338 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 872 



by its results we must take into account 

 all this subsequent history in our apprecia- 

 tion of Professor Pickering's achievement. 

 But whether we do so or not is probably a 

 matter of indifference to him, for the true 

 observer is above all things an amateur, 

 using the word in that splendid sense to 

 which Professor Hale recently introduced 

 us. There have been many attempts to 

 define an amateur. One was given by 

 Professor Schuster in his eloquent address 

 to this section at Edinburgh in 1892 : 



We may perhaps best define an amateur as one 

 who learns his science as he wants it and when he 

 wants it. I should ca:ll Faraday an amateur. 



We need not quarrel with his definition 

 and certainly not with the noble instance 

 with which he points it. But after all I 

 prefer the definition of Professor Hale :^ 



According to my view, the amateur is the man 

 who works in astronomy because he can not help 

 it, because he would rather do such work than any- 

 thing else in the world, and who therefore cares 

 little for hampering traditions or for difficulties 

 of any kind. 



The wholly satisfactory nature of this 

 view is that it provides not only a defini- 

 tion, but an ambition, and a criterion. We 

 feel at once the ambition to become ama- 

 teurs, for I deny stoutly that the distinc- 

 tion is conferred at birth: it comes with 

 work of the right kind. And we may 

 know what is work of the right kind by this 

 if by nothing else : that by diligently per- 

 forming it we shall become amateurs who 

 find it impossible to stop: "who work in 

 astronomy because we can not help it." 

 Before an army of such men even the vast 

 hordes of dusky possibilities of which we 

 are beginning to catch glimpses must yield. 

 The fight may seem, and no doubt is, with- 

 out end ; and the opportunities for glorious 

 deeds by which outlying whole troops of 

 the enemy are demolished at once are be- 



^ Monthly Notices E. A. S., LXVIII., p. 64. 



coming rarer. We are confronted with the 

 necessity of attacking each possibility 

 singly, which threatens the stopping of the 

 conflict through sheer weariness. Clearly 

 the army of amateurs is the right one for 

 the work: weariness can not touch them: 

 they will go on fighting automatically be- 

 cause "they can not help it." 



H. H. Turner 



SAMUEL SUBBASD SCUDDEB 



Samuel Hubbard Scudder was born at Bos- 

 ton, April 13, 1837, and died at 156 Brattle 

 Street, Cambridge, May 17, 1911, at the age 

 of seventy-four years. He was, perhaps, the 

 greatest American entomologist of his time. 

 Whether we regard the mere mass of his work 

 or its excellence or the breadth of view shown, 

 we who belong to this later generation must 

 stand amazed and humbled. Which of us can 

 even imagine himself girding his loins for 

 such a task as the " Nomenclator Zoologicus " 

 or the great volumes on the " Butterflies of 

 the Eastern United States " ? Such things 

 may now be undertaken cooperatively, or with 

 much expert and clerical assistance; but 

 Scudder was both architect and builder of his 

 great works, responsible for everything, very 

 rarely seeking collaboration, except for the 

 purpose of gathering materials. I corresponded 

 actively with him for many years, and have 

 before me a pile of old letters and postal cards 

 in the familiar handwriting. As I look them 

 over I think of two especially prominent char- 

 acteristics, his enthusiasm and his kindness. 

 Herein he ranks with another famous ento- 

 mologist, W. H. Edwards, who at one time 

 wrote me almost daily concerning the progress 

 and welfare of an interesting caterpillar I had 

 sent him. It was not enough for Scudder to 

 discover new facts or perceive new relation- 

 ships; he must at once communicate them to 

 those likely to be interested; and the charm 

 of his letters, without the reserve natural to 

 the printed page, must have warmed the heart 

 and increased the zeal of many a younger 

 man. May we, who now are obliged in such 

 manner as we can to fill in the vacated ranks. 



