1 68 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



of an instructor in the University with which he was connected 

 for so long a time. " If from all those who have come under his 

 instruction we should seek to learn their personal recollections 

 of Professor Newton, we should probably find that the most 

 universal impression which he made on his classes was that of his 

 enthusiastic love of the subject which he was teaching." 

 (Gibbs.) 



In 1882 the observatory was established at Yale and Professor 

 Newton, to whom it largely owed its existence, was the first 

 director. He introduced there the use of the photographic 

 camera to record the tracks of meteors, and in one instance, 

 through a simultaneous observation of Mr. Lewis at Ansonia, 

 was able to calculate the course of a meteor in the earth's atmos- 

 phere. 



He was naturally interested in collections of meteoric stones 

 and the fine series in the Peabody Museum is largely the result 

 of his efforts. 



Professor Newton was one of the founders of the American 

 Metrological Society, and for several years was President of 

 the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1864 he 

 became associate editor of the American Journal of Science. 

 He was awarded the first Lawrence Smith Medal by the 

 National Academy of Sciences in 1888. He died in New Haven 

 on August 12, 1896. 



(From J. WILLARD GIBBS, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy 

 of Sciences, vol. 4, 1902, pp. 99-124.) 



BENJAMIN PEIRCE 

 Born, April 4, 1809; died, October 6, 1880 



An important incident in Professor Peirce's boyhood was his 

 acquaintance with Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, whose son was a 

 schoolmate. In the dedication of one of his books he speaks 

 of Dr. Bowditch as " my Master in Science, Nathaniel Bow- 

 ditch, the father of American Geometry." 



Professor Peirce was born in Salem, Massachusetts, April 4, 

 1809, and entered Harvard College in 1825. Dr. Bowditch had 



