SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1883. 



THE NATIONAL OBSERVATORY. 



We call the naval obsenatory at Washing- 

 ton ' national,' not because we would ignore 

 its recognized official title, but because we 

 wish to emphasize the facts, so often lost sight 

 of, that it is the propertj- of the nation, that 

 it is the only observatory of the first class 

 which the nation possesses, and that its opera- 

 tions should be equally available for every 

 department of the government. Such an in- 

 stitution is a national one, bj- whatever name 

 it may be called ; and the question of its 

 direction and supervision is one of interest to 

 ever}- government office having need of such 

 astronomical observations as can be made onl}' 

 at a fixed observator}-. The general principle 

 that it should be under purely scientific control 

 is one that has generalh- been conceded in the 

 abstract, but has not alwa3-s been acted upon. 

 Sears Cook Walker, who, thirt^'-five years ago, 

 was perhaps the most eminent astronomer of 

 America, propounded this principle in a pub- 

 lished letter ; but Maury was then near the 

 zenith of his power, and little notice was taken 

 of the opinion of the subordinate. From that 

 time to this, the superintendency has remained 

 in the hands of line-officers of the navj-. The 

 officers of our navy are of too high a charac- 

 ter, and have too much self-respect, to pretend 

 to a knowledge which they do not possess : 

 we mav therefore inquire how it happens that 

 they claim the exclusive direction of an estab- 

 lishment most of whose operations are outside 

 the line of their professional qualifications. 

 Secretarj- Chandler has never given official 

 utterance to his views ; but he is understood 

 to have said that he did not feel authorized 

 to deviate from a precedent which had been 

 sanctioned by forty years of usage. Precedent 

 is, in one form or another, the basis of the 

 principal argument on which the present s^'s- 



No. 34. - 18S3. 



tem is sustained : we shall therefore inquire 

 whether it has any real validity. 



In order that such a supposed precedent 

 may afford any sound reason for its continu- 

 ance, the system must have resulted from the 

 matured judgment of his predecessors, whose 

 acts the new secretary followed. Unless this 

 was the case, unless he was doing what the}- 

 would have done under the same circumstances, 

 the argument could have had no legitimate 

 weight. Now, if one looks more closely at the 

 case, he will see that there is a great deal of 

 precedent on the other side. With one ex- 

 ception, not a superintendent had ever been 

 appointed before his time who was not a profes- 

 sional astronomer, or had not some standing 

 in the scientific world. Maury, Gilliss, Davis, 

 and Rodgers were all recognized as having, in 

 some form, qualifications arising from emi- 

 nence in science or from a familiarity with 

 scientific affairs ; and it was this consideration 

 which prompted their selection, and not merely 

 the fact that they were naval officers. We 

 might therefore claim that Secretary Chandler 

 himself had deviated from precedent in ap- 

 pointing superintendents on the sole ground 

 of naval rank. Indeed, we believe that Sec- 

 retary Chandler was the first who ever gave 

 any real hearing to what the astronomers of 

 tiie country had to say on the subject. On all 

 previous occasions, vacancies in the super- 

 intendency had been filled so quickly, that they 

 never had had time to give an organized ex- 

 pression to their views at the critical moment, 

 even supposing they had been disposed to find 

 fault with the selection, which certainly was 

 not always the case. A plaintiff whose suit 

 had been postponed from time to time for forty 

 years might well feel dissatisfied, if, when 

 finally heard, the decision of the judge should 

 be, that the defendant had remained so long in 

 possession, that he must now keep possession, 

 no matter what tiie merits of the case. It 

 should not be forgotten that the theory that the 



