Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/119

Rh men of science have a pleasant custom of celebrating the long service of their colleagues. Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was born in 1835, and in June, 1860, he was appointed one of the astronomers of the Observatory of Milan. In June, 1900, thirty-six Italian astronomers joined in a memorial to him which has been handsomely printed in a pamphlet of eighty-eight pages. On November 1 of this year Schiaparelli is to retire to private life, after more than forty years of active service. For thirty-eight years he has been director of the observatory at the Brera palace, which, by his researches, has been raised to a very high rank. His first observations were made with quite small instruments, but his successes with limited means finally brought splendid modern instruments to his observatory. His earliest examinations of planets (1861) were made with a small telescope of only four inches aperture. For many years he employed a telescope of eight inches, but since 1887 he has had at his disposition a refractor of eighteen inches—one of the powerful telescopes of the world.

Schiaparelli is best known to the world at large by his long continued and very successful observations of Mars. It is not too much to say that his work has revolutionized our notions of the physical conditions existing on that planet. It is more than likely that some of his conclusions will have to be revised; and it is certain that some of his less cautious followers have drawn conclusions that the master's observations do not warrant. However this may be, his own work has a high and permanent value. Astronomers rate other researches of Schiaparelli's quite as highly as his studies of the planets. The relation between comets and meteor-showers was most thoroughly worked out by him; we owe to him also thousands of accurate observations of double stars; as well as a great number of important researches on many and various questions of mathematics, physics and astronomy. It is interesting to note, here and there, in the list of the 206 memoirs which he has published, certain papers of an antiquarian and literary turn—on the labors of the ancients before Copernicus; Græco-Indian studies; on the interpretation of certain verses of Dante, etc. The nomenclature of his topographical chart of Mars, among other things, proves the accuracy and elegance of his classical learning.

He has been rewarded for a long and laborious life by the respect and admiration of his colleagues and by the continued interest of the larger public in his discoveries. Academies of science all over the world (with the singular exception of America) have elected him to membership and have awarded their medals and other honorary distinctions, and he has been decorated with orders of knighthood by Italy, Brazil and Russia. Finally, he is a life-senator of the Kingdom of Italy.

These tokens of particular appreciation and his widespread popular reputation are the rewards of a life devoted strictly to science. He has not gone out of his way to seek applause, though it has come to him in full measure. The graceful tribute of his colleagues signalizes his retirement from his official position, but we trust that he may be spared for many years to devote his genius to the science he has so greatly forwarded.

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad still announces in its time tables that the Empire State Express is the fastest regular train in the world; but this appears to be no longer correct. The Empire State Express traverses the distance from New York to Buffalo, about 440 miles, in eight hours and fifteen minutes, or at a rate of 53.33 miles per hour. The Sud Express on the Orleans and Midi Railway travels from Paris to Bayonne in eight hours and fifty-nine minutes. The distance is in this case 466J miles, the speed, including the time taken by six stops, is 54.13 miles per hour. The engine of the New York Central Railroad