932 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 599. 



about fifty thoiasand dollars. Capitalized, 

 this would represent about a million and a 

 half. For one third of this sum, or half 

 a million dollars, the plan here proposed 

 could be carried out with results which it 

 is believed would advance astronomy in 

 almost every department. The expense 

 could be reduced by $100,000, or to $400,- 

 000, by giving the telescope to Harvard, 

 which would then assume the cost of ad- 

 ministration. The principal item, $250,- 

 000, would be required to provide a per- 

 manent annual income of $10,000. This 

 would permit the telescope to be kept at 

 work throughout every clear night, and in 

 the proposed location almost every night 

 would be clear. The remaining $150,000 

 would be spent on the telescope, and this 

 estimate is based on the cost of the 24-inch 

 reflector recently built for Harvard at an 

 expenditure of $4,000. It was assumed 

 that the expense of the drawings, plans and 

 computations would increase as the first 

 power, the hand and machine work as the 

 square, and the material as the cube of the 

 dimensions. 



The special novelty of the plan was the 

 method of discussing the results. "While 

 the principal work would be photographic, 

 the use of the telescope visually, in various 

 departments, was considered. The photo- 

 graphic results would be far greater than 

 could be discussed by a single individual 

 or institution. Therefore, it was proposed 

 that an international committee should pre- 

 pare a plan of work, and that copies of the 

 photographs should be given to any one 

 who could advantageously use them. As- 

 tronomers could doubtless be found in all 

 parts of the world who would discuss these 

 photographs, and could thus be furnished, 

 Avithout charge, with material of the high- 

 est grade, which could otherwise be ob- 

 tained only at an expenditure of many 

 thousands of dollars. So far as possible. 



they would be aided also by subsidies for 

 paying salaries of assistants, for publica- 

 tion, etc. The donor would be guided in 

 spending his money to the best advantage, 

 not by a single astronomer, but by the as- 

 tronomers of the world. His name, which 

 would always be attached to the telescope 

 and its work, would thus be known for all 

 time, and throughout the world, rather 

 than merely locally. It was urged that no 

 better time could be found for inaugura- 

 ting this scheme than when celebrating the 

 memory of Benjamin Franklin, the great- 

 est and most practical of American men 

 of science. 



The Figure and Stability of a Liquid Satel- 

 lite (vidth lantern slides of diagrams) : 

 Sir George Daewin, K.C.B., F.K.S., of 

 Cambridge, England. 



Form Analysis: Professor Albert A. 



MiCHELSON, of Chicago. 



The analysis of forms of natural objects 

 has been the subject of such careful and 

 thorough treatment, that it would seem 

 futile for one who can only claim to be an 

 amateur in the science of morphology to 

 attempt to add anything of real interest. 



The work of Haeckel, to whom more than 

 to any other, the greatest advance in the 

 science is due, contains a very complete 

 and detailed system of classification which 

 applies to animate and inanimate forms; 

 but with due deference to so great an au- 

 thority, I would venture to propose some 

 modifications in the nature of an extension 

 of the accepted idea of symmetry. 



The biologists generally restrict this idea 

 to the forms ordinarily described as 'bi- 

 lateral,' or 'dorsi ventral' or to 'regular 

 radial' forms. In a sense which among 

 mathematicians is coming into use, the idea 

 is extended to all forms in which congru- 

 ence of parts is effected by any transforma- 

 tion which retains the essential character- 



