742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF PROFESSOR SECCHI. 



THIS distinguished Italian physicist and astronomer died on the 

 26th of February. Pietro Angelo Secchi was born in Reggio, 

 in Emilia, July 29, 1818. He was educated for the Church, and joined 

 the order of the Jesuits November 3, 1833. He studied mathemat- 

 ics, physics, and astronomy, under Padre de Vico, and taught physics 

 in the college of Loreto from 1841 to 1843. In 1844 he began his 

 course of theology in the Roman College, and in 1848 came to the 

 United States, and pursued his theological studies, at the same time 

 teaching physics and mathematics, in the Georgetown College, District 

 of Columbia. There he remained until 1850, when he was recalled to 

 Rome. 



He now entered upon his public career as an astronomer and 

 physicist. He was appointed Director of the Observatory of the 

 Roman College, reconstructed it on a new site and plan, invented and 

 perfected an improved system of meteorological observation, pub- 

 lished a monthly bulletin, which was continued until 1873, and in- 

 vented and constructed a meteorograph, which was much admired by 

 savants at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. 



Prof. Secchi was commissioned by Pope Pius IX. to complete the 

 trigonometrical survey of the Papal States, begun by Boscovitch in 

 1851, and to rectify the measurements already made of the meridional 

 arc. He also superintended and executed successfully a commission 

 to bring a supply of water to Rome from Frosinone, forty-eight miles 

 distant. After the closing of the Roman College, and the expulsion 

 of the Jesuits (1870-73), Prof. Secchi was allowed to retain his post, 

 and continued to lecture on astronomy in the ecclesiastical schools at 

 Rome. In 1875 he was sent by the Italian Government on a scien- 

 tific mission to Sicily. 



Prof. Secchi was a man of great industry, and cultivated the as- 

 tronomical field assiduously. The results of his scientific labors will 

 be found chronicled in the periodicals of Italy, France, Germany, and 

 England, and the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" in this 

 country. But he is especially known in the scientific world for his 

 researches and discoveries in spectroscopic analysis, and in solar and 

 stellar physics. Among the most important of these are his " Spec- 

 trum Observations on the Rotation of the Sun," published in 1870. 

 The same year he printed a large work on the sun, which was highly 

 regarded, and immediately translated into French and German. His 

 last considerable publication is a popular book on " The Stars," con- 

 tributed to the Italian branch of the " International Scientific Series." 



