168 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



obicct was detected by liim four months before it was seen at Cam- 

 bric] "-e ; not by accident, for at this time he was in the habit of care- 

 fully noticing celestial phenomena, but with little assistance from in- 

 struments ; and his talents and attainments now drew upon him the 

 attention of scientific men in this vicinity, — among others, of Professor 

 Farrar and Dr. Bowditch. By their influence, he received from the 

 Corporation of Harvard College, in 1815, a commission to examine 

 the Observatories and their instruments in Europe. On his return, he 

 constructed the model of a dome, which, in all essential respects, resem- 

 bled that erected thirty years afterwards at the Cambridge Observatory. 

 The mode now univdrsally adopted for supporting and moving it, is 

 claimed to be his original invention. 



"In the autumn of 1839, I learnt that Mr. Bond was engaged under 

 an appointment and contract with the government of the United States, 

 with a well-adapted apparatus, in a series of observations on meteorol- 

 ogy, magnetism, and moon culminations, as also on all the eclipses of 

 the sun and moon, and Jupiter's satellites, in connection with those 

 which should be made by the officers of the expedition to the South 

 Sea, commenced under the authority of Congress, for the determina- 

 tion of longitude and for other scientific purposes. I was at that time 

 President of Harvard University, and being satisfied, by inquiry, of 

 the depth and extent of the scientific attainments of Mr. Bond, and of 

 his singular fidelity and exactness as an observer, I proposed to him, 

 before asking the sanction of the Corporation, to transfer his astronom- 

 ical observations from Dorchester to Cambridge, and to unite his astro- 

 nomical collections with those the University possessed, and carry 

 them on there, and thus draw the attention of the students and the 

 public more forcibly to astronomical science, and create a general in- 

 terest in the community on the subject, and perhaps form a nucleus for 

 an efficient institution. 



" To this end I promised him the rent of a house, that three thou- 

 sand dollars should be raised by subscription and apphed to the erec- 

 tion of a building, which, though humble, should have the name and 

 some of the requisites of an Observatory. I intimated the hope that 

 by these means, aided by his labors, character, and influence, an im- 

 pression might be made on the public of the wants of the University 

 in this respect, and a desire created to supply them. 



"This proposal, so in unison with his pursuits and talents, I expected 



