SKETCH OF GENERAL SIR EDWARD SABINE. 239 



traction, though descended from an ancient Italian family, and was 

 born in October, 1788. He entered the army, and became second- 

 lieutenant at the age of fifteen, captain at twenty-five, colonel at 

 sixty-three, major-general in 1859, at the age of seventy-one, and 

 was created Knight-Commander of the Order of the Bath, in 1869, 

 at the age of eighty-one. During the war with the United States he 

 took part in the campaign of 1814, on the Niagara frontier, when he 

 commanded the batteries at the siege of Fort Erie. He first became 

 known to the public by the part which he took in the Arctic Explora- 

 tions in 1818-'19. He here made a series of magnetic observations of 

 great value, an account of which was published in two papers, which 

 he communicated to the Royal Society on his return. These and other 

 papers, printed in the Philosophical Transactions, demonstrated several 

 new and important facts relative to the variations of the magnetic 

 needle, and it was the results of the observations in these northern 

 voyages which gave the first great impulse to the systematic study of 

 the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism. The strong desire of con- 

 tinuing the investigation of this and other branches of experimental 

 physics, prompted him to undertake a series of voyages to places be- 

 tween the equator and the north-pole, making at each point observa- 

 tions on the length of the seconds-pendulum, and on the dip and inten- 

 sity of the magnetic needle. The fruits of these labors were of high 

 importance, and were published, along with other information, in 1825, 

 and from this period his history is that of a studious investigator into 

 the laws of and phenomena of Nature. In 1827 he was chosen secre- 

 tary of the Royal Society, which office he filled until 1830. In 1836 

 he communicated to the British Association at Bristol his observations 

 on the declination and intensity of the magnetic force in Scotland, and 

 to the same Association he delivered at Liverpool a report on the 

 variations of magnetic intensity at different parts of the earth's sur- 

 face. His labors have led to the discovery of the laws of " magnetic 

 storms," of the connection between certain magnetic phenomena and 

 the changes of the solar spots (already referred to), and of the mag- 

 netic action of the sun and moon on the earth. General Sabine de- 

 serves almost the sole credit of extending the body of known facts in 

 magnetic science, by the establishment of magnetic observatories in 

 all parts of the world, and the collation of the enormous mass of facts 

 thus acquired. He has contributed, to various scientific societies, nu- 

 merous papers which display great powers of research. He edited 

 Mrs. Sabine's translation of Humboldt's " Cosmos," published in 

 1849-'58. 



Colonel Sabine was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1818, 

 and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, at its Belfast meeting, in 1852. He succeeded Sir Benjamin 

 Brodie, as President of the Royal Society, in 1861, and continues to 

 discharge the duties of this office, at the advanced age of eighty-four. 



