650 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 176. 



the human senses displayed by the psy- 

 chologists as in the apparatus developed 

 by our astronomers and physicists. Beside 

 the newest technique of pure research in the 

 physical and biological sciences, you will 

 find beautiful and diverse methods applied 

 to the arts, to photography, to the manu- 

 facture of exquisite glass vases, as well as 

 to the more useful clays from all parts of 

 Europe. 



Explorations. — True to the Monroe Doc- 

 trine, we are no longer allowing France, 

 Germany or any other country to preoc- 

 cupy our proper scientific territory, and you 

 will observe proofs of especial activity 

 along the noble western coast of the Amer- 

 icas from Cape Horn to Point Barrow, 

 Alaska. From the photographs of Are- 

 quipa, Peru, the highest astronomical sta- 

 tion in the world, the mosses of northern 

 Bolivia, the Indians of Mexico, we have 

 invaded British territory and are making 

 the study of the North Pacific and the zo- 

 ology of the Pacific Coast from Puget 

 Sound to Alaska our own. "We are also 

 invading other countries by expeditions of 

 various kinds, and our geologists and miner- 

 alogists draw their exhibitions from every 

 part of the world, from Tasmania to Fin- 

 land. 



Diversity of Subjects. — The subjects treated 

 in this exhibition are as widely separated 

 as these geographical areas ; in adjoining 

 alcoves you will find the brains of New 

 Guinea natives and the moth Siamese 

 Twins. Across the aisle, in the field of 

 electricity, signalling without wires is in 

 process, widely in contrast with the con- 

 centrated polar cold of the liquid air in the 

 main hall. The monster Camarasaur, at 

 least ten millon years old, from the base of 

 the Cretaceous, puts a Pickwickian inter- 

 pretation upon the words ' old ' and ' rare ' 

 as applied to the manuscripts in the depart- 

 ment of philology. 



Progress. — Scientific work day by day 



appears to drag. It is only when an in- 

 terval of a few months passes and we have 

 taken stock of things that we realize our 

 immense progress. We are especially en- 

 couraged for the future by the generous 

 gifts which are pouring into the service of 

 science in this city. Only a week ago a 

 gentlemen agreed to fit out an expedition 

 to the west coast of Africa. Fortunate is 

 the country where men of brains are drawn 

 into the pursuit of science, and men of ap- 

 preciation and wealth supply the sinews of 

 scientific warfare. Pure research is a lux- 

 ury, for it brings no immediate return, but 

 as an investment it finally repays a city or 

 a country a hundred or a thousand fold. 



At our annual exhibition last year we 

 signalized electricity as the especial subject 

 of scientific progress in the person of Mr. 

 Nikola Tesla. This year we believe that 

 astronomy deserves the place of honor. 

 American astronomy, reaping, as it does, 

 the combined advantages of our mathe- 

 matical genius and natural inventiveness, 

 of our wonderfully clear sky, and the sup- 

 port of generous wealth, certainly occu- 

 pies a commanding position. We, there- 

 fore, take pleasure in introducing Professor 

 George E. Hale, who will tell you of the 

 great Yerkes Observatory and the especial 

 merits of large telescopes. 



THE FUNCTION OF LARGE TELESCOPES.* 

 The annual exhibitions of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences afibrd excellent oppor- 

 tunities for studying the progress of science. 

 The photographs and specimens gathered 

 here to-night are substantial evidence that in 

 no department of research have investigators 

 been idle during the last twelfthmonth. So 

 true is this that to sketch the year's ad- 

 vances in even a single field would consume 

 more time than is allotted to the annual 

 lecture. It therefore seemed to me wise, 

 * An address given at the Fifth Annual Eeception 

 of the New York Academy of Sciences. 



