134 
WEAD. 
thropological and Biological Societies were formed out of it. 
During 1907-8 Mr. Newcomb was prominently before the 
Society and presented several interesting communications, 
and a year ago was, for the third time, elected President. 
The addresses this evening cannot, of course, be expected 
to present a chronological, complete or well-balanced biog- 
raphy ; for the activities of his long and busy life have been 
too great for a single evening’s presentation. Bibliographic- 
ally these activities are represented by about a dozen inde- 
pendent volumes, more than half a hundred scientific mem- 
oirs and papers referred to in the Koyal Society’s Catalogue, 
and hundreds of magazine and newspaper reviews and 
articles, signed and unsigned, all duly listed by an admiring 
cataloguer. Tonight we may expect to hear of only a few of 
these activities, but of these few, somewhat in detail, and as 
seen from diverse view-points. 
Running through all the important expressions of his 
life, I think we may see, more than in most men’s, evidences 
of a profound belief in law ; it appears in his orderly life, free 
from the proverbial eccentricities of genius, as well as in his 
monumental works based on the laws of gravitation ; it under- 
lies his work on the principles of political economy, his at- 
tempts to find the facts and laws of psychical phenomena, 
and to apply the laws of probability to stories of apparitions 
and coincidences. 
To keep the facts presented this evening in right relations 
of time, it will be convenient to bear in mind a very few 
dates: 
Born at Wallace, Nova Scotia, March 12, 1835. 
Graduated, B. S., from Lawrence Scientific School in 1858. 
Became a member of the American Association in 1859. 
Appointed Professor of Mathematics in the United States 
Navy, 1861. 
Married, 1863. 
Elected Associate member of the Royal Astronomical So- 
ciety, 1872, and since then elected to about forty societies in 
twelve foreign countries. 
Invited to become Director of Harvard Observatory, 1875. 
