508 
engaged in a study of the bacteriology of in- 
fluenza he was stricken and died with pneu- 
monia in a few days. 
Captain Mathers was a fine, lofty-minded, 
lovable young man, of rare enthusiasm for 
work, and a remarkable efficiency. He had 
committed himself to research and his early 
death is a great loss to medicine. 
Lupvic HEKToEN 
ARTEMAS MARTIN 
Dr. Artemas Martin, of the U. S. Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, died on November 7, 
1918, after an illness of two weeks, in the 
eight-fourth year of his life. He was born on 
a farm in Steuben County, New York, on 
August 3, 1835. Four winters in the schools 
of Venango County, Pennsylvania, comprised 
all his schooling. Wood-chopping, oil-well 
drilling and farming—with four winters as a 
district teacher—made up his work until the 
age of fifty. The little leisure afforded by 
such work was devoted to the study of mathe- 
matics. 
Early in life he began contributing prob- 
lems and solutions to various magazines. In 
1877, while engaged in market gardening for 
a livelihood, he began the editing and pub- 
lishing of the Mathematical Visitor and in 
1882 he followed this up with the Mathe- 
matical Magazine. Not only did he do the 
editing and publishing of these magazines, 
but for financial reasons was compelled to do 
the type setting also. That he did this well is 
evidenced by the character of the mathe- 
matical typography of his journals. 
Aside from articles in his own magazines, 
he contributed a large number of papers to va- 
rious mathematical journals here and abroad. 
His writings dealt chiefly with properties of 
triangles, logarithums, properties of numbers, 
diophantine analysis, probability and elliptic 
integrals. He was an authority on early 
mathematical text-books and collaborated with 
Dr. Greenwood in the “ Notes on the History 
of American Text-Books on Arithmetic.” 
Dr. Martin’s mathematical abilities received 
SCIENCE © 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIII. No. 1247 
wide recognition. In 1877, Yale conferred 
upon him the honorary degree of A.M., Rut- 
gers honored him with a Ph.D., in 1882, and 
in 1885 Hillsdale made him an LL.D. Nu- 
merous learned societies, both here and abroad, 
honored him with membership. 
In 1885, Dr. Martin was appointed librarian 
of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, where 
his wide knowledge of mathematics made him 
of great service. In 1898 he was made com- 
puter in the Division of Tides, which place he 
held until his death. 
Personally, he was a man of very prepossess- 
ing appearance. Of simple tastes and exhibit- 
ing few of the limitations of the pioneer 
period through which he passed the first fifty 
years of his life, he exemplified most of its 
robust virtues. Fond of home life and chil- 
dren he denied himself marriage that he 
might care for his parents and sisters. Travel- 
ing scarcely at all, he was well known to 
American mathematicians of the previous gen- 
eration who found him an agreeable and com- 
panionable man. : 
Dr. Martin’s memory is to be fittingly per- 
petuated in the Artemas Martin Library of 
the American University at Washington, D. C. 
This library, consisting principally of mathe- 
matical works, and given by Dr. Martin to 
the American University shortly before his 
death, was considered one of the finest private 
collections in America. At the same univer- 
sity there is also to be an Artemas Martin 
Lectureship in mathematics and physics, en- 
dowed by Dr. Martin. 
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS | 
THE BEQUESTS OF MRS. SAGE 
Tue will of Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage, dis- 
poses of an estate estimated at $50,000,000, of 
which more than $40,000,000 is to be distrib- 
uted among charitable, educational and reli- 
gious institutions. It is said that since the 
death of her husband, Mrs. Sage had given 
between $35,000,000 and $40,000,000 to various 
institutions and charities, using part of the 
principal, as well as the income, of the Sage 
estate in these benefactions. 
