Xl REPORT 1844. 



fortune, and with a high character for integrity and liberality; but his subse- 

 quent career almost entirely belongs to astronomy, and is one of almost im- 

 exampled activity and usefulness. The Astronomical Society was almost en- 

 tirely organized by him, and throughout life he was the most considerable con- 

 tributor to its Memoirs ; the catalogue of the Astronomical Society, the funds 

 for which were contributed by several of its members, was entirely formed under 

 his superintendence, and we are chiefly indebted to his exertions for the more 

 ample development which the Nauticiil Almanac has of late years received, 

 and which has added so much to its usefulness. There was no experimental 

 research connected with the more accurate determinations of astronomy or 

 physical science, undertaken in this country, which was not generally en- 

 trusted to his care. 



The discovery, or rather notice, by Bessel of the correction due to the re- 

 sistance of the air, which had been neglected in the reduction of the experi- 

 ments for the determination of the length of the pendulum by Kater, and 

 which consequently vitiated the correctness of the delinition of the standard 

 of length which had been prematurely adopted by the legislature, first di- 

 rected his attention, not merely to the character and influence of this correc- 

 tion* as affected by the forms of the pendulums which were used, but like- 

 wise to the modes which had been adopted for suspending them ; and the 

 discussion of the elaborate series of experiments which he instituted for this 

 purpose, which was given in the Philosophical Transactions for 1829, is a 

 model of that happy union of precise and luminous theoretical views with the 

 utmost minuteness of practical details, for which his memoirs are generally 

 so remarkable. The reduction and discussion of the pendulum observations 

 made by Captain Foster, in his well-known voyage in the Chanticleer, to which 

 that experimental inquiry had been preliminary, were entrusted to him by the 

 Admiralty, after the unfortunate death of that valuable officer, and were pub- 

 lished in the seventh volume of the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, 

 forming a contribution to this branch of science which was only second in im- 

 portance, whether we regard the character of the observations themselves or 

 of the conclusions to which they were subservient, to those which recorded the 

 observations which had been previously made by Colonel Sabine in his various 

 scientific voyages. 



His comparison of the Standard Scale of the Astronomical Society with 

 the Parliamentary Standard and its various representatives, as well as with the 

 French metre, presents another remarkable example of his unequalled accu- 

 racy and care in conducting experimental inquiries of the most delicate and 

 difficult nature, and the result of them has acquired an additional value and 

 importance, from the destruction of our national standards in the burning of 

 the Houses of Parliament. He had also undertaken, for the Commission of 

 Weights and Measures, the conduct of the process for forming the new 

 Standard \ard from the scale which he had thus constructed, but unfortunately 

 little progress had been made in the execution of this task, for which his 

 habits so peculiarly fitted him, when death put an end to his labours. 



It was in consequence of a suggestion of Mr. De Morgan that he undertook, 

 at the expense of the Government, the repetition of the celebrated experiment 

 of Mr. Cavendish, and his account of the various precautions which he con- 

 sidered necessary to obviate every source of uncertainty and error, and to 

 overcome the practical difficulties which presented themselves in the course 

 of the inquiry, as well as his theoretical discussion of the conclusions to which 



• This correction had been previously determined by Colonel Sabine, by swinging a pen- 

 dulum in air and in vacuo. 



