SCIENCE. 



189 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



Published at 



229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1880. 



We have for several years entertained a favorable 

 opinion regarding the advisability of establishing a 

 well equipped observatory for the almost exclusive 

 purpose of astronomical discovery. One has only to 

 recount the labors of American astronomers during a 

 brief term of years to remark the great advancement 

 of their science, which has resulted from the direction 

 of energy toward this end. Professor Bond's discov- 

 ery of a new satellite and a dusky ring to the planet 

 Saturn ; Mr. Burnham's well-known discoveries of 

 new double stars ; the discovery of the companion of 

 the bright star Sirius by Mr. Alvan G. Clark j the 

 discovery of fifty or sixty small planets between Mars 

 and Jupiter by Dr. Peters and Professor Watson ; 

 the independent discovery of three or four comets by 

 Professor Swift ; the discoveries of intra- Mercurial 

 planets, at the time of the eclipse of 1878, by Profes- 

 sors Watson and Swift ; the extraordinary discovery 

 of the two satellites of Mars by Professor Hall ; the 

 brilliant spectroscopic discoveries by Dr. Henry 

 Draper of the existence of oxygen in the sun, and of 

 the inherent heat of the planet Jupiter — are recalled at 

 once. We might add greatly to the list without diffi- 

 culty ; but that is not necessary for the support of the 

 belief that astronomers have not discovered all there 

 is to discover in the solar system even, although their 

 labors have been very arduous, and their means of 

 research most powerful. We should be inclined to 

 predict a scientific record of great importance and 

 usefulness for any observatory of high instrumental 

 capacity, which should set out upon a line of syste- 

 matic observation, with reference to astronomical dis- 

 covery simply. It is gratifying, therefore, to learn 

 that the new observatory, now in process of erec- 

 tion at Rochester, N. Y., would seem to be 

 dedicated to this sort of work. Professor Lewis 

 Swift, of that place, has, we believe, been in- 

 stalled the life director of that institution, constructing 



and endowed by the munificence of Mr. H. H. 

 Warner, an enterprising merchant of Rochester, and 

 entitled, from its founder, the' Warner Observatory. 

 About $50,000 will be expended in the construction 

 of the observatory proper, and the connected struc- 

 ture. The Messrs. Clark, of Cambridgeport, are 

 now making a large refracting telescope (aperture of 

 the object-glass, sixteen inches) for this new observa- 

 tory. We regret that, in the proposed construc- 

 tion of this edifice, the architect should, in some 

 measure, have resorted to the former system of build- 

 ing observatories — that of mounting the great tele- 

 scope upon a pier of masonry built high up from the 

 surface of the ground. A series of properly conducted 

 experiments will usually indicate, however, whether 

 this method is free from objection in any particular 

 case. We note a connected contrivance — hitherto 

 unknown in astronomy — a passenger-elevator to the 

 floor of the dome. We shall express the hope that 

 the abundance of new devices with which this new 

 observatory is to be supplied may not be marked, as 

 is frequently the case, by a less amount of good astro- 

 nomical work than is performed in observatories of 

 like capacity, where nothing is for convenience and 

 everything for pure utility. 



A lecture on " Microphysiology " was recently de- 

 livered before the Polytechnic Association of New 

 York, by a person having an unenviable reputation 

 for making extravagant assertions on scientific ques- 

 tions. It has been widely reported by the public 

 press, and we notice that a claim is made that the 

 origin of Bacteria and minute forms of life in the at- 

 mosphere has been discovered by the lecturer. 



It was also asserted at the same time that micro- 

 scopical organisms can be developed in the laboratory 

 under conditions which exclude atmospheric contact, 

 a fact in direct contradiction to the exhaustive experi- 

 ments of Tyndall and others. 



The problems thus professed to be solved have de- 

 fied the intelligent research of such men as Huxley, 

 Dallinger, Beale, Sanderman and Bastian, aided by 

 the most powerful and perfect objectives obtainable. 

 The present assertions to the contrary will, therefore, 

 be received with humor by those acquainted with the 

 subject, if the mischief caused by such reckless state- 

 ments be not considered. 



The announcement made at the same time of the 

 discovery, by the lecturer, of a new form of objective, 

 the extended application of which nearly doubles the 

 present limit of the magnifying power of microscopical 

 objectives, requires but a passing notice. 



This individual appears to have fallen into the error 

 of supposing that the excellence of a microscope is 



