Februaky 16, 1SS3 



SCIENCE. 



29 



FEIDAT, FEBRUARY 16, 1SS3. 



THE LATE DR. HENRY DRAPER. 



During the past year, the National academj' 

 of sciences has lost by death seven out of its 

 membership of less than one hundred, — Pro- 

 fessor John W. Drsipi 1 ill.i iiilii- of the 

 subject of this 



notice). Admiral ^^B 



John Rodgers. <a=^-^ 



Professor "William 

 B. Rogers, Hon. 

 George P. Marsh, 

 Gen. J. G. Bar- 

 nard, Gen. G. K. 

 Warren, and last, 

 and saddest of all, 

 Dr. Henry Dra- 

 per. 



The five first 

 named were men 

 advanced in 

 3-ears, whose work 

 was substantiallj' 

 complete and fin- 

 ished, sothatthej- 

 had come to the 

 natural en d of 

 honorable lives. 

 Gen. Warren also 

 had passed the 

 age of fiftj', and 

 for some j-ears 

 had ceased to take 

 an}' active part in 

 scientific enter- 

 prise. 



Dr. Hemy Dra- 

 per alone of all 

 the seven was one 

 from whom more 

 even was to be expected in the future than the 

 work he had already' accomplished. He was 

 cut off in the midst of his most successful 

 achievements, at the ver3' culmination of his 

 course, just in the fulness of his strength. It 

 is the simple truth, — what another has said 

 alread}', — that "no greater calamity could 



No. 2. — 1883. 



have befallen American science than the re- 

 cent and sadden death of Professor Henry 

 Draper ; ' ' because he was now pre^jared bj' 

 long experience, by the enthusiasm and confi- 

 dence born of past success, by ripened judg- 

 ment, and accumulated resources, for swifter 

 advance than ever before in the important 

 ' branch of re- 

 ^^^ search which he 

 "I-'^^fr" li^-cl niade his 

 -,- , _ - -~*i^ own. 

 .'"iv .•%^'^^^ Onlj- four days 



^i^Jt^^ before he died, he 

 entertained at his 

 house a company 

 of his scientific 

 confreres, with a 

 few other chosen 

 friends. No one 

 then present will 

 ever forget the 

 splendor and 

 beautj- of the 

 scene, nor the 

 genial hospitality 

 of the host and 

 his accomplished 

 wife." Few of us . 

 ever heard his 

 voice again. He 

 was already' sufier- 

 ing from a severe 

 cold contracted by 

 exposure in a 

 storm during a 

 hunting excursion 

 among the Rockj' 

 Mountains (he 

 had returned only 

 a few daj-s before), 

 and the labor of 

 preparing for this reception of his friends 

 probablj' aggravated the trouble. That very 

 night the hand of death was laid ujjon him, 

 and after three days of suffering and struggle 

 he was snatched away. 



He was born in 1837, in Virginia ; the sec- 

 ond son of John William Draper, then at the 



