, and he published in 

 quick succession " Constellation Seasons, Sun- 

 Views of the Earth" (1867); "Half-hours 

 with the Telescope " (1868) ; " Half-hours with 

 Stars " (1869) ; and " Other Worlds than ours ; 

 the Plurality of Worlds, studied under the 

 Light of Recent Scientific Researches," with a 



large star-atlas (1870). The last-named was 

 one of the most popular works ever published 

 on astronomy, and after its publication he was 

 regarded as perhaps the most fertile popular 

 writer on astronomical subjects of his day. 

 His original work included numerous researches 

 on the stellar system, the law of distribution 

 of stars and the nebulas, and the general con- 

 stitution of the heavens. In 1869 he advanced 

 a theory of the solar corona, which has since 

 been generally accepted, and also that of the 

 inner complex solar atmosphere, which was 

 afterward advanced by Prof. Charles A. Young. 

 He was active in the transit-of- Venus expedi- 

 tions of 1874 and 1882, and became involved in 

 a dispute with the Astronomer Royal of England 

 as to the best methods of observation. In 

 1873-'74 he visited the United States and lect- 

 ured on popular phases of astronomy. Again, 

 in 1875, he came to this country, and during a 

 stay of seven months delivered 142 lectures. 

 In 1879 he left England for America and Aus- 

 tralia, and lectured in all of the principal towns 

 of Victoria, New South Wales, South Austra- 

 lia, and New Zealand. His first wife died in 

 1879, and in 1881 he married Mrs. Robert J. 

 Crawley, of St. Joseph, Mo , and for some years 

 made that city his home. In October, 1887. he 

 removed to Orange Lake, Fla.. and there estab- 

 tablished his residence and observatory ; but, 

 early in September, 1888, he set out for Lon- 

 don to fill a lecture engagement. On reaching 

 New York he was taken ill and died of hemor- 

 rhagic malarial fever. Prof. Proctor was ap- 

 pointed an Honorary Fellow of King's College, 

 London, in 1873, and became a Fellow of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society in 1866. He was 

 appointed honorary secretary of that society 

 and editor of its proceedings in February, 1872, 

 but resigned these offices in November, 1873. 

 In 1881 he founded "Knowledge," a weekly 

 scientific journal, but changed it to a month- 

 ly in 1885, and continued its editor until his 

 death. His productiveness and versatility were 

 remarkable. In the same issue of his journal 

 he would appear in several rules at once: as 

 the editor and as Richard A. Proctor, writing 

 on astronomy and mathematics; as Thomas 

 Foster, criticising and carrying to its logical 

 conclusions Dickens's unfinished novel of "Ed- 

 win Drood " ; and then anonymously criticising 

 and refuting the said Thomas Foster ; as the 

 whist editor and the chess editor and every other 

 sort of editor demanded by the occasion. At 

 the same time he was writing articles for other 

 periodicals and newspapers, and he wrote well 

 on every subject he handled. Besides those 

 already mentioned, he published " Light Science 

 for Leisure Hours" (three series, 1871, 1873, and 

 1883); "Elementary Astronomy"(1871); "Orbs 

 around us" (1872); "Elementary Geography" 

 (1872); "School Atlas of Astronomy" (1872); 

 "Essays on Astronomy" (1872); "Familiar 

 Science Studies " (1872)'; " The Moon " (1873); 

 "Borderland of Science" (1873); "Expanse 

 of Heaven " (1873) ; " The Universe and Com- 



