March 5, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



385 



the American name an honored one where 

 applied science is recognized and appre- 

 ciated. The physical hydrographic studies, 

 applied in the improvement of our greatest 

 harbors and in assisting the Mississippi 

 Commissioners ; the magnetic data it has 

 collected, deduced and accumulated for the 

 Surveyor, almost his only guide in settling 

 disputes about land lines which now put 

 in jeopardy millions of dollars worth of 

 property ; the admirable maps of the coast 

 and adjacent waters it has produced, find 

 the wealth of information its archives con- 

 tain for the naval and military men upon 

 whom may devolve the duty of protecting 

 the country from foreign invasion — surely 

 are fruits precious enough to satisfy the 

 most exacting of utilitarians. 



Breadth in conception, thoroughness in 

 method, rapidity and economy in execution — 

 these were the characteristics of the Survey 

 when an enlightened and generous super- 

 vision gave assistance and support to the 

 administration of such Superintendents as 

 Hassler, Bache, Peirce, Patterson, Hilgard 

 and Mendenhall ; and to the honor earned 

 by the services of the Survey to commerce 

 and science must be added the credit due 

 to the firmness with which its chiefs regu- 

 lated their management in accordance with 

 the highest form of what is now called Civil 

 Service Reform. 



The first appointment of a Superinten- 

 dent qualified by no previous scientific ex- 

 perience for his position was made in 1885, 

 but fortunately the appointee was a man of 

 discretion, broad in his views and judicious 

 in temperament. In attending to the pro- 

 fessional details of the work the views and 

 opinions of the most experienced and ablest 

 of his scientific assistants were secured and 

 given weight ; his best efforts were called 

 forth for the welfare of the Survey, and 

 when he offered his resignation he sur- 

 rendered his position with the knowledge 

 that his honesty and fairness had won him 



the respect of his associates, to whom he 

 had come a stranger, and that his stay had 

 been the means of preserving the Survey 

 from the machinations of scheming spoils- 

 men. 



President Harrison during his term in 

 the Senate had acquired a personal knowl- 

 edge of the operations of the Survey and a 

 strong appreciation of the requirements 

 that should be satisfied by a proper head 

 for it, and to the making of such a selection 

 it is well known that he gave an unusual 

 amount of personal attention, the result be- 

 ing the happy choice which fell on Dr. T. C. 

 Mendenhall. To the readers of Science it 

 would be an act of supererogation to recapit- 

 ulate the qualifications of this distinguished 

 scientist for the position, and no act of Mr. 

 Harrison's administration reflected more 

 credit upon his judgment than the selection 

 he made for Superintendent of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey. The influence of the 

 new chief was at once felt in every division 

 of the oflace, as he brought to his super- 

 vision not only a trained scientific mind, 

 but the ripe results of a personal experience 

 with nearly every line of work in the Sur- 

 vey, with the consequence that at no time 

 in its whole history was the Survey more 

 productive in original and practical results 

 than for the term that Dr. Mendenhall was 

 allowed control of the Bureau. 



"With the change of administration in 

 1893 came a return of the hostile spirit with 

 which the Survey was treated in 1885. The 

 President, it is true, appreciated the abili- 

 ties of the Superintendent, the great work 

 he had done, recognized his suitability and 

 expressed his desire that he should remain; 

 but the capture of a bureau where partisan- 

 ship had never reigned was too tempting a 

 prize to be lost for the new ruler that held 

 sway in the Treasury Department. Left 

 with only the semblance of executive power, 

 and subjected to the pettiest and most 

 odious treatment. Dr. Mendenhall remained 



