SKETCH OF STEPHEN J. PERRY. 835 



with demolish them. The claim is almost too ahsurd to discuss. 

 Even in different parts of the same country the dialect of the 

 local criminals will differ very materially, while in all cases it 

 would be totally incomprehensible to a foreign thief. 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN J. PERRY. 



THE Roman Catholic priesthood of the present century bears 

 upon its rolls the names of several men who have distin- 

 guished themselves in scientific research ; among them are those 

 of two who were eminent in the study of solar physics. One of 

 these was Father Secchi, of Rome ; the other was Father Perry, 

 S. J., who for several years maintained the position of Stony- 

 hurst College and Observatory as a leading institution in the in- 

 vestigation of the sun spots, the aurora borealis, electric and mag- 

 netic currents, and the phenomena associated or supposed to be 

 associated with them. 



Stephen Joseph Perry was born in London, August 23, 1833, 

 and died on the steamer Comus, of the British Eclipse Observing 

 Expedition, near Demerara, December 27, 1889. He was taught at 

 Gifford Hall School, and trained for the priesthood of the Roman 

 Catholic Church in the colleges at Douai and Rome. Returning 

 to England, he became, in November, 1853, in accordance with a 

 resolution which he had formed while in Rome, a member of the 

 Society of Jesus, British Province. At the end of the second year 

 of his novitiate he went to France. Returning to the seminary 

 of Stonyhurst, at Blackburn, England, he began a course of phi- 

 losophy, but, showing a marked predilection for mathematics, his 

 studies were, with the advice and consent of his superiors in the 

 order, turned especially in that direction. He took a high rank 

 in mathematical honors at the University of London, attended 

 lectures by De Morgan, and completed his mathematical studies 

 in Paris. He was then appointed Professor of Mathematics and 

 Director of the Observatory in Stonyhurst ; taught a class there 

 for one year ; took a course in divinity at St. Bueno's College, 

 North Wales ; was ordained priest in 1866 ; and two years after- 

 ward resumed his professorship and the direction of the observa- 

 tory at Stonyhurst, where he spent the whole of the rest of his life 

 except when absent upon some scientific expedition. 



The observatory at Stonyhurst, where good work in meteoro- 

 logical and magnetic observation had already been done, was 

 chosen as one of the first-class English meteorological stations 

 in 18G7. With the new instruments that were acquired from 

 time to time, giving the observatory an excellent equipment. 

 Father Perry strove to make the station one of the most efficient. 



