 Wild was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1891.He died at Zurich on 5 September

He invented the polaristrobometer—a form of saccharimeter—a polarization photometer, a magnetic theodolite, and various new optical methods for comparing measures of length.Many of his papers were published in the "Annalem des physikalischen Observatoriums für Russland" and the "Neues Repertorium für Meteorologie", founded by himself in 1865 and 1869 respectively; and also in the "Mitteilungen" of the International Polar Commission, of which he was president (1882–83).