Feueuaey 21, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



299 



both with violet to right and with violet to 

 left under the measuring miseroseope, as an 

 observer may have a large systematic differ- 

 ence in his mode of making a setting on 

 the dark lines of the comparison spectrum 

 and the white lines of the stellar spectrum 

 (on the negative). The writer has a large 

 systematic error of this kind, which is 

 reversed in sign but of the same size when 

 the measures are made on a positive copy 

 of the negative. By measuring the plate in 

 both directions this systematic difference 

 appears to be wholly eliminated. Each 

 plate is reduced by itself, independently of 

 any standard plate of a solar or metallic 

 speetriim, with the aid of the Cornu-Hart- 

 mann formula in its simple form, the ' fit ' 

 of which can be checked up at the position 

 of each comparison line and the wave- 

 lengths corrected accordingly. The first 

 star found by the Bruce spectrograph to be 

 a spectroscopic binary is r; Orionis. Four 

 of the first plates, taken by Mr. W. S. 

 Adams and the writer, yield the following 

 velocities : 



1901, Nov. 27,-68 km. per second. 



Dec. 6,-M3 " " 



Dec. 18,4-54 " " " 



Deo. 19,-56 " " 



The period is not yet determinate. In con- 

 cluding the paper the proposal was made 

 that the six or seven observatories, which 

 now include in their work the determination 

 of stellar velocities in the line of sight, should 

 cooperate in regularly observing a short list 

 of fundamental velocity stars. The com- 

 parison of the results obtained for the same 

 stars with the different spectrographs and 

 different observers, using different sources 

 of comparison spectrum and different lines 

 of the stellar spectra, could hardly fail to 

 be of great value both in indicating causes 

 of error in the separate instruments and 

 in establishing with a high degree of ac- 

 curacy the velocities of these fundamental 



stars. (To be published in The Astrophys- 



ical Journal.) 



"W. S. ElCHELBEKGER, 



For the Council. 



THE RELATION OF THE AMERICAN SO- 

 CIETY OF NATURALISTS TO OTHER 

 SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.* 



I AGREE in general with all that has been 

 said, and find myself in especially close ac- 

 cord with the remarks of Professor Tre- 

 lease — so much so, indeed, that I might 

 well refrain from saying more. Yet there 

 are two points in the discussion to which 

 I should like briefly to call attention. 



We are all agreed that the object of our 

 meetings is to spread the method and tem- 

 per of science among the people — to inocu- 

 late the community with the spirit of 

 science. Now, while the great central sci- 

 entific meetings, so well described by Pro- 

 fessor Minot, attract the attention of the 

 whole country for a brief time, they do 

 very little and can do very little in extend- 

 ing the infiuence or the real temper of 

 science. This must be done, if at all, by 

 the teaching, example and lives of those 

 who are devoted to science, scattered 

 through the countiy and making their in- 

 fluence felt daily throughout the year. It 

 is, therefore, of the utmost importance that 

 the local centers of science, and especially 

 the smaller centers, remain vigorous. By 

 these small centers I do not mean the great 

 universities, or even the smaller colleges. 

 The life of science in institutions of this 

 character does not need the stimulus of 

 meetings. Even at the present time men 

 thoroughly trained in the methods of sci- 

 ence are teaching in the normal schools 

 and in the larger high schools throughout 

 our country and the number of such teach- 

 ers is rapidly increasing. One most im- 



* Part of the discussion before the American 

 Society of Naturalists received after the report 

 had been published in the issue of Science for 

 February 7. — Ed. 



