June 18, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



933 



neighbors, and eacli had a ' venture ' in the 

 voyage. But these anecdotes may serve as 

 illustrations of the intellectual awakening 

 which came about as soon as our young 

 country was relieved from the pressure of 

 the two wars of 1776 and 1812. An early 

 visitor. Baron Hyde de Neuville (1805), felt 

 ' an unknown something in the air,' ' a new 

 wind blowing.' This new spirit, born 

 of freedom, entered first into practical life, 

 as was but natural ; science next felt its 

 impulse, and, last of all, literature was born. 

 Emerson hailed it (in 1837) ' as the sign of 

 an indestructible instinct.' " Perhaps the 

 time is already come," he says, " when the 

 sluggard intellect of this country will look 

 from under its iron lids and fill the post- 

 poned expectation of the world with some- 

 thing better than the exertions of mechan- 

 ical skill. Our day of dependence, our long 

 apprenticeship to the learning of other 

 lands, draws to a close. The millions that 

 around us are rushing into life cannot 

 always be fed with the sere remains of 

 foreign harvests." 



Benjamin Peirce, a graduate of Harvard 

 in the class of 1829, had been concerned 

 with the translation of the Mecanique Celeste, 

 and was early familiar with the best mathe- 

 matical thought of Europe. He became 

 professor in Harvard College in 1833, and, 

 after the death of Bowditch in 1838, he was 

 easily the first mathematical astronomer in 

 the country. His instruction was precisely 

 fitted to develop superior intelligences, and 

 this was his prime usefulness. Just such a 

 man was needed at that time. Besides his 

 theoretical researches on the orbits of the 

 planets (specially Uranus bm.^. Neptune) and 

 of the moon, his study of the theory of 

 perturbations, and his works on pure mathe- 

 matics and mechanics, he concerned himself 

 with questions of practical astronomy, al- 

 though the observations upon which he de- 

 pended were the work of others. He was 

 the consulting astronomer of the American 



Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac from its 

 foundation in 1849, and its plans were 

 shaped by him to an important degree. His 

 relative, Lieutenant Davis, United States 

 Navy (the translator of Gauss' Theoria Motus 

 Corporum Ccelestium (1857) ), was placed in 

 charge of the Ephemeris, and the members 

 of its staff — Runkle, Ferrel, Wright, ISTew- 

 comb, Winlock and others — most effectively 

 spread its exact methods by example and 

 precept. Professor Peirce undertook the 

 calculations relating to the Sun, Mars and 

 Uranus in the early volumes of the Ephemeris. 

 As a compliment to her sex. Miss Maria 

 Mitchell was charged with those of Venus; 

 Mercury was computed by Winlock, Jupiter 

 by Kendall, Saturn by Downes, Neptune by 

 Sears Walker. 



The Smithsonian Institution was founded 

 in 1846, and Joseph Henry was called from 

 Princeton College to direct it. There never 

 was a wiser choice. His term of service 

 (1846-78) was so long that his ideals became 

 firmly fixed within the establishment and 

 were impressed upon his contemporaries and 

 upon a host of younger men. The interests 

 of astronomy were served by the encourage- 

 ment of original research through sub- 

 sidies and otherwise, by the purchase of 

 instruments for scientific expeditions, by 

 the free exchange of scientific books be- 

 tween America and Europe, and by the 

 publication of the results of recondite in- 

 vestigations. It is by these and like ser- 

 vices that the Institution is known and 

 valued among the wide community of 

 scientific men throughout the world. 



But this enumeration of specific benefits 

 does not convey an adequate idea of the 

 immense influence exercised by the Institu- 

 tion upon the scientific ideals of the country. 

 It was of the first importance that the be- 

 ginnings of independent investigation 

 among Americans should be directed 

 towards right ends and by high and un- 

 selfish aims. In the formation of a scien- 



