EMS per 
John Francis Encke. ll 
like spirit even the university matricula of the old “Georgi 
‘Augusta” of Géttingen had the image and superscription of Je- 
rome Buonaparte printed upon it. No wonder then that neither 
Gauss nor astronomy could retain the young student at his 
books, but, obeying the impulse which animated the whole heart 
of Germany, i in the spring of 1818 he took up arms and marche 
to Hamburg for the rescue of his country from the domination 
of the French. After the re- occupation of Hamburg by the for- 
eigner, Encke entered the Hanseatic Legion, then in process of 
formation in Holstein and Mecklenburg, and there he served as 
a sergeant-major in the horse artillery until July, 1814. In the 
autumn of this year he returned to Géttingen and to his astro- 
nomical pursuits, and for nearly twelve months continued a dili- 
gent student of subjects far more peaceable, and far more conge- 
nial to his turn of mind. rtheless the return of Napoleon 
from Elba once more finds him in a soldier’s uniform, but now 
only for a short period, and, happily, for the last time. Water: 
loo and its consequences restored peace to France and to Europe, 
and young Encke, who in peace had no taste for soldiership and 
a uniform, returned, for the third time, to Gdttingen and to 
Gauss. It was thus in the midst of these stirring and erin es 
some events, that the spirits of suc _ bon and 
Wilhelm Struve were disciplined and matured, 
While Encke was serving as a senineatn of artillery in the 
Prussian fortress of Kolberg, he became acquainted with the cele- 
brated Lindenau, at once ‘astronomer an statesman, anc 
the completion of his pa under Gauss, he was appointed, by 
the influence of the former, an sssistant in the petri 4 
Seeburg, not far from Gots. In 1820 he became Vice-direc 
and in 1822 he was appointed Director, in the place of Lindeont 
who returned to his political career. 
It was at Seeberg that Encke commenced and completed his 
important work on the “Transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769,” 
published at Gotha in 1822 and ¥824. He also matured his in- 
vestigation of the comet of 1680, and of the remarkable comet of 
short period which bears his name. Zach’s Cores and 
Otaseraers at Seanete he was ainctaa an atone Associate 
of the Royal Astronomical Society, and at the time of his de- 
cease was the oldest foreign member on our list. In 1824 the 
Council of our Society awarded to Encke their gold medal for 
what Mr. Colebrooke, the President of that day, properly Pio 
nated as “the greatest step that had been made in the astrono-— 
my of comets since the verification of Halley’s = in 1759.” 
Encke had long been on the track of his comet. In 1818 he had 
succeeded in identifying it with the Comet of Mechain pe Mig 
