226 



NA TURE 



[July 4, 1901 



thought of applying it to the extremely important case 

 of stellar motion in the line of sight. Huggins was 

 the first to do this, in 1868, with a new instrument, the 

 result of some years of consideration. 



The fertility of this new method, the beautiful and un- 

 expected results which it has given in later years, is well 

 known, and there is no doubt that in the future it will 

 be the means of revealing to us much that at the 

 present time remains mysterious. 



At about the same time Huggins had tried to observe the 

 prominences of the sun in the absence of an eclipse. He 

 solved the problem and published an account of his 

 methods, so that although he was preceded in the obser- 

 vation itself by Janssen and Lockyer, his high reputation 

 was sustained. Immediately afterwards we find, as his 

 contribution to the development of the subject, a descrip- 

 tion of a method for not only determining the chemical 

 constitution, but also the actual shape of the pro- 

 tuberances. 



In still another region Huggins has been a pioneer. As 

 early as 1864 he had tried to photograph star spectra, 

 but with his small and imperfect apparatus he only ob- 

 tained spectra without lines. He did not, however, lose 

 sight of the problem, and after the invention of dry plates 

 he constructed a spectrograph out of rock crystal and 

 Iceland spar which, with a Cassegrain telescope, gave the 

 well-known beautiful spectra, among the novelties of 

 which may be mentioned the revelation for the first time 

 of the ultra-violet series of hydrogen. 



The continued application of photography to the 

 spectra of the various celestial bodies, the discovery 

 of innumerable important and interesting results, occupy 

 the following decades of a laborious life. It is impossible 

 to follow in detail the whole of Huggins' achievements, 

 contained as they are in nearly a hundred publications. 

 To do so would require volumes, not one short article ; 

 nor is it possible to point out how Huggins was enabled 

 by the construction of his spectroscopes to produce those 

 excellent photographs which have excited our admiration 

 during the last twenty years. There does not exist, I 

 believe, any stellar spectrograph which does not involve 

 in its construction ideas taken from Huggins' models. 

 One obtains a superficial insight into the immense pro- 

 gress made by Huggins in the photography of stellar 

 spectra in the book which he has presented to science 

 under the title " Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra," 

 by Sir William and Lady Huggins. This and all the 

 later publications of Sir William Huggins are signed also 

 by Lady Huggins, in whom Sir William has found an 

 "able and enthusiastic assistant." It would therefore 

 be unjust not to mention Lady Huggins in a descrip- 

 tion of Sir William's work. 



This necessarily very short and incomplete review, 

 in which only a (evt of the most important discoveries 

 could receive mention, while many others, such as, for 

 NO. 1653, VOL. 64] 



instance, the detection of the band spectrum of water- 

 vapour, had to be passed over, will show how produc- 

 tive and beneficent to science his life has been. The 

 child to whom he gave life. Astrophysics, has been the 

 object of his care and attention and has now developed 

 into a strong and beautiful man. 



The father can look with pride upon his child, and well 

 may he be happy to see the progress which has been 

 made and the number who now devote their energy and 

 knowledge to this part of science. 



But above all Huggins is distinguished by the extra- 

 ordinary accuracy of all his publications. He has always 

 been very cautious in drawing conclusions from observa- 

 tions ; with an enthusiastic heart he has combined a cool 

 head. He has scarcely ever been forced to retract or 

 modify a statement, and therefore his views are univer- 

 sally accepted and his authority remains unrivalled, 

 which I think to be the highest reward and greatest 

 honour to which a scientific man can attain. 



William Huggins was born in London, 1824. He 

 built his private observatory in 1856, became President 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1876 ; President of 

 the British Association, 1891 ; President of the Royal 

 Society, 1900. He has received a Royal medal, the 

 Rumford medal and the Copley medal from the Royal 

 Society, and two medals from the Royal Astronomical 

 Society. He married Miss Margaret Murray, of Dublin, 

 in 1875. H. K.^vsER. 



ENGLAND'S NEGLECT OF SCIENCE. 

 Englamfs Neglect of Science. By Prof. Perry, F.R S. 

 Pp. 113. (London; T. Fisher Unvvin, 1900.) Price 

 2S. bd. 



UNDER the above title Prof. Perry publishes a 

 collection of seven short papers dealing with 

 several questions relating to the position of science and 

 the method of teaching it in England. The little book 

 itself takes its title from the second of these papers, an 

 article which appeared in Nature in July 1900. 



The subject is one of such great magnitude and 

 intricacy that it is scarcely possible for a private individual 

 to bring a sufficient knowledge of details to bear upon it. 

 Nothing short of a commission of men of science would 

 suffice to collect the mass of statistics which is necessary 

 for the complete discussion of the shortcomings of Eng- 

 land in her relation to scientific education. We must, 

 therefore, be content to deal with it from a few points of 

 view only, most of these being indicated by Prof. Perry 

 himself. 



Prof. Perry is well known to be, like several of his 

 colleagues in science, dissatisfied with the position of 

 science in England, with its influence in the affairs of 

 State, and with the provision made for its support and 

 development. When, however, he speaks of " England's " 

 neglect of science it would be well if he made a dis- 

 tinction between England as a nation and England as a 

 Government. It is not true that the English people as 

 a whole are indifferent to the supreme claims of science 



