GOULD, BENJAMIN APTHORP, b. Boston, 1824; graduated at Harvard, 1844. After his graduation he went to Gottingen, whbre he pursued his mathematical and astro nomical studies, and took his deaTee in 1848. He was for a time assistant in the observa tory at Altona, and visited besides ninny of the observatories of Europe. In 1849 he established at Cambridge the Astronomical Jourual, maintaining it unti1,1861, when it was suspended on account of the war. In 1851 he entered the coast survey, taking charge of the longitude determinations, to which the electric telegraph had just been applied by Bache and He made great improvements in the telegraphic meth ods, by means'of which very important results were secured. In 1866, when the trans atlantic cable had been completed, he established an observatory at Valentis, in Ireland, and made the first determinations of transatlantic longitude by telegraph cable. In 1856 he was appointed director of the Dudley observatory at Albany, remaining at the post until 1859, when he retired on account of serious differences with the trustees.
His action in the matters which led to the misunderstanding was afterwards justified by a committee of scientific men. His labors in the observatory were of great value, and performed without remuneration. In 1863 he took charge of the statistics of the sanitary commission. His researches while thus engaged were alike curious and impor tant. In 1870 he went to South America, and established a national observatory for the Argentine Republic at Cordova, where he still remains (1880),and where his labors have been of the highest value to the cause of science. His principal publications are: Report on the Discovery of the Planet Neptune; Investigation of the Orbit of Comet V.; Dis cussions of OVervations made by the U. S. Astronomical Expeditiolf to Chili, to determine the Solar Parallax; Discussion, on the Statistics of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. He has also published charts of the stars discovered from the observatory at Cordova.