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SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Prog r ess. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



TERMS: 



Per Year, 

 6 Months, 

 3 



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Four Dollars 

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 Ten Cents. 



Published at 

 TRIBUNE BUILDING, NEW YORK. 

 P. O. Box 3230. 



SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1882. 



of his life 

 for many 



JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, M.D., LL.D. 



The death of Dr. John William Draper removes 

 from the circle of American Scientists a man who 

 could be least spared, but the great results 

 of usefulness and devotion to science will 

 years to come, remind us of 

 his familiar presence, and his 

 memory will be cherished 

 wherever the physical sciences 

 are known and appreciated. 



Born at St. Helens, near 

 Liverpool, England, on the 

 5th of May, 181 1, he came to 

 this country when 22 years of 

 age and took a medical degree 

 at the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and shortly afterwards 

 he received the appointment 

 of Professor of Chemistry and 

 Physiology in the University 

 of New York, where he after- 

 wards remained until the time 

 of his death. 



Dr. Draper's scientific career 

 may be studied with profit by 

 all engaged in similar investi- 

 gations, as an example of 

 close application and persistent 

 work, achieving the highest distinction in his own 

 line of research, without any of those appeals to 

 popular sympathy and support, which too many 

 modern physicists are so eager to receive, and regard 

 as elements of success. 



Prof. JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, 

 (Chemist and Historian) Died January 4, aged 70. 



For more than 40 years Dr. Draper was quietly en- 

 gaged in careful experimental researches in physiology 

 and molecular chemistry ; these researches covered a 

 very large range of subjects, but were more particu- 

 larly devoted to a study of the chemical phenomena 

 of light in both the organic and inorganic world, a de- 

 scription of which may be found in his work " Scien- 

 tific Memoirs, being Experimental Contributions to a 

 Knowledge of Radiant Energy." This volume is de- 

 scribed by " The American Journal of Science," in its 

 obituary notice of Dr. Draper as "a noble monument 

 to his memory, made of the results of labors which 

 have greatly advanced the sum of human knowledge." 



In the department of spectrum analysis and photog- 

 raphy, his original discoveries were of great value. 

 He doubled the number of the recognized fixed lines 

 in the spectrum, described those at the red end, 

 demonstrated that the fixed lines might be pho- 

 tographed, and brought all these discoveries to bear 

 on his investigations into the nature of flame and the 

 conditions of the sun's surface. In conducting the 

 long series of experiments which resulted in so many 

 important discoveries, Dr. Draper drew largely on 

 his private fortune, and it is asserted that no private 

 person in America has expended more money in a 

 purely scientific direction ; his generosity kept pace 

 with his scientific attainments, 

 for whatever scientific discov- 

 eries he made — and they were 

 very numerous — he freely gave 

 to the world. He never took 

 out a patent for any of his dis- 

 coveries, nor sought to make 

 them a source of personal 

 profit. 



In the "Scientific Memoirs," 

 Dr. Draper claimed to have 

 made " the first photographic 

 portrait from the life," and he 

 further states, " I also obtained 

 the first photograph of the 

 moon •" the other claims in 

 this work to scientific discov- 

 eries are most remarkable, as 

 the result of the work of one 

 man's investigations in a single 

 line of research. 



In 1875 tne American 

 Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences awarded the Rumford medals to Dr. Draper 

 for his " Researches on Radiant Energy!' 



Of the literary work of Dr. Draper we would speak 

 in detail, for the subject has many attractions ; but it 

 appears unnecessary to describe books which are read 



