684 
ME. AIET’S ACCOrXT OF THE COXSTEUCTIOX OF 
I have now to give the melancholy termination of this part of the work. 
To 1855, July 14 inclusive, the whole of Mr. Sheepshaaks’s observations, so far as I 
can discover, are transferred from the Memorandum Book to the Eeduction Papers, and 
the means are taken. The final series of obseiwations are the last two sets of compari- 
sons of Bronze 17 mth Bronze 28. After the obseiwations of July 14, the following 
note is placed in the Memorandum Book : — 
“ 1855, July 25. I went to Beading on the 14th, and felt my head so deranged that I 
stayed there till Friday 20th, when I came , up to arrange my apparatus. I did only a 
little in the latter affair, but I left pretty full instructions for "W. S. [MTlllvm Sdqis, 
jun.], who has, I believe, carried them out with his usual skill. I told him that the 
microscopes had not the same scale, and that D would require to be set a tiifie lower. 
He preferred taking a bit off A, and so get them nearer to the same length and to have 
the focus of distinct vision in the same horizontal line. But it will alter the scale of A.” 
Then follow a few observations (one page only, with a few subti’actions on the next 
page) which I am not able to interpret with certainty. They are not dated. 
Mr. Sheepshanks had returned to London, on some day in the week commencing 
■\Hth Monday, July 23, and had, as I conceive, made some trials of the apparatus, which 
were registered (for the moment only) in the unintelligible entries to which I have 
alluded. I understand that he was engaged on the apparatus on Saturday, July 28; but 
several persons had remarked that he was evidently in great distress. On the afternoon 
of that day he went to his residence at Beading, carrying with him a large travelling- 
bag full of papers relating to the standards. In the afternoon of Sunday, July 29, while 
sitting in family society, he fell speechless from his chau-, struck uith apoplexy, and 
expired on August 4. 
Thus died — almost in the scene of his labours, and with his thoughts still intent on 
them — a man whose equal, in talent and perseverance, in disinterestedness, in love of 
justice and truth, I have scarcely known. He had however brought to a satisfactory 
termination the great division of the Standard-work which best suited his taste, haring 
well overcome the last of the difficulties which had presented themselves, and learing 
the work in such a state that not a single additional comparison of line-measures was 
required. All that Avas necessary was, to collect and arrange the papers, to complete 
some few means and abstracts which he had been unable to finish, and to draw up such 
an account as I have attempted here. The formation of thermometers AA as left in an 
imperfect condition, but (under pressing occupations) I haA'e not felt myself called upon 
to finish them. The essential object was, to construct accm'ate copies of the National 
Standard, which rests upon an arbitrary basis ; this Avork could be done by no persons 
except those who had daily access to the National Standard. The basis of thermometers 
is natural, and they can be constructed by one physicist or workman as well as by 
another. And at the present time, it is very much easier to procure in commerce ther- 
mometers of Avell-established accuracy than it AA^as Avhen Mr. Sheepshanks commenced 
his labours. 
