60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trouble in the effort to teach her to remeasure double stars with the 

 micrometers used in former measurements, and a small twenty-foot 

 was given her for the purpose. She had also to use a borrowed tran- 

 sit-instrument to find their places, but after many failures it was seen 

 that the instrument was as much in fault as herself. She thus con- 

 tinues her account of her experiences: 



"July 8th (1783) I began to use the Newtonian small sweeper, but it could 

 hardly be expected that I should meet with any comets in the part of the heavens 

 where I swept, for I generally chose my situation by the side of my brother's 

 instrument, that I might be ready to run to the clock or write down memoran- 

 dums. In the beginning of December I became entirely attached to the writing- 

 desk, and had seldom an opportunity after that time of using my newly-acquired 

 instrument. My brother began his series of sweeps when the instrument was 

 yet in a very unfinished state, and my feelings were not very comfortable when 

 every moment I was alarmed by a crack or fall, knowiag him to be elevated 

 fifteen feet or more on a temporary cross-beam instead of a safe gallery. The 

 ladders had not even their braces at the bottom ; and one night, in a very high 

 wind, he had hardly touched the ground before the whole apparatus came down. 

 Some laboring-men were called up to help in extricating the mirror, which was 

 fortunately uninjured ; but much work was cut out for carpenters next day. 

 That my fears of danger and accidents were not wholly imaginary, I had an un- 

 lucky proof on the night of the 31st of December. The evening had been cloudy, 

 but about ten o'clock a few stars became visible, and in the greatest hurry all 

 was got ready for observing. My brother, at the front of the telescope, directed 

 me to make some alteration in the lateral motion, which was done by machinery, 

 on which the point of support of the tube and mirror rested. At each end of the 

 machine or trough was an iron hook, such as butchers use for hanging their joints 

 upon, and, having to run in the dark on ground covered a foot deep with melt- 

 ing snow, I fell on one of these hooks, which entered my right leg above the 

 knee. My brother's call, ' Make haste ! ' I could only answer by a pitiful cry, 

 'I am hooked! ' He and the workmen were instantly with me, but they could 

 not lift me without leaving nearly two ounces of my flesh behind. The work- 

 man's wife was called, but was afraid to do anything, and I was obliged to be 

 my own surgeon by applying aquabusade and tying a kerchief about it for some 

 days, till Dr. Lind, hearing of my accident, brought me ointment and lint, and 

 told me how to use them. At the end of six weeks I began to have some fears 

 about my poor limb, and asked again for Dr. Lind's opinion ; he said if a soldier 

 had met with such a hurt he w r ould have been entitled to six weeks' nursing in 

 a hospital. I had, however, the comfort to know that my brother was no loser 

 through this accident, for the remainder of the night was cloudy, and several 

 nights afterward afforded only a few short intervals favorable for sweeping, and, 

 until the 16th of January, there was no necessity for my exposing myself for a 

 whole night to the severity of the season. I could give a pretty long list of ac- 

 cidents which were near proving fatal to my brother as well as myself." 



Her account of the years 1784 and 1785 is varied by reminiscences 

 of the trouble her brother had in trying to live and pursue his as- 

 tronomical observations on 200 a year. The book contains many 

 incidental allusions to royal patronage that are not flattering; but, 

 notwithstanding the silence of her diary upon so many matters of real 



