March 18, 1880] 



NATURE 



467 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his eorrcsfondi tits. Neither can he undertake to return, in- 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. A'o 

 notice is taktn of anonymous communications. 

 [The Editor urgently requests correspondents to hep their letters as 

 short as possible. 1'he pressure on his spare is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance cz'eu of com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 



C. F. Gauss 



In August of last year the editor of Nature forwarded to me 

 a letter he had received from Mr. Robert Gauss, of the firm of 

 McDearman and Gauss, attorneys at law, St. Charles, Missouri, 

 U.S.A. The object of this letter was to obtain, if possible, a 

 copy of the Proceedings of the Royal Society (vol. vii.), referred 

 to in my centenary notice of Gauss (Nature, vol. xv. p. 533). 

 I have not succeeded in obtaining this volume, and I learn from 

 Mr. Walter While that there is no copy available from the Royal 

 Society. In the course of a subsequent correspondence I have 

 learnt several family particulars which, as I have Mr. Gauss's 

 permission, I should like to give to supplement my former 

 notice referred to above. I am the more disposed to do so as 

 the notice of Gauss in the F.ucycl. B>it. (vol. x.) gives but 

 scanty details, and, I observe, gives the erroneous date of April 

 23 (for April 30) as his birthday (vol. xv. p. 533), and further, 

 all reference to Gauss's married life was omitted in my notice. 

 Gauss, it is well known, was twice married. By his first wife 

 he had two sons, |oseph and Louis, and one daughter, Minna; 

 Joseph died in Europe four or five years ago, Louis died in 

 infancy, and Minna, wife of l'rof. Ewald, of Gottingen, died 

 about ten years before her father. The second wife was Minna 

 Waldtck (there is a letter from her mother to Olbers, in Dr. 

 Bruhn.s's " Kriefe zv\ ischen A. v. Humboldt und Gauss" No. vi.); 

 by her Gauss had also two sons and a daughter. This 

 daughter, Theresa, died in Europe. The second son, William, 

 settled in Missouri, and died August 23, 1879, at St. Louis. 

 My informant says he died rich, and his sons are very well 

 circumstanced in business : one son is a Presbyterian mini-ter. 

 Eugene Gau s, the eldest son by the second marriage, is the only 

 living child of C. F. Gauss, and is in his sixty-sevenlh year 

 (almost entirely blind with cataract in his eyes); he is Mr. R. 

 Gauss's father; he left Europe about 1831, and has not since 

 left his adopted country. The family propose to publish a trans- 

 lation of the several memoirs of Gauss in book form, and are 

 very desirous of procuring copies of his letters to scientific men, 

 more especially such as would be illustrative of his character 

 and thoughts on general subjects. I have an extract before me 

 of a letter from the daughter Theresa (date December 6, 1850), 

 in which she says : " I cannot tell you much out of our quiet, 

 simple life ; one day and one year resembles very much the 

 other, although they are peaceful days and years, for father, 

 even now in his advanced years, retains his health unimpaired, 

 and an always cheerful and happy frame of mind ; " and then 

 fdlows an account of the celebration in July, 1849, of his "semi- 

 centennial doctors' -jubilee." Brunswick and Gottingen heaped 

 honours upon him, and the " King sent him autograph congratu- 

 lations and bestowed on him the degree of a higher order ; of 

 letters and addresses there was no end" . . . "then father 

 delivered an address in the University hall, which was filled to 

 overflowing with spectators and auditors, and which was so 

 decorated with flowers as to look like a fairy palace. Even the 

 houses in the streets through which he pa-scdwere decorated, 

 and the city swarmed with well-dressed people as on a holiday. 

 When at last, at seven o'clock, he returned home from the 

 dinner, he was indeed very much exhausted, and it was well thru 

 the torch-light procession, which the students had thought of 

 getting up in his honour, was, at his wish, omitted." It was a 

 matter of regret to the old man that not one of his sons was able 

 to be present. 



