Annual Address to the Member's. li 



that nothing should interfere to turn him from that purpose, with 

 the entire sympathy and powerful support of his former chief, with 

 official instructions consonant with his own wishes, he applied 

 himself during the whole of his stay at the Cape to two great 

 objects : (1) The preparation of Maclear's meridian observations 

 for press ; (2) the re-observation of the stars which had been 

 observed by Lacaille more than a century before, and the formation 

 of a catalogue of southern stars complete to the seventh magnitude. 



Unlike Maclear, Stone himself took but little part in observing, 

 but, having strong sympathy at home, he organised an excellent 

 staff and carried out both these great works in a very complete 

 manner. Stone's Catalogue of 10,000 Southern Stars was printed 

 after his return to England, the Cape Catalogues of 1840 and I860, 

 based on Maclear's observations, having been passed through the press 

 during his stay at the Cape. The whole forms a splendid memorial 

 to Stone's methodical energy, to the high sense of duty which 

 actuated him, a proof of his sound judgment as to the needs of 

 science at the time, and of his concentrated earnestness of purpose 

 in their pursuit. 



Thus far I have confined myself almost to biographical detail, 

 but detail which is necessary for due appreciation of the aims and 

 motives of the Cape astronomers and for presenting to you, and to 

 all who are interested in the progress of the intellectual life of South 

 Africa, a brief history of what has been done in one great branch 

 of science, and the circumstances under which the work was done. 



In 1879 I had the honour to succeed Mr. Stone on his appoint- 

 ment to the post of Radcliffe Observer at Oxford. Let me endeavour 

 at this point to put you in my own place, and to consider what it 

 was my duty to do with reference to future work. 



Stone and his contemporary. Dr. Gould, at Cordoba, in the 

 Argentine Republic, had accomplished great things for the sidereal 

 astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere, and it has been said with 

 truth that for the epoch 1875 from their labours alone we have, on 

 the whole, a more satisfactory knowledge of the positions of the stars 

 in the Southern Hemisphere than we have of the same class of stars 

 in the Northern Hemisphere from the combined labours of all the 

 observatories of Europe and America. 



First, then, it was necessary to return to daily observations of the 

 sun and of certain of the planets, of stars near the northern and 

 southern horizon for testing the amount of refraction, and to make 

 frequent observations of the principal stars which are employed as 

 the fundamental points of astronomy. These are objects not of 

 much popular interest, but they are the real objects for which 



