326 Scientific Intelligence. 



experience in the East, strengthened in him the innate taste for 

 mechanical arts which he shared and enjoyed with his dis- 

 tinguished son. The removal of the family to Mayport, Florida, 

 while the future astronomer was still quite young, profoundly 

 modified his course of development in replacing an ordinary 

 career of schooling by an employment of all his energies in 

 adapting himself to a new life and a new environment. But 

 even in this active life his natural inclination towards astronomy 

 asserted itself. By the exercise of much self-denial he was able 

 to purchase an achromatic telescope objective of about two and a 

 half inches diameter; this he mounted and supplied with a thor- 

 oughly serviceable stand, and with the product of his ingenuity 

 he commenced the acquiring of his remarkable store of knowl- 

 edge of physical astronomy. This was followed by a singular 

 consequence. Mr. Charles H. Rockwell, who has ever remained 

 a kind and sympathetic friend, learned by accident of the young- 

 astronomer in Florida and, eager to advance scientific learning in 

 every way, secured for him an opportunity to gain the advan- 

 tages afforded by one of our greater universities. As Mr. 

 Keeler's schooling was not of a character which fitted him imme- 

 diately for entrance to university standing, he entered as a 

 special student in the Johns Hopkins University, then in the 

 initial stages of its evolution. Here it was that the writer 

 became intimate with him and learned his extraordinary capacity 

 for fruitful work. Shortly after securing his bachelor's degree 

 here in 1881, he became an assistant to Professor Langley, aiding 

 him most efficiently in his delicate researches with the bolometer, 

 at the same time establishing a reputation for scientific ability 

 which practically secured his future. With this experience, 

 broadened by two years of study at Berlin and Heidelberg and 

 further increased by four or five years passed at Mt. Hamilton as 

 an astronomer of the Lick Observatory, his subsequent career is 

 wholly natural. In 1891 he accepted the position as Director of 

 the Allegheny Observatory, a position exceptionally congenial to 

 him because of the many friends gained during the time in which 

 he acted as assistant to his predecessor Professor Langley. The 

 opportunity for more important work, however, which came to 

 him in 1898, with an invitation to become Director of the Lick 

 Observatory, obliged him to sacrifice this agreeable environment 

 and to enter upon a life of great fruitfulness and activity which 

 has been, so unfortunately for science, interrupted by his death. 



This brief note does not offer the place to review the scientific 

 achievements of Mr. Keeler ; but it is gratifying to find that not 

 only those engaged in allied, branches of science recognized his 

 merits, but more popular appreciation was evinced by his elec- 

 tion as an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1898, 

 and as a member of the National Academy at its last meeting. 

 Quite fitting is it, however, that the writer should take this occa- 

 sion to record the grief of a great number of his personal friends 

 through whom his life was enriched in a degree never attained by 

 men less selfish and less loyal than he. c. s. h. 



