DORP AT AND POULKOVA. 373 



well as nortbern Grermany, drawing to him the hearts and good wishes of all, 

 e;;pecially his younger co-workers. Having seen the most renowned mechanists 

 and discussed with them the details of his new and long-hoped-for instruments, 

 he returned to the university to await their arrival. The Reichenbach Uni- 

 versal Instrament was received in 1821, and in 1824 he began to use it in the 

 proposed geodesic operations, (in which Baron von Wrangell, of the Russian navy, 

 was his ethcient co-laborer.) This latter work Avas nearly completed in five years. 

 The results are found in the '' Beschreibung der Breitengradmessung ; Dorpat, 

 1831." The three-foot meridian circle, the mate of which was found at Konigs- 

 berg, was received at the observatory in 1822. Observations with it began in 

 October, the winter months being henceforth especially devoted to astronomical 

 labors. It was in this year also that officers of the amiy and navy began to be 

 sent to Dorpat to study practical astronomy under a man of such ability. In 

 Kovember, 1824, the nine-inch refractor of Frauenhofer Avas received, and in 

 Febiuary was begun the review of the heavens, whose results were published 

 in 1827 in the "Catalogus novus generalis stellarum duplicium et multiidicium." 

 In this latter year it was that Professor Parrot was called from Dorpat to reside 

 at St. Petersburg as a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and almost 

 directly thereafter he was commissioned to prepare for the Academy the plans 

 for the new astronomical observatory, whose erection had long been before the 

 consideration of that body. 



The labors imposed on Dorpat during the years 1820-1830 only stirred the 

 unwearied savant to greater undertakings, and as the work on the arc of the 

 meridian drew to a close, Struve,in 1830, presented to the Priaaee von Lieven,the 

 minister of public instruction, a memoir relative to the possibility of prolonging 

 this arc northwards through Finland. Simultaneously with Struve, General Ten- 

 ner had been at work to the southward ; the junction of Tenner's and Struve's 

 work had been eflected in 1828-1829, affording a meridian arc of 8° 2', which, 

 by the proposed measurement of an arc of 5° 26' in Finland, could be united to 

 the work of the French astronomers in Lapland, thus completing an arc of 15^°. 

 The difficulties to be encountered in Finland promised to be unusually great, 

 I'ut the desirability of the work was properly represented, and the Emperor 

 Kicholas I granted at once the sum thought to be sufficient for its completion 

 within ten years. 



In the spring of this year, and in connection with the great undertaking just 

 mentioned, Struve made his fourth scientific jomiiey, extending it to England, 

 and in December visited St. Petersburg, where he was, in January, 1831, hon- 

 ored by a personal interview with the Emperor — an interview fraught with the 

 happiest consequences to the progress of astronomy in Russia. This was the 

 moment that had long been looked forward to by the director of the Doi-pat 

 observatory, who had doubtless foreseen the inevitable result that wottld in due 

 time flow from his labors, both as geodesist and astronomer, during the previous 

 fifteen years. Struve's admirable tact and the eloquence of his earnest sincerity 

 were ever e(iual to the demands of the occasion, and we cannot do better than quote 

 his own account of this interview, at which the minister of public instruction, 

 the Prince von Lieven, was the third person present : 



Having listened to my report upon the late scientilic journey, and after having graciously 

 granted au incieased sum to the observatory of" Dorpat, the Emperor condescended to put 

 to me the tbllovving questions : 



"What is your opinion of the observatory of St. Petersburg?" 



I did not hesitate to respond, iu all IVankuess and in accordance with the exact truth, 

 that the observatory of the Academy did not at all correspond to the present deniands of 

 science, and that it partook of the nature vi' all the establishments of its kind placed in the 

 midst of large cities, as those of Vienna, of Berlin, &c., and even of Paris, where the meridian 

 instiumeiits ouo;ht to be removed from the colossal edifice constructed under the reigu of 

 Louis XIV, and be placed in modest apartments adjacent to the principal structure. 



Having listened to this reply, his Majesty addressed the minister of public instruction, 

 sa}i!.'g iliat he regarded the estabhshment of an observatory of the first rank near to the 

 ca^ ital as an object of high utility and important to the scieutitic honor of Kussia. 



