OBITUARY NOTICES. 
473 
association and chairman of its economic section in 1882, 
and a member of the governing body of the Philosophical 
Society almost continuously from its foundation to the 
time of his death. The titles of his numerous papers may 
be found in the publications of the societies to which 
he belonged, in the documents both of the United States 
Sanitary Commission and of the Treasury Department, in 
the Report on the Ninth Census of the United States (1870), 
in Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine, and in other places. It 
will suffice to mention here his paper “ On the Military 
Statistics of the United States of America,” which was read 
before the International Statistical Congress in Berlin in 
September, 1863, and in recognition of which he received a 
letter from the Crown Prince Frederick, afterward Emperor 
of Germany ; and his “ Tables of money, weights, and meas¬ 
ures of the principal commercial countries of the world, with 
their equivalents as used in the United States and as known 
in the metric system,” which was published in 1869 in 
Webster’s Counting House Dictionary. 
One of Mr. Elliott’s most notable achievements was the 
discovery of a method by which the labor of computing life 
tables was enormously reduced. The mathematical theory 
of this method was communicated by him to the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science in August, 1866, 
but no abstract was furnished for publication, and probably 
the only accessible account of the method is that contained 
in his “ Remarks upon the statistics of mortality,” in volume 
2 of the Ninth Census of the United States (June 1, 1870), 
pages ix to xvi. 
In person Mr. Elliott was portly and slightly below the 
medium height. Although not a fluent speaker, his address 
was agreeable and his manner such as to indicate clearly 
the sturdy honesty and straightforwardness of his character. 
To these sterling qualities he united a kindliness of disposi¬ 
tion and a keen sense of honor, which gave him a high 
place in the estimation of all who knew him. 
William Harkness. 
61-Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 11. 
