466 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 222. 



lias no need of it or of the scientific staff. It the so- 

 called scientific men of the country think that the 

 time has come to apply to Cgngress for money to 

 build a national observatory the Navy will not stand 

 in their way ; only it will take no responsibility for it, 

 and will be glad to see it go to another department 

 of the government, and to be under purely civilian 

 control, including professors with civilian appoint- 

 ments instead of Naval commissions.* 



This official view is enforced by tlie ab- 

 sence of legislation providing for the organ- 

 ization and government of tlie institntion 

 or prescribing its purposes or functions. 

 Not only has Congress never u.ttered a word 

 as to its purpose, but it has never, so far as 

 we can learn, provided any authority to de- 

 termine what work it should undertake. 

 The highest officials recognized in the an- 

 nual appropriations are assistant astrono- 

 mers, but there is no statement whom they 

 are to assist. Everything else is left with 

 the Navy Department, which has no way 

 to complete the organization except to order 

 naval officers and professors to duty at the 

 observatory, and establish such ru.les for 

 their guidance as it may see fit. We are not 

 aware that any regulations have ever been 

 issued prescribing a well-defined plan of as- 

 tronomical observations. All this accentu- 

 ates the secondary character of its astronom- 

 ical woi'k, and justifies the modesty of the 

 part which it has played in the progi*ess of 

 astronomy since the new buildings were 

 erected. 



If we accept the preceding view of the 

 functions of the observatory, then we are 

 the only one of the great nations that does 

 not support a national observatorj' for the 

 promotion of astronomical science. The 



* Senate, Ex. Doc, No. 67, 49th Congress, 1st 



question is whether our astronomers should 

 not act on the suggestion of Admiral Bel- 

 knap and petition Congress for the establish- 

 ment of such an institution as the_y want. 

 An astrophjrsical observatorj- is ali-eady 

 supported bj;- Congress under the auspices 

 of the Smithsonian Institution ; whj' should 

 not one for astrometiy in its widest range 

 be established under the same or other sci- 

 entific auspices ? 



How such a proposal would be met hy 

 Congress goes without saying. The first 

 questions would be : Have we not already 

 such an institution ? Has not Congress 

 alreadjr expended an unprecedented sum in 

 the erection of an observatory ? Is it not 

 supported at a greater annual expense than 

 any other similar institution in the world ? 

 What has it to do but prosecute the very 

 researches you want prosecuted and make 

 the very observations you want made ? 



It would be hard to meet these questions 

 without exposing what, at first sight, would 

 seem a weak point. It might not be difficult 

 to convince Congress that an institution 

 where the prosecution of astronomical work 

 was 'of purely secondary consideration," and 

 which was not sj^eciallj' organized as an 

 institution for astronomical work, could 

 never be expected to fulfil the requirements 

 of a national observatory. But how reconcile 

 the subordination of scientific to naval work 

 with what Congress has actuallj' done? 

 Why should our navy need a great establish- 

 ment costing nearly a million dollai-s and 

 fitted up with large and expensive astronom- 

 ical instruments any more than the English 

 or French or German navy ? The English 

 navy has its chronometers rated at the Green- 

 wich Observatory at a very small expense,. 



