August 22, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



179 



which are waiting to be put into action. En- 

 thusiasm is lost before there is a fair start in' 

 investigation. When enthusiasm is lost every- 

 thing is lost, and the graduate schools are all 

 too full of persons who are carrying out re- 

 searches as a matter of duty and not as a 

 matter of personal inward necessity. 



No one can be a " zealous " investigator un- 

 less the investigation of some particular prob- 

 lem is absolutely necessary for his comfort, 

 unless he is unhappy if not at work on it, un- 

 less there is an inner flame which will not let 

 him rest. Such an attitude of mind can be 

 obtained only by continued contact with nat- 

 ural phenomena, by a realization of the kin- 

 ship with nature which makes us carry the 

 joy of companionship from the realm of hu- 

 man beings to all nature whether living or 

 non-living. We know the man who is inter- 

 ested in his fellow-men because he wishes to 

 use them for financial gain. We do not wish 

 to follow his example. The same type of man 

 is to be found in science, the man who sees in 

 nature only a means for obtaining material 

 gain. The true type of investigator, however, 

 is he who delights in the existence of a imi- 

 verse which yields secrets to his tender regard. . 

 I remember when I was a boy our neighbors 

 used to bring their sickly house plants to my 

 mother to keep for them until they regained 

 full vigor. When asked why they did so well 

 for her she always said, " They grow so well 

 for me because I love them." 



So let me urge upon you the cultivation 

 of a relationship with nature and its problems 

 based upon direct and personal intimate con- 

 tact with it. The problems you are engaged 

 in solving then become your own problems, 

 their solution becomes necessary for your 

 happiness. Your soul can not have peace 

 until they are solved. Charles Zeleny 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



AMERICAN ASTRONOMY! 



In the year 1840 the Dana House Observa- 

 tory of Harvard College was established by the 

 aid of public funds and private subscription, 

 with William Cranch Bond as director. It. 



1 From Nature. 



was not the first college observatory in Amer- 

 ica, and other eminent American astronomers 

 had lived earlier in the century, but the date 

 may be taken as the beginning of systematic 

 astronomical observation in the western conti- 

 nent. The U. S. Kaval Observatory was es- 

 tablished in 1844, and the present Harvard Ob- 

 servatory founded, largely by generous help 

 from private benefactors, in 1846. Other in- 

 stitutions of the period might be named where, 

 the science of astronomy of position was pur-" 

 sued, and this, with the splendid work on 

 planets, satellites, comets, asteroids, nebulae 

 and the astronomy of the solar system gener- 

 ally done at Harvard by W. C. Bond and G-. P. 

 Bond, and afterwards by Winlock, is to be con- 

 sidered representative of the astronomy of the 

 United States in the succeeding forty years. 

 The accession of the late Professor E. C. Pick- 

 ering to the directorate of the Harvard Ob- 

 servatory in 1877 marks the beginning of the 

 astronomical era in which we now live. Spec- 

 troscopy, stellar physics, and stellar statistics 

 are the principail features. Professor Picker- 

 ing's work was stellar photometry on a whole- 

 sale scale. Stellar spectroscopy and the deter- 

 mination of the radial velocity of stars by its 

 means had been begun by Huggins in 1864; 

 the photographic plate came into general use 

 as an adjunct to the astronomer's equipment, 

 in the decade 1880-90, and these three items 

 have formed the basis of the work of the 

 American observatories of recent creation. 

 The Lick Observatory, with the 36-inch tele- 

 scope, was completed in 1887 at the expense, as ' 

 every one knows, of an American business man. 

 The Yerkes Observatory came into existence 

 in 1897, and the observatory at Mount Wilson 

 in 1904. These things are recalled at this 

 moment because, during the past week, Eng- 

 lish astronomers have been gratified by a visit 

 from a delegation of astronomers from across 

 the Atlantic who were on their way to take 

 part in the establishment of an International 

 Astronomical Union at a conference now be- 

 ing held in Brussels (July 18-28). 



At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety on July 11, specially arranged for the 

 purpose, the visitors spoke in turn of the work 



