Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/272

 HILGARU

HILGAKD

if^^<^^ayt^

chemistry in the National Medical college in Washington, 1857-8 ; state geologist of Missis- sippi, 18jS-66 ; professor of chemistry in the University of Mississippi, and state geologist, 1866-73 ; professor of mineralogy, geology, zoo- logy and botany in the University of Michigan, 1873-75 ; and professor of ag- ricultural chemistry in the University of California, and direc- tor of the state agri- cultural experiment station after 1875. He conducted the ag- ricultural division of the northern trans- continental survey, 1881-83, and made a specialty of the study of soils of the south- western states, and of the Pacific slope, in their relation to geology, to their chemical and pliysical composition, to their native flora and to their agricultural qualities. He vi-as elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1873, a fellow of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science in 1874, and a member of many other scientific societies. He received the degree of LL.D. from the Uni- versity of Mississippi in 1882, from the University of Michigan in 1886, and from Columbia in 1887. He publislied : Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Missisftipjn (1860) ; On the Geologij of Louisiana and the Rock-Salt Deposits of Petite Anse Island (1869) : Reports on the Experimental Work of the College of Agriculture, University of California (1877-98) ; Report on the Arid Re- gions of the Pacific Coast (1887) ; and mono- graphs on Mississippi, Louisiana, and California in the Report on Cotton Production of the U.S. census of 1880, which lie edited. He prepared for the U.S. weather bureau in 1893 a discu.ssion of the Relations of Climate to Soils, which was translated into several European languages and gained for the author from the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences the " Liebeg medal for im- portant advances in agricultural science," in 1894. He is also the anthf)r of numerous papers on chemical, geological and agricultural subjects publislied in government reports, and inscientific jom-iials bfttli in tlio Uniterl States and in Europe. HILQARD, Julius Erasmus, scientist, was born at Zweibnuken, Rlienish Bavaria, Jan. 7, 1825 ; son of Theodore Erasmus and Margaretta (Pauli) Hilgard. His father (b. 1787, d. 1873), jurist, publicist and poet, emigrated in 1835, and settled on a farm near Belleville, 111., where he

produced the first grape wine made in the state. Julius was educated by his father, and by self- study became proficient in mathematics and en- gineering. After a short sojourn in Philadel- phia, engaged in professional work (1843-44), dur- ing which he es- tablished important scientific and social connections, he was appointed in 1844, by Prof. Alexander Dal- las Bache, then su- perintendent of the U.S. coast survey, to a subordinate position in that work. He rapidly rose to the l)osition of assistant in charge of import- ant field work on the

southern Atlantic and ^^'^' /•^■Cj^'^^ ^ — Gulf coasts ; then in

1855, took charge of the publications, and sub- sequently of the chief office of the survey at AVashington. During the civil war he was in full charge of the entire work, performing the duties of superintendent at that critical period, owing to the disability of Professor Bache. From political causes he was twice passed over in the subsequent appointment of superintendents, but received that aiipointment in 1881, at a time when his health had already been impaired by prolonged overwork. This, togetlier with re- cuiTing political antagonisms, led first to his temporary suspension from office, followed by his resignation in July, 1885. It is worthy of note that several noted men of science, among them Alexander Agassiz, declined to serve as his successor on account of the injustice done to Hilgard as a man of high scientific standing. He was a delegate to the Intei-national metric commission at Paris, 1872, and a member of the executive committee of the International Bu- reau of Weights and Measures, of which bureau, with headquarters at Paris, he declined to be- come director upon its oi'ganization. He ex- ecuted a telegraphic determination of the longi- tude between Paris and Greenwich on the one hand, and Harvard and AVasliington on the other, which corrected the value by nearly half a second of time. He directe<l the magnetic survey of the United States under direction of the National Academy of Sciences at the expense of the Bache fund, partly in conjunction with his brother. Dr. Theodore Charles Hilgard. He was a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences, and for many years its home secretary. He was president of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, 1874, of which he had been