378 DORPAT AND POULKOVA. 



in tlie relations of tbe obsei-vatory to tlie state. In effecting sucli a cliango, one 

 long- previolisly foreseen by Struve, man 3'^ dangers were imminent, many obstacles 

 were to be overcome. But if the director at any moment needed counsellors, his 

 wide acquaintance with and profound knowledge of men secured to him such as 

 were desirable, and among them was one whose position as astronomer royal of 

 England and whose eminent usefulness gave weight to every suggestion. 



In 1844 the advanced condition of the work on the Finland prolongation of 

 the arc of the meridian had demanded that the next step, namely, the prelimi- 

 naries to its extension to the North Capo and to the Danube, should be defin- 

 itely agreed upon. Struve had, therefore, been sent to Stockholm, where an 

 interview with the Swedish commissioners and a final interview with the King 

 of Sweden led to a most satisfactory adjustment of the relations to be borne by 

 the various parties in the concluding portion of this extended international work. 

 On account of the quarantine regulations Struve found it convenient to visit Ger- 

 many and England in the course of this journey. This visit, in connection with 

 the longitude expedition of the same year, had opened a most valuable intercourse 

 with the ol)servatory at Greenwich, and the personal friendship between Struvo 

 and Airy was cemented in 1847, not only during Struve's third visit to England, 

 (on the occasion of the transportation of one of the bars of the Indian base appa- 

 ratus,) but still more by Airy's consequent visit to Poulkova and his kindly 

 criticism of the peculiar features of that observatory. Widely -as the latter insti- 

 tution dillered from its English predecessor, they yet had many common interests. 

 Central in its location, honorable in the history of its usefulness, and jicculiarly 

 favored by the state patronage, the position of the Royal Observatory of Eng- 

 land was very similar to that which Poulkova now virtuall}- occupied, and it 

 became Struve's desire to secure more completely for the latter that stability and 

 unembaiTassed independence that had long been enjoyed by Greenwich. Not 

 only prudential considerations, but also the interests of the many other observa- 

 tories in the empire, Avere a matter of anxiety ; possibly a certain clause in the 

 original laws regarding the Central Observatory, or possibly the name itself, 

 may sometimes have led similar institutions in Russia to fear lest Poulkova, 

 overstepping proper bounds, might assume authority over them; but the astron- 

 omers of the imperial establishment had ever labored to dispel any such injuri- 

 ous illusion. The appointment of Struve by the Imperial Academy, in 1857, to 

 prepare a new set of laws for the reorganization of the internal and external 

 relations of the observatory was the opportunity by v/hich he sought to remove 

 all misapprehension and to realize increased usefulness. Eive years, however, 

 must elapse before the new code of laws could officially go into operation; a 

 delay which, while it may have resulted in perfecting the new statutes, was itself 

 the consequence of most painful events. 



His exhausting lalwrs in connection with the invaluable new catalogue of the 

 Poulkova library, and the publication of the " Arc du Meridian entre le Dan- 

 ube et la mer Glaciale, St. Petersbourg, 1860-61,'' had necessitated a little 

 recreation, which Struve found in a short trip in October and November, 1857, 

 to Germany, France, Switzerland, and England. This was Struve's eleventh 

 absence from Russia, and afforded him the opportunity of urging the importance 

 of, and of preparing the way for, an international measurement of an arc of lon- 

 gitude, in which work he had ten years previously enlisted the active co-opera- 

 tion of General Wrontschenko, then conducting "the Russian geodetic surveys. 

 In January, soon after his return to Poulkova, a severe attack of cancer pros- 

 trated his strength and necessitated a prolonged absence in the wamier climates 

 of southern Europe. The vice-director. Otto Struve, officiated in his fathei-'s 

 place until the retm-n of the latter in August, 1859, and in January, 1862, 

 Otto Struve succeeded as director of the observatory upon the resignation of 

 the former, since there no longer appeared reasonable hope of his recovery. 

 It was thus reseiA'cd to the present director, finally, to hai-moniously adjust all 



