Annual Address to the Members. xxxix 



The first extensive and accurate catalogue of the stars of tlie 

 Southern Hemisphere rests on the observations of the Abbe de 

 la Caille, whicii were made at the Cape of Good Hope in 1752 — 

 that is to say, 150 years ago. This circumstance has led me to 

 regard the present as a fitting opportunity for reviewing the history 

 and progress of Astronomy and Geodesy at the Cape as a most 

 suitable subject for the present address. 



On October 5, 1892, I had the honour to deliver a lecture in 

 connection with the Kimberley Exhibition of that year, and may 

 perhaps be allowed to quote the words used on that occasion in 

 reference to Lacaille and his work : — 



" Lacaille's expedition was one of the most memorable, successful, 

 and useful scientific expeditions ever undertaken, and Lacaille him- 

 self one of the most earnest and active astronomers that ever lived. 

 Although he died at the age of forty-nine, Lalande said of him with 

 perfect justice and truth that, during a comparatively short life, he 

 had made more observations and more calculations than all the 

 astronomers of his time put together. It required a man of such 

 extraordinary energy and enthusiasm to perform the feat of deter- 

 mining with considerable precision for the time, the places of ten 

 thousand stars in a single year. He laid the foundations of the 

 Sidereal Astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere ; he did that great 

 work in a single year at Strand Street, in Cape Town ; he won the 

 love and friendship of all who knew him ; he rendered many 

 scientific services to the Dutch Government of the day, including 

 a survey of Houts Bay ; and, if ever in this Colony we reach that 

 point of civilisation in which the works of our scientific worthies will 

 be commemorated by statues erected to their memory, that of the 

 Abbe de la Caille has unquestionable claim to be the first of 

 the series." 



Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to say that this suggestion 

 has borne some fruit. 



Mr. L. Peringuey during his Presidency brought forth the subject 

 of erecting a Memorial to Lacaille before the Council of the Society. 



At the ordinary meeting on July 81, 1901, the following resolution 

 was, on the recommendation of the Council, brought before the 

 Society and unanimously adopted : — 



" That the Society take steps to have a commemorative tablet of 

 the Abbe de la Caille erected on the house now built on the site 

 of the Abbe's residence in Cape Town in 1752." 



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