Dr. Bowditch, President of the American Academy. — xxiii 
rical method of investigation; he observes, that the failure of so 
distinguished a mathematician shows, how extremely difficult it is 
to apply this method with success to complicated problems requiring 
great accuracy; and that there are few questions in the higher 
branches of Physical Astronomy, where the ancient geometry can 
be used with much advantage.* 
I find but three other communications of Dr. Bowditch to the 
Academy, — the first, on the meteor which passed over Wilming- 
ton in the State of Delaware, November 21st, 1819; the second, 
upon a mistake found in the calculation of M. Poisson relative to the 
distribution of the electrical matter upon the surfaces of two globes; tf 
and the third, upon the elements of the Comet of 1819. 
Such is a brief account of the occasional labors of Dr. Bowditch in 
the cause of science during those leisure hours only, which an active 
life afforded him. Of themselves they would be deemed not incon- 
siderable for any individual, who was so circumstanced as not to be 
able to make the objects of science his exclusive pursuit ; and, if 
we would justly estimate the labors of our countrymen, in com- 
paring them with those of the favored individuals in the various 
states of Europe, who are enabled, either by the patronage of their 
governments or otherwise, to devote their whole lives to science, 
this difference of circumstances should ever be kept in view. 
As to the patronage of government, which, indeed, among few 
nations has stimulated genius to such intense exertions as we find 
in the history of human knowledge, — alas! in our own country, a 
country of which we have just cause to be proud in numberless 
respects, — how little has it hitherto been able to effect for science. 
If our lamented President had been compelled by his pecuniary 
* Mem. Amer. Acad. Vol. IV. p. 110. f Ibid. p. 295. 
ft Ibid. p. 307. § Ibid. p. 317. 
