ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 115 



needle, and by another series of observations established the 

 connection between certain perturbations of the terrestrial mag- 

 netism and the aurora boreaiis. With Prof. Courtenay he inves- 

 tigated the magnetic dip at various places in the United States, 

 and with Mr. Espy made a minute survey of part of the track of 

 a tornado which visited New Jersey, June 19, 1835. 



After Stephen Girard died, in 1833, Prof. Bache was elected 

 one of the trustees of the College for Orphans, founded by the 

 will of the childless merchant. Three years later the trustees 

 decided to select a president for the institution, in order that he 

 might go abroad and study European methods of education while 

 other preparations were being made. Prof. Bache, then only 

 thirty years of age, was selected for the position. Although re- 

 gretting the consequent interruption of his scientific researches, 

 in which he had become much absorbed, he accepted the appoint- 

 ment, and departed on his mission, September 30, 1836. Two years 

 were spent agreeably and profitably in Europe, and on his return 

 Prof. Bache made a report to the trustees embodying his observa- 

 tions on the schools of England, France, Prussia, Austria, Swit- 

 zerland, and Italy, with the many helpful conclusions and sugges- 

 tions that he had derived from these data. The document was 

 printed, making a large octavo volume. 



As the preparations for opening the college were not yet com- 

 plete. Prof. Bache offered his services gratuitously to reorganize 

 the public schools of Philadelphia, and his offer was gladly accepted 

 by the municipal authorities. A year later, finding that the trus- 

 tees of the college were still unprepared to open the institution, 

 he relinquished the salary of his oflBce and accepted from the 

 city a much smaller compensation for his time. His work on the 

 public schools was completed in 1842, and resulted in a system 

 that has been taken as a model by other cities in various parts of 

 the United States. So highly were his labors appreciated that 

 the Central High School was frequently called Bache Institute. 



Girard College having made very little progress, he now re- 

 signed all connection with it, and accepted his former chair at 

 the University of Pennsylvania, with its welcome opportunities 

 for scientific research. The preceding six years had by no means 

 been a blank with respect to his favorite investigations.' When 

 he went to Europe he took care to provide himself with a set of 

 portable instruments, with which, as a relief from the labors im- 

 posed by the special object of his mission, he made a connected 

 series of observations on the dip and intensity of terrestrial mag- 

 netism at important places on the Continent and in Great Britain. 



After his return to Philadelphia he co-operated in the under- 

 taking of the British Association to determine by contempora- 

 neous observations at widely separated points the fluctuations of 



