RESEARCH IN THE EXACT SCIENCES. 193 



\_Letl(.-r of Edward C. Pickering.'] 



Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., 



July 27, igo4. 



Dear Sir : Your letter inclosing a copy of that of Professor 

 Newcomb and requesting a reply before August i duly reached me. 

 The plan in general meets with my heart}^ approval. There is no 

 doubt that a proper discussion of existing observations is very much 

 needed. This should be followed by suitable observations in order 

 to supply the wants thus rendered evident. 



To select subjects for the proposed institution a permanent coun- 

 cil might be needed, but when a subject was chosen specialists iu 

 that department of science should be employed, who would spend 

 several days together arranging the details of the work. According 

 to my experience, a discussion of generalities by a committee with 

 no means at their disposal is unsatisfactory and the results are of 

 little value. A number of experts, however, having an appropria- 

 tion which they could expend on work with which they were 

 entirely familiar could get much better results than any one person 

 alone. The officer in charge of the proposed institution, with his 

 corps of computers, could readily carry out the plan of work recom- 

 mended, consulting the committee when difficulties arose, or calling: 

 other meetings as required. A large part of the laborious work 

 involved in discussing an extensive series of observations in any 

 department of science could be done to great advantage by such a 

 permanent computing bureau. 



It is often impossible to transplant a man of genius in other sur- 

 roundings without greatly diminishing the value of his work, and 

 it is better to improve his existing conditions rather than try to 

 make him adopt new ones. On the other hand, he is often unable 

 to discuss his own results or supervise large routine computations 

 as well as one who devotes his life to such work. My views on this 

 subject are given more fully in a pamphlef entitled "The Endow- 

 ment of Astronomical Research, No. 2," which will be distributed 

 in a few days. 



Edward C. Pickering. 



