July 20, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



67 



would have difficulty in detecting any dif- 

 ferences during these two thousand years. 



But for the errors in copying mentioned 

 above, the Almagest would still give us 

 valuable information regarding the secular 

 changes in the stars. No worker in science 

 knows whether his results will have any 

 value a century hence. The work of the 

 older astrologers was supposed, at that 

 time, to be as valuable as that of the as- 

 tronomers. No one could tell that the 

 work of the early chemists was of more 

 importance than that of the alchemists. 

 Until within a century, the estimates of 

 the light of the stars as given in the Al- 

 magest were considered as of little scien- 

 tific value. One man of genius. Sir Will- 

 iam Herschel, recognized the value of accu- 

 rate determinations of stellar brightness, 

 and from 1796 to 1799 he published four 

 catalogues^ of 1,905 stars, covering two 

 thirds of the northern sky. It was my 

 great good fortune, when visiting his 

 grandson in 1883, to discover the manu- 

 script of two other catalogues, which when 

 published rendered the work complete for 

 the entire portion of the sky visible in Eng- 

 land. For eighty years they had lain on 

 the shelf, unknown to astronomers, and 

 their existence was not even suspected. 

 Although the observations had been made 

 with the greatest care, the six catalogues 

 were not in a form that could be used. 

 The necessary reductions and publications 

 of the results were made at the Harvard 

 Observatory, and thus we were enabled to 

 present to astronomers a catalogue of near- 

 ly three thousand stars, showing their 

 brightness a century ago and determined 

 with an accuracy which has only been 

 equaled within the last few years. 



These are examples of great successes by 

 <;lear-sighted men of genius who little sus- 

 pected how highly their work would be ap- 

 preciated after they were dead. To offset 

 this, there are whole generations of astron- 



omers whose life work is now of little or no 

 value. Let each man ask himself to which 

 class his own work belongs. Only the 

 future can decide with certainty, but we 

 can at least improve methods, which will 

 certainly do good and can do no harm. 



Unfortunately, astronomical research has 

 now become so expensive that large sums 

 are required to carry it a step beyond what 

 has already been accomplished. A word 

 must, therefore, be said to men and women 

 of wealth who desire to aid this science by 

 gift. Many persons have learned how to 

 accumulate great fortunes, but few have 

 succeeded in giving away wisely large sums 

 of money for scientific work of the highest 

 grade. It is strange that a shrewd busi- 

 ness man, who by life-long labor has ac- 

 cumulated a fortune, if he wishes to give 

 it away, should not use the same skill that 

 he did in acquiring it. When buying a 

 mine he sends experts to examine it, and 

 assures himself that he will obtain an ade- 

 quate return. When converting his money 

 into scientific results he should similarly 

 satisfy himself that his plan is a good one, 

 and that it will fill a real want. 



Let us, therefore, hereafter have no need- 

 less duplication of observatories, no great 

 telescopes that are idle, no costly expedi- 

 tions which, owing to insufficient prepara- 

 tion and lack of proper organization, will 

 surely bring no adequate return. Money 

 placed in the hands of a suitable committee 

 would doubtless be spent to great advan- 

 tage. The Rumford Fund of the American 

 Academy and the Elizabeth Thompson 

 Fund are thus well and wisely adminis- 

 tered. But it is pitiful to hear from men 

 of the greatest ability their needs for ap- 

 paratus, assistants, or means for publica- 

 tion, which can not be supplied by the few 

 hundred dollars thus available. 



One of the greatest needs of the physical 

 sciences at the present time is a liberal 

 fund for research, administered solely in 



