BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD. 359 



claim than had yet been accorded to it ; and that a journal worthily sup- 

 porting the dignity of a pure science would have very great influence 

 upon its future progress. Accordingly, without ostentation, be estab- 

 lished the " Astronomical Journal " in November, 1849, offering it to the 

 use of astronomers, for the publication exclusively of original investiga- 

 tions. He edited and supported it until, at the end of the sixth volume, 

 in 18G1, its issue was suspended, first by the war for the preservation of 

 the Union, afterward by his absence in Cordoba, A long nurtured hope 

 was realized when he was enabled, in 1885, to resume its publication, and 

 to continue it, at the rate of nearly one volume annually, to the present 

 time. Of all the great enterprises of his life, this is the one which he has 

 most cherished. "With careful forethought, he has made due provision 

 for its continuance. 



Dr. Gould took a deep interest in the work of the International Commit- 

 tee of AVeights and Measures, of which he was a most influential member. 

 He represented both the United States and the Argentine Republic on 

 that Committee, and was a constant attendant upon its annual conferences 

 in Paris. He was President of the American Metrological Society and 

 of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts from their inception. He was 

 one of the original charter members of the National Academy of Sciences, 

 and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 

 since 1847, and one of its Vice-Presidents since 1895. He received the 

 degree of Ph. D. from Gottingen in 1848, and that of LL. D. from 

 Harvard in 1885, and from Columbia in 1887. During his illustrious 

 career he was the recipient of the highest honors that Europe has to 

 bestow, to an extent scarcely vouchsafed to any other American. A 

 few only will be named here. Mem. Roy. Soc. (London) : For. 

 Assoc. Roy. Astr. Soc. (London) : Cor. Mem. Acad. Sci. (Institut de 

 France) : Acad. Imp. Sei. (St. Petersburg) : Kon. Akad. Wiss. (Berlin) : 

 Kon. Ges. Wiss. (Gottingen): Kais. Akad. Wiss. (Vienna): Bur. d. 

 Long. (Paris). He was also knighted, of the Order Pour le Merite, by 

 Prussia. 



Dr. Gould came, on both paternal and maternal sides, of old Colonial 

 stock. The interest which he took throughout life in genealogy and the 

 history of the early founders of New England was the outcome, not so 

 much, perhaps, of pride of ancestry, as it was of his intense patriotism, 

 which was one of his most marked characteristics. Next to the sacred 

 domestic ties and the innumerable personal friendships which he so ten- 

 derly cherished, even before his devotion to his beloved science, came his 

 affection for and pride in his country. No more vivid exemplification of 



