;m 



NA TURE 



[Februarv 6, 1 90S 



present only the " new " doctorates of Science and 

 Letters connote any considerable intellectual achieve- 

 ment (though they all mean much spare cash), and 

 so thcv are manufactured chiefly for export, and hardly 

 half-a-dozen of the existing college tutors (of whom 

 the present writer was unwise enough to become 

 one) have found it desirable to take them. 



There are, 1 know, difficulties of detail in the way 

 even of these moderate suggestions ; but even their 

 partial and gradual adoption would abate the fas- 

 cination of our examination system, and check the 

 tendency to identify the good examinee, functioning 

 as a good examiner, with the ideal of academic man. 

 F. C. S. Schiller. 



?R0¥. C. A. YOUNG. 



FEW astronomical books have acquired or have 

 deserved a wider reputation than has been 

 accorded to the " General Astronomy " of Prof. C. A. 

 Young, and all who have profited by the accuracy and 

 completeness of that work will regret to hear of the 

 death of the distinguished author, who identified 

 himself so closely with the progress of the Princeton 

 Observatory (N.J.). Other popular works, such as 

 " The Sun," have been well received, for Prof. 

 Young's qualities as a writer and teacher were well 

 known and acknowledged. But though accident may 

 have given him distinction as a writer of elementary 

 works, of which his long career as a teacher had 

 shown him the necessity, he had far greater claims 

 on our respect and gratitude. Son of a distinguished 

 astronomer. Dr. Ira Y'oung, of Dartmouth, he was 

 early and severelv trained in mathematics and astro- 

 nomy, and for fifty years he gave of his best to 

 forward the interests of the science he loved. More- 

 over, his activitv synchronised with the recent de- 

 velopment of physical astronomy; he was one of the 

 pioneers of solar spectroscopy, and his continued and 

 successful researches in various directions entitle him 

 to ample recognition. 



His first appointment was to the chair of mathe- 

 matics in the Western Reserve College, a post from 

 which he retired only to serve his country in a mili- 

 tary capacity during the War of Secession. .After 

 the war, he succeeded his father as professor of astro 

 nomy at Dartmouth College, leaving that post in 1877 

 to accept a similar position at Princeton, where his 

 energies found sufficient exercise during the remainder 

 of his professional career. 



Like most astronomers who have occupied them- 

 selves with solar phenomena, Prof. Young found 

 it necessary to follow the track of many eclipses. The 

 most famous of these is that of 1870, when he, for 

 the first time, saw and described the now familiar 

 appearance of the reversed Fraiinhofer lines at the 

 instant of the inner contact of the limbs of the sun 

 and moon. Owing to the much-debated " reversing 

 layer," which he suggested as the true cause of the 

 flash, this eclipse has become historical. He took 

 part in the observations of the solar eclipse of 1878 

 which passed over the American continent, and visited 

 Europe in 1887 for the Russian eclipse, but without 

 result, owing to bad w-eather. Onwards to igoo he 

 was a diligent observer of eclipses, and extended our 

 knowledge of the sun's surroundings as well by his 

 acute observation as by his luminous discussion of 

 results obtained. His early explanation of the spec- 

 trum of the corona is now received practically as he 

 gave it. 



l>ut Prof. Y'oung's researches were not limited to 

 exceptional opportunities. He gave constant and 

 assiduous attention to the solar spectrum at all times, 

 and was an indefatigable observer of the spectrum of 



NO. 1997, VOL. 77] 



sun-spots, repairing to favourable situations in order 

 to secure good observing conditions. The chromo- 

 sphere, no less than sun-spots, was the subject of his 

 care, and his catalogue of chromospheric lines, begun 

 so far back as 1872, is a memorable piece of work. 

 Further, he was among the first to determine the 

 velocity of the solar rotation at various heliographic 

 latitudes by measuring the displacement of solar lines 

 due to motion at the source of light. The spectra of 

 planets and comets, of stars and nebulae, were all 

 made the subject of profound study, for his industry 

 was as untiring as his resource was abundant. His 

 work was recognised by the Royal .\stronomical 

 Society, which enrolled hiin among its associates in 

 1872, and many other learned societies paid him 

 similar honours. He was the recipient of the Janssen 

 medal of the French -Xcademy of Sciences in iSgi, 

 but his great reward must have been the conscious- 

 ness of the amount and variety of work he had accom- 

 plished for the promotion of astronomical science. 



NOTES. 



We regret to announce that Prof. J. B. Pettigrew, 

 F.R.S., Chandos professor of medicine and anatomy in the 

 University of St. Andrews, died on January 29 in his 

 seventy-third year. 



We observe with great regret the announcement that 

 Mr. W. A. Shenstone, F.R.S., senior science master in 

 Clifton College since 1880, died on Monday, February 3, 

 at fifty-eight years of age. 



A Reuter message from Brussels announces the death 

 of M. .\. Lancaster, director of the meteorological depart- 

 ment of the Royal Observatory of Belgium at Uccle. 



Prof. W. RmoEWAY, professor of archa:ology in the 

 University of Cambridge, has been elected president of the 

 Royal -Anthropological Institute. 



The P'rcnch Physical Society has undertaken the publica- 

 tion of a collection of physical constants. The general 

 secretary, M. H. .\braham, has issued an appeal to 

 members of the society to assist in the collaboration. 



The King, who is patron of the Society of Arts, has 

 granted permission to the society to prefix to its title the 

 term " Royal," and the society will consequently in future 

 be known as the " Royal Society of Arts." 



On Tuesday next, February 11, Prof. Stirling will begin 

 a course of six lectures at the Royal Institution on 

 "Membranes: their Structure, Uses, and Products." The 

 Friday evening discourse on February 14 will be delivered 

 bv Dr. C. W. Saleebv on "Biology and History," and 

 on February 21 by Sir Oliver Lodge on " The Ether of 

 Space." 



Sir PiULir W.vns, K.C.B., F.R.S., Director of Naval 

 Construction, has been elected a member of the Athena'um 

 Club under the rule which empowers the annual election 

 by the committee of three persons " of distinguished 

 eminence in science, literature, the arts, or for public 

 services." 



The annual general meeting of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 14 

 and 15. The annual dinner will be held — under the presi- 

 dency of Sir Hugh Bell, Bart.— in the Grand Hall of the 

 Hotel Cecil on Thursday, May 14. The autumn meeting 

 will be held in Middlesbrough on September 29 and follow- 

 ing days. 



