184 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH. 



It is easier to draw attention to these modern tendencies than to 

 suggest a remedy for them. It may, perhaps, be questioned whether 

 a remedy is either possible or necessar}'; it may be urged that it is 

 both inevitable and desiral)le that astronomical observation should 

 gravitate more and more to those well-equipped observatories where 

 it can be best conducted, and that new resources will obtain the 

 greatest results when added to a working capital which is already 

 large. From the purely economical point of view of getting results 

 most rapidly, these conclusions may be true. But if we look at the 

 human side of the question, I hope we shall dissent from them; if we 

 think first of astronomers rather than of the accunndation of astro- 

 nomical facts I hope we shall admit that something must be done to 

 check the excessive specialization and the inequalities of opportunity, 

 toward which there is a danger of our drifting. We can not afford 

 the division of astronomers into two types; one isolated in a well- 

 equipped observatory in a fine but rather inaccessible climate, s])end- 

 ing his whole time in observing or taking photographs; another 

 in the midst of civilization, enjoying all the advantages of inter- 

 course with' other scientific men, but with no telescoi)e worth using, 

 and dependent foi- his material on the observations made by others. 

 Some division of lal)or in this way is dcjubtless advantageous, but 

 we must beware lest the division become too sharply pronouiiced. 

 Will it be possible to prevent its undue growth by some alternation 

 of duties? Can the hermit observer and the university professor 

 take turn and turn about to the common benefit? The ])roposal is. 

 perhaps, a little revolutionary, and has the obvious disadvantages 

 of in(;onvenience and expense at the epochs of change, but I do not 

 think it should be set aside on these grounds. 



I must admit, however, that I am not ready with a panacea. It 

 has been chiefly my object to draw attention to some modern tenden- 

 cies in astronomical work, hoping that the remedies may be evolved 

 from a general consideration of them. Such questions of the rela- 

 tionship of the worker to his work are even harder to solve than those 

 we meet with in the work itself. But there is at least this excuse for 

 noticing them on an occasion like the present, that they are to some 

 extent common to all departments of knowledge, and our difficulties 

 may come to the notice of others who have had occasion to consider 

 them in other connections and may be able to help us. Or, again, 

 we nuiy take the more flattering view that the human problems of 

 astronomy to-day may be those of some other science to-morrow, 

 for astronomy is one of the oldest of the sciences and has already 

 passed through many stages through which others nnist pass. In 

 any case, we must deal with these problems in the sight of all men, 

 and of all the conse(iuences entailed by our lately acquired oppor- 

 tunities none are more interesting and none can be more important 

 to us than those afl'ectinc: the astronomer himself. 



