632 
"tific research for its own sake. Agassiz had 
that ideal extraordinarily developed, and on 
that account the student was drawn to him and 
felt in a corresponding degree a great influence 
on his life. Agassiz made many and impor- 
tant contributions to science, but the greatest 
of all was a life which embodied the ideal that 
scientific research is an unselfish study of truth 
for truth’s sake. Every student who was 
brought in contact with Agassiz recognized this 
ideal, and was profoundly influenced by it. 
The museum of Comparative Zoology in 
Cambridge, is his most conspicuous monu- 
ment, but his influence, more powerful than 
bricks or mortar, will live forever. 
A boulder from the glacier of the Aar 
marks his last resting place in Mount Au- 
burn, and so ‘the land of his birth and 
the land of his adoption are united ‘in this 
grave.’”* 
The policy of holding two meetings a year 
was soon found to be unsatisfactory, and it 
was abandoned after the Charleston meet- 
ing in 1851. In consequence no spring 
gathering was held in 1852, and also no 
summer meeting was held during that year. 
It was not until July, 1853, that the Asso- 
ciation again met, and then it was con- 
vened in Cleveland under the presidency of 
Benjamin Peirce. 
PEIRCE. 
This distinguished mathematician, one of 
the greatest this country has ever known, 
was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1810. 
His father, whose name the son inherited, 
is best remembered as the historian and 
librarian of Harvard. In Cambridge the 
boy grew to manhood, and was graduated 
at Harvard in 1829 in the class that Oliver 
Wendell Holmes has so beautifully im- 
mortalized in one of his charming poems. 
While in college he became a pupil of Na- 
* Life and Correspondence, Vol. 2, p. 783. 
+See Benjamin Peirce. A Memorial Collection, 
by Moses King, Cambridge, 1881, p. 18, with an 
engraved portrait on wood. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. X. No. 253. 
thaniel Bowditch, ‘ who made the prediction 
that young Peirce would become one of the 
leading mathematicians of this century.’* 
After graduating he began his career as a 
teacher and in 1831 returned to his alma 
mater as tutor in mathematics, becoming 
eleven years later Perkins professor of 
mathematics and astronomy, which chair 
he held until his death, ‘when he had been 
connected with the university for a longer 
time than any other person except Henry 
Flynt, of the class of 1693.’ + 
His election to the presidency of our As- 
sociation was probably a result of his con- 
nection with the United States Coast Sur- 
vey, as in 1852 he had been assigned to the 
charge of the longitude determinations in 
that service. The successful prosecution 
of that work, in which he was associated 
with some of our most distinguished mem- 
bers, indicated him as the natural successor 
to the superintendency of the Survey itself 
on the death of Bache in 1867. 
The paramount events of the civil war 
had, to a large extent, interfered with the 
regular work of the Survey, but under Peirce 
it was actively resumed. The plans laid 
down by his predecessor were taken up and 
the Survey extended to a great geodetic 
system, stretching from ocean to ocean, 
thus laying the foundations for a general 
map of the country that should be entirely 
independent of detached local surveys. 
With this object the great diagonal are was 
extended from the vicinity of Washington 
to the southward and westward along the 
Blue Ridge, eventually reaching the Gulf 
of Mexico near Mobile. He also planned 
the important work of measuring the arc of 
the parallel of 89 degrees to join the Atlan- 
tic and Pacific systems of triangulation ; 
and for determining geographical positions 
* Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. VI., p. 
,701 New York, 1888. Article on Benjamin Peirce 
written by myself. 
+ Memorial Collection. 
