42 SCIENCE. 
‘mind and show wherein they seem to need 
strengthening. 
‘All the astronomical instruments of the Observa- 
tory have been steadily and continuously in use dur- 
ing the year on every clear night and day.” 
So comprehensive a statement as this can 
be made by no other observatory ; and the 
importance assigned it is shown by the 
prominence of its position, and its being re- 
peated by the Bureau in its report direct to 
the Secretary of the Navy. But in other 
passages of the report we find that the 9-in. 
transit circle was out of use undergoing re- 
pairs more than half the year, that little use 
was made of the 6-in. circle except to take 
the place of the 9-in., and that observations 
with the latter and with the photohelio- 
graph were suspended because the observ- 
ers were engaged in making preparations 
We find 
also that the total number of separate ob- 
for the total eclipse of the sun. 
servations with the prime vertical transit 
was 164, less than one-half the number of 
nights in the year, while those with the 
altazimuth, used as a zenith telescope, num- 
bered a little more than the days in the 
year. At the international geodetic stations 
the observers are expected to make about 
16 double observations on every clear night. 
We confess to some difficulty in interpret- 
ing and reconciling these statements. 
‘«The board chooses to assume that the salary of 
every professor of mathematics in the Navy, active or 
retired, except two at the Naval Academy, is charge- 
It there- 
fore charges in its exhibit the salaries of officers on 
able to the expenses of the Observatory. 
the retired list, and the salary of one officer still on the 
active list whose connection with the Observatory has 
long since definitely ceased for cause. By such flimsy 
expedients as this the expense column is easily 
swelled.”’ 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 315. 
The law provides for twelve professors on 
the active list. The exact number on the 
retired list we do not know, but certainly 
six, still living, have been retired from the 
Observatory and the Nautical Almanac 
Office, making a total of not less than 
eighteen. All but two of these would num- 
We find by reference to the 
passage alluded to in the report of the 
board, that five active professors with esti- 
mated salaries of $15,000 are charged to the 
Observatory, while the salaries of the pro- 
ber sixteen. 
fessors retired from active duty there are 
estimated in the total at $10,000. The 
salaries of the senior ones are $3,500. We 
do not know whether the $8,000 estimated 
is or is not more than that of the three 
others ; but it does not seem that it could 
be much in excess. We are therefore un- 
able to see what ground there can be for the 
statement we have quoted which implies 
that the salaries of sixteen professors were 
charged to the Observatory. 
In explanation of delay in publishing ob- 
servations the report says: 
“The delays in building, the labor of dismounting 
and remounting the instruments, the repairs and alter- 
ations of the same and their subsequent installation, 
the removal of the records and Observatory property, 
and generally the labor involved in settling in the new 
place, absorbed the entire time of the whole very 
limited working force of the Observatory for several 
years. * * * The force of the astronomical staff, 
sufficient for current work in settled times, was totally 
inadequate to bring up back work when the work had 
fallen behind. It wassimply a physical impossibility 
to keep up the publications, to make the current ob- 
servations and do the necessary work of removal at 
the same time. * * * It might have reasonably been 
shown that during the whole of this transition period 
current work was practically uninterrupted and that 
