310 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
ing the five years that he was attached to the United States 
Naval Academy as instructor. Astronomy also claimed a 
share of his attention, and it was while he was taking part 
in the duties of the astronomers at the National Astronom¬ 
ical Observatory established under the administration of the 
Navy Department that he became a member of this Society 
in the year 1883. 
Admiral Sampson was too much cut off from the regular 
meetings of the Philosophical Society to become identified 
among its most active members. It was only a few years 
after his election to membership and while still in the grade 
of commander in the navy that he left Washington to be¬ 
come Superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
and his return to resume residence here six years later marked 
the opening of one of the most arduous and important pe¬ 
riods of his life, during which, as Chief of the Bureau of 
Ordnance of the Navy Department, his scientific attainments 
found their greatest scope and purpose in transforming the 
Washington Navy Yard into one of the foremost ordnance 
factories in the world. In this stage of his career Sampson’s 
reputation extended for the first time among men of national 
affairs who could be informed of technical matters only 
through the agency of lucid and brief expression in which 
he was found to be strikingly proficient; so that when the 
war with Spain came to be fought and a commander-in-chief 
of the fleet was to be chosen he was sufficiently known 
among those who had accepted the responsibilities of our 
nation to be selected as having the most intelligent compre¬ 
hension of the weapon that was to be placed in his hands 
and as being the most likely to wield it with telling effect. 
Although he had been in failing health for some years, 
beyond an added look of care Admiral Sampson’s appear¬ 
ance was unchanged for several years after the culmination 
of his life work at Santiago. In person he was somewhat 
above medium height, rather slender and well knit, and 
slightly bent as a scholar is by erudition. His bearing was 
of unmistakable distinction, and did not suggest the sailor 
