THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
96 
of the month Mars is in Sagittarius, 
which does not lie within the limits of 
Eigure 1. At the end of the month it 
is at the point marked B, in Figure 1. 
It is low in the southwest, in poor posi- 
tion for observation. Jupiter in Leo 
and Saturn in Virgo, not far away, can 
be seen only late at night. On Novem- 
ber 6 the earth will be in the plane of 
the rings of Saturn, so that we can see 
merely the edge of the rings turned 
toward us. As the rings are very nar- 
row they often disappear altogether for 
a time. The earth lies very near the 
plane of the rings until August 21 and 
is in the plane again in March and Au- 
gust. A fuller explanation will prob- 
ably be given then when Saturn is vis- 
ible earlier in the evening. Uranus is 
at C, Figure 1. 
The November meteors may be seen 
on the evenings about November 15. 
They appear to move in all directions 
from the constellation Leo. They are 
not visible in the early evening. 
Eric Doolittle. 
[From The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia.] 
Professor Eric Doolittle, distin- 
guished astronomer, died at 10:30 A. 
M. September 21 in the University Hos- 
pital of heart disease. He was fifty 
y ears old. 
The professor had been in the hos- 
pital since June 24. Mrs. Doolittle 
fractured her leg on September 2 while 
picking flowers near her home on West 
Chester Pike, near 69th Street, for her 
husband. She also was a patient at the 
hospital and was taken into the profes- 
sor’s room in a wheel chair just before 
he died. Dr. Doolittle had been sink- 
ing for two weeks, and his death was 
not unexpected. 
Professor Doolittle, regarded as one 
of the world’s greatest astronomers, 
was professor of astronomy and 
director of the Flower Observatory of 
the University of Pennsylvania. He 
was recognized as the greatest author- 
ity on double stars. 
Professor Doolittle was born in On- 
tario. Lagrange County, Indiana, July 
26, 1870. He was the son of the late 
Professor Charles L. Doolittle, also 
prominent as an astronomer and math- 
ematician, and Martha Cloyes Farrand. 
The family moved to Bethlehem, Pa., 
in 1876, when Professor C. L. Doolittle 
was appointed professor of mathe- 
matics and astronomy at Lehigh Uni- 
versity. 
After a preparatory school education, 
Eric Doolittle entered Lehigh Univer- 
sity, graduating in 1891 with the degree 
ERIC DOOLITTLE. 
Professor of Astronomy and director of the 
Flower Observatory of the University of 
Pennsylvania, who died September 21 in the 
University Hospital. He was fifty years old. 
of civil engineer. After getting some 
practical experience as assistant to the 
city engineer of Bradford, Pa., he was 
appointed instructor in mathematics at 
Lehigh University in 1892, where he 
made some few observations of Jupi- 
ter’s satellites and other heavenly 
bodies in the Sayre astronomical ob- 
servatory. 
In 1893 he was appointed instructor 
in mathematics and astronomy in the 
State University of Iowa, Iowa City, 
la., where he remained for two years. 
From there he went to the University 
of Chicago, where for two years he 
studied graduate astronomy. 
In 1895, Professor Doolittle was ap- 
pointed instructor in astronomy in the 
University of Pennsylvania. He had 
been connected with the university 
since that time. He engaged in re- 
search work at the Flower Observatory, 
Upper Darby, then under the director- 
ship of his father. His work here was 
principally the observation and discus- 
sion of double stars. 
