Astronomy 593 



ON THE GENERAL INTEGRALS OF PLANETARY MOTION 



THIS paper, 1 on mathematical astronomy, is, in part, an ex- 

 tension and generalization of two former papers by Profes- 

 sor Newcomb, and is too strictly technical to allow of any 

 short account of its thesis in this place. 



ASTRONOMICAL EXPEDITION TO CHILE 



IN the years 1849-1852 an expedition under Lieutenant Gilliss, 

 of the United States Navy, was resident in Chile, engaged in 

 various researches which required the cooperation of Northern 

 and Southern observatories. 



The Congress of the United States appropriated the sum 

 of $5000 to its use, but this amount was not sufficient to pro- 

 vide all the necessary instruments. Accordingly, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution stepped forward in 1849 to supply the 

 need with the gift of $2000 to purchase an equatorial tele- 

 scope, and in 1850 with a gift to supply an astronomical 

 clock and chronograph. 



Congress subsequently appropriated funds to cover their 

 cost, but the prompt action of the Institution saved a year 

 to the observers. It is interesting to remark that the in- 

 struments were subsequently purchased by Chile, and set 

 up in Santiago in a National Observatory, the first in South 

 America. The National Observatory of the Argentine Re- 

 public in Cordoba was also founded by an American, Doctor 

 B. A. Gould, in 1870. 



This is not the place to write the history of the astronom- 

 ical expedition to Chile, honorable as it was to the country 

 and to Gilliss himself. It may be found in the report of the 



1 " On the General Integrals of Planetary Motion," 1874. It forms the second paper 

 in Volume xxi of the" Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge." 



