Few men in Washington cared to overstep the school conventions, and the most distinguished of them, Simon Newcomb, was too sound a mathematician to treat such a scheme seriously.

华盛顿很少有人愿意超越学校的惯例，其中最杰出的人物西蒙·纽科姆 (Simon Newcomb) 是一位非常优秀的数学家，不会认真对待这样的计划。