366 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 401. 



LELAND STANFOKD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY. 



Ralph Arnold : ' The Paleontology and Stratig- 

 raphy of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of 

 San Pedro.' 



Thomas Andrew Storey : ' Some Studies on 

 Voluntary' Jluscle Contraction.' 



BRYN MAWR COLLEGE. 



Margaret Baxter MacDonald : ' A New Class of 

 Disulphones.' 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



Alice Robertson : ' The Embryology and Em- 

 bryonic Fission in Cyclostomatous Bryozoa.' 



CLARK UNIVERSITY. 



Andrew J. Kinnaman : ' Mental Life of two 

 Macacus Bhesus Monkeys in Captivity.' 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



Nevil Monroe Hopkins : ' Some Experiments on 

 Electrolytic Conductivity with Reference to the 

 Ion Theoiy.' 



SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. 



William Erastus Taylor: 'On the Product of 

 an Alternant by a 'Symmetric Function.' 



UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 



Heber D. Curtis : ' Definitive Determination of 

 the Orbit of Comet, 1898, I.' 



BEGEyf PROGRESS IN ASTRONOMY* 

 The opening years of the twentieth cen- 

 tury are full of remarkable and most strik- 

 ing evidences of man's power over the 

 forces of nature, and yet with this feeling 

 of might there comes to the thoughtful stu- 

 dent, and perhaps especially to the astron- 

 omer, a deep reverential feeling of man's 

 utter insignificance, and the littleness of his 

 knowledge, in comparison with what is 

 necessary for the complete mastery of the 

 problems that present themselves. 



Heat, light and electricity are the forces 

 which have been so grandly made use of by 

 the scientific man and the practical engi- 

 neer. It is enough for me to refer only to 

 the stupendous developments of the ma- 

 chinery making use of steam for locomotion 

 on land and sea; to the great labor-saving 

 * Commencement Address delivered at the Wor- 

 cester Polytechnic Institute, June 12, 1902. 



devices used in the manufacture of steel 

 and other needed things. 



Still more marvelous are the applications 

 of electricity ; and the promises for the near 

 future are most startling. I do not desire 

 to develop these lines of thought, because 

 I am aware that the young men of this in- 

 stitution, and especially those of the gradu- 

 ating class, have minds well stored with apt 

 illustrations; and their imaginations can 

 rapidly construct dreams of the future, 

 based upon their own intimate knowledge 

 of what has been done, and what is just on 

 the point of being accomplished, by the 

 application of heat and electricity. 



This morning in my short address I wish 

 to call your attention to some of the 

 triumphs lately achieved by the use of light. 

 And inasmuch as my work is mainly 

 astronomical you will, I know, permit me to 

 dwell entirely on the matter of celestial 

 photography. 



The United States has many reasons to 

 be proud of what her astronomers have 

 done both in the improvement of photo- 

 graphic telescopes, and in the results of 

 photographic research ; but the whole world 

 has been active in applj^ing this compara- 

 tively new instrument. The promise of 

 future developments is indeed very gratify- 

 ing. Every one is deeply interested in the 

 study of the make-up of the solar and lunar 

 surfaces. To-day photographic telescopes 

 supply us with most of our accurate knowl- 

 edge of details. 



Exposures on the sun are made, lasting 

 one to several thousandths of a second of 

 time, which on development bring out the 

 texture of the photosphere, the details of 

 spots and spot groups, and the faculse. 

 These plates are taken with great regularity 

 at several observatories in the world, and 

 are studied at leisure by a trained force of 

 observers. Rutherfurd in New York City 

 from 1870 to 1874 took many solar photo- 

 graj^hs, the study of which has given us 



