Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/357

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Graves
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Graves

at the transit of 1882 were observed by him, and formed the subjects of communications to the Royal Astronomical Society. In a letter to the 'Times' of 20 Sept. 1867, he traced the forged Pascal papers to their source in the third edition of Newton's 'Principia.'

Grant died on 24 Oct. 1892 at Grantown-on-Spey. He married on 3 Sept. 1874 Elizabeth Emma Davison of Newcastle, New South Wales, and co. Monaghan, Ireland, by whom he left one son and three daughters. He published translations of Arago's 'Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men,' 1854, and 'Popular Treatise on Comets,' 1861; and, with Admiral William Henry Smyth [q. v.], of Arago's 'Popular Astronomy,' 2 vols. 1855 and 1858. Many articles by him were inserted in Knight's 'English Cyclopaedia,' and he contributed as well to the 'Astronomische Nachrichten,' the 'Comptes Rendus,' and the 'Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow,' of which body he acted as president during three years.

[Monthly Notices Royal Astronomical Soc. liii. 210 (E. Dunkin); Nature, 10 Nov. 1892; Times, 2 Nov. 1892; Royal Soc.'s Cat. of Scientific Papers.]

A. M. C.

GRAVES, CHARLES (1812–1899), bishop of Limerick and mathematician, born in Dublin on 6 Nov. 1812, was youngest son of John Crosbie Graves of the Irish bar, chief police magistrate of Dublin, and of Helena, daughter of the Rev. Charles Perceval. His early education was received at a private school near Bristol. In 1829 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1832 was elected to a foundation scholarship, a distinction then given only to classical proficiency. Intended originally for the army, he became an expert swordsman and rider; he played cricket for his university, and later in life did much boating and fly-fishing. In 1834 he graduated as the first senior moderator and gold medallist in mathematics and mathematical physics. In 1836 he obtained the very rare distinction of election to a fellowship on a first candidature. In 1843 he was chosen professor of mathematics in the university of Dublin in succession to James McCullagh [q. v.] He was made dean of the Castle Chapel, Dublin, in 1860, and dean of Clonfert in 1864, and he was appointed bishop of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aguadoe in 1866, being one of the last bishops appointed before the disestablishment of the Irish church. That office he held for thirty-three years until his death.

Having been in 1837 elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy, Graves filled successively the offices of secretary of the council and secretary of the academy, and was elected its president in 1861. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1880, and the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him in 1881 by the university of Oxford. He died in Dublin on 17 July 1899 at the advanced age of eighty-six. Graves married in 1840 Selina, daughter of Dr. John Cheyne [q. v.], and by her had issue five sons and four daughters.

A monument to his memory in Limerick Cathedral bears a Latin inscription in verse by Professor R. Y. Tyrrell, with renderings in English by the bishop's son, Mr. A. P. Graves, and in Irish by Dr. Douglas Hyde. A portrait, by Miss Purser, was presented by him to the Royal Irish Academy, and an admirable profile medallion, by John Henry Foley [q. v.], belongs to his eldest son.

Graves's manners were characterised by dignified courtesy, and, in his hours of relaxation, by a genial and cordial freedom. His wide culture, keen intelligence, and conversational powers made him a very attractive and agreeable companion. His calm judgment in practical affairs was combined with admirable tact and temper. His liberal feeling towards those who differed from him won for him the esteem of all, especially in his diocese, without distinction of sect or party.

In 1841 Graves published a translation of the two elegant memoirs of Chasles 'On the General Properties of Cones of the Second Degree and of Spherical Conics.' In the copious notes appended to this translation he gave a number of new theorems of much interest, which he arrived at principally by Chasles's mode of treatment. Probably the most remarkable of these was his extension of the construction of an ellipse, as traced by a pencil which strains a thread passing over two fixed points, by substituting for the points a given ellipse, with which he showed that the locus is confocal. This he deduced from the more general theorem in spherical conics, the latter being arrived at from its reciprocal theorem—viz. if two spherical conics have the same cyclic arcs, then any arc touching the inner curve will cut off from the outer a segment of constant area. Bertrand, in his great treatise on the integral calculus (1864), attributed the foregoing fundamental theorem of Graves to Chasles, who had subsequently arrived at it by an independent investigation. In a long appendix to the volume Graves gave a method of treating curves on a sphere corresponding to the Cartesian method on the plane, arcs of great circles taking the place