SOME RECENT INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN 
ASTRONOMY .! 
By J. 8. Puasxert, B. A., 
Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, Canada. 
It has been the custom for the newly elected president of an 
astronomical society to give in his inaugural address a review of 
the progress of the science of astronomy during the year just closed, 
and I am partly complying with that custom in what I have to say 
to you to-night. I do not propose, however, to attempt to give 
you a review of the whole field of astronomy. That would be quite 
impossible in one address. All I shall attempt, therefore, is to 
select from the material at hand some of the most important results 
recently attained, and from these again those which are likely to 
prove of the greatest general interest. In this selection, it is very 
likely that I shall be guided by my own particular preferences, and 
I do not, therefore, claim that what I have to lay before you will be 
entirely representative of the progress of the science. 
In my opinion there has been no time in the history of astronomical 
science when progress has been so rapid and when we seem to be 
on the eve of so many interesting developments, and I might almost 
say generalizations, as at the present time. 
One of the most significant indications of such development in 
astronomy is the remarkable coordination and correlation that is 
being so rapidly developed among the different sciences. A few 
years ago the astronomer made no use of any science but his own, 
with, of course, its indispensable adjunct mathematics; but now 
progress in astronomy is impossible without the aid of physics and 
chemistry, geophysics and geology. We do not know, indeed, how 
soon we shall be applying biology, with its allied sciences, in the 
study of such a subject as ‘‘Life in other worlds,” on which we had 
recently such an eloquent and instructive address by Prof. Aitken. 
Another significant fact pointing toward rapid developments and 
deductions is the completion or approaching completion of many 
1 Address before the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Ottawa. Feb. 23, 1911. Reprinted by per- 
mission from the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, J uly—Angust, 1911, pp. 245-265. 
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