430 ASTROPHYSICS 



and no mistakes are made. We come to you accordingly prepared to 

 judge what we see by comparison with a very high standard, and 

 you may well be content with the commendation which we offer 

 unstinted. We rejoice to think that, in the presence of the new and 

 vast possibilities opened up by the gradual accumulation of facts 

 during the last century, by the invention of the spectroscope, and 

 by that of the photographic plate, astronomy should be so fortunate 

 as to receive valuable aid just at a time when it is so urgently needed. 

 It may be well for us to glance for a moment on the other side of the 

 picture, and to wonder what would have been the course of events if 

 this timely aid had not come. How would astrophysics, the 'new- 

 born child of astronomy, have been nourished? We can scarcely 

 think that it would have been allowed to want for nutriment, but 

 whatever was given to it must inevitably have been withdrawn from 

 the scanty stock of the parent science; either parent or child, if not 

 both, must have shown signs of starvation. This danger is by no 

 means entirely averted even yet; the needs of both, especially of the 

 youthful astrophysics, are increasing daily, as in the case of any other 

 young and healthy organism. The future is not free from anxiety; 

 but that the present is not actually a time of distress is largely due 

 to the generosity displayed towards our science on this side of the 

 Atlantic. 



I am tempted to make a remark regarding another science, sug- 

 gested by the above considerations in conjunction with incidents 

 of travel. No one can cross this great continent and note the ex- 

 traordinarily rapid spread of civilization, without feeling his interest 

 drawn forcibly to the remnants of the former state of things; to the 

 few remaining native tribes and the monuments of their ancestors 

 scattered through the land. No man of science, whatever his main 

 interest may be, can be insensible to the vital importance of securing 

 permanent records of these vestiges before they inevitably perish. 

 No astronomer who is properly grateful for the endowment of his own 

 science in time of need can fail to hope that the science of anthro- 

 pology may be equally fortunate at a most critical juncture. I have 

 not the means of knowing whether the vanishing opportunities are 

 being properly cared for: I earnestly hope it may be so; but if it is 

 not, surely this great assembly of men from all sciences and nations 

 could not unite to better purpose than to urge on the American 

 nation the supreme importance of special assistance to anthropology 

 at the present time. We all have needs, even pressing needs, but the 

 pressure is not usually of this kind. The subject-matter of our 

 investigations is not evanescent; we astronomers, for instance, know 

 that if we must perforce put aside a particular investigation for 

 lack of means, fifty years hence a more fortunate successor will find 

 the eternal heavens little changed for the same purpose. But the 



