NATURE 



453 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1877 



URBAN J. J. LEVERRIER 



OUR readers will not have been altogether surprised at 

 the announcement of the death of the Director of 

 the Paris Observator)'. We have had frequent occasion 

 recently to refer to the unsatisfactory state of M. Le- 

 verrier's health, and only a fortnight since we announced 

 his return to his post. He died, however, on Sunday last 

 at the age of sixty-six years, singularly enough on the 

 thirty-first anniversary of the discovery of Neptune. 



The gigantic extent and utility of Leverrier's work has 

 been such that it is not possible at such short notice to 

 present anything like a worthy estimate of it. We shall 

 therefore in the present notice content ourselves with 

 referring to a few of the chief events in his career. 



Urban Jean Joseph Leverrier was born at St. L6, 

 March 11, 181 1. He was educated at the Ecole Poly- 

 technique, where he so distinguished himself as to be 

 allowed to choose what branch of the public service he 

 wished to enter. He selected a post under the " Ad- 

 ministration des Tabacs," and while in that position 

 published his first paper — a chemical one. But he soon 

 gave up chemistry to devote himself almost entirely to 

 mathematical astronomy. In 1S39 he contributed two 

 papers to the Paris Academy on the secular variations 

 of the orbits of the planets. These papers attracted the 

 attention of Arago, who requested Leverrier to calculate 

 afresh the perturbations of Mercary with reference 

 to the attraction of other bodies. This may be said 

 to have been the beginning of the great work which 

 he carried on till his death, and with which his name 

 will be for ever associated. 



The nature and the stupendous extent of this work were 

 most admirably stated by Prof. Adams, in presenting last 

 year to Leverrier the gold medal of the Astronomical 

 Society. This address is referred to elsewhere. Though 

 drawn aside for a little into the political arena by 

 the events of 1848, he never discontinued his work in 

 connection with the planetary orbits. While in the 

 Legislative Assembly, as member for his native depart- 

 ment. La IManche, he gave his attention mainly to subjects 

 connected with public education and scientific discoveries. 

 He has had much influence in these directions, and it is 

 largely owing to him that the Ecole Polytechnique has 

 attained its present high organisation. In 1852 Leverrier 

 was a Senator and Inspector-General of Superior Educa- 

 tion. On the death of Arago, Leverrier, as might have 

 been e.xpected, was appointed to succeed him as head of 

 the Paris Observatory. That institution he found in a 

 most disorganised and altogether unsatisfactory condition, 

 and Leverrier set himself earnestly to raise it to the level 

 which it ought to occupy. A work of this kind he could not 

 accomplish without giving offence to many interested in 

 the continuation of the old ways. Indeed, Leverrier's 

 rigid rule caused such discontent among his staff, that the 

 Government were actually compelled to dismiss the great 

 astronomer from his post in 1870; he was, however, 

 restored again in 1 873. 



While Leverrier's great work was in the sphere of 

 mathematical astronomy, he by no means neglected 

 other departments of science connected with the work 

 Vol, XVI.— No. 41 



of an observatory. To him is mainly due the orga- 

 nisation of the existing meteorological service in France, 

 which depends largely upon local effort. He was ever 

 ready to afford facilities to others to carry on their own 

 researches within the Observatory precincts, and he saw 

 with pleasure the erection of new Observatories both in 

 Paris itself and in the provinces. 



'■ If on no other than selfish grounds," to quote the 

 Times notice, " England, as a maritime country, cannot 

 fail to pay a tribute of respect to a man whose work his 

 been of the utmost practical importance in the con- 

 struction of tables used in guiding ships across the seas. 

 Nor has England been, in fact, niggardly in rendering 

 him honour. On four occasions living words of respect 

 and friendship from England have been address:d to M. 

 Leverrier by presidents of the Royal Society and the 

 Royal Astronomical Society when presenting medals, 

 which are by tradition regarded as the highest tribute the 

 societies can offer of their appreciation o' the value of 

 work done. In 1846 the Royal Society, under the presi- 

 dency of Lord Northampton, presented to him the Copley 

 medal. In 1848 the Royal Astronomical Society, under 

 the presidency of Sir John Herschel, awarded a testi- 

 monial ; in 1868, under the presidency of the S iviUan 

 Professor, the gold medal ; and again in 1876, under the 

 presidency of Prof. Adams, M. Leverrier's 'rival' in the 

 discovery of Neptune, a second gold medal. Two years 

 ago the University of Cambridge, at the suggestion of 

 Prof. Adams, conferred on him the honorary degree of 

 LL.D. Perhaps the most valued, because most prac- 

 tical, recognition that could be offered was the fact that 

 for years past his tables have been employed in our 

 ' Nautical Almanac,' superseding all othe.s for the com- 

 putation of the places of the planets." 



Leverrier's work has been of such vali»e to a maritime 

 nation that a mark of appreciation on the part of our 

 Government, as well as on the part of our societies, Avould 

 not have been out of place. At the funeral on Tuesday, 

 EngUsh science was represented by Mr. Hind, the dis- 

 tinguished superintendent of the Nautical Almanac — we 

 hope in an official as well as in his private capacity. 



M. Leverrier was Inspector-General of Universities, 

 one of the highest dignitaries in the Legion of Honour, 

 and a member of almost every Academy and order of 

 merit in the world. Of his two sons one died two years 

 ago, and the other is an engineer in the Ponts et 

 Chaussdes. Madame Leverrier has not been well for a 

 long period, and no doubt the shock of her husband's 

 death will tell upon her constitution. 



Owing to the great loss sustained by science in the 

 death of Leverrier, the Paris Academy of Sciences closed 

 its session on Monday immediately after the letter from 

 M. Tresca announcing the sad event had been read. 

 M. Tresca was able to state that the great life-work of 

 Leverrier had just been completed. 



RECENT BOTANICAL BOOKS 

 Text-book of Structural and Physiological Botany. By 

 Otto W. Thomd. Translated and Edited by Alfred 

 W. Bennett, M.A., B.Sc. (London : Longmans, 

 Green, and Co., 1877.) 



THERE is a manifest want at the present time of a 

 text-book of moderate size which would supply 

 English students with a general view, not running too far 



