June 18, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



931 



could be much extended. The excellent 

 training in mathematics at West Point 

 (chiefly in French methods) early made 

 itself felt throughout the whole country. 

 The mathematical text-books of Peirce of 

 Harvard and of Chauvenet of the Naval 

 Academy, brought the latest learning of 

 Europe to American students. Mitchell 

 (class of 1829 at West Point) was the only 

 graduate who became a professional as- 

 tronomer (1842-61). His direct service to 

 practical observing astronomy is small, but 

 his lectures (1842-48), the conduct of the 

 Cincinnati observatorj' (1845-59), and his 

 publication of the Sidereal Messenger (1846- 

 48), together with his popular books, ex- 

 cited an intense and widespread public in- 

 terest in the science, and indirectly led to 

 the foundation of many observatories. He 

 was early concerned in the matter of using 

 the electric current for longitude determi- 

 nations and his apparatus was only dis- 

 placed because of the superior excellence of 

 the chronograph devised by the Bonds. 

 His work was done under immense disad- 

 vantages, in a new community (Ohio), but 

 the endowment of astronomical research in 

 America owes a large debt to his energy 

 and efforts. 



The ISTavy and the U. S. ISTaval Academy 

 (founded by Bancroft in 1845, at the sug- 

 gestion of Chauvenet) were very active in 

 astronomical work. Chauvenet (Yale Col- 

 lege, 1840) published a text-book of Trigo- 

 nometry, in 1850, which had an important 

 share in directing attention to rigid, elegant 

 and general methods of research. His 

 astronomy (1863) is a hand-book for all 

 students. Walker, Gilliss, Coffin, Hub- 

 bard, Ferguson, Keith, Yarnall, Winlock, 

 Maury, Wilkes, were all connected with the 

 Navy, more or less intimately. Walker's 

 career was especially brilliant ; he gradu- 

 ated at Harvard College in 1825, and 

 established the Observ^atory of the Phila- 

 delphia High School in 1840. He was the 



leading spirit in the U. S. Naval Observ- 

 atory at Washington (1845-47) and intro- 

 duced modern methods into its practice at 

 the beginning. From the Observatory he 

 went to the Coast Survey to take charge of 

 its longitude operations, and he continued 

 to direct and expand this department until 

 his death, in 1853. To him, more than to 

 any single person, is due the idea of the 

 telegraphic method (' the American meth- 

 od ' ) of determining differences of Longi- 

 tude. His assistant in this work was 

 Gould, who succeeded to the charge of it in 

 1853. His researches extended to the field 

 of mathematical astronomy also, and his 

 theory of the planet Neptune (then newly 

 discovered) marks an important step for- 

 ward. His investigations and those of 

 Peirce were conducted in concert and at- 

 tracted general and deserved attention. 



The exploring expedition of Wilkes re- 

 quired corresponding observations to be 

 made in America, and during the period 

 1838^2 William Bond, at Dorchester, and 

 Lieutenant Gilliss, at Washington, main- 

 tained such a series with infinite assiduity 

 and with success. The results of Gilliss' 

 astronomical expedition to the southern 

 hemisphere (Chile, 1849-52) were most 

 creditable to him and to the navy, though 

 his immediate object — the determination of 

 the solar parallax — -was not attained. 



The Coast Survey began its work in 1817 

 under Hassler, a professor from West Point, 

 who impressed upon the establishment a 

 thoroughly scientific direction. Bache, his 

 successor (a grandson of Benjamin Frank- 

 lin), was a graduate of West Point in the 

 class of 1825, and took charge of the Survey 

 in 1843. He is the true father of the in- 

 stitution, and gave it the practical efficiency 

 and high standard which characterized its 

 work. He called around him the flower of 

 the army and navy, and was ably seconded 

 by the pei-manent corps of civilian assistants 

 — Walker, Saxton, Gould, Dean, Blunt, 



