292 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 505. 



their work has to form a connected whole, 

 but that does not involve a selection of the 

 public which is to profit from the offerings. 



It is true the riimor may have been re- 

 enforced by the fact that a limited number 

 of scholars received, indeed, a special invi- 

 tation to attend in form of a circular, but 

 there was not the slightest intention to 

 indicate that those who did not receive it 

 were less welcome in the audience. To in- 

 vite all who might have an interest in the 

 proceedings of one of the hundred and 

 thirty sections would have meant to invite 

 half a million persons ; every school teacher, 

 every \a^Yyer, every physician, every engi- 

 neer, every political man, every literary 

 man, yes, every educated bi;siness man, 

 would have relations to some of the sections. 

 No committee would have had the right to 

 pick out among that half million those who 

 are especially welcome at the congress, and 

 the fact is no one dared to undertake any 

 such selection. The only thing which the 

 committee believed to be its duty was to 

 send a program a.nd invitation to at least 

 a few thousand from whom special interest 

 could be expected, that is, to the members 

 of the leading national scholarly societies. 

 It is clear that this means not a personal 

 selection ; the greatest scholars of the coun- 

 try may by chance not belong to any of 

 these national societies. And thus it has 

 happened, indeed, that some have received 

 such invitations while others of the same 

 high standing did not receive them; a dif- 

 ferentiation was not intended at all. The 

 membership lists of some dozen societies 

 were used merely as help in spreading our 

 programs, and it was hoped that every one 

 who received the program would circulate 

 it in his circle and interest his friends in 

 the participation. We should have liked 

 better to send it to half a million, leaving 

 out no student who feels himself interested 

 in any one part of the feast. 



Of course the misunderstanding is 



limited to some quarters ; many other symp- 

 toms show that the attendance will, indeed, 

 come up to the unusual opportunity. Es- 

 pecially welcome is the movement which 

 seems under way in some western colleges 

 which begin as early as the middle of Sep- 

 tember. It is planned there to give leave 

 of absence to those instructors who want to 

 attend the congress. The eastern univer- 

 sities, of course, begin late enough to make 

 it possible anyhow for the whole teaching 

 staff to attend the meetings. It is to be 

 hoped that the schools too will adopt a 

 liberal policy and give leave to every 

 teacher who is anxious to go to St. Louis, 

 as this chance to come in close contact with 

 the leading scholars in every field and to 

 take part in this organized effort to bring 

 harmony into the scattered mass of human 

 knowledge is certainly a liberal education 

 for every high aiming teacher. This six- 

 day autumn school promises, indeed, to 

 offer more than all the summer schools of 

 this country and abroad together. Such 

 a combination of speakers was never before 

 brought together— may the combination of 

 listeners and participants show worthy of 

 the unique occasion. 



Hugo MtfNSTERBERG. 

 Hakvaed University. 



THE ENDOWMENT OF ASTRONOMICAL 

 RESEARCH. 



In order to attain as great an advance in 

 astronomical research during the twentieth 

 century as in the nineteenth, careful plans 

 must be made for its endowment. The 

 same skill in organization, combination of 

 existing appliances, and methodical st^^dy 

 of detail, which in recent years has revo- 

 lutionized many commercial industries, 

 should produce as great an advance in the 

 physical sciences. Astronomy in particu- 

 lar, through the striking progress it has 

 made during the last half century, and 

 its appeal to the imagination, has received 



