SOME RECENT INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN 

 ASTRONOMY. 1 



By J. S. Plaskett, B. A., 

 Dominion Observatory, Ottaiva, 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 winch 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 alhed 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 



i 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, July-August, 1911, pp. 245-265. 



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