May 13, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



651 



in responding to the courteous invitation 

 with which I was honored by the Council, 

 to select a subject involving certain details 

 of astronomical progress, without attempt- 

 ing to undertake the inviting task of por- 

 traying the rapid advances which make up 

 the recent history of the science. I accord- 

 ingly invite your attention to some con- 

 siderations regarding the function of great 

 telescopes. 



On the 21st of last October, in the pres- 

 ence of a large company of guests, the 

 Yerkes Observatory was dedicated to scien- 

 tific investigation. The exercises were held 

 under the great dome of the Observatory, 

 beneath the 40-inch telescope. Is there 

 reason to suppose that some in the audi- 

 ence, particularly those having no great 

 familiarity with astronomical instruments, 

 were inclined, in the course of the reflections 

 to which the occasion may have given rise, 

 to attribute to the great mass of steel and 

 optical glass rising far above their heads 

 some extraordinary and perhaps almost 

 supernatural power of penetrating the mys- 

 teries of the universe? It is not at all un- 

 likely that this was the case. For there 

 apparently exists in the public mind a ten- 

 dency to regard astronomical research with 

 a feeling of awe which is not accorded to 

 other branches of science. In its power of 

 searching out mysterious phenomena in the 

 infinite regions of space a great telescope 

 seems to stand alone among the appliances 

 of the investigator. Partly because of this 

 special veneration for its principal instru- 

 ment, and perhaps still more on account of 

 the boundless opportunity for speculation 

 regarding the origin and nature of the uni- 

 verse, astronomy appears to command the 

 interest of a great portion of the human 

 race. !N"o doubt there are also historical 

 reasons for the special attraction which the 

 subject seems to exercise. In the more 

 prosperous days of the countries bordering 

 on the Mediterranean astrology played an 



important role, and mediffival history illus- 

 trates most clearly the ascendency which 

 the fancies of the astrologers had acquired 

 over even cultivated minds. So strong was 

 the tendency of the times that even so able 

 an astronomer as Tycho Brahe was wont to 

 cast horoscopes, in the significance of which 

 he firmly believed. He concluded that the 

 new star of 1572 prognosticated great 

 changes in the world. Similarity to the 

 ruddy planet Mars pointed to wars, pesti- 

 lence, venomous snakes and general de- 

 struction, and its resemblance to Venus, 

 Jupiter and Saturn at other times foretold 

 temporary pleasant influences, followed by 

 death and famine.* Thus the heavenly 

 bodies in their courses were supposed to 

 exercise evil or benign influences upon the 

 human race, and the apparition of a great 

 comet or a new star gave rise to endless 

 speculations regarding the fate to which 

 the inhabitants of the Earth were shortly to 

 be exposed. Even in our own day it can- 

 not be said that we have altogether escaped 

 from the entangling meshes of the astro- 

 logical net. With that strong desire to be 

 humbugged which Dr. Bolton has so well 

 illustrated in his recent paper in Science 

 on latro-Chemistry, a portion of the general 

 public seems to devote itself with enthusi- 

 asm to the encouragement of charlatans, 

 whether they deal with alchemy, with 

 medicine or with astrology. So it is that 

 astrologers flourish to-day, and continue to 

 derive profit from their philanthropic desire 

 to reveal the future to inquiring minds. 



The interest of cultivated persons in as- 

 tronomy and in the possibilities of great 

 telescopes is by no means to be compared 

 with the blind groping of less developed in- 

 tellects after the mysteries of astrology. 

 But if we must regard the large circulation 

 of certain newspapers as any index to the 

 popularity of their contents, we are forced 

 to admit that their readers may comprise a 



* See Dreyer's Tycho Brahe, p. 50. 



