SKETCH OF JEAN-CHARLES HOUZEAU. 545 



the courses of the Faculty of Sciences in Paris, but did not seek 

 an academic degree. On his return home, in 1842, he put himself 

 into communication with Quetelet, to obtain a position in the 

 observatory at Brussels, and was appointed a voluntary aid. He 

 had already written a note in the Astronomische Nachrichten, on 

 the position of the zodiacal light, which is cited by Humboldt in 

 the first volume of the Cosmos ; but so unknown was he to the 

 scientific world at this time, that Schumacher, the editor of the 

 JSTachrichten, wrote to Quetelet to know who he was ; and Quetelet 

 was obliged to reply that he knew as little of him as his colleague. 

 In September, 1846, Houzeau was promoted to a recognized 

 position in the establishment and a salary of fourteen hundred 

 francs. The industry with which he attended to the special duties 

 of this position is illustrated by the fact that during the three 

 years that he held it, he, who had been so frequent a correspond- 

 ent, did not contribute a single paper to the Academy. The 

 reports of the director, however, amply attest the esteem in which 

 he held his assistant, and the value of Houzeau's services in the 

 work. Some of the fruits of his labors here are embodied in Que- 

 telet's Climate of Belgium, in the preparation of which Houzeau 

 had a large part. The astronomical observations had been inter- 

 rupted for seven years, when Houzeau took hold. He contributed 

 much to their resumption in 1848. He was usually the first one 

 at the observatory, when any notable event among the stars was 

 announced, to point the telescope at the designated object. Thus, 

 in 1848, he was the first person in Belgium to determine the ele- 

 ments of the orbit of a comet from observations made in the same 

 country ; and, on the discovery of Neptune, he at once took obser- 

 vations for the determination of the new planet's right ascension 

 and declination. In 1847 he was charged by the Government 

 with the conduct of geodetical observations on the northern fron- 

 tier, of which a few points remained to be determined. But his 

 usefulness as an official astronomer was suddenly interrupted by 

 the political events of 1848. Houzeau was a warm republican, 

 with inclinations toward socialism. He had already, in 1839, 

 when hardly twenty years old, been warmly interested in a dis- 

 pute which arose with Holland, and had been among the first to 

 join a company of volunteers for public defense. On the present 

 occasion he gave free and unambiguous expression to his demo- 

 cratic principles and republican aspirations, and compromised 

 himself by forming relations with persons whose political stand- 

 ing was not good. He published numerous polemical articles in 

 the journals. On the 25th of March, 1849, a meeting at which he 

 was presiding was broken in upon by the Leopoldists, and he and 

 his fellow-republicans were obliged to flee. A few days afterward 

 he was deprived of his position at the observatory for having, the 



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