SIMON NEWCOMB. 
137 
fatal malady, laboring to the last, he has left a noble example 
to us all and a name which will always shine among the 
brightest in the annals of American science. 
ADDRESS OF MR. MILTON UPDEGRAFF, 
DIRECTOR OF THE NAUTICAL ALMANAC. 
Among the many honors conferred on Professor Newcomb, 
in recognition of his services to astronomy, is the Copley 
Medal of the Royal Society of London, which he received 
nearly twenty years ago. The award has recently been an- 
nounced of the same medal to Dr. Geo. W. Hill, of West 
Nyack, N. Y., who was for many years an associate, assistant, 
and friend of Professor Newcomb in the Nautical Almanac 
Office. In commenting on this high honor again bestowed 
upon an American, the editor of one of our most ably con- 
ducted reviews states that the incident is “a matter for na- 
tional gratification,” and that “while it may be invidious to 
make distinction among different departments of research, 
yet a certain primacy belongs to that domain (Celestial 
Mechanics) , which is at once the most ancient field of scien- 
tific inquiry and demands for its exploration all the resources 
of the most abstract and highly developed of sciences.” 
It was to the promotion in the broadest possible way of 
work in this field that Professor Newcomb for more than half 
a century gave his magnificent abilities, the weight of his 
character and his personal influence. When we consider the 
need that existed and the completeness with which it was met 
by Professor Newcomb, the greatness of his achievements and 
the magic of his name, greater in Europe even than in our 
own country, is explained. 
His career in the intellectual world commenced when in 
1857, at the age of 22, he became a computer in the Nautical 
Almanac Office, then located in Cambridge, Mass. In 1861 
he was made a professor of mathematics in the Navy, and was 
transferred to the Naval Observatory at Washington. For 
several years he was engaged in practical astronomical work. 
