42 2 The Smithsonian Institution 



de Meudon, overlooking the city, is a recognition both of 

 the public importance of the work and of its distinct charac- 

 ter from that prosecuted at the older establishments. 



In Germany, the Prussian government, in addition to its 

 observatory in the city of Berlin, for the old astronomy of 

 precision, has erected and most liberally endowed an astro- 

 physical observatory in the park in Potsdam, not very far 

 from the capital. In Italy various establishments of the 

 same character exist, and in other continental countries, and 

 in England, there are several such observatories, due chiefly 

 to private beneficence. 



In the United States there are fewer; one of those most 

 definitely devoted to the new class of investigation being that 

 in the neighborhood of Pittsburg, which was maintained 

 largely through the munificence of a private citizen, the late 

 William Thaw, of that city. 



Owing to the nature of the investigations carried on, the 

 astrophysical observatory should be situated, as a rule, in 

 the open country : not in the precincts of a city ; for in many 

 cases it is even more important than in an ordinary observa- 

 tory that it should be remote from the tremor and disturb- 

 ance of such a neighborhood. 



When the writer — whose professional life has been largely 

 given to these researches — was invited by Secretary Baird, 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, to come to Washington, it 

 was with the understanding that the government should be 

 asked for, and might be expected to furnish, the means and 

 the site for such an observatory ; but the death of Mr. Baird 

 prevented the matter having the aid of his weighty recom- 

 mendation before Congress.^ 



1 Concerning this it is remarked in the sions, the biological and the physical, and 



Report of the Secretary of the Institution since it has been the case that of late years 



for the year 1888 : the first of these has been almost exclusively 



" Natural science falls into two great divi- encouraged by the Smithsonian, it was the 



