4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mosphere. On this occasion, these rays revealed themselves so dis- 

 tinctly and brightly, and shone with such steady light, that he could 

 no longer doubt the accuracy of the accounts of his fellow-observers 

 of the eclipse of 1869, nor that the phenomena were independent of 

 personal equations and atmospheric effects. He explained them as 

 being due to reflection from the streams of meteor-dust which are sup- 

 posed to be constantly flowing toward and around the sun. 



The list of Professor Abbe's published papers down to 1860 in- 

 cludes eighty-four titles, several of which cover more than one article. 

 The papers relate chiefly to subjects in astronomy and meteorology, 

 and to matters connected with the author's particular work. They in- 

 clude reports and other articles of a documentary character, seventeen 

 articles in " Appletons' Cyclopaedia," nine in Johnson's, contributions to 

 Baird's "Annual Record of Science and Industry," articles in scientific 

 periodicals, and articles in newspajiers — all tending directly to the in- 

 crease or diffusion of knowledge. Professor Abbe has been engaged 

 for many years in the supervision of a bibliography, which is now 

 near completion; and has completed a treatise on meteorological instru- 

 ments that will soon be published by the Signal Office. 



Some of Professor Abbe's personal qualities have already appeared 

 incidentally in the regular course of this sketch. The key to them 

 appears to be unselfishness — a virtue which has been prominently 

 manifested through the whole of his life. His classmate, already 

 quoted from, writes : " Everybody liked Cleveland Abbe thirty years 

 ago, as I suppose everybody likes him now. He was unselfish, modest, 

 kindly then, and, in disposition, though only twenty years old, a sci- 

 entific man, a lover of scientific truth." A scientific friend, whom 

 also we quoted before, corroborates this, saying : "In disposition, he 

 is unselfish to a rare degree, generally managing that others shall get 

 the credit for work in which he has had a large share. To this char- 

 acteristic, together with the somewhat peculiar code of ethics which 

 prevails in the Government service, must be attributed the fact that 

 his contributions to the science of meteorology have appeared less fre- 

 quently than was hoped for by some of his friends." 



His policy in connection with the Signal Service is eloquently de- 

 scribed in a letter of January 28, 1886, presented by General W. B. 

 Hazen to the Joint Committee of Congress on the Signal Service, and 

 printed in the bulky volume of testimony, where he says, page 1057 

 " Until finally accepting the inevitable, he announced it as his own 

 established policy, on the one hand, to himself prepare little or noth- 

 ing for publication of an original nature ; and, on the other hand, to 

 advise, assist, and stimulate the work of every member of the service 

 to the very best of his ability." This policy is now ended by the spe- 

 cial orders of Generals Hazen and Greely, who have directed that his 

 time shall be mainly given to those greater works that the world has 

 a right to expect from his knowledge and experience. 



