422 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 927 



first chairman of our observatory commit- 

 tee, "to push forward the frontier of 

 human knowledge." 



In the minds of many whose interest in 

 astronomy is general rather than special, 

 we often find the belief that it is the prin- 

 cipal business of the astronomer to make 

 discoveries. It is true that there is hardly 

 anything more striking that the astronomer 

 can do than to bring to the attention of 

 the world a new comet, a temporary star, 

 or the like. But valuable as such discov- 

 eries are, they do not constitute the kind 

 of work that will most rapidly push for- 

 ward the frontier of human knowledge. I 

 would, if I might, place an inscription 

 above the door of this observatory and 

 would call to it the attention of each new 

 member of our staff, "Abandon hope of 

 making discoveries, all ye who enter here. ' ' 

 This view may seem a radical one to part 

 of my audience, but I am sure that it will 

 meet with ready sympathy among those 

 astronomers here present who have had 

 occasion to give thought to this subject. 

 Some years ago. Professor Cattell, the 

 editor of Science, asked ten of our lead- 

 ing astronomers to set down in the order 

 of their preference the names of those 

 living Americans who had contributed 

 most to the progress of astronomy. One 

 result of this ballot was very remarkable; 

 it was found that the voters had without 

 exception put the same name at the head 

 of their lists — that of Simon Newcomb. 

 This high place in the esteem of his col- 

 leagues was reached by setting on foot and 

 directing the exceedingly laborious com- 

 putations that would enable us to predict 

 the situations of the siin, moon, planets and 

 some of the fixed stars, with greater accu- 

 racy than had hitherto been the case; or, 

 in other words, by following out with 

 greater thoroughness, the consequences of 

 the law of gravitation within the solar 



system. To this, the principal work of his 

 life, Newcomb continued to add other im- 

 portant investigations up to the day of his 

 death; but throughout his long and fruit- 

 ful career we find no record of a discovery. 

 Be it well understood that I am using this 

 word with its narrower meaning, and not 

 in the sense that would permit us to speak 

 of Kirchhoff as having discovered the prin- 

 ciple of spectrum analysis, or of Langiey 

 as having discovered a method of mapping 

 the entire spectriim of the sun. 



Let me give one other illustration of 

 what work it is that astronomers them- 

 selves deem to be the best. Near the little 

 village of Nyaek there lives in modest re- 

 tirement upon the farm of his fathers and 

 of his own boyhood, George William HiU. 

 Although he is perhaps the greatest genius 

 that this country has as yet borne, it is 

 safe to say that not one person in a thou- 

 sand, even among people of education, is 

 familiar with his name, much less with 

 his work. But among astronomers, both 

 abroad and at home (possibly more abroad 

 than at home), he is recognized as being 

 one of a very few to whom astronomy of 

 the present day owes most. Here again 

 discoveries form no part of this notable 

 career; and in fact so far as records go, 

 Hill may never have used a telescope. His 

 greatest work is in connection with periodic 

 orbits, the best method yet devised for 

 handling the problem of three bodies under 

 certain restrictions. 



You are not getting the impression, I 

 trust, that I wish to belittle the work of 

 discovery. I am merely trying to get the 

 bearing of such work so far as it affects 

 the responsibilties of an observatory staff, 

 at whose disposal have been placed instru- 

 ments of the first rank. You must first 

 catch your comet before you can make 

 comet investigations, and so with asteroids, 

 double stars and spectroscopic binaries. 



