316 ANNUAL, KEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



of the stars relatively to our system. If the stars were moving toward or from 

 the earth, their motion, compounded with the earth's motion, would alter to an 

 observer on the earth the refrangibility of the light emitted by them, and con- 

 sequently the lines of terrestrial substances would no longer coincide in position 

 in the spectrum with the dark lines produced by the absorption of the vapors 

 of the same substances existing in the stars. 



Repeated efforts to measure the velocities of recession and ap- 

 proach of the stars were made in later years by Huggins and other 

 observers; and while their results were inaccurate and erroneous, 

 they did not work entirely in vain, for the successes of the later 

 observers in any subject are built, to some extent, upon the failures 

 of the pioneers. We now know that visual methods could not have 

 had more than very moderate success, even under the most favorable 

 conditions. The coining of very sensitive dry-plates has made it 

 possible for a C-inch telescope and spectrograph to measure the ve- 

 locities of a greater number of stars than could be done with the 

 36-inch telescope, using visual methods of spectroscopy. 



Perhaps Huggins's greatest contributions to the development of 

 celestial spectroscopy have come from his efforts to interpret the 

 original observations by means of laboratory observations made by 

 himself and others. To these problems he brought philosophic judg- 

 ment of unusual breadth and depth. His public addresses, reviewing 

 astronomical progress and forecasting the problems of the future, 

 were of unusual interest and excellence. The Cardiff address of 1891 

 was notable in this regard. 



The epoch-making work of Huggins brought him earty and full 

 recognition from universities and learned societies. His government 

 alone was slow 7 to reward him. He was Rede lecturer in Cambridge 

 University in 1869 ; he received the degree of LL. D. from Cambridge 

 in 1870, and the degree of D. C. L. from Oxford in 1870. He was 

 made a member of the Roj^al Society in 1865. He received the 

 Lalande gold medal and the Janssen gold medal of the Paris Acad- 

 emy of Sciences ; the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society ; 

 the Royal, the Rumf ord, and the Copley medals of the Royal Society ; 

 the Bruce medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; and 

 perhaps others. 



He received honorary degrees from many universities, and was 

 elected to membership in the leading academies. He was president 

 of the British Association in 1891, the yeav of the Cardiff meetings. 

 He was president of the Royal Society during the years 1900-1905. 

 On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, in his 

 seventy-fourth year, he was knighted ; and in his seventy-eighth year 

 he received appointment to the Order of Merit. 



It is a law of nature that ripeness must give way to youth. For- 

 tunately, the example and work of such as Huggins live on into 



