IX 



convinced of their importance. But he had not long been installed in 

 his new office when the terrible war between France and Germany 

 broke out ; and his whole time and attention were soon absorbed in the 

 preservation of the observatory from the effects of a bombardment. All 

 the delicate instruments were dismantled and stowed away and the 

 observations suspended. On the restoration of peace the observatory 

 was soon restored to order and the observations were resumed. 



Feeling the great want of public and private observatories in Erance, 

 Delaunay, in conjunction with Leverrier. made an application to the 

 government for the establishment of a certain number of geodetical and 

 astronomical stations in different places. The observatories were to be 

 established according to plans arranged by Delaunay and the Bureau des 

 Longitudes. 



To Delaunay is owing the independence of the Observatory of Mar- 

 seilles, which had hitherto been in connexion with the Paris Observatory, 

 also the foundation of one at Toulouse and the plan for one at Besancpn. 

 His energies were devoted to making the Observatory of Paris the great 

 centre of astronomy in Erance. Shortly before his death he remarked, 

 " We are going to do many things. The Observatory intends to devote 

 all its energies to the reobservation of Lalande's Catalogue, to continue 

 the ecliptic star-charts commenced by Chacornac, to observations of 

 double stars ; and, finally, we are making preparations for new determi- 

 nations of the longitude of Brest, Greenwich, and Neufchatel." 



He continued his observations of the minor planets during the second 

 half of the lunation with great success, excepting during the siege. 



Delaunay lost his wife a few years after his marriage. He has left 

 one son, who is guardian of the Eorests of Vitry le Erancais. His aged 

 mother, to whom he had been a most devoted son, survived him. 



It remains only to relate the painful circumstance of his death. On 

 Tuesday, July 30th, 1872, he left Paris in company with his cousin M. 

 Millot, Controller of the Post, for a few days holiday. On the following 

 Sunday he wrote from Bayeux that he intended spending a few days at 

 Cherbourg, and should return to Paris on the following Thursday. On 

 the Tuesday following a telegram was received in Paris announcing that 

 he and his cousin and two boatmen had been drowned by the upsetting 

 of a pleasure-boat in the roadstead of Cherbourg. It is a singular fact 

 that both his father and brother perished by drowning. 



Delaunay was a member of the Academie des Sciences of the Institute 

 of Erance, and towards the close of his. life had occupied the Chair. He 

 was a Doctor of Science, a member of several learned societies, and was 

 elected a foreign member of the Eoyal Society in 1869. 



VOL. XXIV. 



