The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-03

its source beside the sources OF the Nile
The Late Commodore Maury-Hfs
Eminent Services to Humanity.
The death of this distinguished physical
geographer will create a profound sem
sation both at home and abroad AS the
founder and most successful prosecutor OF the
benign system of oceanic researches, which
has illumined the perilous paths of the
mariner and taught commerce how to make
the wind and currents of the sea to do its
bidding, his labors will long be gratefully re-
membered. As q marked type of an American
scientist his career deserves careful study.
With no educational advantages save those
afforded in the earlier and ruder period of the
Republic his success as an original Investigator
was the more remarkable, and placed him at
once by the side of Herschel, Lyell, Leverrier
and Humboldt, the most honored scientific
luminaries of the Old World. Humboldt said
that in his famous work 'The Physical
Geography of the Sea" he had bequeathed a
new science to the world. This work,
and his "Wind and Current Charts" as
oASO LID NouiiAAS OAIoOciOaS, WOAo DsoOu
upon several millions of marine observations
by the seamen of all nations, which had lain
for years in chaotic state, as so many dust
covered, moth-eaten and useless documents.
In deducing the laws Of nature from this i'm
mense mass of fragmentary observations errors
inevitably crept into his conclusions; but he
was bold workman, proceeding upon that
just maxim of Carpenter, that ''truth energies
out Of error rather than out of chaos. He
lived long enough to rectify many of bis mis-
takes before others discovered them; and his
contributions to the science of navigation, re-
vealing the prevailing winds in different zones
and parts of the globe at different seasons, the
regions of Gains and the belts of ocean swept
by devastating storms, have saved innumerable
lives and much property, and, by indi-
eating the quickest routes, have very
greatly shortened the dangerous voyages
of commerce. When the Inflated steamship
San Francisco went down in the Gulf Stream,
in December, 1853, and the government de-
spatched two steam vessels to pick up any Of
| its survivors, the science which its eminent
| photographer had evolved, in his labors as
| Superintendent of the National Observatory at
! Washington, enabled him to predict and des-
ignate on the chart the precise spot where,
several days after the event, the waits Of the
wreck were to be found.
Although the efforts of this American inves-
tigator to engage foreign Powers in grand
cooperative system of international oceanic
research were coldly received in England in
1862 they soon triumphed in the celebrated
Brussels conference, in which all the maritime
nations earnestly participated. This confer
ence adopted his plan of dividing the
ocean into squares Of ten degrees of
latitude and longitude each, and inserting,
symbolically, on each square Of the chart the
mean result observed by all navigators. Sc
soon after the adoption of this plan at Brus.
sells as 1858 there were over one hundred and
twenty thousand vessels of different flags,
engaged in collecting physical data for the
work Under this beautiful arrangement
each ship at sea was floating observatory,
and its experience was added to that of every
other ship whose keel had furroved the same
waters, to provide o common magazine of
nautical knowledge for the guidance and
safety Of every future sailor. It has been
recently well said by Buchan, the eminent CHIEF
of the Scottish Meteorological Society, that
'the name of Captain Maury will always
be remembered with gratitude for the
signal service he has rendered to navi
cation, and when future observation
has supplied the requisite material to enable
us to correct the inevitable mistakes, and fill
up the blanks of his ocean charts, the benefit
this celebrated meteorologist has conferred Oh
the human race will more conspicuously ap-
pear" The progress Of physical science is SC
rapid now that it is seldom the results of yes.
terday are not modified to-day; and, as Far
aday well said, 'the only man deserving Of
contempt in science is he who is not in con
slant state of transition. But it is safe tc
say that since Maury ceased his splendid re-
searches scarcely an advance has been made
in oceanic meteorology or photography. Sill
John Herschers long and persistent denial Of
his theory Of marine currents, as due to differ
ent specific gravities of polar and equatorial
waters, was retracted year ago, and both this
theory, as well as his views of sub
marine circulation, once so stoutly
opposed by Sir Charles Lyell, have been veri.
fed by the later and extensive deep-sea and
surface-current observations of Carpenter
Thomson and Others while his reasoning in
favor Of an "open Polar sea" so warmly
espoused by Petermann, Bent, Won hidden.
dorf and other eminent living geographers
has been rather confirmed than invalidated by
the latest Arctic explorations.
The lesson of this life of bold student o.
nature may greatly encourage our original
Investigators, as it may also show the neces
sity Of the scientific application of their de-