RICHARD ANTHONY PROCTOR, one of the most popular scientific essayists of the second half of the nineteenth century, was born at Chelsea, England, March 23d, 1837. Ater studying at King’s College, London, and St. John’s College, Cambridge, he devoted himself to astronomy, with notable success. His scientific tastes were too catholic to be confined by a specialty, however, and he wrote on almost every imaginable subject from the physiology of the Cambridge rowing stroke to the flight of Florida buzzards in its bearing on aërial navigation. During the latter part of his life he lived in the United States, making his home for a number of years at St. Joseph, Missouri. He died September 12th, 1888.