I30 



NATURE 



[June 8, 1893 



detail, to carry out the scientific investigations connected 

 with the Observatory, which properly fall within the 

 province of the Astronomer Royal. Thus, during the 

 past year, I have had repeatedly to lay aside the im- 

 portant subject of the measurement of the plates of the 

 astrographic chart in order to deal with details of cash 

 accounts and other similar matters, which properly per- 

 tain to the functions of a clerk. In this connection I 

 may mention that some years ago I proposed a photo- 

 graphic corrector, which, at a comparatively small cost, 

 would render an ordinary astronomical refracting tele- 

 scope available for photography ; but, though a trial 

 instrument has been made, and though I have partly 

 worked out the details of a more complete form, I have 

 never been able to command sufficient leisure, tolerably 

 free from interruptions, to enable me to complete the 

 rather troublesome optical calculations. Such a cor- 

 rector could be usefully applied to the new 28- inch tele- 

 scope as well as to other large instruments ; but under 

 present conditions I fear that there is little prospect of 

 my being in a position to work out the idea. ' 



" The growth of the Observatory buildings, involving 

 the introduction of large masses of iron, raises the 

 question of the possible disturbing effect on the magnets 

 in their present position. Though the masses of iron 

 would be at such a distance that they could not sensibly 

 affect the registers of magnetic changes, which are purely 

 differential, it is possible that the aggregate effect on the 

 absolute determinations of the magnetic elements might 

 become appreciable. Under these circumstances it is 

 desirable that an auxiliary magnetic station for deter- 

 mination of absolute values of the magnetic elements 

 should be established in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the Observatory, at such a distance that there would be 

 no suspicion of disturbance from the iron in the 

 buildings.'^ W. J. S. L. 



REV. CHARLES PRITCHARD, D.D., F.R.S. 



ANOTHER and a familiar figure has passed from 

 among us, diminishing the strength of the tie that 

 links the present generation to the science of the past. 

 Almost a contemporary of Airy and of Herschel at Cam- 

 bridge, Prof. Pritchard has seen the school, which they 

 may be said to have inaugurated, lose its members one 

 after another, to be himself among the last. But in no 

 sense can it be said that he outlived his reputation, or 

 that he was not a worthy disciple and an admirable ex- 

 ponent of that school. Nor was he content to remain 

 simply a disciple. His ambition was to stand in the front 

 rank, and to contribute his quota to the further progress 

 of science. And this is the more remarkable and the 

 more praiseworthy when it is remembered that he was 

 considerably advanced in life before he devoted himself 

 to any special science. 



For Prof. Pritchard's early life had been spent, and 

 worthily spent, in an endeavour to exhibit an improved 

 method of education in the then upper middle-class 

 schools. Of the success that attended his efforts, one of 

 his old pupils, the present Dean of Westminster, has re- 

 cently given an appreciative account. Dean Bradley has 

 contrasted the dull methods that prevailed generally 

 some sixty years since, even in schools of repute, with 

 the vigour and enthusiasm which characterised the newer 

 teaching, whose importance Prof. Pritchard early recog- 

 nised and enforced. For thirty years he led the life of an 

 active schoolmaster, and that he was successful in his 

 vocation is fully established by the long list of the 

 names of his pupils, famous in every walk of 

 life. For private and personal reasons he retired from 

 this career, and then his ambition was to take active 

 clerical duty in some country parish. But in this he was 

 disappointed, for as he has told the writer of this notice 



NO. 1232, VOL. 48] 



more than' once, that though he was a divine in mind and 

 heart, he was made an astronomer by Providence. But 

 his loyal attachment to the Church of i:ngland and his 

 scientific training placed him frequently in a position to 

 render services to both science and religion. This is 

 shown bv the thoughtful and eloquent sermons that lie 

 has frequently preached on the occasions of the meeiing 

 of the British Association, as well as by his HuUean 

 Lectures at Cambridge, or in the capacity of Select 

 Preacher at Oxford. 



In 1870 the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy in 

 Oxford fell vacant through the decease of Prof. Donkin. 

 At the urgent recommendation of Sir John Herschel, 

 Lord Hatherley, who was at the time Lord Chancellor, 

 was induced to exercise his influence among the trustees 

 of the Savilian estates, and Prof. Pritchard was elected 

 to the vacant chair. How worthily he filled this office is 

 known to the readers of this journal. It is sufficient to 

 recal that he induced the University, shortly after his 

 appointment, to supply an astronomical observatory, for 

 at this date there was no observatory under academical 

 control, and not only was research impossible, but \ery 

 inadequate provision was made for the teaching of his 

 class. The modest establishment originally contemplated 

 by the University was materially increased by the munifi- 

 cence of the late Dr. De la Rue, in a way which admirably 

 supplemented the judicious expenditure of the University. 

 In later time a lecture-room and library had to be pro- 

 vided, and Prof. Pritchard probably felt that in the 

 possession of a small, but tolerably complete, observa- 

 tory, he gained rather than lost, from the fact that it was 

 called into existence in quite modern times. Here it 

 was his good fortune early to recognise the important 

 part that photography was destined to play in the new 

 astronomy, and before the gelatine plate had thoroughly 

 revolutionised the art, he was at work on bright objects 

 like the moon, to which photographic methods could then 

 be applied. His success justified his foresight, and 

 though in his subsequent career he frequently turned 

 aside to pursue other lines of inquiry, he always returned 

 to his original plan of investigation by means of photo- 

 graphy. . . 



In one of these excursions into more varied inquiries 

 he was tempted to investigate the magnitude of the 

 brighter stars on a plan which had occurred to him while 

 at Clapham, and was, I believe, the practical outcome of 

 a suggestion of the Rev. W. R. Dawes. This was the 

 process of extinction by means of a wedge of neutral- 

 tinted glass, used differentially. The method was earned 

 out practically with great success, and the results of his 

 work, embodied in a Uranoiiietria Nova Oxoiiiensis re- 

 ceived the reward ofthe medal of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, and procured for him, what he valued quite 

 as highly, an honorary fellowship from his old college of 

 Saint John's, at Cambridge. To secure the necessary 

 completeness in this inquiry, Prof. Pritchard undertook 

 to visit Egypt to determine the amount of atmospheric 

 absorption. It was a source of great gratification to him 

 to know that the more protracted inquiry of Dr. Muller 

 led to practically the same result, and confirmed his in- 

 vestigation in every material particular. 



Another of his researches, but one which he always 

 held to be incomplete, was an effort to determine the 

 relative co-ordinates of the stars of the Pleiades with a 

 view to ascertaining the mutual proper motions. This 

 group of stars had for him a great fascination, and to 

 within a few days of his death he was at work endeavour- 

 ing to supplement this inquiry by photographic methods. 

 His favourite motto was — 



spem nos vetat inchoare longaiii 

 aetas, 

 but certainly he never acted by the implied caution. To 

 undertake some fresh work as soon as, or before the last 



