SIMON NEWCOMB. 
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES BY 
Charles K. Wead 
James Bryce 
Milton Updegraff 
R. S. Woodward 
L. 0. Howard 
Herbert Putnam 
E. M. Gallaudet 
At a Meeting of the Philosophical Society of Washington, 
Held December 4 , 1900 . 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS OF MR. CHARLES K. WEAD, 
PRESIDENT of the society. 
We are met to commemorate the life and services of our 
late President, Simon Newcomb. 
One of the by-laws of the Philosophical Society prescribes 
that the meeting preceding the annual meeting in December 
“shall be set apart for the President’s Annual Address.” It 
is, therefore, peculiarly fitting that President Newcomb’s 
friends meet tonight as they would do if he were alive and 
well ; and while we may not hear his voice, through the lips 
of others we shall be taught some of his knowledge and wis- 
dom, and catch some inspiration from the story of his life- 
long devotion to lofty and difficult tasks. So we may feel 
tonight that he, like the martyr of old, “being dead, yet 
speaketh.” 
Professor Newcomb was one of the founders of this Society 
in 1871, and Joseph Henry was its only President till his 
death in 1878. At the next election Simon Newcomb was 
chosen to fill the vacancy, and held the office for two years: 
since then a single term has been the invariable custom. 
During his terms the Society became so large that the An- 
20— Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 15. (133) 
