140 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



plates of southern stellar clusters. To the measurement and 

 reduction of these he devoted the rest of his life, and had the 

 satisfaction of seeing the last of these results printed in the 

 Astronomical Journal, which was brought to him a few hours 

 before his death. For the continued publication of the Journal 

 he had made adequate provision. A public dinner was given 

 Dr. Gould on his arrival in Boston, presided over by Hon. 

 Leverett Saltonstall, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes welcoming 

 him by a poem from " his celestial wanderings back to earth." 

 In his later years Dr. Gould did valuable work for the American 

 Metrological Society of which he was at one time president. 



He was one of the founders, and first president, of the Colo- 

 nial Society of Massachusetts, and received the honorary degree 

 of Doctor of Laws from Harvard and Columbia. Many dis- 

 tinguished societies enrolled him among their members, and he 

 was made a Knight of the Order of Merit in Prussia, a distinc- 

 tion given to only two other Americans. His life ended by an 

 accident on the evening of Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 

 1896. 



(From the biographical sketch by ANDREW McF. DAVIS, in the Proceedings 

 of the American Antiquarian Society, April, 1897.) 



ASA GRAY 

 Born, November 18, 1810; died, January 30, 1888 



Asa Gray was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was born at 

 Paris, New York, November 18, 1810. His father was a 

 farmer and tanner. Asa, the oldest of eight children, assisted 

 his father, and attended the country school. Later, he attended 

 the grammar school at Clinton, New York, and was also a 

 student at Fairfield Academy for four years. His first interest 

 in natural science was aroused by the lectures of Dr. James 

 Hadley at the Fairfield Medical School. 



His taste for botany was aroused by reading in Brewster's 

 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and Gray soon became interested in 

 collecting plants about Fairfield, besides making excursions 

 to other parts of the State of New York. In 1829 he became a 



