338 MARIA MITCHELL. 



crossed the ocean, she became the honored guest of the most learned 

 men in Europe, and visited all the observatories as a privileged in- 

 spector of their instruments and methods. 



In Professor Joseph Henry's Report to the Regents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution for the year 1849, we find the following in his 

 review of communications : " The next memoir is an account of the 

 discovery of a comet by Miss Maria Mitchell of Nantucket, with its 

 approximate orbit, calculated by herself. The honor of this discovery 

 has been duly awarded to the author. A gold medal has been awarded 

 to her by the King of Denmark, and the comet is now known by her 

 name to astronomers in every part of the world. From the peculiari- 

 ties of the case the Executive Committee recommend that a small 

 premium be presented to Miss Mitchell." This recommendation was 

 adopted. 



We have thought it only just to quote directly from the highest 

 contemporaneous authorities concerning the importance of scientific 

 work done a half-century ago, because the rapid progress of later 

 years makes us liable, in retrospect, to look through the wrong end of 

 the telescope. 



On the 30th of May, 1848, Miss Mitchell was elected to the Ameri- 

 can Academy of Arts and Sciences, "unanimously," although she was 

 the first and the only woman ever admitted. There is a tradition of 

 the Academy, that at her election a serious discussion arose as to the 

 propriety of calling her a Fellow ; and in the diploma the printed 

 word "FELLOW" is erased, and the words "Honorary Member" 

 are inserted by Dr. Asa Gray, who signs the document as President. 

 Some years later, however, we find her name in the list of Fellows 

 of this Academy, of the American Institute, and of the American 

 Association. 



In the summer of 1849 she accepted an invitation from Professor 

 Bache, then Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, to take 

 service in the astronomical party at Mount Independence, Maine, and 

 as the guest of his family. This was a station in the cham of pri- 

 mary triangulation, and it lay so near the meridian of her observatory 

 that it could be used in the measure of the proposed great arc extend- 

 ing northward from Nantucket. In the same year she was appointed 

 one of the computers of the Nautical Almanac, receivnig her ini- 

 tiative from Professor Benjamin Peirce. This office she held for 

 nmeteen years, and was mostly employed upon " Part II. The As- 

 tronomical Ephemeris for the Meridian of Washington," — the planet 

 Venus being her particular assignment. 



