Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/551

Rh she organized the Metcorologico-ozonometric Station of the Capitol, and edited its monthly bulletin; she was one of the most active collaborators in the "Scientific Correspondence" of Rome; and, like Caroline Herschel, Madame Rümker, and Miss Mitchell, she discovered a comet on the night of the 1st of April, 1854. At a time when the subject of shooting-stars was under lively discussion she prepared the first catalogue of the meteors observed in Italy, and was the sole observer at Home of the great shower of 1866. She also left valuable studies on the probable influence of the moon on earthquakes—a work which brought her distinctions from the Society of Naturalists of Moscow, the Geological Institute of Vienna, and other scientific bodies. Many learned societies made her an honorary member, and the Italian Government, in 1872, decreed to her a gold medal for her statistical labors. With all this she was a good mother and a true woman.

We mention a few more names: Madame Hortense Lepante, wife of the horologist of the same name, who calculated a comet with Lalande; Miss Ashley, of our own time, who has so intelligently studied the surface of the moon, and whose numerous labors are registered in the "Selenographical Journal"; and Miss Pogson, who is directing an observatory at Madras. Several young women are employed as calculators at the Observatory of Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I can not close my article without giving grateful testimony to those women who, without having contributed directly to the advancement of astronomy, have sustained their husbands or brothers during their work with incessant devotion. This is a beautiful part reserved for the astronomer's wife or sister, and many women have known how to fulfill it with honor.

We recall with an emotion of gratitude the name of Mrs. Asaph Hall, whose persevering energy supported her husband when, despairing of success, he was on the point of abandoning the search for the satellites of Mars, With her encouragement, after long and painful watches, Mr. Hall returned once again to his investigations in a final effort, which was crowned with a most brilliant success. I must also, with all the friends of science, give a tribute of homage to Madame Janssen, who has exiled herself several times to the ends of the earth, and accepted the privations of the hardest kind of life, to follow her husband in his numerous astronomical voyages.

Honor, then, to all these ladies and fellow-workers, who are pleading or have pleaded more emphatically than the strongest speeches of philanthropists in favor of the claims of their sex. They have proved that when one will one can; and that proverb is perhaps the best conclusion that can be drawn from our story.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from Ciel et Terre.