DEPARTMENT XI ASTRONOMY 



(Hall 8, September 20, 4.15 p. w.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR GEORGE C. COMSTOCK, Director of the University 



Observatory, Madison, Wisconsin. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR LEWIS Boss, Director of Dudley Observatory, Albany, 



New York. 

 PROFESSOR EDWARD C. PICKERING, Director of Harvard University 



Observatory. 



THE Chairman of the Department of Astronomy was Professor 

 George C. Comstock, Director of the University Observatory at 

 Madison, Wisconsin, who opened the proceedings of the Department 

 with the following remarks: 



" We who are American astronomers have been wont to meet under 

 other auspices to mark the progress of our science or to plan new 

 campaigns for its advancement beyond the existing bounds of know- 

 ledge, and upon such occasions it has not been an unknown practice 

 among us to appeal to the social instincts common to civilized men 

 of every vocation and to embrace the opportunities thus presented 

 for the development of personal friendships and the formation of 

 a professional esprit de corps. With such memories in mind your 

 Chairman cannot to-day address himself to the declared purposes of 

 this Congress and to its somewhat unusual accessories without first 

 giving in the name of all American astronomers, absent as well 

 as present, a cordial greeting to our distinguished colleagues from 

 beyond the sea, who are to-day with us as members of the Congress. 



"The administrative body charged with the organization of these 

 congresses has planned them along unique lines, with emphasis placed 

 in special manner upon the unity of knowledge, the interrelations of 

 those several provinces of learning now grown so extensive that no 

 man may, with reason, aspire to thorough acquaintance with more 

 than one or two. That such relations exist, and that they are of 

 fundamental importance to science as well as to philosophy, none can 

 doubt. That they can be profitably presented at an assemblage of 

 international congresses and be there amplified and emphasized with 

 needful cogency and clearness is in part our function to determine, 

 and the major burden of the task must rest with those gentlemen who 

 have been especially invited to present to the Congress papers along 

 the lines thus indicated." 



