46 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1124 



mental directing ordinance of the Coast 

 Survey. He provided for the division 

 of its operations into three great groups, 

 the geodetic, the topographic and the hydro- 

 graphic, and of these he considered the 

 geodetic the most important as affecting 

 the accuracy and final value of the results. 

 In insisting upon a degree of precision 

 in the execution of these operations hitherto 

 undreamed of in this part of the world, he 

 "set the pace" which the Survey has since 

 maintained with such distinction and which 

 it must continue to maintain if its future is 

 to be worthy of its past. 



Naturally a man of his temperament was 

 likely to come into occasional conflict with 

 government authorities who were quite un- 

 able to appreciate the nature and demands 

 of such a service. The very refinement in 

 measure and computation which was the 

 chief merit of the work came near being 

 the undoing of Hassler as it has, indeed, of 

 more than one of his successors. In 1842 a 

 congressional committee made a searching 

 and unfriendly investigation of the Sur- 

 vey, during which, as one of its members 

 confessed on the floor of the House, it was 

 found that of the subject under considera- 

 tion the superintendent knew so much and 

 the inquisitors so little that the committee 

 was helpless in his hands. Although the 

 work of this committee, like that of most of 

 its successors, was an inquisition rather 

 than an investigation, its report was practi- 

 cally a complete endorsement of the prin- 

 ciples on which the Survey had been con- 

 ducted by Hassler. His death occurred in 

 the following year, but not before a com- 

 plete and comprehensive plan for the con- 

 tinuation and expansion of the work had 

 been outlined and approved by Congress. 



The duty of executing this plan, of build- 

 ing upon the foundation laid by Hassler, 

 fell to one who was everywhere acclaimed 

 as the best fitted for the task. 



Alexander Dallas Bache had inherited 



through his grandmother, the famous 

 ' ' Sally Bache ' ' of the Revolutionary period, 

 only daughter of Benjamin Franklin, not 

 only his distinguished ancestor's tastes for 

 scientific pursuits, but also much of his tact 

 and skill as a diplomat, a quality that con- 

 tributed in no small degree to his notable 

 success as superintendent. After gradu- 

 ating from West Point Military Academy 

 at the age of eighteen years, at the head of 

 his class, with the extremely rare record of 

 having completed the entire course without 

 having received a single demerit, he had 

 enjoyed a wide experience in public service 

 in various capacities, besides being actively 

 engaged in important researches in mag- 

 netism and electricity. 



At the age of thirty-seven years he had 

 already won distinction as a scientific man 

 of originality and power and his appoint- 

 ment as Hassler 's successor was recom- 

 mended by all of the principal scientific 

 societies and institutions of learning in the 

 country. His service extended over a 

 period of almost exactly a quarter of a cen- 

 tury, being terminated by his death in 

 1867. The splendid superstructure which 

 Bache erected upon Hassler 's foundation 

 has received the highest praise from com- 

 petent judges in all parts of the world. 



During his administration he was success- 

 ful in securing the confidence of Congress 

 and the operations of the Survey were 

 greatly extended. "While keeping well in 

 mind the practical results, for the attain- 

 ment of which the organization was 

 created, he had a keen eye for the purely 

 scientific by-products of which he gathered 

 a great harvest. The distinguished mathe- 

 matician and astronomer, Professor Benja- 

 min Peirce, on assuming office as his suc- 

 cessor, said of the Coast Survey at the end 

 of its first half century: "What it is Bache 

 has made it. It will never cease to be the 

 admiration of the scientific world. It is 

 only necessary conscientiously and faith- 



