PHOTOdKATHY TN ASTllONOMirAL KKSKARCH. 183 



l)ut it does not soeiu quite c-loiu- (hat it should always fall to tlie lot 

 of those with a modest e(|uij)iueut. Considerations of strict econ- 

 oMiv uii«2:ht suii'o-est this view, hut there is a human side to the 

 ar«>-ument Avhicli is not unimportant. The dan<j:er that the minor 

 ol)sei-\atories should feel their work umiecessary is even <>-raver than 

 the similar |)()ssil)ility in the ease of amateui's already mentioned, 

 and calls for prompt attention from astronomers generally if it 

 is to be avei'ted. It is the more serious because of another set of 

 considerations of a quite ditlerent kind, viz, the funds available for 

 research show a rather alarmini>' tcMidency to accumulate in the 

 hands of a few large observatories, leaving many astronomers who 

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

 ous example is aiforded by the present state of the work for the 

 astrographic chart initiated in Paris seventeen years ago. On the 

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

 not only for taking and measuring the plates and printing the 

 results, l)ut for {publishing an expensive set of charts which will 

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

 colleagues have found the utmost difficulty in getting funds for 

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

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

 If there had been a true spirit of cooperation for the general good 

 in this enterprise, surely some of the funds being squandered on 

 the comparatively useless charts would have been devoted to the 

 proi)er completion of the only part of the scheme which has a chance 

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

 an ea3y matter to arrange, Init it is noteworthy that no attempt 

 in this direction has been made, and that as a conseijuence a jirom- 

 ising scheme is doomed to failure in one important particular. 

 For though the survey of the whole sky to the eleventh magnitude 

 may some day be completed, it will be sadly lacking in homogeneity. 

 Some sections are linished l)efore others are begun, so that in the 

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

 instead of a compact whole. 



Cooperation in scientific work, the necessity of which is l)eing 

 borne in upon us from all sides, is nevertheless beset with difficul- 

 ties, and no doubt we shall only reach success through a series of 

 failures, but we shall reach it the moi-e rajjidly if we note carefully 

 the weaknesses of successive a.ttempts. In the i)articular scheme of 

 the astrogi-aphic chart, I thinl: an error which should be avoided in 

 future was made by those wi)o have access to the chief sources of 

 astronomical endowment. They have made the enterprise doubly 

 difficult for their colleagues, firstly, by setting a standard of work 

 which was unattainable with limited resources, and, secondly, by 

 depleting the reserves which might have gone to assist the weaker 

 observatories. 



