DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 301 



we may quote the following passage from the fifty-fourth annual 

 report of the Royal Astronomical Society of England : ' The great 

 value of this concession on the part of the Atlantic telegraph and 

 other Companies, cannot be too highly prized, and our science must 

 certainly be the gainer by this disinterested act of liberality. 

 Already planets discovered in America have been observed in 

 Europe on the evening following the receipt of the telegram, or 

 within two or three days of their discovery.' "* 



Official Correspondence. A vast amount of individual work 

 having in view the diffusion of knowledge, has been performed by 

 the correspondence of the Institution ; which may be best described 

 in the language of an extract from one of the early reports : " There 

 is one part of the Smithsonian operations that attracts no public 

 attention, though it is producing important results in the way of 

 diffusing knowledge, and is attended perhaps with more labor than 

 any other part. I allude to the scientific correspondence of the 

 Institution. Scarcely a day passes in which communications are 

 not received from persons in different parts of the country, con- 

 taining accounts of discoveries, which are referred to the Institution, 

 or asking questions relative to some branch of knowledge. The 

 rule was early adopted to give respectful attention to every letter 

 received, and this has been faithfully adhered to from the beginning 

 up to the present time. - - - Requests are frequently made 

 for lists of apparatus, for information as to the best books for the 

 study of special subjects, for suggestions on the organization of 

 local societies, etc. Applications are also made for information by 

 persons abroad, relative to particular subjects respecting this, coun- 

 try. When an immediate reply cannot be given to a question, the 

 subject is referred by letter to some one of the Smithsonian co-labor- 

 ers to whose line of duty it pertains, and the answer is transmitted 

 to the inquirer, either under the name of the person who gives the 



* Smithsonian Report for 1873, p. 33. In 1876, a stellar outburst In the "Swan" 

 observed by Dr. Schmidt of Athens, on the 24th of November, was announced. 

 Less brilliant than the similar outburst which occurred in the northern "Crown" 

 in May, 1866, it continued to decline through the month of December, and at the 

 close of the year, had dwindled from the third to the eighth magnitude. (This 

 may possibly be the same "temporary star" seen in Cygnus in 1600, and again 

 in 1670: and having therefore a period of variability of about 69 years.) 



