66 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



nitrogen) and some other elementary gases. The 

 discovery was the reward of precision and a sig- 

 nal instance of the value of attending to even 

 minute discrepancies. 



It is doubtless a pity when circumstances lead 

 a man of science to spend his whole life in collect- 

 ing data and in measurement, but it is ungenerous 

 and unwise to speak of this in a superior way as 

 "hodman's work." Let us take an illustration 

 from the volume of Astronomy by Mr. Hinks 

 the somewhat monotonous and quantitative work 

 of star-cataloguing, which Hipparchus is supposed 

 to have begun more than a century before Christ, 

 which is continued even unto this day. What is 

 the use of it? The author points out (1) that it 

 forms an essential basis for the applications of 

 astronomy the determination of time, naviga- 

 tion, surveying; (2) that without good star places 

 we can have no theory of the motions in the solar 

 system; and (3) that "without accurate catalogues 

 of the stars we can know nothing of the grander 

 problems of the universe, the motion of our 

 sun among the stars, or of the stars among 

 themselves." 



In addition to its necessity in furnishing 

 materials for Science, there is great educational 

 value in the discipline of making definite and 

 accurate measurements. Speaking of its utility, 

 even for those students who were destined for the 



