708 
CHAUVENET. 
The gathering in the west was succeeded 
by one in the east, and Troy, N. Y., 
was selected as the meeting place of our 
Association in 1870. William Chauvenet 
was chosen to preside, but as the time came 
for the gathering of the scientists his health 
was so precarious, and his end so near, that 
he was unable to be present, and the vice- 
president, Thomas Sterry Hunt, occupied 
the chair. Both names are included in the 
list of our presidents, and a brief sketch of 
each is therefore given. 
Chauvenet* was born in Milford, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1824, and was graduated at 
Yale in 1840. The mathematical ability 
that he had shown while in college led to 
his prompt appointment as assistant to 
Alexander D. Bache, who gave him charge 
of the reduction of the meteorological obser- 
vations then being carried on at Girard 
College. A year later, however, in 1841, 
he received an appointment as professor of 
mathematics in the United States Navy, 
and continued in that capacity until 1859. 
At first he served on board of the steamer 
Mississippi, and later at the Naval Asylum 
in Philadelphia, but he became greatly 
interested in the proposed establishment 
of the United States Naval Academy, in 
Annapolis, and when that institution be- 
came a reality he was transferred there, re- 
ceiving the chair of astronomy, navigation, 
and surveying, and was ‘always the most 
prominent of the academic staff.’+ 
In 1855 the chair of mathematics, and in 
1859 the chair of astronomy and natural 
philosophy, at his alma mater, were offered 
to him, but the rigors of the northern win- 
ters he feared would be too severe for his 
delicate constitution, and he declined to 
accept either of them. But in the last- 
* Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy 
of Sciences, Washington, 1886, Vol. J., p. 227, Wil- 
liam Chauvenet, by J. H. C. Coffin. 
J Biographical Memoirs, p. 235. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8S. Von. X. No. 255. 
named year he was called to the professor- 
ship of mathematics in the then recently 
founded Washington University in St. 
Louis, and in 1862 he was made chancellor 
of that university, but two years later fail- 
ing health compelled him to abandon all 
active work, and he sought recuperation in 
travel. In 1865, with apparently restored 
health, he was able to practically resume 
his duties, but four years later he was 
obliged to relinquish them entirely. It was 
at that time that he was elected to the presi- 
dency of our Association, but he was un- 
able to attend the meeting, and in Decem- 
ber, 1870, he died in St. Paul, Minnesota. 
Mention should be made of the fact that he 
served the Association as general secretary 
at the Springfield meeting in 1859. 
There have been men of extraordinary 
ability, there have been men of great tal- 
ents, and there have been famous students 
who have laboriously worked out important 
discoveries, among those who have held 
the high office of president of our Associa- 
tion, but among them all, two only, Hunt 
and Cope, it seems to me, possessed those 
brilliant mental qualities which are the 
natural endowments of genius. 
HUNT. 
Hunt* was born in Norwich, Connec- 
ticut, in 1826, and was descended from Wil- 
liam Hunt, one of the founders of Concord, 
Massachusetts, in 1635. His maternal 
grandfather was Consider Sterry, of Nor- 
wich, a well-known mathematician and 
civil engineer in his time. His early edu- 
cation was slight, but as a young man he 
became laboratory assistant in the chemical 
*See Popular Science Monthly, Vol. VIII., p. 486, ; 
February, 1876, with an engraved portrait on wood. 
See also sketch with half-tone portrait in Engineering 
and Mining Journal, November 7, 1891, and sketch by 
R. W. Raymond in that journal for February 20, 
1892. The Scientific American of March 19, 1892, 
likewise contains a sketch of Hunt with a half-tone 
portrait. 
