Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/138

128 thinker. He was master of the German, French, Italian, and Spanish languages, and also of ancient and modern Greek. He wrote one or two volumes upon mathematics and astronomy, and contributed numerous papers to the proceedings of learned societies, and to scientific periodicals at home and abroad. An example of the wide range of his studies and publications is afforded by the following list of papers and articles which appeared at different times and in different publications:

"The Doctrine of Gravitation," "The Cause and Effects of the Tides," "The Rings of Saturn," "The Light and Heat of the Sun," "The Origin and the End of the World," "The Advent and Appearance of New Stars," "The Asteroids," "The Nebular Hypothesis," "The Secondary Planets," "The Plurality of Worlds," "Stellar Astronomy," "Meteoric Astronomy," "The Remote Planets," "The Moon," "Earthquakes," "Volcanoes," "The Deluge," "The Sources of Power accessible to Man," "The Distribution of Metals," "The Geography of Disease," "The Abuses of Science," "The Absence of Trees from Prairies," "Surface Geology," "The Primitive Earth," "The Ancient Atmosphere," "The Silurian Strata," "The Carboniferous Formations," "The Origin of Lakes," "Origin of Mountains," "The Causes of Rain, Winds, and Storms," "History and Nature and Uses of Electricity, its Agency in Nature," "Galvanism," "Magnetism," "Ocean Currents," "The Life of Newton," "Of Laplace," "The Physics of the Internal Earth," "Determination of Planetary Distances," "Geographical Advantages for National Ascendancy," "Physics of the Internal Earth," "Discovery of Neptune," "Revelations of Spectrum Analysis," "The Theory of Probabilities in the Detection of Crime," and "The Catastrophes in Celestial Space."

Professor Vaughan was a correspondent of various eminent scientific men abroad, who had a high opinion of his abilities, and many of his papers, were translated into the Continental languages.

One might suppose that so learned and accomplished a man, whose name gave distinction abroad to the great city of his adoption, would have been favored and honored by its intelligent and public-spirited citizens, and placed in a position so independent as to afford the best play to his remarkable powers. There is wealth to squander in Cincinnati on all projects and in all ways, as becomes a boasting city of the West in hot rivalry with St. Louis and Chicago, so that one would think it might fitly have taken decent care of its most illustrious scientific man. But it turns out that Professor Vaughan was most scandalously neglected; he led a life of pinched privation, was left to get a precarious subsistence by private teaching, and was cheated out of his earnings by the colleges in which he lectured and who got the benefit of his eminent name. We do not like to say that Professor Vaughan literally starved to death in Cincinnati, but he led a life of suffering and want, which the past inclement winter brought to a close in a hospital, and we are told that "an autopsy revealed the wreck of his vital system and proved that the long and dreadful process of freezing and starving had dried up the very sources of life."

We gather the main particulars here given from an article in the "Cincinnati Commercial" of April 7th, written by Mr. William M. Corry, a friend of Professor Vaughan, and subjoin from his communication the following extracts:

For years some kind woman, whose name we are sorry not to know, boarded and lodged Professor Vaughan, and gave him more sympathy than he got from all the rest of the town, and more also of substantial support. He was always sure of a pleasant reception at her humble home, and was not required to be punctual in his settlements. The boarding-house was broken up n year or two ago, and our poor friend was the worst sufferer. He took a room which was cheap, but every way cheerless, inaccessible, and uncomfortable. A chair and a bedstead with a pile of rags, a worn-out stove, and an old coffee-pot, with a few musty shelves of books, covered with soot, were all his