November 1, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



679 



revelations was the appearance of Halley's 

 comet, which was observed, from the tower 

 in the Athenaeum, weeks before the news 

 arrived of its having been seen in Europe. 

 This gave an impulse to observatory proj- 

 ects in Cambridge and Philadelphia, and 

 college after college soon emulated the ex- 

 ample of Yale by establishing observatories 

 in embryo, for the study of the heavens. 

 The most brilliant luminary in the constel- 

 lation was Ebenezer Porter Mason, a genius, 

 who died at twenty-two, having made a 

 profound impression on his contemporaries 

 by discoveries, observations, computations 

 and delineations. After his death, which 

 was lamented like that of Horrox, it was 

 not thought an exaggeration to compare his 

 powers with those of Sir William Herschel 

 — or even of Galileo. Under the leader- 

 ship of Olmsted, Herrick, Bradley, Loomis 

 and Hamilton L. Smith were associate ob- 

 servers, and they were afterwards rein- 

 forced by Twining, Lyman and Newton. 

 Chauvenet became a writer and teacher of 

 renown, and Stoddard carried to the Kes- 

 torians the telescope that he had made at 

 Yale under the syndicate's influence. 



The investigations of these astronomers 

 were directed to the aurora borealis, the 

 zodiacal light, the recurrence of comets, the 

 meteoric showers, and the possible existence 

 of an intra-mercurial planet. Newton be- 

 came the most distinguished of the group. 

 Partly by antiquarian researches in the 

 records of the past, continuing the notes of 

 Herrick, partly by mathematical analysis 

 and a careful comparison of the paths of 

 meteors he determined the periodicity of 

 these mysterious and fascinating phenom- 

 ena, and their relation to comets. 



The astronomical syndicate of Olmsted 

 and his pupils was long ago dissolved, but 

 its spirit hovers near us, and beyond 

 Sachem's wood, in the Winchester Observ- 

 atory, skilled astronomers with their great 

 heliometer are engaged upon problems 



which were not even thought of by the dis- 

 cerning intellect of Mason and his brilliant 

 confreres. 



In the science of mineralogy Yale has long 

 maintained the American leadership. Every 

 one of us has heard the story of the candle- 

 box of specimens, which Silliman carried to 

 Philadelphia to be named, and every one of 

 us has seen the subsequent accretions to the 

 nucleus, beginning with the Gibbs cabinet, 

 now shown in the Peabody Museum. No 

 one is likely to overestimate the influence 

 of this collection upon the mind of James 

 D. Dana, nor to overestimate the value of 

 his treatise on mineralogy which, revised 

 and enlarged by able cooperators, continues 

 to be a standard text-book in orv&cy country 

 where mineralogy is studied. 



In view of its recent acquisition, I am 

 tempted to speak of the Museum as the 

 'House of the Dinosaur.' Its choice col- 

 lections give an epitome of the sciences of 

 mineralogy, crystallography, meteoroids, 

 geology, paleontology and natural history, 

 from the days of Silliman to those of the 

 Danas, Brush, Marsh and Verrill. 



The heart of a university is its library. 

 If that is vigorous, every part of the body 

 is benefited. Our college began with books ; 

 the incunabula were given by the founders, 

 good books no doubt, if not a single volume 

 relating to classical literature or the sciences 

 was among them. Noteworthy accessions 

 came at an early day, some of them from 

 Elihu Yale. Think of eight hundred vol- 

 umes sent from England, including the 

 gifts of many famous writers. Eemember 

 such donors as Sir Eichard Steele, of the 

 Spectator, and the great Sir Isaac Newton, 

 and then be grateful to forgotten Jeremiah 

 Dummer, who collected and forwarded 

 this precious invoice. Fifteen years later 

 than Dummer's donation came nine hun- 

 dred volumes from Bishop Berkeley, which 

 with his bequest for scholarships and prizes, 

 entitle him to receive the highest praise as 



