t 7 



HERSCHEL, SIR JOHK. 



HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN. 



IN 



UmdMl remained by ok aid*, aiding him u>d modestly sharing the 

 nOeotion of hi* fame. AfUr hit death, in 1.-22. she returned to her 

 Dative Hanover to spend Uie remainder of br day*. They wire 

 unusually protracted ; for. though ah* wa> seventy-two yean of ago 

 when *h* Uft England, ah* lived for twenty-ail yean longer. Even 

 thew venerable years were not spent idly. In 1828 the completed a 

 catalogue of the orbuhe and clutter* of tar* observed by her brother, 

 far which labour the Attronomical Society of London voted her their 

 gold medal. She wai al*o eboeen an honorary member of that loeiety 

 an honour very unusual in *uoh a caie. Living in dignity and tran- 

 quillity, retaining her memory and the full uae of her facultiea almost 

 to the lait, and receiving from time to time marks of the bight at 

 najiml from the king and crown prince of Hanover and from other 

 German aovereigni, ho aurvived till the l*h of January 1848, when 

 ahe died in her ninety-eighth year. Among the female examples of 

 the punuit of knowledge, very few names deserve so high a place as 

 that of Caroline Hencuel 



HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM, BART., the 

 only son of Sir William Herschel, and the worthy inheritor of hi* 

 Uluitrious name, was born at Slough near Windsor in the year 1790. 

 Educated at Cambridge, at St John's College, he distinguished himself 

 there from the first by bin high mathematical genius, and a fondness 

 for physical science in all its branches, which proved to hia friends 

 that tbe world might expect in him a true Herschel the second. la 

 1813 he graduated B.A. ; and was Senior Wrangler and Smith's Prize- 

 man. From this time till the death of his father in 1822, he was 

 occupied chit-fly in mathematical studies and researches in theoretical 

 physics. His first work of note was ' A Collection of Examples of the 

 Application of the Calculus to Finite Differences,' published at Cam- 

 bridge in 1820. It was not till after his father's death that he devoted 

 himself in an express manner to the continuation of that immense 

 work of astronomical research and investigation, which his father had 

 begun and carried on through a life of such magnificent results. 

 Abandoning other pursuits or making them for the time subordinate, 

 he commenced, about the year 1S25, a series of observations of the 

 sidereal heavens after his father's method and with hia father's instru- 

 ments. In this labour, in which for a time he co-operated with Sir 

 James South, he proposed to himself at first, to use his own words, 

 " no further object than a re-examination of the nebula) and clusters 

 of stars discovered by bis father in his ' sweeps of the heavens,' and 

 described by him in thr* e catalogues presented to the Royal Society, 

 and published in their 'Transactions' for the yean 1786, 1789, and 

 1802." The execution of the undertaking occupied eight full years, 

 and involved results much more extensive than had been at first 

 contemplated. As regards nebula: and clusters of stars, the results were 

 exhibited complete in the year 1833, when they were presented to the 

 Royal Society in the form of a ' Catalogue ' arranged in the order of 

 Right Ascension, which was published iu their ' Transactions' for the 

 same ytar. " In this work," says Sir John, " are recorded observations 

 of 2306 nebulae and clusters; of which 1781 are identical with objects 

 occurring in my father's catalogue, in the small but interesting collec- 

 tion published by Messier in tbe ' Memoires de 1'Academie des 

 Sciences' for 1771, and tbe ' Connaissances des Terns ' for 1783, 1784, 

 and in M. Struve's ' Catalogue of Double Stan :' the remaining 525 

 are new." But these were not the only results of the eight years' 

 survey. A great number of double stars of all classes and orders had 

 also been noticed and observed, and their places taken, "to the 

 amount altogether," says Sir John, " of between 3000 and 4000 ;" the 

 observations of which, reduced and arranged in the order of their 

 right ascension, had from time to time, in the course of the survey, 

 been published in tix catalogues in the ' Transactions of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society,' the first in 1825, tbe others in subsequent 

 yean. Results so important, obtained by labour so systematic, fixed 

 Heraehel's place as the man who, among living astronomers, was 

 pre-eminently the successor of his father. As early ss 1820 this was 

 rrcognued, when the Royal Astronomical Society voted to him and 

 Sir James South a gold medal each for their observations of double 

 stars; but at the close of the survey in 1833, the associations witli his 

 name were correspondingly increased. In addition to the labours of 

 the survey, he bad by that time given to the world proofs of his 

 industry and versatility, which even alone would have counted for 

 much to wit, various scattered memoirs published in tbe ' Trans- 

 actions of the Astronomical Society ;' a ' Treatise on Sound,' published 

 in 18SO in the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitans ;' a ' Treatise on the 

 Theory of Light,' published in the same work in 1831 ; and his more 

 celebrated and popular 'Preliminary Discourse on the Study of 

 Natural Philosophy, published in Larduer's ' Cyclopaedia ' in the same 

 year. This last-mentioned work, admitting as it did from the nature 

 of its subject more of general philosophic thought than the author's 

 special treatises on individual topics of physical science, gave the 

 author a place in the higher didactic literature a* well as in tbe 

 science of his country ; and to this day it is a standard work in the 

 library of every general student, as well as in strictly scientific 

 libraries. In 1836 there appeared in the same 'Cyclopaedia,' a 

 ' Treatiie of Astronomy,' also by Herschel, and proving his power as a 

 popular expositor on tbe peculiar science of his family. Before the 

 publication of this work however be had undertaken and commenced 

 a second great design ia practical astronomy, iu continuation and 



completion of that which be had concluded in 1833. The southern 

 heavens still remained to be surveyed as well as the northern ; and 

 Hersobel resolved, if possible, to add this till then comparatively 

 unknown hemisphere to the domain of astronomy, so as to complete 

 fur mankind the survey of the whole sphere of the sidereal space. 

