May 19, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



703 



correction, showing that the blind and aged 

 man was able to retain in his mind the long 

 line of thirty figures. This wonderful com- 

 putation, if it does not demonstrate great 

 mathematical abilitj', certainly shows an 

 extraordinary memory. We involuntarily 

 ask : Whatmight Eugene not have achieved, 

 had his experiences in life been such as to 

 draw out his faculties to the fullest extent ? 



Eugene's younger brother Wilhelm came 

 to this country in 1837, immediately after 

 his marriage to a niece on the mother's side 

 to the astronomer Bessel. Wilhelm wished 

 to make farming his vocation and he be- 

 lieved the opportunities were better in the 

 United States than in Germany. For 

 twenty years he was almost continually en- 

 gaged in farming in Missouri ; then he en- 

 tered the "wholesale shoe business in St. 

 Louis, in which he continued until his 

 death, in 1879. Of his eight children six 

 are now living ; some are in business ; two 

 are Presbyterian clergymen. 



Near the beginning of this article we 

 quoted from a letter, written by Theresa to 

 her brother Eugene. I have seen another 

 of her letters (dated May 16, 1855), in 

 ■which she gives an account of the last ill- 

 ness of her illustrious father. From the 

 long letter we translate the following : 



"The last year of suffering — full of sickness de- 

 manding constant attendance — has bound me still 

 more closely to him. During the last weeks there 

 was hardly a moment, day or night, when he'permit- 

 ted me to be away from him, and he expressed the 

 desire that we might not be separated even by death, 

 for only a few days before he died he said to me : 

 'The best and greatest that God could grant us 

 would be this one favor, that we two on the same day 

 might die together.' * * * 



"My last letter to you, dated, I believe, April 30, 

 '53, is two years old, and if at that time I wrote that 

 father's health was no longer quite robust, it never- 

 theless did not cause any unusual anxiety. But in 

 the course of the summer following he began to com- 

 plain to such an extent as to cause alarm. Part of 

 the time he suffered much, and, his strength failing 

 rapidly, I, full of apprehension, besought him in vain 



to call in a physician. Not till January, 1854, as the 

 disease in a few weeks had made rapid progress, did 

 he consent. The physician, who has since with unre- 

 mitting love, care and sympathy' attended him, les- 

 sened his suffering where cure was impossible, and 

 doubtless somewhat prolonged his life, declared to me 

 positively, after the first visit, that his condition was 

 dangerous and hopeless. He recognized the disease 

 at once as a heart trouble, which probably had been 

 coming on for years, in course of which there had been 

 an accumulation of water about the heart, which in a 

 few weeks also extended to other parts of the body. 

 At that time the disease advanced rapidly and left 

 little hope, but under the careful treatment of our 

 loving physician. Dr. Baum, some improvement fol- 

 lowed like a miracle. Some symptoms of the disease 

 disappeared entirely, and father was able to go out for 

 short distances, though only slowly and with immedi- 

 ate exhaustion. * * * * But suddenly in November 

 the old trouble returned in more decisive form, in- 

 creased from day to day, and at the beginning of the 

 present year the physician said to me the life of our 

 beloved one would be of only short duration. The 

 last weeks of suffering were terrible, as the disease o£ 

 dropsy in general is terrible, because it visibly ap- 

 proaches death inch by inch. But father has borne al 

 his suffering to the end with unvarying, touching 

 serenity, friendliness and patience. Entirely hope- 

 less he never was ; he always believed in the possi- 

 bility of recovery so long as one spoke encouragingly 

 to him. Ah ! how difficult this has often been, when 

 I, hopeless, knew the nearness of death ! He never 

 lost complete consciousness. Four hours before his 

 death he still knew me, when, for the last time, he 

 took a drink from my hand, drew my hand toward 

 him and, kissing it, looked lovingly at me. He then 

 closed his eyes and seemed to sleep, but I believe he 

 did not sleep, but that his spirit, clear and conscious 

 as ever, had freed itself from its earthly shell and had 

 gone to its heavenly home." 



We close with a letter written to Eugene 

 Gauss by Professor Ernst Sobering, C. F. 

 Gauss's successor at the observatory in 

 Gottingen, who himself has since joined the 

 ranks of the departed : 



Steenwaete, Gottingen, 1892, Nov. 21. 

 Sehe gkehetee Heee Gauss : 

 Wie Sie aus beifolgendem Correcturbogen ersehen 

 werden, sind wir hier in Gottingen im Begriffe ein 

 Denkmal fiir Ibren beriihmten Vater zu erriohten. 

 In der Meinung, dass Sie wiinschen werden, Ihren 

 Namen in der Aufforderung der Mathematiker, As- 



