HERSCHEL, CAROLINE LUCRETIA, the sister of the great astronomer Sir William Herschel, was born at Hanover oa the 16th of March 1750. Till her twenty-second year she lived with her parents in her native place; after which she came over to England to reside with her brother, then established as an organist at Bath. When Sir William exchanged his profession as a musician for those astronomical labours which were to immortalise his name, hie sister became his constant and most valuable helpmate. "From the first commencement of his astronomical pursuits," says an authority who writes from inti mate knowledge, "her attendance on both his daily labours and nightly watches was put In requisition, and was found so useful that, on his removal to Datchet and subsequently to Slough, she performed the whole of the arduous and important duties of his astronomical assist ant—not only reading the clocks and noting down all the observations from dictation, as an amanuensis, but subsequently executing the whole of the extensive and laborious numerical calculations necessary to render them available for the purposes of science, as well as a multitude of others relative to the various objects of theoretical and experimental inquiry in which, during his long and active career, he was at any time engaged." For these important services she was in receipt of a moderato salary allowed her by George HI. But, in addition to these labours performed expressly as her brother's assistant and amanuensis, she found time to perform others of a similar character on her own account. Though sitting up frequently all night till day break, more especially in winter, while her brother required her help, she was able, by snatching such intervals of time as her brother's occasional absences permitted, to conduct a series of observations of her own with a amall Newtonian telescope, which he had constructed for her. Her special employment with this instrument was to sweep the heavens for comets; and so successful was she in this employment that she discovered seven comets, of at least five of which she was entitled to claim a clear priority of discovery. The dates of the discoveries of the seven comets were as follows :—August 1, 1786; December 21, 1788; January 9,1790; December 15, 1791; October 7, 1793; November 7, 1795; August 6, 1797. Besides the discovery of
these comets, she had the merit of having made original observations of eoveral remarkable nebula, and clusters of stars, included in her brother's catalogues. In 1798 she published, with an introduction by her brother, au astronomical work of great value, entitled ' Catalogue of Stars taken from Mr. Flamsteed's Observations, contained in tho second volume of the Historia Co3lestia, and not inserted in the British Catalogue, with an Index to point out every observation in that volume bslongiug to the stars of the British Catalogue : to which is added a collection of Errata that should be noticed iu the same volume.' In this work, which was published at the expeuse of the Royal Society, no fewer than 561 stars observed by Flamsteed, but which had escaped the notice of the framers of the ' British Catalogue,' were poiuted out. During the whole of her brother's career Miss Herschel remained by his side, aiding him and modestly Ellerin the reflection of his fame. After his death, In 1822, she returned to her native Hanover to spend the remainder of bar days. They were unusually protracted ; for, though she was seventy-two years of age when she left England, she lived for twenty-six years longer. Even these venerable years were not spent idly. In 152S she completed a catalogue of the nebulae and clusters of stars observed by her brother, for which labour the Astronomical Society of London voted her their gold medal. She was also chosen an honorary member of that society —an honour very unusual in such • case. Living indignity and tran quillity. retaining her memory and the full use of her faculties almost to the last, and receiving from time to time marks of the highest respect from the king and crown.prince of Hanover and from other German sovereigns, she survived till the 9th of January 1848, when she died in her ninety-eighth yep. Among the female examples of the pursuit of knowledge, very few names deserve so high a place as that of Caroline Herschel.