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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 997 



investigators. Some of tbe results of tlie work 

 appear from time to time in the Journal of 

 Entomology and Zoology, which is published 

 quarterly by the college. 



There are of course great gaps in the whole 

 plan. Only here and there can a little be done 

 at a time, but it is believed that by encourag- 

 ing classes and individuals to collect data and 

 specimens, and, when well trained, to record 

 observations of a more difficult nature, we 

 have an opportunity to do a great work which 

 is unique and can not help but benefit all who 

 partake in the efFort. Whatever may be the 

 value of the facts obtained and tested, what- 

 ever the value of the discovery of new species 

 or new adaptations, there is, I believe, the 

 value of method for the beginning student or 

 the more advanced one. It will not matter 

 what study he pursues after leaving college for 

 the university ; an awakened interest in things 

 out of doors, an increased accuracy of observa- 

 tion should result. It seems to me too that the 

 thought of contributing something to science, 

 no matter how small a fact, ought also to be 

 a stimulus in the future as it has been in the 

 past. 



William A. Hilton 



Pomona College, 

 Claremont, Cal. 



TV IN SLOW UPTON 

 Winslow TJpton", professor of astronomy and 

 director of the Ladd observatory at Brown 

 University, died of pneumonia, at Providence, 

 on January 8, in the sixty-first year of his age. 

 His forbears were of north England origin but 

 early in the seventeenth century the founder 

 of the New England family emigrated to 

 Massachusetts. Professor Upton was bom on 

 October 12, 1853, and was the fourth son of 

 James Upton, a prominent merchant of Salem, 

 Mass., and a liberal contributor to Brown Uni- 

 versity. Entering Brown in 1871 he was grad- 

 uated as valedictorian of the class of 1875. He 

 had attained to almost equal excellence in the 

 pursuit of studies in ancient classics and in 

 science, but he felt that his forte was rather 

 in the line of scientific investigation. So he 

 turned to the University of Cincinnati for 



graduate work in astronomy and was there 

 awarded the degree of A.M. in 1877. His alma 

 mater conferred on him the honorary degree 

 of Sc.D. in 1906. 



He was assistant in the astronomical obser- 

 vatory at Harvard, 1877-79; assistant engi- 

 neer in the U. S. Lake Survey at Detroit. 

 1879-80; computer in the U. S. naval obser- 

 vatory at Washington, 1880-81; computer and 

 assistant professor in the U. S. Signal office, 

 1881-84. 



In 1884 he was appointed professor of 

 astronomy at Brown University and since 1891 

 he has been both professor of astronomy and 

 director of the Ladd observatory (the gift of 

 the late Governor H. W. Ladd) which was built 

 under his supervision. The facilities of the 

 observatory have been used chiefly to aid in 

 the instruction of the university, in the main- 

 tenance of a local time service, and in regular 

 meteorological observations in cooperation 

 with the U. S. Weather Bureau. 



Professor Upton has been connected with a 

 number of important scientific parties. He 

 was a member of the U. S. astronomical ex- 

 peditions to observe the total eclipse at Den- 

 ver, Colorado, in 1878, and at the Caroline 

 Islands in the South Pacific, in 1883. He also 

 observed the solar eclipse of 1887 in Eussia, 

 that of 1889 in California, of 1900 in North 

 Carolina, and during a sabbatical year, 1896- 

 97, he was attached to the southern station of 

 the observatory of Harvard College, at Are- 

 quipa, Peru. 



Professor Upton's publications, for the most 

 part in the department of meteorology, include 

 the following: 



1. "The Solar Eclipse of 1878," a lecture 

 before the Essex Institute (Bulletin of the 

 Essex Institute. Vol. 11. 1879; reprinted, 

 pp. 19). 



2. "Photometric Observations Made Prin- 

 cipally with the Equatorial Telescope of 

 Fifteen Inches Aperture During the Tears 

 1877-79"; by E. C. Pickering, C. Searle and 

 W. Upton (Harvard Astr. Ohs. Ann., Vol. 11, 

 1879, pp. 317). 



3. " Information Eelative to the Construc- 

 tion and Maintenance of Time-balls " (Wash- 



