NATURE 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY ii, 1892. 



THE VACANT CHAIR OF ASTRONOMY AT 

 CAMBRIDGE. 



OUR Note of last week has brought us several com- 

 munications with regard to the Chair of Astronomy 

 rendered vacant by the lamented death of Prof. Adams. 

 Before the note was written only certain names had 

 reached us ; but since then we have heard from the Rev. 

 A. Freeman that he is a candidate for the Chair, and 

 he has also been good enough to forward to us copies 

 of papers on astronomical subjects which he has com- 

 municated to the Royal Astronomical and the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Societies. We are very glad, therefore, to 

 comply with what we presume is his desire that we 

 should state that he is a candidate. 



The other communications to which we refer are of 

 more general interest, as they raise questions almost of 

 national importance. We are informed, for instance, 

 that it has been suggested that the Observatory should 

 be disconnected from the vacant Chair. That is the first 

 point. Another is that there is an idea prevailing at 

 Cambridge that in such a subject as Astronomy the 

 Professorships may be well regarded as honourable 

 rewards or pensions to men who have rendered the 

 University service as College tutors, or who have spared 

 the professors and tutors labour by acting as coaches, 

 the contributions these gentlemen may Have made to 

 astronomical science being considered as a matter of 

 secondary importance. 



With regard to the first point, we believe it will be 

 generally conceded — it certainly will be conceded by those 

 who know anything about the organization of that land of 

 Universities, Germany— that an astronomical Observa- 

 tory must take exactly the same place with regard to 

 astronomy as physical, chemical, and biological labora- 

 tories do with regard to the sciences for which their aid 

 is now regarded as essential, even at Cambridge. It should 

 be clear, therefore, that in an University which professes 

 to teach astronomy — to say nothing of that University 

 rendered illustrious by the name of Newton — it would be 

 as impolitic and as stupid a thing to dissociate the physical 

 laboratory from the Professorship of Physics, the chemi- 

 cal laboratory from the Professorship of Chemistry, and 

 the biological laboratories from the Professorships of 

 Biological Science, as it would be to sever the astrono- 

 mical Observatory — which in a University should always 

 be a laboratory as well — from the subject of astronomy. 

 And we confess it does not seem possible to us that such 

 a step can be seriously contemplated ; but certainly^ 

 were it done, the University would become a laughing- 

 stock ; and more than this, Cambridge would be revers- 

 ing its scientific history. As far back as 1704, the 

 Plumian Professorship of Astronomy was founded for 

 the promotion of practical astronomy, especially to de- 

 scribe the parts and uses of astronomical instruments, 

 ■. and to prove and exemplify the mathematical formulae 

 required in the reduction of observations. It is worth 

 while to point out that the wisdom of this foundation is 

 proved by the fact that this is exactly the basis on which 

 the astronomical subjects are generally treated in the 

 German Universities. Take, for instance, the Observa- 

 NO. I 163. VOL. 45] 



tory at Leipzig. Prof. Bruns lectures to his students for 

 four hours a week on the parts and uses of astronomical 

 instruments and the cognate subjects ; and, in addition to 

 these, the mathematical treatment required in the reduc- 

 tion of observations and in ordinary computations are 

 included in a separate course of instruction of two hours 

 a week, and the students of both these courses join in 

 the work of the Observatory, and are glad to do it. 



We do not know whether the terms of Dr. Plume's be- 

 quest are still adhered to by the present Plumian Professor 

 of Astronomy, but there is no doubt that it was in rela- 

 tion to the work so definitely laid down for this Chair that 

 the Cambridge Observatory was established ; and it is a 

 matter of history that, when Prof. Woodhouse was suc- 

 ceeded in 1828 by Airy as Plumian Professor and Director 

 of the then newly-erected Observatory, his work in 

 the direction laid down by the foundation marked an 

 epoch in modern astronomy. There are few first-class 

 Observatories in the world at the present time in which 

 the method of publishing adopted by Prof. Airy for the 

 Cambridge Observatory is not followed with faithful 

 accuracy, and let it be mentioned that all of the work, 

 down to the minute computations and even the copying, 

 was done by Airy himself. 



During the tenure of the Lowndesian Professorship by 

 Adams, the Observatory was separated from the Plumian 

 Professorship and transferred to the Lowndesian, and this 

 represents the present condition of things. 



It is perfectly obvious, from what has been said, that to 

 transfer now the Observatory from both the Professor- 

 ships would be to run counter to the past history of 

 Cambridge. It should be equally clear that this among 

 many bad results might, in all probability, follow. The 

 modicum of astronomy in the general sense now taught 

 at Cambridge would be taught by men who, by the 

 absence of material means, would not only be incapaci- 

 tated from teaching the subject properly, but even from 

 learning the new developments of it. The Professorship 

 might soon become an intensified sinecure : while the 

 Director of the Observatory, who would be the only one 

 in the position of being able to learn, would yet, by the 

 conditions of the problem, not be in a position to teach. 



We now come to the second point— that relating to 

 the astronomical qualifications of those who are candi- 

 dates for the Chair. We cannot believe that this present 

 year of grace— with a new astronomy breaking in upon us on 

 all sides by the introduction of physical inquiries, experi- 

 mental work, application of new instruments, and the 

 like — can be a good time for dispensing with a practical 

 acquaintance with the subject among the candidates for a 

 Chair of Astronomy at Cambridge or anywhere else. 



The subject, indeed, is one in which we are at present 

 scarcely holding our own, while America and Germany 

 are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds for the 

 new equipments necessitated by the new methods. Surely' 

 Cambridge cannot be content that the Professor appointed 

 is to be absolutely ignorant of the material equipment of 

 the science ; that he shall have no instruments to demon- 

 strate to his students ; nay, that he may not know one end 

 of one from the other, and at the same time be rather 

 proud that it is so, on the ground that contact with masses 

 of metal might probably interfere with the purity of the 

 conceptions of his mathematical mind. 



Q 