 His own account of his intention and hopes is strikingly simple. 

 " Having," he says, " so far succeeded to my wUhes, and having by 

 practice acquired sufficient mastery of the instrument employed (a 

 reflecting telescope of 18} inches clear aperture and 20 feet focus, on 

 my father's construction), and of the delicate process of polishing tbe 

 specula; being moreover strongly invited by the peculiar interest of 

 the subject and the wonderful nature of the objects which presented 

 themselves in the course of its prosecution, I resolved to attempt the 

 completion of a survey of the whole surface of the heavens, and for 

 this purpose, to transport into tbe other hemisphere the same instru- 

 ment which had been employed in this, so as to give a unity to the 

 results of both portions of the survey, and to render them comparable 

 with each other." In execution of this great design, he set out, with 

 the telescope mentioned and other necessary apparatus, for the Capo 

 of Good Hope, as affording the most suitable station for his purpose. 

 He reached the Cape on the 15th of January 1834, and, after some 

 search, selected the mansion of a Dutch proprietor at Fcldhausen, 

 about six miles from Table-Bay, and situated in a beautiful and woll- 

 ahaded spot. Here he set up his instruments, not one of which had 

 suffered injury on the voyage ; and on tbe ith of March he was able 

 to begin a regular course of sweepings of the southern heaven. His 

 observations were continued, without any intermission, save that 

 occasioned by the weather, over four years, or from March 1S31 to 

 May 1 838 ; and all at his own expense. Immense interest was felt by 

 the scientific world of Europe aud America in the progress of his 

 solitary and sublime labours. From time to time curiosity was gratified 

 by accounts of some of the observations conveyed over to friends ; 

 but it was not till tbe year 1847, or nine yean after his return to 

 England that tbe collected and digested results of his four years' 

 residence at the Cape were published in a regular form. This was 

 done in a large quarto volume published that year under the till-' of 

 'Results of Astronomical Observations made during 1834-38 at the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; being the Completion of a Telescopic Survey of 

 the Whole Surface of the Visible Heavens, commenced in 1825.' The 

 nature and extent of the observations and disquisitions iu this work 

 may be judged from a list of its contents. It is divided into seven 

 distinct portions the first treating of ' The Nebula; of the Southern 

 Hemisphere ;' the second of ' The Double Stars of the Southern 

 Hemisphere ;' the third of ' Astronomy, or the numerical expression 

 of the apparent Magnitudes of Stan ;' the fourth of ' The Distribution 

 of Stars, and the Constitution of the Galaxy in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere ;' the fifth of ' Observations of Halley's Comet (as Been at tho 

 Cape towards the close of 1835), with remarks on its physical condi- 

 tion and that of Comets in general ;' the sixth of ' Observations of 

 the Satellites of Saturn ;' and the seventh of ' Observations of the 

 Solar spots.' It will be seen from this list of contents that though 

 the astronomer's main object in the southern hemisphere, as in the 

 northern, had oeen the detection of new and the re-examination of 

 old nebula;, yet his observations had extended themselves so as to 

 include all the objects for which his position was favourable. In 

 fact, not only was a mass of new observations appertaining to the 

 southern heavens, and exhausting these heavens of what they could 

 be made to yield, added to astronomical science by the survey ; but 

 many of the extreme speculations of the elder Herschel and othen 

 relative to tho highest problems of astronomy were reviewed afresh 

 in the light of the new observations. Accordingly, tho substance 

 both of the observations and the speculations has since been incor- 

 porated in all the more recent works of general astronomy. 



It is worthy of remark, that Herschel's residence at tho Cape was 

 beneficial not only to astronomy but also to meteorology. Whilo 

 there he suggested a plan of simultaneous meteorological observations 

 to be made at different places a plan subsequently developed iu a 

 publication of his, issued under official military authority in 1844, and 

 entitled ' Instructions for Making and Registering Meteorological 

 Observations at various stations in Southern Africa. On the return 

 of the astronomer to England, in 1838, it is needless to gay that he 

 was received with every public honour. During his absence the 

 Royal Astronomical Society had again voted him their gold medal 

 (1836) ; on the occasion of the coronation of Queen Victoria he was 

 created a baronet ; in 1839 he was made a D.C.L. of Oxford ; and 

 there was a proposal to elect him to succeed the Duke of Sussex as 

 president of the Royal Society. In 1848 ho was president of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society. Having by that time completed the 

 digest and publication of his observations at the Cape (during the 

 preparation of which however he had published various incidental 

 papers in the ' Transactions of the Astronomical Society ') he was free 

 to pass on to other labours. Of these the most important of a literary 

 kind has been his work entitled ' Outlines of Astronomy ' (enlarged 

 from his former treatise in ' Lardner's Cyclopaedia'), published in 

 1849. In the same year be edited a collection of papers by various 

 authors, published by authority, and entitled 'A Manual of Scientific 

 Enquiry ; prepared for the use of her Majesty's Navy, and adapted 

 for Travellen in general.' In December IfriO, when the office of 



