Mathematics :; 6 ^ 



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mathematics the Institution has always shown a Hvely inter- 

 est, and much of the success of their earher work seems to 

 be directly traceable to the wise counsel and warm support 

 of Joseph Henry. The more recent governmental organiza- 

 tions, the Weather Bureau and the Geological Survey, whose 

 work is also largely dependent on mathematical science, 

 have drawn their inspiration, as well as a great part of their 

 working data, directly from the Smithsonian Institution. 



The interest taken by Joseph Henry in the progress of the 

 more abstruse mathematical theories of astronomy and geod- 

 esy forms a noteworthy feature of his annual reports. These 

 reports show that the Institution was in touch with the ablest 

 mathematicians of the country, and that no branch of their 

 science was so abstract as to be beyond the recognition and 

 aid of the Secretary. It seems strange in the present day 

 of open avenues to the publication of meritorious works that 

 at a time less than fifty years ago there could have been diffi- 

 culty in finding a publisher for so great a treatise as Pro- 

 fessor Benjamin Peirce's " Analytical Mechanics." Still more 

 strange does it appear that the cooperation of the Smithsonian 

 Institution with the Navy Department should have been es- 

 sential to secure the publication of so important a work as 

 Davis's translation of Gauss's "Theoria Motus Corporum 

 Coelestium." But publishers in those days found little demand 

 for, and less profit in, contributions to knowledge. Science as 

 such had not yet been recognized by the colleges, and there 

 were only a few men, mostly in the Eastern States, who found 

 in their surroundings any encouragement of their devotion to 

 abstract studies. Even the orovernment bureaus, like the 

 Naval Observatory, the Nautical Almanac Office, and the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, had not yet reached an indepen- 

 dent footing in regard to the publication of researches indis- 

 pensable to the progress of their work. It is only in the light 



