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NATURE 



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In 1853, at the meeting of the British Association at 

 Belfast, Sabine occupied the presidential chair. In this 

 year he turned to a consideration of the moon's influence 

 on terrestrial magnetism, writing concerning the effect of 

 that body on the magnetic declination at Toronto, St. 

 Helena, and Hobarton ; and taking up the subject again 

 in 1856, he then discussed the lunar diurnal variation 

 at Toronto. At a later period, in the Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society, he contributed a paper on the lunar 

 diurnal magnetic declination obtained from the Kew 

 photograms. In 1857 he made another contribution to 

 the British Association Reports, discussing the amount 

 and frequency of the magnetic disturbances and of the 

 aurora at Point Barrow, on the shores of the Polar Sea. 

 In the Philosophical Transactions for the same year he 

 discussed the question of the existence of the decennial 

 period in the solar diurnal magnetic variations and its 

 non-existence in the lunar diurnal variation of the declina- 

 tion at Hobarton, as M. Kreil seemed to think was the 

 case. He then stated, as the result of a re-examination of 

 the question by the light thrown upon it by the Hobarton 

 observations, that he was as entirely convinced of the 

 existence of this period in the former case as he was con- 

 vinced of its non-existence in the latter. 



Continuing the investigation of this subject, he contri- 

 buted to the Royal Society Proceedings for 1859-60 a 

 paper on the solar diurnal variation of the declination at 

 Pekin. In the same volume of the Royal Society Pro- 

 ceedings he also wrote concerning the laws of the pheno- 

 mena of the larger disturbances of the magnetical 

 declination at Kew Observatory. In 1861, at the request 

 of the General Committee of the British Association, he 

 prepared a report on the repetition of the magnetic sur- 

 vey of England. In this year he succeeded Sir Benjamin 

 Brodie in the presidency of the Royal Society, which 

 position he occupied for the next ten years. In the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine for 1862 he entered into a discussion 

 concerning the cosmical origin of terrestrial magnetism. 

 Two years later, both in the Philosophical Magazine and 

 the Proceedings 0/ the Royal Society, he published a com- 

 parison of the most notable disturbances of the declination 

 at Kew and Nertschinsk during 1858 and 1859. During 

 the next few years, notably in 1866 and 1871, records of 

 the magnetical observations at Kew were published by 

 him. The chief work, however, of this period of his 

 life consisted in concluding his contributions to the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions by reports and reductions of the 

 work done during the Antarctic expedition. In a lengthy 

 contribution in 1S66 he resumed the discussion and 

 co-ordination of the various observations, continuing and 

 concluding this in another paper, which is to be found in 

 the Transactions for 1868. His last contribution appeared 

 in 1872, when he gave a magnetical survey of the North 

 Polar regions to serve as a companion to the survey 

 of the South Polar regions which had already appeared. 

 It was his earnest wish that he might be spared to com- 

 plete this, but the infirmities of age were then stealing 

 over him, and it is doubtful whether it would ever have 

 appeared had it not been for the able assistance of 

 Captain, now Sir Frederic Evans, the Hydrographer of 

 the Admiralty, assistance which the author gracefully 

 acknowledges in a postscript to the memoir. 



From this date the work of Sabine may be said to have 



ceased. He had resigned the presidency of the Royal 

 Society the previous year, and he now sought to spend 

 the evening of his life in that retirement and rest to which 

 his advanced age and great works so fairly gave him a 

 claim. He had received the Copley Medal of the Royal 

 Society in 1821, and the Royal Medal of the same society 

 in 1849. In 1869 he was made K.C.B. He possessed 

 also the Prussian Order pour le mi- rite, and was either an 

 honorary or corresponding member of many foreign 

 societies. We mention these facts to show that he 

 retired from his active life full of well-earned honours. 

 In 1879 he lost his wife, who for more than half a 

 century was the close companion of his labours. In the 

 history of the Royal Society his name will ever be 

 valued as that of one who, both as member and as 

 President, was ever foremost in guarding its honour 

 and maintaining its dignity, whilst the kindness and 

 courtesy which as President he displayed to all, not ex- 

 cluding the younger members, will be always gratefully 

 remembered. 



It is chiefly by his pendulum observations and by his 

 magnetic determinations and reductions that, as may be 

 gathered from what has been said, his name is so well 

 known in science. The degree of accordance which some 

 of the early determinations of the former kind exhi- 

 bited was so much in advance of what was at that time 

 thought likely, that they were received with incredulity 

 in some quarters. The discussion which Sir George Airy 

 made long ago, in his article on the figure of the earth, 

 published in the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," of the 

 pendulum observations then available for that purpose, 

 shows how large a share belonged to the labours of Sir 

 Edward (then Captain) Sabine. 



His own magnetic observations were marked by his 

 wonted accuracy ; and his discussion of the results 

 obtained at the colonial magnetic observatories led to 

 new and unexpected results. The most striking, perhaps, 

 of these was the discovery of the relation between magnetic 

 perturbations and the more or less spotted condition of the 

 sun's surface, to which we have already referred. Dis- 

 similar as are these phenomena, and difficult as it then 

 at least was to imagine any possible cause for a con- 

 nection between them, subsequent observations have fully 

 confirmed the conclusion at which he arrived, that con- 

 nected they are, though what the precise nature of the 

 connection may be is still a matter of discussion. 



Though from the nature of the case the work was one 

 of compilation rather than of original observation, his de- 

 termination of the magnetic state of the earth at a par- 

 ticular epoch, with its accompanying maps of the isoclinal, 

 isogonal, and isodynamic lines was most noteworthy. The 

 search for the original authorities and the application of 

 the corrections requisite to render the observed results 

 comparable with one another occupied a long time, and 

 the results, as we have pointed out, appeared in instal- 

 ments, as the various regions into which as a matter of 

 convenience the earth's surface was divided were succes- 

 sively completed. 



The establishment of the colonial observatories, too, 

 was the direct result of his exertions ; and his name will 

 go down to posterity as that of the man who more than 

 any other laboured for the proper establishment of the 

 science of terrestrial magnetism, interesting and important 



