THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



in 



Foreign men of science have a 

 pleasant custom of celebrating the long 

 service of their colleagues. Giovanni 

 Virginio Schiaparelli was born in 1835, 

 and in June, 1860, he was appointed one 

 of the astronomers of the Observatory 

 of Milan. In June, 1900, thirty-six Ital- 

 ian astronomers joined in a memorial to 

 him which has been handsomely printed 

 in a pamphlet of eighty-eight pages. On 

 November 1 of this year Schiaparelli is 

 to retire to private life, after more than 

 forty years of active service. For thirty- 

 eight years he has been director of the 

 observatory at the Brera palace, which, 

 by his researches, has been raised to a 

 very high rank. His first observations 

 were made with quite small instru- 

 ments, but his successes with limited 

 means finally brought splendid modern 

 instruments to his observatory. His 

 earliest examinations of planets (1861) 

 were made with a small telescope of 

 only four inches aperture. For many 

 years he employed a telescope of eight 

 inches, but since 1887 he has had at his 

 disposition a refractor of eighteen inches 

 — one of the powerful telescopes of the 

 world. 



Schiaparelli is best known to the world 

 at large by his long continued and very 

 successful observations of Mars. It is 

 not too much to say that his work has 

 revolutionized our notions of the phys- 

 ical conditions existing on that planet. 

 It is more than likely that some of his 

 conclusions will have to be revised; and 

 it is certain that some of his less cau- 

 tious followers have drawn conclusions 

 that the master's observations do not 

 warrant. However this may be, his 

 own work has a high and permanent 

 value. Astronomers rate other research- 

 es of Schiaparelli's quite as highly as his 

 studies of the planets. The relation be- 

 tween comets and meteor-showers was 

 most thoroughly worked out by him; 

 we owe to him also thousands of accu- 

 rate observations of double stars; as 

 well as a great number of important re- 

 searches on many and various questions 

 of mathematics, physics and astronomy. 

 It is interesting to note, here and there, 



in the list of the 206 memoirs which he 

 has published, certain papers of an anti- 

 quarian and literary turn — on the labors 

 of the ancients before Copernicus; 

 Grseco-Indian studies; on the interpre- 

 tation of certain verses of Dante, etc. 

 The nomenclature of his topographical 

 chart of Mars, among other things, 

 proves the accuracy and elegance of his 

 classical learning. 



He has been rewarded for a long and 

 laborious life by the respect and admira- 

 tion of his colleagues and by the con- 

 tinued interest of the larger public in 

 his discoveries. Academies of science all 

 over the world (with the singular excep- 

 tion of America) have elected him to 

 membership and have awarded their 

 medals and other honorary distinctions, 

 and he has been decorated with orders 

 of knighthood by Italy, Brazil and 

 Russia. Finally, he is a life-senator of 

 the Kingdom of Italy. 



These tokens of particular appreci- 

 ation and his widespread popular repu- 

 tation are the rewards of a life devoted 

 strictly to science. He has not gone out 

 of his way to seek applause, though it 

 has come to him in full measure. The 

 graceful tribute of his colleagues signal- 

 izes his retirement from his official posi- 

 tion, but we trust that he may be 

 spared for many years to devote his 

 genius to the science he has so greatly 

 forwarded. 



The New York Central and Hudson 

 River Railroad still announces in its 

 time tables that the Empire State Ex- 

 press is the fastest regular train in the 

 world; but this appears to be no longer 

 correct. The Empire State Express 

 traverses the distance from New York 

 to Buffalo, about 440 miles, in eight 

 hours and fifteen minutes, or at a rate 

 of 53.33 miles per hour. The Sud Ex- 

 press on the Orleans and Midi Railway 

 travels from Paris to Bayonne in eight 

 hours and fifty-nine minutes. The dis- 

 tance is in this case 466J miles, the 

 speed, including the time taken by six 

 stops, is 54.13 miles per hour. The en- 

 gine of the New York Central Railroad 



