550 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Miss Mitchell began to observe the various colors of the stars 

 in 1853, but nothing in her remarks concerning the phenomenon 

 indicates that she had any anticipation of the explanations which 

 later astronomers have offered for it. Her appreciation of it was 

 largely aesthetic, but, as Mr. Bishof) had found the blue stars gen- 

 erally small, she thought we might assume " that the blue stars 

 are faint ones, and probably distant ones. But as not all faint 

 stars or distant ones are blue, it shows that there is a real differ- 

 ence. . . . From age to age the colors of some of the prominent 

 stars have certainly changed. This would seem more likely to 

 be from change of place than of physical constitution. Nothing 

 comes out more clearly in astronomical observations than the 

 immense activity of the universe. ' All change, no loss, 'tis revo- 

 lution all.'" Then she was led to remark that all observations of 

 this kind are peculiarly adapted to women. " Indeed, all astro- 

 nomical observing seems to be so fitted. The training of a girl fits 

 her for delicate work. The touch of her fingers upon the delicate 

 screws of an astronomical instrument might become wonderfully 

 accurate in results ; a woman's eyes are trained to nicety of color. 

 . . . Then comes in the girl's habit of patient and quiet work, 

 peculiarly fitted to routine observations. The girl who can stitch 

 from morning to night would find two or three hours in the 

 observatory a relief." 



The chief scientific incident recorded of Miss Mitchell's second 

 European tour (1873) is her visit to the observatory at Pulkova, 

 where the second Struve Otto was director. Her Russian jour- 

 nal contains some keen comparative observations concerning 

 civilization and education in Russia and the United States, not 

 always to the advantage of the United States. 



In 1859 Miss Mitchell was presented by the republic of San 

 Marino with the bronze medal of merit, with the ribbon and let- 

 ters patent signed by the two captains regent. In August, 1869, 

 she went with several of her Vassar students to Burlington, Iowa, 

 to observe the total eclipse of the sun, and published a popular 

 article on the subject in the magazine Hours at Home. Her 

 scientific record of the observation was published in Prof. Coffin's 

 report. In 1878 she went to Denver to observe the eclipse. Her 

 observing party of five ladies besides herself had their special 

 places at the three telescopes as counters or as artists, and made 

 the observations in silence. " Great," she says, " is the self-denial 

 of those who follow science. Those who look through telescopes 

 at the time of a total eclipse are martyrs ; they severely deny 

 themselves. The persons who can say that they have seen a total 

 eclipse of the sun are those who rely upon their eyes. My aids, 

 who touched no glasses, had a season of rare enjoyment." 



In June, 1881, while going to Providence in a steamboat, she 



