DEATH OF PROFESSOR JANSSEN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 116, 8 February 1908, Page 14

DEATH OF PROFESSOR JANSSEN.

v.. ;• ■:•". ■•,-?■•?. •, A GREAT ASTRONOMER. SOLAR RESEARCHES. > .j. Ono of the. world's great .'astronomers and . -»f-Franco's-' bost. known scientific observers has passed away' m the person -of .M. i'■ • ' I'lerro Janssciij -wlio died on-Dcc«inbcr.23 at -'Meudon from''pulmonary congestion. '"With :a ;' ; ■••strong:natural artistic-bent,.JAnssen -first bo- :■ • gan- to' study painting,-but- soon abandoned ■ ; --i • '.this;for thofm(jro oxact. attractions of ;;and' mathematics. -.'Nothing could;ever, take. . ,:.;his attention oft the pursuit:,of .any. subject. • on. which ho was engaged/ and during f: tho ; siego t of Paris Jin 1870; ho -left . tho> city .in..a ■ iballoonj not from any .desiro .to escape,, but " /-in 1 order ..to -watch •an €clipse.-.of tho ,sun -in , ~ Algeria. Latterly, when quite, an old man. , -. Janssen had himself carried up .to tho top of, • 1 - Mpnt, -Blanc to. tako some ..observations .ho. <•■,'.•; required... His . special , hobby . ; was . the v .. L- , physical "constitution of tho sun. .He -was. ,■< an: indefatigable; traveller in his chase after. - J: the sun, moon, and.planets 111 their, eclipses,. -. . being ono year ju tho island of Santorin,- tli.e, neit.'at Guntur, .111 India (which- he .visited, v ■ iporo than once), then on. to Japan, back to / tbo Carolines, and across to always. 1 v bringing back some frosh.and interestingdis- , -covery .or deduction. A DISTINGUISHED CAREER. , ; , v . .i'i ß rro Jujes- Cesar Janssen;was::born, m Paris .on Eebruary 122, 1824. ~ After...taking, - a courso. at .tho Faculty ,of. Scioncos- jn, his ••'native' city,he received . -.the- degree -. I/icencio'es Sciences. Matnoir.atiques in 1852, :v . :■: and- was niado a-doctor •of- physical science in 1880.-.. ; ; What gained him tho - latter dis- . 'i--' « • tinction was a remarkable "scientific.-thesis- '' For; a . whilo :ho, f.lccturcd -at tbo'Lycee. v Charlemagne,- and was .appointed professor. •• , of ;general physics .-ati ■ the". Ecolo • Speciale. ■ . :' r .r d! Architecture m ,1865, -whero. JlO. remained till IS7I. , /;/ 1 Bnt':iho. greatest' debt which .;science' pwes' . .tovtho-iennnont t. services of M. Janssen 1 'v , ' laccrues from the,numerous expeditions com-1 .v.•< y: mitted to his . charge , for - the observation of .1 • ■ astronomical ■phenomena..: .So Jar..back.as 1 ■•-. :: I 1857 ho was sent .to Peru :to ■ determine' the 1 ..•■ magnetic: equator,,.but was unable;.to -bring : v: %the .task toav;successful : ,issue,:-.. owing „to /.malarial fevor and dysentery, cintracted:in ■ the virgin forests, of; South .'America. In ■ . IS6I, tne Academy of Sciences sent him .; to Italy to study the tel!uri6-ravs-.of the. solar; .5 - spectrum, which occupied his labours for ' .- thres years. • Ho. observed tho annulary ■'.-.. eclipse.at.Ti'aiii, on- the -Adriatic, 111 1867,-and .■ subsequently witnessed'tho volcanic eruption ; . J ' on. tho-isle of. Santoriii, in tho Greek Archi-••/v'-r pelago. Erom-hcro ho hurried to. the .Azores, -, to make- various important . magnetic,' opti-:-.Cal,; and .topographical; -with^thev ::. 