OBITUARY NOTICES. 
405 
until the completion of that survey, in 1880. He then came 
to Washington and entered the office of the Coast and Geo¬ 
detic Survey as a computer, a position which he held for 
seventeen years, till his death, of pneumonia, in April, 1897. 
Joining the Philosophical Society in March, 1882, he be¬ 
came a regular attendant at its meetings and a contributor 
to its program up to the very last. During his fifteen years 
of membership he presented to the Society and its Mathe¬ 
matical Section eighteen communications—-the first June 17, 
1882, the last on April 3,1897, just two weeks before his death. 
All these papers were of a mathematical character, and related 
for the most part to the theory of errors, elliptic functions, 
and geodetic problems. In all of these his work is character¬ 
ized by neatness, thoroughness, and practical application, 
with examples carefully wrought out. Accustomed to com¬ 
putation, he set forth his results with a fullness of example 
well adapted to the computer’s needs. 
Of a retiring disposition, he mingled little in society, but 
spent his leisure at home, devoting his spare hours to music 
and mathematics. He married, in Detroit, Michigan, Sep¬ 
tember, 1873, Miss Wackwitz. She, with a son and a married 
daughter, Mrs. Beresford, survive him. 
Marcus Baker. 
WILLIAM LEE. 
1841-1893. 
[Read before the Society, May 23, 1896.] 
Doctor William Lee, born in Boston, Massachusetts, March 
12, 1841, was the eldest son of William Barlow and Ann 
(Whitman) Lee. When 13 years of age he came, with his 
parents, to Washington. Four years later, at the age of 17, 
he accompanied the military expedition of Captain J. H. 
Simpson to Utah. On his return to Washington he took 
up the study of medicine. 
