REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON OBSERVATORIES 49 



Furthermore, the duties of administration would be somewhat 

 simplified. It would chiefly be necessary to provide the means for 

 ascertaining whether the works adopted are pushed with the requisite 

 energy and skill — whether the product is that which was stipulated. 



Pushing this idea to an extreme, the work of the observatory 

 would virtually consist of a series of expeditions having scarcely 

 any connection one with another, except that of proximity at the 

 scene of operations. As fast as the preparations for one of these 

 lines of work should be complete, the expedition for that would be 

 despatched upon its mission, with its own head and its own staff. 



The larger the establishment, the more necessary it would be to 

 provide a strong observatory organization. 



All these questions can be more effectively studied after it becomes 

 known upon what scale the enterprise can be carried out. 



III. Observatory for Solar Research. 



As the central body of the solar system, confining the planets in 

 their orbits by the power of its attraction and supplying them with 

 light and heat through its radiation, the sun possesses for us an 

 interest greater than that of any other celestial body. From one 

 point of view this interest may be considered to be of a most prac- 

 tical character, since the conditions of terrestrial life are determined 

 exclusively by the solar radiation, .so that any possible changes 

 which this radiation may undergo are likely to be of consequence 

 to life upon the earth. From another standpoint the study of the 

 sun possesses a philosophical interest of the highest kind, for the 

 sun is a star, comparable in all particulars with countless stars 

 which lie beyond the boundaries of the solar S3^stem, but possessing 

 the unique distinction, through its proximity to the earth, of being 

 susceptible of detailed study and investigation. Thus in all reason- 

 ing on the physical constitution of the stars, especially in connection 

 with the great problem of stellar evolution, we must start from the 

 sun as a type object and elucidate stellar phenomena from an inti- 

 mate acquaintance with solar phenomena. We have no foundation 

 for the hope that any other star will ever appear larger than a 

 microscopic point of light, even though the telescopes of the future 

 may completely outrank the instruments of the present day ; but 

 through the provision of more adequate means of studying the sun 



