SCIENCE. 



377 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



TERMS: 



Per Year, .... Four Dollars. 



6 Months, .... Two 



3 " - One " 



Single Copies, .... Ten Cents. 



Published at 

 TRIBUNE BUILDING, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1881. 



The Proceedings for the past year of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science have 

 been distributed to the members ; they do honor to 

 the Society by whom they are issued, and hold forth 

 the brightest hopes for its future. 



The friends of the Association will learn with satis- 

 faction that the number of members steadily increase, 

 and that the roll of honor now comprises one thousand 

 five hundred and fifty-five names, a glance at the list 

 showing that it represents the intelligence of the 

 United States. 



The very laudable objects of the Association are 

 the advancement of Science, which it endeavors to 

 carry into effect by arranging annual meetings of its 

 members, " to promote intercourse between those who 

 are cultivating Science in different parts of America, 

 its Constitution expressing the desire to give a 

 stronger and more general impulse and more system- 

 atic direction to scientific research, and to procure for 

 the labors of scientific men increased facilities and a 

 wider usefulness." " 

 It will thus be seen that the leading feature of the 

 Association is co-operation, the secret of all success 

 and the keystone of human progress. Perhaps in no 

 country in the world does this necessity for co-opera- 

 tion exist to a greater degree than in the United 

 States, with its vast amount of territory and great 

 area. 



Men of education, with minds specially adapted for 

 the highest scientific work, are often isolated from 

 their fellow workers, and thousands who are "cul- 

 tivating" Science are spread over the States and 

 Territories, silently plodding over problems of vital 

 interest or investigating the great scheme of Creation. 



Surely an Association which is a bond of union be- 

 tween such a widely dispersed class should be recog- 

 nized on its merits by those for whose benefit it is 

 established, and we may add, that the only practical 

 sign of appreciation of the advantages offered, is active 

 membership. 



The Association at present numbers fifteen hundred 

 members, and has an income of less than six thousand 

 dollars, a sum which is well husbanded and turned to 

 the best advantage by the executive officers of the 

 Association, who are enabled this year to present two 

 handsome volumes to each member, which are alone 

 equivalent in value to the subscription paid. 



We desire, however, to see the list of members 

 largely increased, and considering the Association has 

 existed over thirty years, the number should not be 

 less than five thousand, an income would then be at 

 the disposal of the Executive Committee which would 

 enable it to encourage scientific research in a manner 

 worthy of the Association and the cause of human 

 progress which it represents. 



We desire also to see the permanent fund of the 

 Association placed on a more substantial footing, and 

 supported by those who can strengthen it from their 

 superabundant wealth, without a financial effort on 

 their part. 



We speak within bounds when we assert, that it is 

 a standing scandal and reproach on the men of intel- 

 ligence of the United States, to find that the single 

 patron of the "American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science " is a woman. Is there no American 

 gentlemen with sufficient chivalry to follow so bright 

 an example ? We trust that the meeting of the Asso- 

 ciation, which will open next week, will not close 

 without at least one response, to the challenge we now 

 make. 



ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



By Simon Newcomb. 



Among the contributions of public and private munifi- 

 cence to the advance of knowledge, none are more worthy 

 of praise than those which have been devoted to as- 

 tronomy. Among all the sciences, this is the one which 

 is most completely dependent upon such contributions, 

 because it has the least immediate application to the wel- 

 fare of the individual. Happily, it is also the science of 

 which the results are best adapted to strike the mind, and 

 it has thus kept a position in public estimation which it 

 could hardly have gained if it had depended for success 

 solely upon its application to the practical problems of life. 

 That the means which have been devoted to its prosecu- 

 tion have not always been expended in a manner which 

 we now see would have been the best, is to be expected 

 from the very nature of the case. Indeed, a large por- 

 tion of the labor spent in any kind of scientific research 

 is, in a certain sense, wasted, because the very knowledge 

 which shows us how we might ha\ve done better has been 

 gained through a long series of fruitless trials. But it is 

 due both to ourselves and the patrons of astronomy that 

 as soon as any knowledge bearing upon the question of 



