ACADEMY OF SCONCES.] BIOGRAPHY. 165 



the work. In presenting this medal the president of the society justly remarked that while 

 the Uranometry "will be accepted for many years as the chief authority upon questions of 

 * * * magnitude * * * it is certain from its very success to * * * incite to efforts 

 which must ultimately lead to its being replaced by something * * * yet more accurate." 

 Within our own generation we witness the partial fulfillment of this forecast. Gould's photo- 

 metric methods have given way to others more precise which, however, verify the substantial 

 accuracy of his work within the limits to which it could pretend. Some of his conclusions, 

 such as the probable variability of most stars, and parts of his cosmogony must probably be 

 modified or abandoned, but such is the law of progress and despite such change the Uranometria 

 Argentina will long remain a landmark in the astronomy of the nineteenth century. 



But we have overrun the course of events. Slowly, and under the stress of obstacles that 

 sometimes looked like opposition, an observatory was built in the outskirts of Cordoba. Long 

 delayed instruments arrived, were mounted into place and, two years after Gould's arrival in 

 South America, a beginning was made upon the chief purpose of his expedition, the zone obser- 

 vations. Just as topography may be rapidly sketched upon a map after a sufficient number of 

 well-defined reference points have been accurately plotted upon it, so in the sky when funda- 

 mental reference stars are available the zone observations furnish a facile method of interpolating 

 among them ad libitum the hitherto unknown positions of other stars. But Gould found himself 

 in the position of the geographer whose reference points are few and ill determined. The 

 southern sky in that day was nearly void of material suited to this purpose and he must there- 

 fore determine for himself the positions of his fundamental stars while in the act of using them 

 for reference. Thus there came about a great extension of the work originally planned and its 

 division into three fairly distinct categories: (1) The accurate determination of the positions of a 

 large number of fundamental stars, a program in which his own observations were to be largely 

 supplemented by a collation and discussion of all available material that could be found in 

 the work of others; (2) the zone observations, these were first reduced with provisional positions 

 of the fundamental stars and afterward laboriously computed a second time when better data 

 had been obtained for the reference points; (3) the construction of a Durchmusterung for the 

 southern heavens, i. e., a second zone catalogue less accurate but more extensive than the first 

 in which there should be found a complete muster roll of every star in the southern sky brighter 

 than a given limit. The observations required for this program extended over many years 

 and in making them, although ably assisted by bis colleagues, Gould himself took a major part, 

 involving more than a million independent judgments made with his eye at the telescope. The 

 reduction and publication of this work required an even longer period than its observation, 

 but the printer's "copy" for 15 bi-hngual volumes, Spanish-English, of Resultados was com- 

 pleted under Gould's own care and the volumes passed through the press, although the last 

 of them barely reached his eye before it closed in death. These volumes must remain as Gould's 

 chief monument. They worthily continue and complete the brilliant introduction furnished by 

 the Uranometria Argentina and it is difficult to foresee an epoch in which they will cease to be 

 the chief foundation upon which is built a knowledge of stellar motions in the southern heavens. 



The execution of such a program brought with it through sheer lapse of time a change of 

 personal relations to environment. The astronomical expedition, conceived as a scientific 

 raid for the exploitation of a vacant field, became transformed almost into a missionary enterprise 

 for transplanting and permanently establishing northern science in a southern field ready and 

 eager to receive it. The camp became a residence with permanent quarters for the staff and a 

 home for the director's family. The hearty cooperation of Mrs. Gould brought within the 

 cultured influence of this home not only the observatory staff and their immediate neighbors 

 but much of what was best in the social and official life of Argentina. Personal friendships 

 here established paved the way not only to public support of the observatory but to a rapidly 

 developing circle of relations in which Gould became an unofficial adviser and guide to the 

 development of physical science in Argentina, a relation which flourished over a dozen years 

 and more, up to the time when, with completed program, he returned to his native land. 



