July 5, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



23 



youngster noticed a kindly face appearing 

 in the doorway ; conversation began about 

 the level — and from that day on, no year 

 has passed without the interchange of 

 friendl}^ visits between SafFord and the 

 writer of these words. Often and often 

 have we sat far into the night in his 

 ' den ' at Williamstown, our talk always 

 of astronomy and its masters. And well 

 he knew the masters, ever recommending 

 and emphasizing that they be studied at • 

 first-hand, not through editorially emascu- 

 lated translations and editions. Gauss 

 was an especial favorite ; for Saiford was 

 first of all a teacher, and believed that 

 mathematical instruction should always 

 include concrete examples, especially nu- 

 merical ones. The ' Theoria Motus,' with its 

 endless ramifications of trigonometrical ap- 

 plications and its orbit computations, was 

 beloved by him both for personal reading 

 and as a text for his students. Bessel's 

 works, even those less frequently read, 

 like the ' Tabulse Regiomontanse,' he had at 

 his fingers' ends. Text-books attracted 

 him less. He did not use Chauvenet's as- 

 tronomj^ that vade mecum of the younger 

 generation ; it is doubtful if he owned a 

 copy. 



Indeed, a rich fund of anecdote might be 

 collected to illustrate Saflford's lovable 

 quaintness of character. One of the cher- 

 ished dreams of his life was his plan of an 

 extended visit to Europe, its astronomers, 

 observatories and places of historic or scenic 

 interest. Circumstances always prevented 

 this voyage ; yet, though he was never 

 abroad, he possessed a most intimate ac- 

 quaintance with foreign countries. Few 

 Londoners could equal his knowledge of 

 the geography of their city. The intermi- 

 nable intricacies of its streets he had studied 

 from maps until, as his friends said, he 

 could have found his way anywhere with- 

 out a guide. ' Bradshaw,' the incompre- 

 hensible British railway time-table, was an 



unsealed book to him. A copy was always 

 close at hand in his library at Williams- 

 town, and he was never tired of extracting 

 from it new and difficult railway problems 

 with their solutions, to the huge amusement 

 of his family and friends. 



This ungratified longing for foreign travel 

 showed itself in still another amusing way. 

 On the occasions of his visits to New York, 

 he would often go to parts of the city fre- 

 quented by foreigners, and afteivwards en- 

 tertain his friends with odd experiences, 

 especially in the foreign restaurants. On 

 one occasion, in the year of the Chicago 

 Exposition, it fell to Saflford to act for a day 

 as cicerone in New York to two distin- 

 guished Englishmen, one a professor, the 

 other an admiral. All three returned from 

 their day delighted ; it had been passed at 

 an island much liked by excursionists. 

 Here Saflford had discovered, to his great 

 glee, a place called Klein Deutschland, and 

 could imagine himself for the moment in 

 Germany. Afterwards, it always gave him 

 indescribable enjoyment to talk of this trip, 

 and especially how acquaintance had been 

 made with a man who insisted on explain- 

 ing the men-of-war lying in the Brooklyn 

 Navy Yard, and was even led on to go a 

 little into astronomy. Neither the two 

 professors nor the admiral made known to 

 their informant that they had even so much 

 as heard of stars or ships before. Saflford 

 had an inexhaustible love for the humorous 

 and the quaint ; to those who knew how to 

 understand him, he could be most enter- 

 taining. He was passionately fond of 

 music, and could appreciate the best. 



But we must not give too much space to 

 those characteristics which attracted his 

 friends so strongly, to the neglect of that 

 which the world of science owes him. 

 Born January 6, 1836, at Royalton, Vt., he 

 showed already in his earl^' boyhood the 

 extraordinary arithmetical powers which 

 distinguished him through life ; for he could 



