838 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



magnetic force than is in general assigned to it ? May not that 

 which has long been allowed to rank among the most extensively- 

 diffused of Nature's agents find a home in each individual mem- 

 ber of the solar system, causing them to act and react upon each 

 other as well by their magnetic energy as by the force of gravity ? 

 The perfect solution of such a problem would well repay many a 

 year of persevering observation and of assiduous study, and well 

 will those be rewarded by whose labor the general cause of terres- 

 trial magnetism ceases to be one of the unsolved mysteries of 

 cosmical physics." 



In connection with the eclipse of December 22, 1870, Father 

 Perry was made chief of the expedition to watch the phenomenon 

 at Cadiz, Spain. Unfavorable weather prevailing during most of 

 the time of the sojourn of the party at the station, the observers 

 were spread out as much as possible, in hopes of not failing alto- 

 gether, and the results justified expectations. The clouds were 

 not so thick as to cut off all the observations, and some fairly 

 good views were obtained. 



For the observation of the transit of Venus of 1874 Father 

 Perry offered his services for the expedition to Kerguelen Island, 

 and was appointed chief of the observing party, to be stationed 

 at Christmas Harbor. Importance was attached to this expedi- 

 tion in British scientific circles aside from its astronomical pur- 

 poses, because this lonely " island of desolation," as Father Perry 

 afterward called it, had been but little explored, and not much 

 was known of the region in which it was situated ; and a natu- 

 ral history party was sent out with the transit company by the 

 Royal Society to investigate the botany, etc., of the island. The 

 imdertaking to go on this voyage was a serious adventure with 

 Father Perry, and illustrates as much as anything else, perhaps, 

 his self-sacrificing devotion to his favorite science. He was 

 peculiarly sensitive to suffering from seasickness, and was not 

 spared on this, one of the longest and roughest voyages the ocean 

 affords ; and his sufferings on this occasion. Nature says, " were 

 so fearful that every one wondered that he cared to venture on 

 even the most promising trip." His patience in suffering "helped 

 to win for him the esteem of the officers with whom he came in 

 contact. Not one word of his discomfort is to be found in any of 

 the journals kept by him." He was guided, as he expressed it, 

 by a determination " that no consideration should make us flinch 

 where the astronomical interests of the expedition were at stake." 

 In addition to the work of the expedition, he took magnetic 

 observations at the Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen, Bombay, 

 Aden, Port Said, Malta, Palermo, Rome, Naples, Florence, and 

 Moncalieri, and lectured on the transit of Venus at the Cape and 

 Bombay, and, on his return, at the Royal Institution. He also 



