Obituary. 495 



cised over every detail to secure the best results for this purpose. 

 The arrangement is by constellations. The designation of the 

 star is given as it appears in six different catalogues, and its mag- 

 nitude as the average of from 2 to 12 different determinations. 



The maps have been engraved on copperplate with the greatest 

 precision. The reticulation is into degree spaces and the lines of 

 projection have been drawn directly on the plates by a machine 

 specially designed for the purpose. The boundaries of the con- 

 stellations and the names of stars and constellations are printed 

 in red from a separate set of plates. No pains have been spared to 

 make the work the most convenient possible for the purpose 

 intended, and the result leaves nothing to be desired. w. b. 



5. Science Manuals. — The following are the titles of several 

 elementary volumes in science issued by the Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Press (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 40 cents each) : 



Life in the Sea ; by James Johnstone. Pp. vi, 150 ; 4 figures. 



Primitive Animals ; by Geoffrey Smith. Pp. x, 153 ; 25 

 figures. 



Links with the Past in the Plant World ; by A. C. Seward. 

 Pp. viii, 142 ; 20 figures. 



An Introduction to Experimental Psychology ; by Charles S. 

 Myees. Pp. vi, 156 ; 20 figures. 



Obituary. 



Dr. Lewis Boss. — With the death of Professor Lewis Boss, 

 director of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, N. Y., on October 

 5, in his sixty-sixth year, America loses its foremost representa- 

 tive of the old school of astronomy of precision. After render- 

 ing strenuous practical service on the U. S. Northern Boundary 

 Commission, he deduced his Catalogue of Declinations of Stand- 

 ard Stars embodying new and authoritative ideas on the Syste- 

 matic Corrections to Star Catalogues. Appointed to the charge 

 of the Dudley Observatory, he carried out with almost unexam- 

 pled rapidity and precision one of the zones for the great 

 international undertaking of the Astronomische Gesellschaft's 

 catalogue. 



Occupied mainly throughout his life with investigations of 

 fundamental star positions, and publishing a valuable Preliminary 

 Catalogue in 1910, he planned a comprehensive campaign which 

 he was at last, at the age of sixty, enabled to inaugurate with the 

 aid of the Carnegie Institution. Infusing his energy into his 

 staff, the observational work in the Southern Hemisphere (at 

 San Luis, Argentina) was accomplished in an incredibly short 

 time and it is sad beyond words that he was not fated to 

 see the final goal of his labors attained. Undoubtedly, how- 

 ever, he has left the work in such shape that others may 

 finish it on the plans he has carefully outlined. w. l. e. 



