meeting of the American association for the ad- vancement of science, and in 1863 he was one of the corporate members of the National academy of sci- ences. He issued five numbers of the " Cambridge Miscellany of Mathematics and Physics," and was a generous contributor to scientific journals and the proceedings of the scientific societies of which he was a member. Prof. Peirce's text-books on mathematics have had a lasting effect upon the methods of teaching in this country. He acted independently in the introduction of infinitesi- mals into elementary books, and supplanted many traditional methods in mathematics by concise and axiomatic definitions and demonstrations of his own invention. He surpassed other mathe- maticians particularly in the choice of notation, which enabled his mind to carry its power of ab- stract reasoning to a higher degree by reducing mental labor. His books include " Elementary Treatise on Plane Trigonometry " (Boston, 1835), and " Elementary Treatise on Spherical Trigonome- try " (1836), published as a single volume in later editions ; " Elementary Treatise on Sound " (1836) ; " Elementary Treatise on Plane and Solid Geome- try " (1837 ; printed for the blind, 1840) ; " Elemen- tary Treatise on Algebra " (1837) ; " Elementary Treatise on Curves, Functions, and Forces " (2 vols., 1841-'6) ; " Physical and Celestial Mechanics, Developed in Four Systems of Analytic Mechanics, Celestial Mechanics, Potential Physics, and Ana- lytic Morphology," of which the " Analytic Mechan- ics " only was published (1855) ; '• Linear Associa- tive Algebra " (Washington, 1870) ; and " Ideality in the Physical Sciences" (Boston, 1881). His classmate and colleague in the faculty at Harvard, Oliver Wendell Holmes, commemorated his death by a graceful poem, in which he said :
" To him the wandering stars revealed
The secrets in their cradle sealed :
The far-off, frozen sphere that swings
Through ether, zoned with lucid rings ;
The orb that rolls in dim eclipse.
Wide wheeling round its long ellipse —
His name Urania writes with these,
And stamps it on her Pleiades."
See " Benjamin Peirce, a Memorial Collection," by Moses King (Cambridge, Mass., 1881). — Another son of the first Benjamin, Charles Henry, physi- cian, b. in Salem, Mass., 28 Jan., 1814; d. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 16 June, 1855, was graduated at Har- vard in 1833, and at the medical department in 1836. Settling in Salem, he there followed his pro- fession until 1847, when he became a special stu- dent of chemistry at the Lawrence scientific school of Harvard for two years, and in 1850 he received the appointment of examiner of medicines for the port of Boston. Dr. Peirce was a member of va- rious medical societies, and the translator of Dr. Julius A. Stockhardt's "Principles of Chemistry" (Cambridge, 1850), of which more than 15,000 copies were sold. He also published " Examina- tion of Drugs, Medicines, Chemicals, etc., as to their Purity" (1852). — The second Benjamin's son, James Mills, mathematician, b. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 1 May, 1834, was graduated at Har- vard in 1853, and was tutor there in 1854-'8 and in 1860-'l. He was made assistant professor of mathematics in 1861, and in 1867 university professor of that subject. In 1885 he was given the chair of astronomy and mathematics, which he now (1888) holds. He is a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences and of the American association for the advancement of science, and a member of other scientific bodies. Besides his special papers in various transactions and reviews. he has published " A Text-Book of Analytic Geom- etry " (Cambridge, 1857) ; " Three- and Pour- Place Taiales of Logarithmic and Trigometric Functions " (Boston, 1871); "The Elements of Logarithms" (1873) ; and " Mathematical Tables Chiefly to Four Figures; 1st Series" (1879); and he has edited " Ideality in the Physical Sciences," written by his father (1881). — Another son of the second Benja- min, Charles Sanders, physicist, b. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 10 Sept., 1839, was graduated at Harvard in 1859, and subsequently pursued the chemical course at the Lawrence scientific school, where he was graduated in 1863 with the degree of S. B. He soon afterward entered the service of the U. S. coast survey, and in 1872 became assistant in that work, engaging in important investigations, notably a series of pendulum experim.ents to de- termine the density of the earth, its ellipsity, and other constants. His scientific work has also in- cluded valuable researches in meteorology, meas- urements of wave lengths of light, researches on sensation of color, and work on stellar photometry. He has held lectureships on logic at Harvard and at the Johns Hopkins university, and in 1869 he delivered a course of lectures on scholastic philoso- phy before the Lowell institute in Boston. Mr. Peirce is a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, and in 1877 was elected to the National academy of sciences. He is also a mem- ber of the International commission on weights and measures. In addition to many articles on his spe- cialties in the " Journal of Speculative Philosophy " and in the proceedings of societies of which he is a member, he has edited with additions his father's " Linear Associative Algebra" (New York, 1882) and "Studies in Logic by Members of the Johns Hop- kins University " ("Boston, 1883). — His kinsman, Benjamin Osg'Ood, physicist, b. in Beverly, Mass., 11 Feb.. 1854, was graduated at Harvard in 1876, and continued as assistant in the physical labora- tory for a year. Subsequently he studied abroad, and received the degree of Ph. D. from the Univer- sity of Leipsic in 1879, after which he spent a year under Helmholtz in the University of Berlin. On his return he taught in the Boston Latin-school until he was appointed in 1881 instructor in mathe- matics in Harvard, which place he held until 1884, and then was advanced to the assistant professor- ship of mathematics and physics. Dr. Peirce is a member of scientific societies, and has contributed several important memoirs on physical science to the " American Journal of Science " and to the " Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences." He has published " The Elements of the Theory of the Newtonian Potential Func- tion " (Boston, 1886).
PEIRCE, Bradford Kinney, clergyman, b. in Royalton, Windsor co., Vt., 3 Feb., 1819. He was graduated at Wesleyan university, Middletown, Conn., in 1841, and in 1843 entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was editor of the "Sunday-School Messenger and Sunday-School Teacher" in Boston in 1844-'5, and agent of
the American Sunday-school union in 1854-'6. His efforts in behalf of public charities led to the establishment of the state industrial school for girls in Lancaster, of which he was superintendent and chaplain from 1856 till 1862. He was chaplain of the House of refuge on Randall's island, N. Y.,
from 1863 till 1872, when he returned to Boston to become editor of " Zion's Herald." which post he now (1888) holds. In 1868 he received the degree of D. D. from Wesleyan university, of which he was a trustee from 1870 till 1881. He has also been a trustee of the Boston university since 1874,
