EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 29! 



college, he found it necessary to review all his classical stud- 

 ies not once merely, but several times. The same was true 

 of scientific studies also, so that quite a large number of sub- 

 jects were gone over very thoroughly, and the details were 

 fixed in his memory. It was a better discipline than if he had 

 simply taken these studies as a college student. The academy 

 owned a very good philosophical outfit and young Hitch- 

 cock prepared a number of lectures on physics, which were 

 delivered with experiments both before his classes and in the 

 evening to people of the village. 3. Perhaps the best mental 

 discipline came from the use of the astronomical instruments 

 belonging to the academy. He observed first the comet of 

 1811. From September yth to December lyth, during the pres- 

 ence of the celestial visitor, he noted the distance of the 

 comet from various stars, determined the latitude and longi- 

 tude by lunar distances and eclipses of the sun and moon, oc- 

 curring about the same time, and the variation of the magnetic 

 needle. Several months of study were required to reduce 

 these observations ; and, as tables were wanting, he was com- 

 pelled to calculate elements that the modern astronomer finds 

 ready to his hand. The results of this work were published 

 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in a paper by 

 General Epaphras Hoyt, the conclusions of the uncle and 

 nephew being combined in a longitude determination. 4. In 

 these calculations use was made of the Nautical Almanac, 

 then published by Edmund M. Blunt, of New York (reprinted 

 from the standard English publication). Errors would hardly 

 be looked for in such a work, but beneath the opening page 

 for every month was this sentence: "Ten dollars will be 

 paid on the discovery of an error in the figures." Young 

 Hitchcock soon discovered a long list of errors, both in 

 the figures and the text, and sent it to Mr. Blunt, who an- 

 swered evasively. The list was then published in the Ameri- 

 can Monthly Magazine, which called out Mr. Blunt in a state- 

 ment commencing, " Noticing an attack on my Nautical Al- 

 manac from one Edward Hitchcock, a few remarks only are 

 necessary to explain the man's drift." He represented the 

 errors as occurring in a part of the work used chiefly by as- 

 tronomers, and added, " I would rather ten errors should escape 

 me there than one by which the mariner should be deceived." 

 Before this answer had been seen, Hitchcock had forwarded to 



