REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON OBSERVATORIES II 9 



enough to send me handles the question completely to the point, and 

 exhaustively. The problems that fall to such an observatory arise 

 through the development of modern astronomy, and, indeed, in this 

 Statement they are so fully and clearly enumerated that very little 

 can be added. The main point is to establish the requisite balance 

 between observations made upon the northern and the southern 

 hemisphere, which, hitherto, the few southern observatories could 

 not possibly maintain. Any arrangement, according to their im- 

 portance, of the classes of observations that ought to be made will 

 naturally depend upon the standpoint of the one who renders judg- 

 ment, and therefore I can only say that I hold the order given in 

 the Statement to be essentially sound. On the other hand, one can 

 make good the claim that the astronomer has not only to collect the 

 knowledge which will enable later generations to derive important 

 results, but also that he should especially challenge those problems 

 that will permit general conclusions to be drawn within a time not 

 distant, even though in a fragmentarj' way only. 



From this point of view I have for several years expressed the 

 opinion that, though observations of fixed stars made to establish 

 the motions of the heavenly bodies are important beyond doubt 

 (though they will first bear fruit in the distant future), yet obser- 

 vations concerning the prcseyit aspect of the starry heavens should 

 not be neglected. This aspect has an independent interest of its own, 

 and from it a valuable result can be drawn at once without waiting 

 for the cooperation of future generations. Accordinglj', on account 

 of their bearing upon my own investigations in regard to the space 

 relations of the stellar system, I would like to designate as especially 

 important the following problems for which the cooperation of the 

 observatories in the southern hemisphere is absolutely necessary, 

 since it is possible to make these discussions only upon the basis of 

 observations distributed over the eiitire sky : 



(i) Determination of parallaxes, which appears as (2) in the 

 Statement. 



(2) An investigation of the apparent distribution of the stars in 

 the southern hemisphere, including those of the faintest magnitude 

 that can be obsen'^ed. The Statement excludes the consideration of 

 new problems, to be sure ; but here we are concerned, not with a 

 new work, but with an old one which has not hitherto received suffi- 

 cient attention, the object of which is to solve the new problems 

 more conclusively and the execution of which would, in effect, estab- 

 lish the solutions upon a sounder basis. A similar work is now 



