594 • The Smithsonian Institution 



expedition, and, in a briefer form, in the eloge of Gilliss pre- 

 pared by Gould for the National Academy of Sciences." 



Doctor Gould remarks that this expedition of Lieutenant 

 Gilliss is noteworthy in the history of the country as the 

 first instance of deference by the legislative and executive 

 authorities of the nation to the views of the organized repre- 

 sentatives of science within its borders. The appropriation by 

 Congress was made because Gilliss's plans were approved by 

 the American Philosophical Society and by the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences. 



Again, the first refracting telescope of any considerable 

 size made in America was constructed for use in Chile — 

 namely, a six-inch telescope by Mr. Henry Fitz. The cost 

 of the objective was $500. 



Gilliss's assistants were officers of the Navy — Messrs. Mac- 

 Rae and Hunter, and subsequently Mr. Phelps. 



A summary of the work accomplished may fittingly termin- 

 ate this brief notice. 



"Between the 6th of December, 1849, ^-^^^ the 13th of 

 September, 1852, series of micrometric comparisons of Mars 

 were made on forty-six days during the first and ninety-three 

 days during the second apposition, and micrometric compari- 

 sons of Venus on fifty-one days during the first and twenty- 

 seven days during the second inferior conjunctions ; the 

 observations on each day being continued through several 

 hours, whenever the sky permitted." By a woeful lack of 

 cooperation on the part of Northern observatories, this work 

 of Gilliss's was rendered useless. 



Fortunately for science, and happily for Gilliss, his obser- 

 vations were not limited to those which it was his special 

 duty to make. Even these on Mars and Venus, which failed 

 of their deserved fruit in affording those data they were in- 



1 " Biographical Memoirs," Washington, 1877, Volume i, page 162. 



