SIMON NEWCOMB 381 



the assemblage. We aim at nothing less than a survey of the 

 realm of knowledge, as comprehensive as is permitted by the limi- 

 tations of time and space. The organizers of our Congress have 

 honored me with the charge of presenting such preliminary view 

 of its field as may make clear the spirit of our undertaking." 



It must be remembered always that Newcomb's great work was 

 on the mathematical astronomy of the solar system, involving as 

 it did the preparation of the most exact possible tables of the mo- 

 tions of all the planets. These researches were published by 

 the Nautical Almanac Office in eight quarto volumes entitled 

 Astronomical Papers of the American Ephemeris. But this 

 was by no manner of means all; for a volume at least would 

 be necessary to merely mention his other very many addresses, 

 memoirs, and papers. The titles of 376 of these have been care- 

 fully collected by Dr. R. C. Archibald and were published in 1905. 

 Concerning these Prof. Arthur Cayley, formerly president of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain, has said: "Professor 

 Newcomb's writings exhibit, all of them, a combination on the 

 one hand of mathematical skill and power, and on the other of 

 good hard work, devoted to the furtherance of astronomical 

 science." 



During the years of his active connection with Johns Hopkins 

 University, he was properly editor-in-chief of the American Journal 

 of Mathematics, and during the rest of the time from the founda- 

 tion of the journal in 1878 to 1884, and subsequent to 1900 he 

 was an associate editor. His literary activity was very great and 

 but few important works of reference have been published with- 

 out articles from his pen. He was one of the contributors to John- 

 son's Cyclopedia, and became the "astronomical mathematical 

 editor" of that work for its edition published in 1900, as the 

 Universal Cyclopedia. He wrote a number of articles, including 

 that on Astronomy, for the tenth edition of the Encyclopedia 

 Britannica, and was one of the "associate and advising editors" of 

 the Encyclopedia Americana, and he was an associate editor of 

 the Dictionary of Psychology and Philosophy. His magazine 

 articles contributed to the Atlantic, Popular Science Monthly, 



