Anniversary Addness of the President. 147 



to doubt that the relative catalogues of the stars which were formed 

 by Mr. Pond were more accurate and complete than those of any 

 preceding or cotemporary observer. Such a result, however, might 

 have been reasonably expected from the great powers and resources 

 of the establishment over which he presided and which he had him- 

 self been the chief means of calling into action. 



The method which was adopted by Mr. Pond to determine the 

 limits of the annual parallax of certain fixed stars by means of fixed 

 telescopes of great focal length, was singularly ingenious and com- 

 plete. The existence and amount of such a parallax had been asserted 

 and assigned by Dr. Brinkley, in a Lyrae, a Aquilae, and a Cygni ; 

 but this opinion, although most ingeniously and even obstinately vin- 

 dicated and maintained by him, was, in the judgement of most other 

 astronomers, most decisively negatived by Mr. Pond, who showed 

 that the parallax of those fixed stars, supposing its amount to be 

 sensible, was confined within the limits of the errors of the most deli- 

 cate and perfect observations which have been hitherto made. There 

 is no great question in astronomy, the present position and limits of 

 which are more satisfactorily settled. 



Mr. Pond was remarkable for his skill and delicacy in the mani- 

 pulation of his instruments, and no man was more capable of form- 

 ing a correct judgement of their capacities and powers, and of the 

 nature and ex,tent of the errors to which they were liable : he was in 

 the habit of placing great reliance on the results of a great num- 

 ber of observations, when no apparent or assignable cause existed for 

 giving a determinate sign or character to the errors of individual ob- 

 servations : this confidence, however, was founded on his great know- 

 ledge of the theory of observation, and was fully justified by a com- 

 parison both of his own results with each other, and with those of 

 other observers. 



Mr. Pond was a man of gentle and amiable character, and singu- 

 larly candid and unprejudiced. His health for many years before his 

 death was greatly deranged, but he continued to struggle against the 

 progress of his infirmities, and, from a conscientious feeling, he never 

 abandoned the active duties of superintending the observatory, though 

 hardly able to sustain them. He died in August last, at Lee, in Kent^ 

 and was buried in the tomb of his great predecessor Halley *. 



Mr. Pond, though a great practical astronomer and a man of un- 

 commonly clear intellect and correct judgement, was deficient in one 

 very considerable qualification for the station which he filled, — I mean, 



[• Various papers by Mr. Pond or relating to his observations and views 

 in Astronomy have appeared in the Philosophical Magazine. His paper 

 On Changes in the Declination of certain Fixed Stars, was reprinted from 

 the Phil. Trans, for 1823, in Phil. Mag., First Series, vol. Ixii. p. 175 ; the 

 subject is noticed also at pp. 391, 453, 454, and 466, of the same volume, in 

 which likewise will be found, at p. 292, Mr. P. 's memoir Oji the Parallax 

 of X LyrcB. In vol.lxvi. p. 33, appeared a translation of a paper by M. 

 Besscl respecting the former subject ; and a discussion relative to the ac- 

 curacy of -the Greenwich Observations will be found in vol. Ixiv. p. 367, 

 451, and vol. Ixvi. p. 292.— Edit.] 



U2 



