But for once he was mistaken: the effect is actually the result of gravitational tides in the ionosphere. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Sabine continued to superintend the operation of magnetic observatories throughout the British Empire. The result was Sabine's magnum opus: as complete a magnetic survey of the globe as was then humanly possible. Throughout his long life, Sabine received numerous decorations for his contributions to science. In 1849, the Royal Society awarded him one of its gold medals for his work on terrestrial magnetism. Sabine was president of the society from November 1861 until his resignation in November 1871. He was a member of the Royal Commission of 1868–1869, for standardizing weights and measures. Both Oxford and Cambridge bestowed honorary doctorates on him. He was a fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1867, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1869. He retired from the army on full pay in 1877, having been promoted full general on 7 February 1870. In 1879, Sabine's wife, Elizabeth Juliana Leeves Sabine whom he married in 1826, died. An accomplished woman in her own right, she had assisted her husband in his scientific endeavours for more than half a century. Her four-volume translation of Alexander von Humboldt's monumental textbook of geophysics "Kosmos", was published from 1849 to 1858. She was also responsible for the English translation of Ferdinand von Wrangel's "Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea", working from a German translation by Georg von Engelhardt. Sir Edward Sabine died aged 94 in East Sheen, Surrey, on 26 June 1883, and was buried in the family vault at Tewin, Hertfordshire. Sabine is the namesake of Sabine's gull, Sabine's puffback, and Sabine's spinetail. Geographical features named for Sabine include the Sabine Islands of the Svalbard archipelago, Mount Sabine among Antarctica's Admiralty Mountains; Sabine Island on Greenland's east coast; and the lunar Sabine crater.