Annual Report of the Council. xxxv 



Velocity of Light." His next published work was "The Stars" 

 in 1901, in which he discussed the construction of the Stellar 

 Universe, arriving at the conclusion that we must abandon the 

 idea of the infinity of our Universe. These conclusions did 

 not, however, take into account the fact of absorptive matter 

 which has been shown to exist by Kapteym and others. The 

 article on Astronomy in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (1902) 

 was from his pen. His work "Astronomy for Everybody" 

 appeared in 1903 as also his " Reminiscences of an Astronomer." 

 All the investigations undertaken by him were extremely 

 laborious but they are of enduring value. In much of his work 

 he clung to his own methods, sometimes losing much valuable 

 time and assistance by not seeing what could be learned from 

 the labours of others, and in a letter to Professor Brown he 

 stated that he was always repelled by intricate algebraic ex- 

 pressions, and was simply tired out before getting to the end. 

 Many honours were bestowed on him for his labours in 

 the science of Astronomy. In 1872 he was elected an Associate 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, and two years later the gold 

 medal of the Society was awarded to him. The gold Huyghens 

 Medal which is given only once in twenty years was presented 

 to him by the University of Leyden. Many Universities, 

 including Edinburgh, Heidelberg, and Padua conferred on him 

 honorary degrees. He was the first American to be elected as 

 an Associate of the Institute of France, and became a member of 

 the National Academy of Sciences of Washington in 1869, 

 being Vice-President from 1883 to 1889. In 1877 and 1878 he 

 was President of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. He was elected an honorary member of this Society, 

 April 19th, 1887. 



His reminiscences convey the impression that he never 

 really cared for Observational Astronomy, his work lying in the 

 comparison of observation with theory. 



In his death science has lost a man of brilliant parts, an 

 indefatigable worker, and one who has left his enduring mark 

 on many branches of knowledge. T. T. 



