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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 436. 



the buildings, collections and other parts 

 of the permanent plant, many millions 

 would be needed to equal it even pecu- 

 niarily. Even then, a rival institution 

 would be established, which might do more 

 harm than good, since it would draw its 

 students mainly from those who would 

 otherwise go to existing imiversities. 



Astronomy is a science which has always 

 received a large share of such gifts as those 

 mentioned above. Its rapid growth, at 

 the present time, and the brilliant results 

 obtained by the application of photog- 

 raphy, spectroscopy and other branches of 

 astrophysics, render it probable that it will 

 still further attract the patrons of science. 

 Unfortunately, in the past, many gifts have 

 been made to astronomy which have not 

 yielded the results expected from them. 

 Thus we had at one time in the United 

 States a great observatory, but no tele- 

 scope ; a great telescope, but no astronomer 

 to use it ; and an astronomer whose valuable 

 observations, the results of many long 

 years of hard work, were rendered useless 

 by the lack of a few hundred dollars to 

 publish them. We have still many beauti- 

 ful observatories, equipped with powerful 

 and expensive telescopes which are idle, 

 and therefore useless, during a large part 

 of the night. These unfortunate results 

 are largely due to lack of consultation with 

 astronomers by prospective donors. Con- 

 sequently, many gifts have been made from 

 which little return has been obtained. 



While, as shown above, there are but few 

 persons with fortunes large enough to es- 

 tablish a university of the first class, a 

 much smaller sum would be required to 

 establish an astronomical institution, whose 

 usefulness would far exceed that of any 

 now existing, especially by utilizing the 

 plant already collected. The five observa- 

 tories having the largest annual incomes 

 are the U. S. Naval Observatory, $85,000; 



Paris, $53,000; Greenwich, $49,000; Pol- 

 kowa, $48,000; Harvard, $50,000. The 

 permanent endowment of the Harvard Ob- 

 servatory has increased from $176,000 to 

 $909,000 during the last quarter of a cen- 

 tury. These funds are invested by the 

 treasurer of the university, together with 

 the other funds in his charge, which now 

 exceed $14,000,000. This large sum per- 

 mits a very advantageous investment to be 

 made, and during the last year the net 

 rate of interest, free from all taxes, has 

 amounted to four and eight tenths per cent. 

 The age of the university, two hundred 

 and sixty-seven years, insures great perma- 

 nency in its management. It has passed 

 uninjured through the periods of two great 

 wars, and the great fire of Boston in 1872, 

 which was still more disastrous to its sup- 

 porters. Although the citizens of Boston 

 lost many millions of dollars in this fire, 

 this did not prevent their making good 

 the heavy losses of the university. The 

 strong interest and support of the people 

 of eastern Massachusetts, which has led 

 to their giving many million dollars to 

 Harvard, is the best assurance that money 

 intrusted to it will be spent as the donors 

 wish. 



It is estimated that the total sum spent 

 yearly on astronomical research through- 

 out the world amounts to about $500,000. 

 It has been pointed out by Professor New- 

 comb that an addition to this sum of even 

 $100,000, distributed among existing ob- 

 servatories, might increase the amount of 

 work done, but would not necessarily im- 

 prove its quality. Owing to the great in- 

 dustrial prosperity of this country, gifts 

 may be expected ten times as large as those 

 of the last century, during which this ob- 

 servatory received three funds exceeding 

 one, two and three hundred thousand dol- 

 lars, respectively. This seems, therefore, 

 a proper time to consider how a gift of one 



