... Julio Garavito is that young man who expresses himself with such difficulty, yet he is, of all the students I have known, the only one who has a true mathematical spirit. Look at the way he reasons, at the rigour of his logic and at the depth of his analysis, and you will see that he is truly a superior intelligence.

For his first mathematics thesis, he proposed a probabilistic approach to calculating π, while for his second, he calculated all the mathematical possibilities that a pressure gauge could have. In his final thesis, this one in engineering, Julio Garavito proposed a triangular structure to build bridges just like the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

During the great revolution from 1899 to 1902, the Director of the National Observatory was not idle; apart from the many questions of mathematics that he studied conscientiously as a distraction, he busied himself putting his notes in order to write the mechanics course that he developed by an original method, and tackled the analysis of the most difficult problems of algebra: the general solution of equations of degree higher than the second. He departed from the best known path of science, which consists of finding out the number of real and imaginary roots that the equation admits, the limits within which they are included and their general properties, to determine them by successive approximations, and preferred to relate the properties of the roots with certain lines of the star polygons that came to be the key to the desired solutions. In order to achieve his goal, it was necessary for him to establish new theories and to investigate hitherto unknown properties of figures, in a word, almost to create a science to which the name of polygonometry would be appropriate. Once these foundations were established, he based on them his analysis of binomial, trinomial, reciprocal equations, etc., and advanced a great deal in the general equation of degree m, by rigorous methods and admirable ingenuity. This work, which reveals a complete mastery of the most intricate questions of the field of analysis, as well as a rare intuition in the geometric field, is known only to a small number of his friends. One day it will be published and it will then be seen how far he has come in the field of abstract speculation and how much this privileged spirit was capable of.

In the observation of 6 May, the Comet shone in such a way that the tail was clearly perceived in the field of the telescope of the theodolite strongly illuminated by a reflector. The tail was perceived as a single one of uniform thickness with a dark stripe that extended lengthwise from the middle part to the end. Bad weather prevented seeing it again on some nights. On the nights of the 12th and 16th the brightness had diminished so considerably that the illumination of the field of the telescope had to be made just sufficient to be able to perceive the threads at the same time as the nucleus; but observing with the dark sky two tails that formed an angle of 30 to 40 degrees were clearly visible.

The method used in the observations was imposed by the class of instruments that we could take advantage of, given the low height at which the comet was visible.

It is very painful for us to make a critical judgment of the cited memoir, but we are morally obliged to do so having been tacitly challenged by Otto Alencar Silva, as recorded in the minutes of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th sessions of the Congress.

In 1909 Garavito delivered an interesting lecture in Samper Hall in Bogotá, to expose his ideas related to topics of political economy. For a long time, his attention had been fixed on the fluctuations of the exchange rate and on the devaluation of paper money, a devaluation that, due to the frequent and large issues made by the government during the developing situation of the 1899 war, reached limits never seen before. ... Garavito realised, before anyone else in Colombia, that paper money was nothing more than a forced contribution imposed on the country because it was not prepared for a more rational tax regime. He said: "The belief that currency has an effective and unconventional value had become so ingrained in the spirit of our landowners that many came to believe in the total ruin of the country for this reason, and to speak in gloomy terms of the cancer of paper currency."

This pamphlet is a fairly complete exposition of the economic foundations that in future ages will support society by the State and for the State.

He could not recover from this loss, so the two years that he survived his wife were nothing but slow agony. He no longer attended the Observatory, the centre of his world for so long; it was almost impossible for him to attend his classes at the Faculty of Engineering; he only rarely left his house, spending long hours in front of the notes in his last years. Many friends visited him in such circumstances and all were amazed at the lucidity of that privileged brain, which did not lose its lucidity until the very night of his death. At that time he had the satisfaction that the Colombian Congress had enacted Law 128 of 1919, which ordered the publication of his works and the erection of his bust in the garden of the Observatory. This law, long unfulfilled, was finally carried out in part when his bust was inaugurated on 20 August 1945. In the early hours of 11 March 1920, after many days spent in bed suffering unspeakable torture caused by the disease and suffering pecuniary hardships that made it impossible for him to lessen the pain of which he was a victim, he gave his soul to the Creator. He died in the same poverty in which he lived; he never had anything; what was left over he gave to the poor ...

... has long been the unlikely destination of the superstitious, who believe that it can bring good luck and even wealth. Although Garavito, a man of science, would undoubtedly have rejected the superstition, the belief does have a connection to reality: Garavito is on the 20,000 peso bill. Visitors often left flowers coloured blue, the same as the 20,000 peso bill, and even painted parts of the tomb blue. Recently, the cemetery administration renovated Garavito's tomb, raising it and erasing the messages believers had written to Garavito, asking him for miracles or thanking him for favours received. The cemetery folks also put signs on neighbouring trees reminding visitors that leaving flowers, writing messages, burning incense and other activities were strictly prohibited in the cemetery. Naturally, and thankfully, believers have ignored the warning and the tomb is decorated once again.