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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1363 



interest that many more are desired. As an 

 example the following' may be instanced: A 

 well-known scientist in whose home Gilbert 

 was a frequent guest, warmly welcomed by 

 father, mother, and children, writes that one 

 of his boys, when a little fellow, became so 

 fond of the visitor that he for a year or so 

 woimd up his evening prayer with an added 

 petition of his own invention — " Lord ! bless 

 father, and mother, and Mr. Gilbert, and some 

 ladies." It is often written of an eminent man 

 that he was fond of children, but it is rare to 

 find testimony as spontaneous and convincing 

 as this to show that children were fond of 

 him. 



- W. M. Davis 

 CAMBEniGE, Mass., 

 January 27, 1921 



QUOTATIONS 



THE PRINTING OF ASTRONOMICAL 

 OBSERVATIONS 



Printing has become so expensive that it 

 will be necessary to revise some of our exist- 

 ing practises, and especially that with regard 

 to original observations. There is an un- 

 doubted convenience in printing original ob- 

 servations just as they are made, for, however 

 carefully they are discussed at the time, the 

 general advance of astronomy may later pro- 

 vide an improved basis for discussion. Thus, 

 old observations of position, such as those of 

 Bradley or Groombridge, gained much from the 

 growth in knowledge of instrumental errors, 

 and old observations of variable stars have 

 been rediseussed with advantage now that 

 better magnitudes of comparison stars are 

 available. 



There is no reason to anticipate finality in 

 improvement, and it is therefore a conveni- 

 ence to have the original material widely ac- 

 cessible; but one may have to pay too dearly 

 for this convenience, and it looks as though 

 the recent advance in prices had brought this 

 contingency about. We have have to be satis- 

 fied to store a fair copy of the original obser- 

 vations in some accessible place, such as the 

 library of the Royal Astronomical Society or 

 of a well-known observatory. Perhaps it would 



be better to store two copies, one of which 

 might be freely lent on demand, but not the 

 other. There is, moreover, this to be. said in 

 favor of this more economical policy — it is 

 not always the case that these original obser- 

 vations improve in value with time. No doubt 

 they improve just at first, but something may 

 happen which compensates the advantage of 

 lapse of time; even Bradley's observations are 

 to-day of historical rather than scientific 

 interest, in comparison with modern observa- 

 tions, as Boss maintained stoutly years ago 

 and others reluctantly admitted later. Micro- 

 meter measures of clusters by such careful ob- 

 servers as Pogson and Basendell are to-day 

 really not worth discussing; a couple of photo- 

 graphs at a few years' interval give better 

 proper-motions — far better — than could be de- 

 duced by the use of these early micrometer 

 measures. Hence the policy of holding up the 

 printing of observations may in some cases 

 obviate the need for printing at all; but if it 

 is adopted, I would strongly urge the alter- 

 native of depositing a fair copy in some well- 

 known library. And I may, perhaps, quote a 

 particular instance to point the moral : re- 

 cently I was interested in a particular vari- 

 able of which maxima had been recorded by a 

 particular observer nearly half a century ago; 

 I got into communication with him, and foimd 

 that he had given up observing and so far 

 forgotten his own devoted work as to deny at 

 first that he had ever made such observations! 

 But he was good enough to ransack his papers, 

 foimd the observations, and very kindly sent 

 me a copy of them. They were of great value, 

 and though perhaps it is going too far to say 

 that they might have been lost, still it must 

 be admitted that there was some risk of this 

 disaster. Hence I should repeat the maxim 

 deduced from my own experience and pre- 

 viously given in the form " when you have 

 made five years' observations publish them " 

 in a new dress: — "Either publish them, or 

 deposit a fair copy in some well-known 

 library, publishing an intimation to that 

 efiect." 



As I have made reference to this increased 

 cost of printing, may I call the attention of 



