THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



87 



continued for thirty-seven years until 

 liis retirement with the rank of rear- 

 admiral in IS'Jt). ilarkness served on 

 the monitor Monadnock in its cruise 

 through the Straits of Magellan, ma- 

 king exhaustive observations on the 

 behavior of compasses under the in- 

 fluence of iron armor and also ter- 

 restrial magnetic observations. This 

 work was published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution in 1871. He observed the 

 total solar eclipse of 1869 at Des 

 Moines and of 1870 in Sicily. Soon 

 thereafter he devoted himself to the 

 arrangements for the transits of Venus 

 in 1874 and in 1882. The former transit 

 he observed in Tasmania, later spend- 

 ing some years in reducing the observa- 

 tions, in the course of which he in- 

 vented the spherometer caliper. He 

 observed the transit of Mercury in 

 Texas in 1878 and the total solar 

 eclipse in Wyoming in the same year, 

 and devoted much time to editing and 

 preparing the reports. Professor Hark- 

 ness then carried out an important 

 work in reducing the observations of 

 the zones of stars observed by Gilliss 

 in Chili, and later prepared his work 

 on the solar parallax and its related 

 constants. From the publication of 

 that work in 1891 to his retirement he 

 was principally occupied with the new 

 building of the observatory, in devising 

 and mounting its instruments and in es- 

 tablishing a system of routine observa- 

 tions. Professor Harkness on his re- 

 tirement expected to take only a few 

 months' rest, and then to continue his 

 scientific work at Washington, but he 

 suffered from nervous prostration, and 

 for the four years until his death he 

 "was scarcely able to leave his house. 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NAT- 

 URALISTS. 

 Brief reference has already been 

 made here to the meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Society of Naturalists held at 

 Washington in convocation week in 

 conjunction with the meeting of the 



American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science and other scientific 

 societies. The annual discussion be- 

 tore the society, th'i subject of which 

 was ' How can endowments be used 

 most effectively for scientific research,' 

 has now been published. Professor 

 Chamberlin, of the University of 

 Chicago, who opened the discussion, 

 spoke of the importance of endowing 

 in connection with universities not 

 only chairs and departments but also 

 special schools and colleges of research. 

 He said that instead of the colleges of 

 the English universities, devoted mainly 

 to personal education, the ideal uni- 

 versity should be an association of col- 

 ' leges of research for the benefit of 

 mankind as a whole. He also held that 

 we need independent institutions of 

 research and endowments for the co- 

 ordination of research. Professor 

 Welch, of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, spoke with special reference to 

 the Rockefeller Institute for Medical 

 Research, describing what had been 

 accomplished since its foundation two 

 years ago, and foreshadowing the per- 

 manent institution, the establishment 

 of which has since been announced. 

 Professor Boas, of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, spoke with special reference to 

 publications, arguing that academies 

 and other institutions should unite 

 their publications, so that series for 

 each of the sciences might be estab- 

 lished; the wasteful effects of competi- 

 tion and the exchange system of pub- 

 lication would then be supplanted by 

 series that would became self-support- 

 ing. Professor Wheeler, of the Uni- 

 versity of Texas, criticized the present 

 system of fellowships, and argued that 

 fellows should be selected competent to 

 carry on research, that they should not 

 be regarded as recipients of alms, or 

 required to waste their time on routine 

 Avork, or do work beyond their power 

 or in a place unsuitod to it. Professor 

 MacMillan, of the University of Min- 

 nesota, favored the multiplication of 

 institutions and agencies for research. 



