12 SCIENCE. 
It is particularly worthy of note that the 
board actually proposes to remove the af- 
fairs of the Observatory from Government 
control. The irresponsible governing au- 
thority of a public institution is to be ‘a 
board of visitors independent of Govern- 
ment control, but having power to make 
necessary changes.’ With the exception 
of this preposterous proposal, I will dismiss 
the plan of reorganization proposed by the 
board with the simple statement that sub- 
sequent events have made it impracticable, 
or at least highly unlikely, to be seriously 
considered now. To apply it atthe present 
time would be, not to build up, but to tear 
down. 
A determined effort wasmade by the board 
to prevent, if possible, the appointment of 
new men to fill the vacancies created by the 
retirement of the older professors of mathe- 
matics at the Observatory. New offices 
were created in the board’s plan of reor- 
ganization, at enormous salaries. Notwith- 
standing the efforts of the board to prevent 
it, these vacancies have all been filled in 
line with the traditional policy of the Ob- 
servatory, which has always been to take 
for its staff young men of promise whose 
career was before them, in contrast with the 
plan, recommended by the board, of appoint- 
ing at once to high office men whose sci- 
entific reputation was already established, 
and whose prejudices and animosities were 
mature and confirmed. 
I have ventured to touch in brief upon 
the report of the board of visitors in a man- 
ner which I trust does not transcend the 
legal limitations of this report, because, 
while the Observatory has been made the 
object of adverse criticism in the report, the 
friends and supporters of the board have 
not hesitated to assail it in attacks in the 
public prints, some of which have been ex- 
tremely abusive and obviously dictated by 
pure malice, and with the knowledge that 
a reply in kind was impossible. This report 
(N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 314. 
furnishes the only means of replying to 
these attacks, which are and have been 
perennial, culminating in force whenever, 
as in the present instance, circumstances 
seemed to justify a reasonable anticipation 
of success. 
The Observatory staff is now complete. 
The excuse afforded by the retirement of 
the older professors of mathematics no 
longer exists. For the present, at least, no 
person, no matter how eminent he may be 
in science, can pretend to be a friend of the 
Observatory or of science while attacking 
its organization. I do not mean to say 
that the Observatory should be exempt 
from criticism ; butsuch criticism, in order 
to be of any benefit, must be made in a 
spirit of fairness, and not in a spirit of ani- 
mosity. The Observatory invited such criti- 
cism from the recent board of visitors, and 
its invitation was slighted. 
The Observatory is making an earnest and 
honest effort to correct faults which have, 
in most cases, arisen from circumstances 
not wholly within its own control, as the 
board very well knew, but omitted to point 
out. It is only reasonable to ask that it 
be allowed a fair field for its efforts. 
The experience with the recent board of 
visitors was not such as to encourage the 
hope that much good can be gained by a 
repetition of the experiment. Nevertheless, 
I recommend that a board of visitors be ap- 
pointed from time to time, as may be con- 
venient to the Department, not to act in 
an arbitrary and irresponsible capacity of 
authority, ‘ free of government control,’ as 
recommended by the late board of visitors, 
but to give the Observatory the benefit of 
its counsel and to give the scientific world 
an insight into the actual workings of the 
institution. 
[The following extracts from the report of 
the Astronomical Director refer to the instru- 
ments whose work is not summed up in the 
preceding report of the Superintendent. | 
