bo 
64 
ally, without a vivid perception of this marked peculiarity. 
Before it was my privilege to know him and to appreciate 
his manly truthfulness and scrupulous honor, I once heard 
another astronomer impugn his observations in this respect. 
I asked whether the recently published volume of observa- 
tions were good and creditable to Astronomy in America. 
“Yes,” was the reply, “they are very good, too good for 
Gilliss’s reputation. No man could have made such good 
ones.” Jn fact it is rarely that the record of a transit over 
the middle thread of his reticule does not accord, to the near- 
est tenth, with the mean of observations over the five threads. 
It is true that few men could have made such observa- 
tions; but happily there are tests, unsuspected then, so 
searching that cavil is impossible. Not only do the original 
records exist, in such a form as to preclude any idea that 
they could have been tampered with, —not only have sub- 
sequent observations confirmed those of Gilliss and made 
manifest their high precision, — not only was our colleague 
spared to enrich the annals of astronomy with yet more results 
of just such quality, in the other hemisphere, but a touch- 
stone exists, potent as Ithuriel’s spear. I refer to the So 
called personal scale, by which the counting and assortment 
of the last figures, in a very large number of observations, 
enables the inquirer to determine the degree of precision of 
these last figures by the law of probabilities. This search- 
ing test was applied to this volume of observations by Prof- 
Peirce, and with results signally confirming the faith of Gil- 
liss’s warmest admirers. In the long list of observers, living 
and dead, whose results were thus critically and searching!y 
tested, Gilliss held the second place (and scarcely second 
_ indeed) for the close precision with which his tenths of see- 
: ends had been noted, —a degree of accuracy only attainable 
me 
