HERRINGHAM 



3969 



HERSCHELL 



tal, of which 

 institution he 



Herringham, SIR WILMOT 

 PARKER (b. 1855). British physi- 

 cian. He was born April 17, 1855. 

 Educated at 

 Wine hester 

 and Keble Col- 

 lege, Oxford, 

 he received 

 his medical 

 training at 

 Oxford and 

 S. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospi- 

 SirW. P. Herringham, 

 British physician 



was appointed 



consulting physician. During the 

 Great War he served as a con- 

 sulting physician to the forces, and 

 was made a major-general ; he had 

 been knighted in 1914. From 

 1912-15 he was vice-chancellor of 

 the university of London. He pub- 

 lished A Physician in France, 1919. 



Herrings, BATTLE OF THE. 

 Fought Feb. 12, 1429, between the 

 English and the French, the latter 

 aided by their Scottish allies. The 

 English were besieging Orleans and 

 a small force under Sir John 

 Fastolf was carrying provisions 

 from Paris to the army there. This 

 was attacked by the French and 

 Scots at Rouvray. The English 

 formed a hollow square, the provi- 

 sion wagons being placed in the 

 centre, and the enemy were beaten 

 off. The battle was so called be- 

 cause the wagons contained quan- 

 tities of salted fish for use during 

 Lent. See Hundred Years' War. 



Herschel, SIR JOHN FREDERICK 

 WILLIAM (1792-1871). British 

 astronomer. Born March 7, 1 792, 

 he was the only 

 son of Sir Wil 

 Ham Herschel. | 

 Taking his de- &' 

 gree as senior p 

 wrangler at 

 Cambridge, he 

 began a sys- 

 tematic study 

 of the heavens 

 in 1822, the 

 results of 

 which he pre- 

 sented to the Royal Society eleven 

 years later. The whole of the 

 northern hemisphere came under 

 his survey, and he added over 500 

 nebulae and clusters of stars to 

 those already known, as well as 

 nearly 4,000 double stars. Early in 

 1834 he established an observatory 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, in order 

 to survey the southern hemisphere. 

 Here his work continued for four 

 years, the results of his labours 

 being published in 1847. 



Returning to England in 1838, 

 he was created a baronet, became 

 president of the Royal Society and 

 the RoyalAstronomicalSociety, and 







Caroline Herschel, 

 Astronomer 



After M. G. Tieleman 



received numerous honours from 

 universities and scientific societies. 

 Herschel wrote an Outline of 

 Astronomy, 1849, and contributed 

 articles on the theory of light and 

 sound, and on the study of Natural 

 Philosophy, to the current encyclo- 

 pedias. In 1850 he was appointed 

 master of the mint, resigning in 

 1855. He died May 11, 1871, at 

 Collingwood, Kent. See Astronomy; 

 consult also The Herschels and 

 Modern Astronomy, A. Clerke, 1895. 



Herschel, LUCRETIA CAROLINE 

 (1750-1848). Astronomer. Sister 

 of Sir William Herschel, she was 

 born March 16, 

 1750, at Han- 

 over, and came 

 to England in 

 1772, becoming 

 assistant to her 

 brother. On his 

 appointment as 

 private astron- 

 omer to George 

 III, she was 

 given a small 

 salary, and 

 carried out' a series of independent 

 observations under his instructions. 

 An indefatigable worker, she dis- 

 covered five new comets and a 

 number of nebulae and star clus- 

 ters. She added 561 stars to the 

 catalogue published by Flamsteed, 

 and on the death of her brother she 

 returned to Hanover, where she 

 died Jan. 9, 1848. See The Her- 

 schels and Modern Astronomy, A. 

 Clerke, 1895. 



Herschel, SIR WILLIAM (1738- 

 1822). Astronomer. Born at Hano- 

 ver, Germany, Nov. 15, 1738, he 

 came to England in 1757, earning 

 a poor livelihood by teaching 

 music. In his spare time he studied 

 astronomy, and in 1774 he made 

 his first telescope. His success 

 with this instrument encouraged 

 him in the making" of others, and 

 throughout his life he was con- 

 stantly concerned with their manu- 

 facture and improvement. Al- 

 though he did a great deal of work 

 on various types of telescopes, his 

 reputation will remain connected 

 with his discoveiy of the planet 

 Uranus in 1781. This discovery 

 brought him many rewards, in- 

 cluding the Copley medal and the 

 fellowship of 

 the Royal 

 Society. 



In 1782 

 Herschel re- 

 ceived the ap- 

 pointment of 

 private as- 

 tronomer to 

 George III, 



and in the / _ * 



years follow- ftr* <%w*(U4-* 



ing honours After J. Kusttll, R.A. 



were showered on him by British 

 and foreign universities and scien- 

 tific societies for his brilliant astro- 

 nomical researches. He contri- 

 buted nearly 70 papers to The 

 Philosophical Transactions, all of 

 them showing a remarkable power 

 of reasoning. His systematic 

 search of the heavens not only 

 resulted in the discovery of a large 

 number of double stars, and of the 

 new planet Uranus, but also of two 

 new satellites of Saturn. 



To Herschel is due the first com- 

 putation of the period of rotation 

 of the planet Saturn, that of the 

 motions of binary stars, and the 

 path of the solar system through 

 the heavens. He increased the 

 number of known nebulae from 180 

 up to 2,500 by his researches. A 

 physicist and astronomer of the 

 very first rank, Herschel was ably 

 assisted in his researches by his 

 sister Caroline. . He died Aug. 25, 

 1822, at Slough. See Astronomy; 

 consult also Life and Works, J. L. E. 

 Dreyer, 1912. 



Herschel, SIR WILLIAM JAMES 

 (1833-1917). British civil servant. 

 The son of Sir J. F. W. Herschel, 

 the astronomer, after graduating 

 at Oxford he entered the Indian 

 civil service in 1853, and was ap- 

 pointed to the Hooghli district, 

 where he was stationed during the 

 Mutiny. The proceedings following 

 this (1859) led him to establish his 

 system of finger print identifica- 

 tion, which was introduced for civil 

 purposes in Bengal in 1878. Coirf 

 missioner of Dacca, 1872, and Cooch 

 Behar, 1874, he retired in 1878. 

 He succeeded his father as baronet, 

 1871, and died Oct. 24, 1917. 



Herschell, FARRER HERSCHELL, 

 IST BARON (1837-99). British law- 

 yer and politician. Born Nov. 2, 

 1837, he was ^^^^^^^^ 

 educated at a I 

 private school 



and at Uni- Jtu ffi A 

 versity College. | 

 London, was 

 called to the 

 bar from Lin- 

 coln's Inn in 

 1860, and in 

 1872 was made 1st Baron Herschell, 

 aQ.C. In 1874 British lawyer 

 he entered the Doume v 



House of Commons as M.P. for 

 Durham, and in 1880 became 

 solicitor-general. 



In 1886 he was made lord chan- 

 cellor and was created a baron. 

 He retained the woolsack for only 

 a few months, after which he was 

 one of Gladstone's band of fol- 

 lowers. He again became lord chan- 

 cellor from 1892 until 1895. . In 

 1898 he represented Great Britain 

 on the arbitration over the bound- 

 ary of Venezuela, and he was 



IB 5 



