BACHE BACHELET 199 A full account of his arduous labors in that ' period for the promotion of mechanical arts is contained in the "Journal" of the institute for 1828-'35. He was associated with Hare, Espy, and other learned men in the American philosophical society, and built a private ob- servatory, where with his assistants he de- termined, for the first time in the United States, the periods of the daily variations of i the magnetic needle, and made other novel and interesting observations. In 1836 he was j chosen president of the board of trustees of [ Girard college, preparatory to organizing that institution, and went to Europe to examine the educational systems of England, France, Prussia, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. On his return in 1838 he submitted to the trus- tees a full report, which contributed much to improve the American methods of public in- struction. Owing to delays in the opening of the college, he relinquished his salary as presi- dent, though retaining this title till 1842. In the meanwhile he organized a system of free education in Philadelphia, at first gratuitous- ly, and subsequently receiving a salary from the city authorities. While engaged in this work he also cooperated with the British as- sociation in the determination by contempo- raneous observations of the fluctuations of magnetic and meteorological phenomena. In 1842, having completed the organization of the schools, which served as models for many similar institutions, he resumed his former chair in the university. In November, 1843, he was appointed superintendent of the United States coast survey as successor of Mr. Hass- ler. To this work he imparted a value and efficiency such as it had never possessed before. He was also superintendent of weights and measures, lighthouse commissioner, and after- ! ward member of the lighthouse board, regent j of the Smithsonian institution, and a vice pres- ident of the United States sanitary commis- sion. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by various universities, and he received medals from foreign governments and institu- tions. He was successively president of the American philosophical society, of the Amer- ican association for the advancement of science, and of the national academy of sciences, the establishment of the last two societies having been chiefly promoted by his influence, and he was associated with almost all distinguished scientific bodies in both hemispheres. He be- queathed about $42,000 to the national acade- my of sciences for the prosecution of researches in physical and natural science, by assisting experimenters and observers in such manner as shall be agreed upon by Professors Henry, Agassiz, and Peirce, or their successors, or by any two of them, these three trustees to con- stitute a board for the selection of scientific subjects, and for the publication of the observa- tions and experiments, the expense to be de- frayed out of the annual income accruing from the legacy, without encroaching on the capital. Among his works are : " Observations at the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the Girard College" (3 vols., 1840-'47); his annual reports on the coast survey and on weights and measures; numerous contributions to periodical publications of scientific societies, including many valuable essays in the " Pro- ceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science" (1829-'65) ; and "Lecture on Switzerland," published from his MS. in the report of the Smithsonian institu- tion for 1870. BACHE, Benjamin Franklin, an American physi- cian, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, born in Monticello, Va., Feb. 7, 1801. He gradu- ated at Princeton college in 1819, and at the medical department of the university of Penn- sylvania in 1823 ; entered the navy as assistant surgeon in 1824, and in 1828 was promoted to be surgeon. While on furlough, from 1838 to 1841, he occupied the professorship of natural sciences and natural religion in Kenyon col- lege, Ohio. He served as fleet surgeon of the Mediterranean squadron 1841-'4, and of the Brazil squadron 1848-'50. He organized and perfected the laboratory at New York whence are supplied all the appurtenances of the medi- cal department, and of which he was director from 1855 to 1871. At the beginning of the civil war in 1861 he rendered important ser- vice to the government by rapidly restocking the laboratory on his own responsibility. He was placed on the retired list in 1863, and in 1871 was promoted to be medical director with the relative rank of commodore. BACHE, Richard, a merchant of Philadelphia, born in England in 1737, died in Berks county, Penn., July 29, 1811. He came to America in early life, and married in 1 767 the only daughter of Benjamin Franklin. At the beginning of the revolution he was president of the republican society of Philadelphia, and from 1776 to 1782 he was postmaster general of the United States. BACHE, Sarah, the only daughter of Benjamin Franklin, and wife of the preceding, born in Philadelphia in September, 1744, died in 1808. In 1780, when many soldiers of the Ameri- can army were going barefooted and half-clad, money was collected for their relief and ex- pended for materials, which by the continued labors of many women were soon made into the needed garments. In this work Mrs. Bache was prominently engaged. More than 2,200 women were thus employed by her at one time in sewing for the army. The marquis de Chastellux, then visiting in Philadelphia, recommended her to the ladies of Europe as a model of domestic virtues and feminine patriot- ism. On many occasions she displayed benevo- lence and patriotism by serving in the hospitals. BACHELET, Jean Louis Theodore, a French cy- clopdist and historian, born in 1820. He has been professor of history in various colleges, and finally in the lyceum of Rouen. In con- cert with Ch. Dezobry he edited a Dictionnaire de biogmphie et (Thistoire (2 vols., 1857), and
