June 18, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



935 



panion at Cambridge. Each of these in- 

 struments has a long and honorable history. 

 Their work has been very different. Who 

 shall say that one has surpassed the other ? 

 We owe to Bond and his son the discovery 

 of an eighth satellite to Saturn, of the dusky 

 ring to that planet, the introduction of 

 stellar photography, the invention of the 

 chronograph by which the electric current 

 is employed in the registry of observations, 

 the conduct of several chronometric expedi- 

 tions between Liverpool and Boston to de- 

 termine the Transatlantic longitude, and a 

 host of minor discoveries and observations. 



Gilliss visited France for study in 1S35, 

 before he took up his duties at Washington. 

 The text-books of Bond and Gilliss were the 

 Astronomies of Vince (1797-1808) and of 

 Pearson (1824-29). The younger Bond 

 (George Phillips Bond, born 1825, Harvard 

 College 1844, Director of the Harvard Col- 

 lege Observatory 1859-65) and his contem- 

 poraries, on the other hand, were firmly 

 grounded in the German methods, then, as 

 now, the most philosophical and thorough. 



It was not until 1850, or later, that it was 

 indispensable for an American astronomer 

 to read the German language and to make 

 use of the memoirs of Bessel, Eucke and 

 Struve and the text-books of Sawitsch and 

 Briinnow.* This general acquaintance 

 with the German language and methods 

 came nearly a generation later in England. 

 The traditions of Piazzi and Oriani carae to 

 America with the Jesuit Fathers of George- 

 town College (1844), of whom Secchi and 

 Sestini are the best known. 



The dates of the foundation of a few 

 observatories of the "United States may 

 be set down here. Those utilized for 

 the observation of the transit of Venus 

 in 1769 were temporary stations merely. 

 The first college observatory was that of 

 Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1831) ; 



* Dr. Bowditch learned to read German in 1818, at 

 the age of 45. 



WilHams College followed (1836) ; Hudson 

 Observatory (Ohio) (1838) ; the Philadel- 

 phia High School (1840) ; the Dana House 

 Observatory of Harvard College (1840) ; 

 West Point (1841); the United States 

 Kaval Observatory (1844) ; the George- 

 town College Observatory (1844) ; the Cin- 

 cinnati Observatory (1845) ; the new ob- 

 servatory of Harvard College (1846) ; the 

 private observatory of Dr. Lewis M. 

 Eutherfurd in New York City (1848); the 

 observatory at Ann Arbor (1854); the 

 Dudley Observatory at Albany (1856), and 

 that of Hamilton College (1856). 



These dates and the summary history 

 just given will serve to indicate the situa- 

 tion of astronomy in the United States dur- 

 ing the first half of the present century. 

 A little attention to the dates will en- 

 able the reader to place an individual or 

 an institution on its proper background. 

 It must constantly be kept in mind that the 

 whole country was very young and that 

 public interest in astronomical matters was 

 neither educated nor very general. The 

 data here set down will have a distinct 

 value as a contribution to the history of 

 astronomy in America. The develop- 

 ments of later years have been so amazing 

 that we forget that the first working ob- 

 servatories were founded so late as 1845. 



American science is scarcely more than 

 half a century old. The day will soon 

 come — it is now here— when we shall look 

 back with wonder and gratitude to ask who 

 were the men who laid the wide and deep 

 foundations which already maintain so 

 noble an edifice. 



Edward. S. Holden. 



Mt. Hamilton, Cal., April, 1897. 



INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTER- 

 ISTICS* 



In approaching the subject of ' The in- 

 heritance of acquired characteristics ' from 



* Paper read at the Boston meeting of The Ameri- 

 can Society of Naturalists. 



