256 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



When we examine the works of the painters we see that there are 

 many differences in the way of seeing. Some see blue, red, green; 

 others see clear, others obscure. In the analysis of a complex color 

 it happens that there is sometimes an auto-suggestion. Where there 

 is a hardly denned violet, the painter will exaggerate it on his can- 

 vas, and will be obliged, in order to keep up the right tone, to in- 

 crease the intensity of the colors next to it. Hence arises a common 

 error with painters, who start with a true principle, but are not 

 able to apply it properly, and give their picture a tonic violet, green, 

 or yellow, beyond all reason. Translated for the Popular Science 

 Monthly from the Revue Scientifique. 



SKETCH OF THOMAS EGLESTON. 



BY PROF. DANIEL S. MAETIN. 



AS a general rule, the work of the scientist is not of a kind to 

 -j>. attract conspicuous notice from the public, especially in great 

 cities, filled and thrilled with commercial and political activity; and 

 so it comes to pass that men of rare attainments and untiring energy, 

 in the highest walks of life and thought, may spend their whole life- 

 time in such an environment, and be scarcely known outside of a 

 limited circle of kindred minds. They may confer lasting benefits 

 on the community, render important services to the whole country, 

 and be widely known and honored in other lands, and yet receive 

 but little general recognition in the place of their abode. 



Such a man, in such a community, is Prof. THOMAS EGLESTON, 

 of the city of New York. He has been too busy and too modest to 

 seek prominence in the public eye, and his scientific work has been of 

 a kind that does not lend itself readily to popular lectures or start- 

 ling announcements; but as a mineralogist, a metallurgist, and a 

 mining engineer, and as the planner and founder of the great School 

 of Mines of Columbia University, he has made a deep and permanent 

 impress on the history of science in the United States. 



Professor Egleston is of New England stock, his ancestors hav- 

 ing been among the first settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 

 1635. Thence they came by a toilsome and perilous journey to 

 Connecticut, and founded Windsor, which was thenceforward their 

 home, and whence his father came to New York. The removal to 

 Connecticut arose from a desire for greater freedom of life and 

 worship than they found in Massachusetts; and Professor Egleston 

 has been deeply interested in studying the little-known records of 

 this movement, and the influence which it exerted, as an almost un- 



