176 EULOGY ON QUETELET. 



sessed only very few and very inferior astronomical instruments. In the 

 niontli of July, 1835, the meridian telescope and the mural circle were 

 put in position, but the equatorial was not mounted until June of the fol- 

 lowing year. Quetelet was anxious to have the turning-dome for the 

 equatorial ready in time to observe Halley's comet, the return of which 

 was looked for with great interest by all Europe, but in spite of all his 

 efforts, aiul the good-will of the government, he was disai)pointed, and 

 was obliged to follow the course of this eccentric wanderer with only his 

 telescope. 



The determination of the difference of longitude between the observato- 

 ries of Brussels and Greenwich was later a source of great anxietj" as well 

 as interest to him, when, in 1853, a trial was made of the new electrical 

 telegraph for this purpose. Two successful attempts of the kind had 

 been made in America, but the distance between tlie two places, the in- 

 tervention of the sea, the great reputation of the director of the obser- 

 vatory of Greenwich, and the responsibility assumed before the world, 

 rendered Quetelet very solicitous as to the result of his co-operation, and 

 his anxiety did not cease until the two sealed packets, containing the ob- 

 servations made simultaneously at Greenwich and Brussels, which were 

 by common consent opened on the same day in both places, i)roved the 

 result to be entirely satisfactory. A similar attempt was made in 1868 

 between Brussels and Leyden. 



At the time the observatory was erected, clocks and watches through' 

 out the country were regulated only by sun-dials, and as these were often 

 defective and liable to get out of order, it frequently happened that there 

 would be a difference in time of from 20 to 25 minutes between the 

 clocks of different towns, and even between those of the same city. The 

 establishment of railroads necessitated more precision, and on the22d 

 of February, 1836, a royal decree enacted that a meridian should be traced 

 and an instrument of observation be established in forty-one of the prin- 

 cipal cities of the kingdom. The execution of this work was intrusted 

 to Quetelet. 



From 1811 to 1815 the observatory of Brussels was the center of a 

 vast meteorological net-work, which comprised more than eighty stations 

 in Europe and in the north of Asia. Its director published the results 

 of this great enterprise, with a large number of plates, showing the 

 course and rapidity of the movements of the atmospheric waves. He also 

 made many observations upon the temperature of the earth, and an un- 

 interrupted series of observations of the elements of terrestrial magnet- 

 ism. But, perhaps, the most remarkable works of Quetelet were the 

 liapers he published on his observations of the periodical i)]ienomena of 

 plants and animals. These gave an impulse to similar studies through- 

 out the whole of Europe, and he may on this account be considered as 

 the founder of a new science. 



As a class for the study of the fine arts had been added to the 

 academy, and other changes made, it was deemed advisable to form a 



