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SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL

HIS LIFE AND WORKS




[Illustration: Sir William Herschel]

SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL


HIS LIFE AND WORKS

BY

EDWARD S. HOLDEN

UNITED STATES NAVAL OBSERVATORY, WASHINGTON

[Illustration: Coelis Exploratis]



NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
743 AND 745 BROADWAY
1881



COPYRIGHT, 1880,
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.



PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE & CO.,

NOS. 10 TO 20 ASTOR PLACE, NEW YORK.




Please see the end of the text for TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES




PREFACE.


In the following account of the life and works of Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL,
I have been obliged to depend strictly upon data already in print--the
_Memoir_ of his sister, his own scientific writings and the memoirs and
diaries of his cotemporaries. The review of his published works will, I
trust, be of use. It is based upon a careful study of all his papers in
the _Philosophical Transactions_ and elsewhere.

A life of HERSCHEL which shall be satisfactory in every particular can
only be written after a full examination of the materials which are
preserved at the family seat in England; but as two generations have
passed since his death, and as no biography yet exists which approaches
to completeness, no apology seems to me to be needed for a
conscientious attempt to