October G, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



381 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 THE HERSCHEL CENTENARY 



WiiAiAM Herschel died 1822 August 25. A 

 hundred years later a party of Herscliels of 

 the third, fourth and fifth generations, astron- 

 omers and meinbei'S of the Slougli Urlian 

 Council made a pious pilgrimage to Upton 

 Church, Slough, where he lies 'buried; and, 

 after lunching together at the Crown Hotel, 

 which once formed part of William Herschel's 

 property, proceeded to Observatory House — 

 in which two of his granddaughters still live, — 

 where they saw many manuscripts and the 

 other relics of the great astronomer. They saw, 

 for instance, the copy of Locke "On the Human 

 Understanding," the first English book lie pur- 

 chased in order to study our language ; and 

 they saw also Caroline Herschel's "Bills and 

 Receipts of My Comets," which was her 

 manner of labeling papers relating to her eom- 

 etary discoveries; they saw a piece of the old 

 40-foot tube, and one of the 4-foot mirrors 

 made for it, and discussed with IMiss Herschel 

 the possible whereabouts of the other mirror, 

 which may be buried in the garden, and still 

 to be excavated. It is wonderful to think how 

 Herschel's work, old though it is, touches our 

 modern work almost at every point. If we take 

 the half-dozen great advances mentioned by 

 Professor Eddington in his centenary address 

 to the Royal, we are reminded by the measure- 

 ments of stellar parallax how Herschel's at- 

 tempts in this direction led to the recognition 

 of binary stars; the discovery of Neptune de- 

 pended essentially on Herschel's previous dis- 

 covery of Uranus; one of the early uses made 

 of the spectroscope was to confinn Herschel's 

 view of the gaseous nature of nebulae; in pho- 

 tography the first glass negative was taken by 

 his own son, and the subject was the scaffolding 

 of his great 40-foot, and even in our modern 

 advances the two-stream hypothesis is only a 

 development of Herschel's investigation of tlie 

 sun's movement among the stars; and the 

 measurement of the disc of Betelgeuse reminds 

 us not only of his carefid scrutiny of objects 

 for any signs of a disc, but of his investiga- 

 tions in optics and his splendid engineering 

 work in the making of great telescopes. How 

 he would have enjoyed himself in the great 

 factory at Mt. AN'ilson, or discussing problems 



of cosmogony with the mathematicians of to- 

 day 1 Undoubtedly he was a great man, and it 

 was fitting that his memory should be thus 

 honored, so soon after the centenary of the 

 society which had the honor of having him for 

 its first president. — From an Oxford Note- 

 Book in The Ohservatory. 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 



The fortieth stated meeting of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union will 'convene in Chicago, 

 from October 24 to 26. The public meetings 

 will be held in the lecture halls of the Field 

 Museum of Natural History, from 10 A.M 

 until 4:30 P.M. each day. 



The reading of papers will form a prom- 

 inent feature of the meetings. ' All classes of 

 members are earnestly requested to contribute, 

 and to notify the secretary before October 15, 

 as to the titles of their communications, and 

 the length of time required for their presenta- 

 tion, so that a program for each day may be 

 prepared in advance. 



Business sessions will be held at the Univer- 

 sity Club of Chicago. Public sessions will be 

 held in the Field Museum of Natural History, 

 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan. Hotel 

 headquarters will be at the Auditorium Hotel. 

 According to 'custom, a dinner will be held on 

 Wednesday evening, October 25, for fellows, 

 members, associates and guests. Luncheon will 

 be served daily at 1 P.M. in the museum, Octo- 

 ber 25, 26, 27. On Friday, October 28, an 

 excursion will be conducted to the Indiana 

 Sand Dunes, fifty miles southeast of Chicago. 

 Particulars in regard to these features will be 

 found at the registration desk on tlie opening 

 day. 



An exhibition of bird paintings and photo- 

 graphs will be held in connection with the 

 meeting, to which every one is invited to con- 

 tribute. Original paintings, drawings and 

 sketches in color or black and white are de- 

 sired, not only from the artists, themselves, but 

 from owners who may be willing to loan them. 



PUBLIC LECTURES AT THE CALIFORNIA 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The California Academy of Sciences an- 

 nounces a course of six free public lectures on 

 the general subject of "Science and Health," to 



