PHOTOGRAPHY TN ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH. 183 



but it does not seeih quito clear tliat it should a]\vii3^s fall to the lot 

 of those with a modest equipment. Considerations of strict econ- 

 omy might sugo'est this view, but there is a human side to the 

 argument Avhich is not unimportant. The danger that the minor 

 observatories should feel their worlv unnecessary is even graver than 

 the similar possibility in the case of amateurs already mentioned, 

 and calls for prompt attention from astronomers generally if it 

 is to be averted. It is the more sei'ious because of another set of 

 considerations of a quite diU'erent kind, viz, the funds available for 

 research show a rather alarming tendency to accunndate in the 

 hands of a few large observatoi-ies, leaving many astronomers who 

 could do useful work without the means of doing it. A conspicu- 

 ous example is aiforded by the ])resent state of the work for the 

 astrographic chart initiated in Paris seventeen years ago. On the 

 one hand, a few of the large oliservatories have easily acquired funds 

 not only for taking and measuring the ])lates and printing the 

 results, but for ]:)ublishing an ex])ensive set of charts which will 

 be of very little use to anyone; on the other hand, some of their 

 colleagues have found the ulmost difficulty in getting funds for 

 even taking the ]ilates; others have got so far, but can not proceed 

 to measure them; and very fevr, indeed, have yet funds for ])rinting. 

 If there had been a true sjiii-it of coo])ei"ati()ii foi- the general good 

 in this (mtcrprise, sui-ely some of the funds being squandei'ed on 

 the conq)aratively useless charts would have been devoted to the 

 proper com])letion of the only ])art of the scheme which has a chance 

 of fulfillment. I do not mean to imply that this would have been 

 an ea.;y matter to arrange, but it is noteworthy that no attempt 

 in this direction has been made, and that as a consequence a ]irom- 

 ising scheme is doomed to failure in one important particular. 

 P\)r though the survey of the whole sky to the eleventh magnitude 

 may some day be com])leted, it will be sadly lacking in homogeneity. 

 Some sections are finished befoi'e others are l)egun, so that in the 

 vital matter of ej)och we shall have a scrappy and straggling series 

 instead of a compact whole. 



Cooperation in scientific work, the necessity of which is being 

 borne in u})on us from all sides, is ne\'ertheless l)eset with difficul- 

 ties, and no doubt we shall only reach succ(>ss through a series of 

 failures, but we shall reach it the more rai)i(IIy if we note carefully 

 the weaknesses of successive :!tt(Mn])ts. In the particular scheme of 

 the astrogra])hic chart, I think an error which shoidd be avoided in 

 future was made by those who ha\e access to the chief sources of 

 astronomical endowment. They have made the enterprise doubly 

 difficult foi" tlieir colleagues, firstly, by s(>tting a standard of work 

 Avhich was unattainable with limited resources, and. secondly, by 

 depleting the reserves which might lia\'e gone to assist the weakt'r 

 observatories. 



