706 SCIENCE. 
Orleans. In the successful accomplishment 
of this work he anticipated his English col- 
leagues, and so added greater renown to 
the advancement of American science. 
From 1856 to 1859 he was director of 
the Dudley Observatory in Albany, and 
superintended its construction. It was in 
_this building that the normal clock, pro- 
tected from atmospheric variations and 
furnished with barometric compensation, 
was first used to give time telegraphically 
to dials throughout the observatory ; indeed, 
as improvements of his own suggestion were 
established, the service was extended until 
it was that clock that gave the time signals 
to New York. The three years of his valu- 
able services to science at Dudley were 
marred by a famous controversy, the dis- 
cussion of which cannot be taken up here. 
It had to do with the important question 
as to whether the wishes of a board of trus- 
tees should be carried out by a scientific 
director. Gould absolutely declined to 
accept the dictates of those who deter- 
mined to compel him to adopt a policy 
which was opposed to that which he 
regarded as best for the scientific develop- 
ment of the observatory. Firm in his be- 
lief as to what was right, he declined to 
resign, and finally, by process of law, was 
removed from his directorship. Gould 
fought his fight bravely and honestly, and 
though in the end he was unsuccessful, still 
to his credit it must be said, he never 
yielded his ground. 
The great event of his life was the mag- 
nificent work accomplished by him while 
director of the National Observatory of the 
Argentine Republic in Cordoba. In 1868 
he was called to the organization of the ob- 
servatory there, and after obtaining from 
Europe a complete outfit of instruments, 
superintended the erection of the observ- 
atory. 
He began work in 1870. Of the work 
accomplished he said : 
[N. 8. Vou. X. No. 255. 
The original purpose was to make a thorough 
survey of the southern heavens by means of 
observations in zones between the parallel of 
30° and the polar circle; but the plan grew 
under the influence of circumstances, until the 
scrutiny comprised the whole region from the 
tropic to within 10° of the pole—somewhat 
more than 57° in width, instead of 37°. Al- 
though it was no part of the original design to 
perform all the numerical computations, and 
still less to bring the results into the form of a 
finished catalogue, it has been my exceptional 
privilege, unique in astronomical history so far 
as I am aware, to enjoy the means and oppor- 
tunity for personally supervising all that vast 
labor, and to see the results published in their 
definite, permanent form.* 
It was also under his direction that the 
Argentine Meteorological Service was estab- 
lished in 1872, and its work he described as 
follows: 
At the end of the year 1884 there were al- 
ready twenty-three points at which the obser- 
vations had been continuously made, three 
times a day, for at least four years, and sixteen 
others at which they had already been continued 
for more than two years. These have provided 
the necessary data for constructing the iso- 
thermal lines, with tolerable precision, for all 
of South America from the Torrid Zone to Cape 
Horn.+ 
His work done, and well done, he came 
home to pass the evening of his life with 
the friends and associates of his early 
years. His return to the United States 
was celebrated by a dinner, at which those 
who knew him best, greeted him with glad 
words of welcome. Holmes wrote for that 
occasion : 
Once more Orion and the sister Seven 
Look on thee from the skies that hailed thy birth— 
How shall we welcome thee, whose home was Heaven, 
From thy celestial wanderings back to earth ? 
* Addresses at the Complimentary Dinner to Dr. 
Benjamin Apthorp Gould, p. 15. 
ft Idem, p. 17. 
