816 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



energetic impulsion of M. Flamniarion. Its aim is " to bring 

 together persons who are practically or theoretically occupied with 

 astronomy, or who are interested in the development of that sci- 

 ence, and the extension of its influence for the enlightenment of 

 minds." It has now about three hundred members. The Urania 

 Society, recently formed in Berlin, has been able by the generosity 

 of its founders to erect a building to the purposes of Astronomy, 

 and furnish it with the most perfect instruments. Societies of 

 amateurs for the popularization of physical and astronomical 

 science have been founded in Spain and Colombia, and at Nijni- 

 Novgorod in Russia. Astronomy is no longer, in our time, the 

 property of a few privileged persons. The public, in the whole 

 world, has been set in the current with the facts of science by the 

 diffusion of books written by such able popularizers as Flamma- 

 rion, Guillemin, Vinot, Figuier, De Parville, and others, in France; 

 Proctor, Ledger, and Miss Clarke, in England ; and Meyer, Klein, 

 and Wolf, in Germany ; and by the announcement and familiar 

 explanation of phenomena. At this moment, without taking ac- 

 count of popular scientific journals and English and American 

 magazines, that make known the principal astronomical facts, 

 there are twenty -nine special reviews and journals teaching 

 astronomy to the public. There are five in Germany ; six in the 

 United States and England ; four in France ; and others in Bel- 

 gium, Russia, Switzerland, Portugal, and Brazil. 



The number of amateur astronomers is considerable, and it is 

 safe to say that of all the sciences this is the one that can boast 

 the most adepts among private persons. Among 1,160 astrono- 

 mers now living, whose works have gained a footing in science, 

 about half are amateurs with private observatories. In England, 

 including official establishments and those attached to the uni- 

 versities, there are 34 observatories ; in America, more than 80 ; 

 in France, 17 ; in Austria, 24 ; in Italy, 21 ; in Russia, 15 ; and in 

 Belgium, 5. We may say that an amateur, armed with a tele- 

 scope, is to be found at every point on our planet, ready to ob- 

 serve a celestial phenomenon. In Chili, Honduras, Peru, New 

 Zealand, Tunisia, and Tasmania we can meet astronomical ama- 

 teurs provided with instruments, who devote their night hours 

 to contemplating the beauties of the starry vault and to collect- 

 ing observations which shall be useful for the advancement of 

 science. 



Most of the discoveries of comets, small planets, variable stars, 

 and star-clusters are the fruit of individual researches. Were 

 not all those amateur astronomers who, in the first ages of his- 

 tory, in Chaldea and Egypt, China and Mexico, drew from Nature 

 the first explanations of celestial phenomena ? From the begin- 

 ning of historic time down to near our period, astronomical sci- 



