r to the editor
of the "Mathematical Monthly," by whom it was, I believe, consigned
to the wastebasket. The result was a good deal of correspondence,
such a proceeding being rather humiliating to a man of eminence
who had addressed so distinguished an assembly. The outcome of the
matter was that the paper, which was much more in the nature of a
legal document than of a mathematical investigation, was greatly
reduced in length by its author, and then still further shorn by the
editor, until it would fill only two or three pages of the journal;
thus reduced, it was published.

The time was not yet ripe for the growth of mathematical science
among us, and any development that might have taken place in that
direction was rudely stopped by the civil war. Perhaps this may
account for the curious fact that, so far as I have ever remarked,
none of the student contributors to the journal, Hill excepted,
has made himself known as a mathematical investigator. Not only
the state of mathematical learning, but the conditions of success
at that time in a mathematical text-book, are strikingly illustrated
by one of our experiences.

One of the leading publishing houses of educational text-books in
the country issued a very complete and advanced series, from the
pen of a former teacher of the subject. They were being extensively
introduced, and were sent to the "Mathematical Monthly" for review.
They were distinguished by quite apt illustrations, well fitted,
perhaps, to start the poorly equipped student in the lower branches of
the work, but the advanced works, at least, were simply ridiculous.
A notice appeared in which the character of the books was pointed
out. The evidence of the worthlessness of the entire series was
so strong that the publishers had it entirely rewritten by more
competent authors. Now came the oddest part of the whole affair.
The new series was issued under the name of the same author as the
old one, just as if the acknowledgment of his total failure did not
detract from the value of his name as an author.

In 1860 a total eclipse of the sun was visible in British America.
The shadow of the moon, starting from near Vancouver's Island,
crossed the continent in a northeast direction, passed through the
central part of the Hudson Bay region, crossed Hudson Bay itself and
Greenland, then inclining southward, swept over the Atlantic to Spain.
As this was the first eclipse of the kind which had recently been