372 JULIUS ERASMUS HILGARD. 



distinguished ability with which this difficult service was dis- 

 charged was manifest to all. He has extended to me the bene- 

 fits of this experience liberally and loyally. While I willingly 

 acknowledge myself under deep and lasting obligations to him for 

 the aid thus rendered me, I can also testify that in all respects he 

 has been equally true to my predecessor, the greatness of whose 

 reputation has not been diminished in his keeping." 



Until his appointment to the superintendency, in 1881, Hilgard 

 continued in charge of the Coast Survey Office. In addition to this 

 duty, he virtually conducted the office of Weights and Measures, 

 and helped in shaping the legislation in regard to the legalization 

 of the metric system in this country. The metric standards for 

 the States of the Union were prepared under his supervision. It 

 was therefore fitting that he should be appointed one of the scientific 

 delegates to represent this government in Paris at an international 

 conference having for its object the construction of a new meter as 

 an international standard of length. In 1872 he attended the con- 

 ference and actively participated in its deliberations, and when it 

 had been decided to establish an International Bureau of Weights 

 and Measures at Paris, its directorship was offered to him, but de- 

 clined. While in Europe on the mission just referred to, he made 

 a determination of Transatlantic longitudes, including in his opera- 

 tions Paris and Greenwich. It is rather singular that the first 

 successful telegraphic longitude determination between these great 

 ob^jervatories should have been made by an American, and his suc- 

 cess in this undertaking was always looked upon by him as also a 

 diplomatic triumph. 



Hilgard was a charter member of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, and took an active part in many of the investigations 

 made by the Academy for the government. He conducted a mag- 

 netic survey of the country, under the auspices of the Academy, 

 with means supplied out of the Bache Fund. In 1874 he was elected 

 President of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



His life Avas in many respects burdened by misfortune; for of 

 his four children three died young and only one lived to man's 

 estate and then died, leaving him childless and overwhelmed by 

 grief at a time when a fatal disease had already begun its inroads 

 on his mental and physical strength. This disease had already 

 seriously impaired his health when he was appointed to the super- 

 intendency in 1881, which, to use his own words, came ''too late 



J) 