A subsequent letter (November 16, 1855) describes the closing 

 scene: "Gradually his life ebbed away, while his sufferings 

 ('from an organic heart trouble') increised. He bore it all 

 though with constant cheerfulness, and with a uniform patience 

 and submi-sion. He did not aliogether lose hope, and he 

 retained his consciousness until the last. His ) hysician Bauer 

 remained with him during the day previous to, and during the 

 night of, his death. At 1 o'clock in the morning he took hold 

 of his pulse, and said: 'It is moving quietly and full as in his 

 best days, death may linger a long time yet.' Ten minu'es later 



all was over ! He died sitting up in his chair; and it was thus 

 that his son Joseph found him enjoying, apparently, a quiet 

 peaceful sleep." It is granted to few mathematicians to be so 

 honoured in life. R. Tucker 



Trans-Atlantic Longitudes 



In an admirable article by M. Perier on telegraphic differ- 

 ences of longitude, published in the Bulletin de la Sociiti de 

 Geographic for September, 1879, he refers to the cables across 

 the Atlantic, and their use for the above-mentioned purpose. 



As a matter of historical interest, I beg to forward you the 

 following memoranda of the work of this class executed by this 

 country. 



By officers of this Survey : — 



In 1866 : Between Cambridge, Mass., and Greenwich, via 

 Newfoundland and Ireland. 



In 1870: Between Cambridge, Mass., and Brest, France. 



In 1S72 : Between Cambridge, Mass., and Greenwich, vid 

 St. Pierre, Brest, and Paris. 



The results of these ob-ervations are shown in our paper, 

 written by Prof. J. E. Hilgard, on these longitudes, a copy of 

 which is forwarded herewith. 



By officers of the U.S. Navy : — ■ 



In 1874 and 1875 : Key Wet to Havana, Havana to Santiago 

 de Cuba, Santiago to Kingston, Jamaica, and Kingston to 

 Panama. 



In 1S75 and 1S76: Kingston to St. Thomas, to Port Spain, 

 to Barbidoes. 



In 1S78 and 1879 : Greenwich to Lisbon, to Funchal, to 

 Torto Grande, to l'ernambuco, to Bahia, to Rio de Janeiro, to 

 Monte Video, to Buenos Ayres. 



The cable between Para and Port Spain having been brokeD, 

 the complete grand circuit cannot at present be effected. 



C. P. Patterson 



U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, Washington, 

 March I 



The "Zoological Record" 



In acknowledging with thanks the kindly notice of the last 

 volume of this publication given in Nature, vol. xxi. p. 392, 

 I trust I am not out of order in referring to one or two sentences 

 in it that require explanation. If the reviewer knew the diffi- 

 culty of getting competent recorders at the slight remuneration 

 we can offer, he would also appreciate the impossibility of en- 

 forcing uniformity in treatment of the separate subject- : the 

 work is almost done as a favour, and each writer has his own 

 idea as to the method most likely to be useful, and would 

 probably desire all the others to conform to his standard. 



The scheme of separate pagination referred to as a conve- 

 nience to the printer is, on the contrary, a source of considerable 

 additional trouble mechanically both to the printers and myself : 

 it was adopted in deference to the expres-ed wishes of some 

 work in/ zoologists, who naturally desired to have as soon as 

 possible the portions of the work devoted to their special 

 branches, and who indeed very probably care for no other part 

 of the publication. The query affecting myself as editor as to 

 the accent always given on the a of infrii, scarcely needs the 

 answer that infra without the accent is a preposition requiring 

 the accusative, and with the accent, as used here, is an adverb 

 (see any large Latin dictionary, such as the old Ainsworth). It 

 is also perhaps unnecessary to refer to the remark as to repro- 

 duction of the Greek "k" by the English c, beyond observing 

 that generic words, such as kallispongia, Wright, are supposed 

 to be in Latin, not English; discretion is scarcely allowable 

 when uniformity is desirable. 



The identification of the author, H. W. Mackintosh, has 

 evidently escaped Dr. Liitken, who has been puzzled by the 

 form " Mr, Mackintosh" used in Quart. Jour. After. Set., xvii. 

 p. 104. 



In " Coel. 13," Cylicossoa is not a misprint for Calyco:oa, as is 

 readily seen by referring to Taschenberg's paper itself. 



Mr. Ross's paper on the muscles of a specimen of the Cheetah 

 which he dissected, was possibly considered by the recorder as 

 purely medical, with no attempt at deduction (the numl cr of 

 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy containing it did not 

 arrive to my hands in London until October, 1S78, long after 

 the mammalian part was written). 



The omis ion of a second reference to Ceratclla labyrinthica 



