James P. C. Southall was born in Norfolk, Va., on April 4, 1871. He attendedRichmond College from 1886 to 1888 and obtained an A.B. in 1891 and an M.A. in 1893 at the University of Virginia. He was an instructor in physics at the University of Virginia between 1891 and 1893, and he taught physics and mathematics at the Miller Manual Training School, in Albemarle, Va. He had a fellowship at Johns Hopkins from 1898 to 1899 and taught at Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., from 1899 to 1901. From 1901 to 1914, he taught at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and in 1914 he joined the faculty at Columbia University, where he served until hisretirement in 1940. His two specialties were geometrical optics and physiological optics. He wrote Principles of Geometrical Optics in 1910 and Mirrors, Prisms and Le