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SCIENCE 



[ISr. S. Vol. XXX. No. 768 



moir on the elements of the four inner 

 planets and the fundamental constants of 

 astronomy, which appeared as a supple- 

 ment to the American Ephemeris for 1897. 

 This memoir contains the data on which 

 are founded the tables of these planets, 

 published shortly after. In 1899 Professor 

 Newcomb completed his work on the six 

 major planets, he had undertaken to re- 

 vise, by the publication of tables of Uranus 

 and Neptune. 



While all these investigations in the 

 planetary theories were going on Professor 

 Newcomb must have found time for attack- 

 ing his subject of predilection, the lunar 

 theory, for we have a lengthy memoir by 

 him on the action of the planets on the 

 moon, contained in the volume last men- 

 tioned. This paper must have cost him an 

 enormous amount of labor; he seems to be 

 determined that no inequality of sensible 

 magnitude should escape him. 



The tables of the planets being out of the 

 way, Professor Newcomb next turned his 

 attention to the fixed stars. Being present 

 at the Paris Conference of 1896 on a com- 

 mon international catalogue of fundamental 

 stars, he obtained the assignment of the 

 subject of precession as his share of the 

 work to be undertaken. Within a year he 

 had the work done, having derived a value 

 of the principal constant involved which is 

 probably as good as the condition of the 

 data at the time allowed. 



This memoir is naturally followed by 

 another containing a catalogue of more 

 than 1,500 stars reduced to an absolute 

 system and to be employed as fundamental. 



In March, 1897, Professor Newcomb, 

 having arrived at the age limit, was retired 

 from the office of the American Ephemeris. 

 Many of his unfinished jobs were carried 

 to completion under the nominal superin- 

 tendence of others. 



At the foundation of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution of Washington Professor New- 



comb secured the privilege of prosecuting 

 his researches on the motion of the moon 

 under its auspices. Here, until the end of 

 his life, he labored assisted by a small but 

 very able corps of assistants. Although 

 the period of time was short a long me- 

 moir on the planetary inequalities has ap- 

 peared. 



The last contribution of Professor New- 

 comb to science is an article in the Monthly 

 Notices for January, 1909, exhibiting the 

 deviations of the moon's mean longitude 

 from the best theory that, so far, has been 

 devised. 



In the intervals of leisure between his 

 labors of a more technical kind Professor 

 Newcomb composed a book on "Popular 

 Astronomy." Although the rapid advance 

 of the science in the more than thirty years 

 since its publication has caused it to fall 

 behind, it still remains the best composition 

 on the subject. 



Professor Newcomb contributed a vast 

 number of notes on almost every conceiv- 

 able topic in astronomy and the allied sci- 

 ences to the scientific periodicals. (In this 

 connection it may be useful to state that 

 the Royal Society of Canada has published 

 a bibliography.) He had the management 

 of the construction of tables for the Wat- 

 son asteroids. He found time to treat 

 questions in economics and psychics and 

 even wrote a novel. No matter how many 

 tools he had in the fire, he was always 

 ready to add to them. His journeys to ob- 

 serve total solar eclipses, transits of the 

 interior planets and to collect scientific 

 data from the observatories and libraries 

 of Europe are too numerous for mention. 



With almost universal consent, it is ad- 

 mitted that, for the last forty years of his 

 life, Professor Newcomb stood at the head 

 of the cultivators of the astronomy of po- 

 sition. And he did not have to complain 

 of lack of appreciation by his fellows: 

 after he had got fairly started in his sci- 