'assisfcance r of, M.. Samte-Claire-Devillfi, '' .' i' All cclipso-of the sun hjviug been preiicted to occur on August 18, 1868, M - Janssen.yas :commissionod by . tho Minister' .. .. of; Public, instruction and- several; scientific' . , societies-an .France .to,lohservo^.tho-iphono-menon at Guntur, mi-India: ■ This expedition . turned : out'to be an epochal event 111 . the annals ,-of 'astronomical: .scifluco,',thanks . to the liivontivo'genius of'Professor'Janssen. ■. .. 'Ihe eclipse in proved .'to; be .one. of . .th vlongest over, -observed; - and;'led' to~the" .-. ( ,discovery, of-,tho •natuiol.'.of .the;sun's, pr 0•..,.« •..,.« ■ .■. tuberances, .as -well -as- a. method of -rendpr-'- ,■' - ...i mg.. thorn viaiblo on .any- ordinary ■ day; ■ The"i , .• idea -struck Janssen 'ihat the employment, of tho spectroscope would'dimmish tho.powerful - . . Jight of the sun, make the outer, appear .; ~1 ; tnoro prominent, and-thus revealilio.'fed pro-' attached to the.outer'circlo of • /to sun. Iu plain language,".'the' spectroscope . aables-tho observer.t-o-witness.what-is, to L II appetirances, an cclipso of the sun/at any. . v ihlowhen;that luminary 13 visible. ■. .;. DEVOTION TO SCIENCE ', This important -discovery is ■' all tho moro remarkable from the fact that it was miido :.v ■ almost simultaneously by-.another and-.mdo-pendent, . investigator—Sir Joseph , Norman 1 l' . (thon Mr.) Lockyer. M. Jansson delayed, a '1 ' month before sending news of his discovery to the Pans Academy, of Sciences,' and Mr. . Lockyer's - report,' arrived' but a few- hours : earlier...'Tho Frenclv Government'struck'a' , . medal in 1873/ to commemorato the discovery,- ;! - and, :With truo.Galhc courtesy,, inscribed it . with tho names of both discoverers. Decem- . borj: 1871, again found M. Janssen on a lull i. station, in. Southern: India,- observing another 1 eclipse, on which, occasion ho-mado further - contributions <to our .scicntific knowledge of .... tho universe. ■■ . ~\ - ; : M.. ..Janssen's , devotion' to scienco'was to: > strikingly illustrated during tho sicgo of Paris, m 1870. An- eclipse, visiblo in . .Algeria, \was: ospected 011 Decombcr 22, . and ; ■; ~ho was. commissioned'to-witness it:'..--v But tho .. oity _,was encircled by,,an>iron band of .Ger--1 man soldiers, who permitted neither , 'entran(!o . - nor egreSs.- To overcome the difficulty, M. ■ . . 'Janssen - left -Paris bv-: balloon;.on - December 3>, and, atter descending mnde hjs 'way to -v; 'Algiers!-. ■ On his,.arrival there,, .he: learnt that tho Uiglish". scientists . had. petitioned v. :-. : and that tho: British Am- : , ■ 3asaador, had:...niade ircpresontationsito'the P'" : ') Germjiri;;inilitary:,. aiith.orities,vtp Ipprmitii.him :■ . .to leave Pans for.this purpose!. ' • ... !.: ' . 1. .: In 1874 M. Janssen. observed. the transit ■ : of .Venus: lin Japaii,'and : in"'tho following ~ : yoar he was iuvited .by expedition . ~-to; witness;-a total .eclipse 111 "■■.Siam;.-".::lni,tho summer,of 1891.he. summit of Moat jßlanc,' where*ho proposed, to-build "an ' observatory,-.which the I'Vench -,'Government ..-..ioventually,-erected in lß93.':"._Sinco lß7sih£ has,-been director of, tllo.';astro-physical, obi. . 1 v , sprvatory at. Meudon,- , established ,by the i. • v : Government in that year chiefly:for tho purposo of providing ample scopo" for/the, cmin- ; - .ient/.scientific ■attainment's '-.''of:' M: Janssen. Among tho numerous honours , on M. .Janssen, it..may ,mentioned: that'he iv honorary" doctorof ' the ' Univcrsity. 1 and-member of 1 tho Academy, of Edinburgh, ? and a.member of the Royal Society"'of;Londor,which conferred tho Rumford medal 1 ■ upon him in 1877. , .• -1