6 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 210. 



Lieutenant Maury led to his resignation 

 after a service of only fourteen months. In 

 1848 Mr. James Ferguson received the ci- 

 vilian appointment of Assistant Observer, 

 and later that of Assistant Astronomer. He 

 proved an indefatigable observer, and the 

 records of the Observatory show a vast 

 amount of valuable and painstaking work 

 with the equatorial by him. In 1851 Pro- 

 fessor Yarnall, U.S.IST. , was ordered to the 

 Observatory, and in the most untiring and 

 conscientious manner he made substantially 

 all the observations obtained with the 

 mural circle and the Ertel transit instru- 

 ment during the decade from 1850 to 1S60. 

 Professor Keith withdrew from the Obser- 

 vatory in 1853, and Professor Coffin was 

 obliged to give up astronomical observing in 

 1850 on account of an affection of his eyes. 



The work of the Observatory as published 

 during Maury's administration is contained 

 in the following volumes : The Observa- 

 tions for 1815, published in 1 846 ; the Obser- 

 vations for 1846, published in 1851 ; the 

 observations for 1847, published in 1853 ; 

 the observations for 1848, published in 1856; 

 the observations for 1849-1850 (one vol- 

 ume), published in 1859. It is worth noting 

 that in the published volumes from 1845 to 

 1848 inclusive the institution is designated 

 as the National Observatory, but on Decem- 

 ber 12, 1854, the Hon. J. C. Dobbins, Sec- 

 retarj' of the Navj', directed that its official 

 designation should be ' The United States 

 Naval Observatory and Hydrographical 

 Office,'- and accordingly all subsequent vol- 

 umes have been issued as the work of the 

 United States Naval Observatory. 



The scheme of work arranged by Maury 

 was as follows : To observe regularly in the 

 meridian the positions of the Sun, Moon, 

 planets and moon-culminating stars ; to ob- 

 serve a Lyrse regularly with the prime ver- 

 tical transit, to determine with that instru- 

 ment the declinations of a catalogue of 

 zenith stars, and to review the Dorpat 



Catalogue of double stars with the equato- 

 rial telescope. 



The meridian observations of the Sun, 

 Moon and planets were commenced in 1845 

 with some degree of ardor, and kept up 

 with decreasing persistency for several 

 years, but after 1850 only a few scattering 

 observations occur in the published records. 

 The prime vertical transit was also em- 

 ployed for a few years, but soon after 1850 

 it fell into disuse. 



The equatorial was used continuously 

 during the entire period from 1845 to 1861. 

 Assistant Astronomer Ferguson had charge 

 of it during a large portion of this time, and 

 the records show an unbroken series of care- 

 fully executed observations of comets, minor 

 planets and occultations of stars by the 

 Moon. The assiduity of Ferguson is at- 

 tested by his discovery of three minor 

 planets, viz: Euphrosj'he, No. 31, on Sep- 

 tember 1, 1854; Virginia, No. 50, on Octo- 

 ber 4, 1857 ; Echo, No. 60, on September 14, 

 1860. 



It would be an act of injustice to pass by 

 uumentioned the numerous items of per- 

 sonal work which enrich the published 

 records. In them we find Coffin's refrac- 

 tion tables founded on Bessel ; tables for 

 aiding in the reduction of the apparent 

 places of stars to mean places, by Coffin, 

 Keith and Hubbard ; an investigation of the 

 latitude of the observatory and a discussion 

 of the errors of standard thermometers, by 

 S. C. Walker ; and last, but not least, we 

 must mention S. C. Walker's discovery, on 

 February 4, 1847, that certain stars observed 

 by Lalande at Paris on May 8 and 10, 

 1795, were the recently discovered planet 

 Neptune ; thus extending the observations 

 of that planet over an interval of fifty years, 

 and thereby making the determination of 

 its elements much more precise. 



By far the most ambitious task which 

 Maury set for the new observatory was de- 

 tailed in his letter to Geoi'ge Bancroft, Sec- 



