THE FUTURE OF ASTRONOMY 109 



been secured, and after that nothing further is ever heard. Exceptions 

 should be made of the English Eclipse Committee and the Lick Observa- 

 tory, which, by long continued study and observation, are gradually 

 solving the difficult problems which can be reached in this way only. 



The gift of a large telescope to a university is of very doubtful 

 value, unless it is accompanied, first, by a sum much greater than its 

 cost, necessary to keep it employed in useful work, and secondly, to 

 require that it shall be erected, not on the university grounds, but in 

 some region, probably mountainous or desert, where results of real 

 value can be obtained. 



Having thus considered, among others, some of the ways in which 

 astronomy is not likely to be much advanced, we proceed to those which 

 will secure the greatest scientific return for the outlay. One of the 

 best of these is to create a fund to be used in advancing research, sub- 

 ject only to the condition that results of the greatest possible value to 

 science shall be secured. One advantage of this method is that excel- 

 lent results may be obtained at once from a sum, either large or small. 

 Whatever is at first given may later be increased indefinitely, if the 

 results justify it. One of the wisest as well as the greatest of donors 

 has said : " Find the particular man," but unfortunately, this plan has 

 been actually tried only with some of the smaller funds. Any one who 

 will read the list of researches aided by the Eumford Fund, the 

 Elizabeth Thompson Fund or the Bruce Fund of 1890 will see that 

 the returns are out of all proportion to the money expended. The 

 trustees of such a fund as is here proposed should not regard themselves 

 as patrons conferring a favor on those to whom grants are made, but 

 as men seeking for the means of securing large scientific returns for 

 the money entrusted to them. An astronomer who would aid them in 

 this work, by properly expending a grant, would confer rather than 

 receive a favor. They should search for astronomical bargains, and 

 should try to purchase results where the money could be expended to 

 the best advantage. They should make it their business to learn of the 

 work of every astronomer engaged in original research. A young man 

 who presented a paper of unusual importance at a scientific meeting, 

 or published it in an astronomical journal, would receive a letter in- 

 viting him to submit plans to the trustees, if he desired aid in extending 

 his work. In many cases, it would be found that, after working for 

 years under most unfavorable conditions, he had developed a method of 

 great value and had applied it to a few stars, but must now stop for 

 want of means. A small appropriation would enable him to employ an 

 assistant who, in a short time, could do equally good work. The appli- 

 cation of this method to a hundred or a thousand stars would then be 

 only a matter of time and money. 



The American Astronomical Society met last August at a summer 



