150 
erence had been made, the purpose of which is 
to determine the zenith distance of stars cul- 
minating very near the zenith. 
The second regular paper was by Mr. Hay- 
ford on ‘ The New Precise Leveling Instrument’ 
of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, with exhibi- 
tion of it. The instrument is very low and 
stable, the new iron nickel alloy is used, the 
level tube is sunk well into the telescope tube, 
the parts are not reversible as formerly, and an 
auxiliary telescope with mirror is provided for 
the left eye to read the ends of the bubble. 
Field experience shows that both rapidity and 
accuracy of working have been much increased 
by the use of the new instrument. [The full 
description will be published elsewhere. ] 
CHARLES K. WEAD, 
Secretary. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
WHOSE FAULT AT THE U. S. NAVAL OB- 
SERVATORY. 
To THE EDITOR oF SCIENCE: It is natural 
and very proper that the Superintendent of the 
Naval Observatory should defend his institu- 
tion, even vigorously, against charges, where 
he conceives there is ground for believing there 
has been lack of fair play. The delicate task 
imposed upon the Board of Visitors should evi- 
dently have been sufficient motive for safe- 
guarding their report against the suspicion of 
unfairness, if any has been shown, by first giv- 
ing full credit to the existing organization in 
preparation for their suggestions looking to an 
improvement. Otherwise, the entire affair will 
degenerate into a dispute, and that is the most 
hopeless basis upon which to approach Congress 
for remedial legislation. 
Your editorial in SctmnceE of January 4, 1901, 
on the ‘Naval Observatory Report’ does not 
seem to be free from the objection that it 
charges against the administration of the Ob- 
servatory certain results which do not in reality 
belong there. You blame it for the removal of 
the Magnetic Observatory to its present site, 
and for the imperfections of the instrumental 
apparatus acquired during the past thirty years. 
It is very easy to misplace responsibility, but in 
a discussion of this kind it ought not to be 
done; and the fact is admitted that in such 
SCLENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 317. 
matters of administration the executive acts 
upon the advice of his subordinates. Now, 
certainly, there could not be two more con- 
spicuous examples chosen to show that, where 
the astronomers have had their own way, the 
blame is being shifted to the chief. For it is 
well known that the magnetic observatory was 
moved by the counsel of the Astronomical Di- 
rector, in cooperation with that of a prominent 
visiting English astronomer, and against the 
arguments of the professor in charge of the 
magnetic work, and all others in Washington 
interested in magnetic observations. The ac- 
tion of neighboring trolleys and dynamos was 
pointed out, but the wish to possess the equip- 
ment overruled the interests of science. The 
fact that the work of the magnetic observatory 
has not been otherwise efficient is partly due 
to the appointment of untrained officers of the 
Navy to conduct the operations, and this is 
of course a matter of administration. In the 
planning of new instruments the astronomers 
have for a long while had their head, and if they 
chose to experiment in novel constructions 
and to entrust the building of the instruments 
to American firms, they ought at least to re- 
lieve the administration, which simply ex- 
pressed their decisions, of the blame for an un- 
satisfactory outcome of that kind. 
This brings up the problem of administration. 
There are two types of organization, the first, 
where there is a strong head and a corps of 
subordinates who are his assistants, and over 
whom his decisions are final, of which the ob- 
servatories at Cordoba and Harvard College 
are examples; then there are staffs formed of 
practically independent professors whose real 
bond of union is cooperation, of which the Naval 
Observatory is an example ; other observatories 
have a mixed system in operation. The first 
type is calculated to put out a large mass of 
routine work, and to do immense pieces of ob- 
servation and reduction along well-understood 
simple lines; the second type is suited for 
scientific researches into unexplored territory, 
where the initiative and the successful progress 
depends entirely upon the personality of the 
astronomer. No chief by executive order can 
aid his research, and the heads of institutions are 
always only too glad to support the work of men 
