SCIENCE. 



379 



establishment, and requires a much larger endowment 

 than the mere outfit of the building. Let us take, for in- 

 stance, that omnipresent and most useful instrument, the 

 meridian circle. Four or five of these instruments, of 

 moderate size, located in good climates, properly manned, 

 under skillful superintendence, working in co-operation 

 with each other, would do everything necessary for the 

 department of research to which they are applicable, and 

 a great deal more than is to be expected from all the 

 meridian circles of the world, under the conditions in 

 which they are actually placed. They could, within the 

 first five years, make several independent determinations 

 of the fundamental data of astronomy, including the po- 

 sitions and motions of several hundred of the brighter 

 fixed stars. In five years more, they could extend their 

 activity so as to fix the position of every star in the heav- 

 ens visible to the naked eye ; and, during the ten years 

 following, could prepare such a catalogue of telescopic 

 stars as there is no prospect of our seeing during the 

 next half-century. 



There are probably not less than twenty meridian cir- 

 cles in this country alone, most of them antiquated, it is 

 true, yet, so far as average size and cost are concerned, 

 amply sufficient for the work in question. How many 

 there may be in other countries it is impossible to esti- 

 mate, but probably fifty or upward, and the number is 

 everywhere constantly increasing. Should we seek out 

 what they are doing, we should probably find half of them 

 rusting in idleness upon their pivots. With others, some 

 industrious professor or student would be found making, 

 unaided, a series of observations to be left among the 

 records of the establishment, or immured in the pages of 

 the " Astronomische Nachrichten," with small chance in 

 either case of ever being used. We may be sure that the 

 solitary observer will soon find something else to do, and 

 leave the instrument once more in idleness. Others we 

 should find employed in the occasional instruction of 

 students, a costly instrument being used where a rough 

 and cheap one, w.hich the student could take to pieces 

 and investigate at pleasure, would answer a far better 

 purpose. Yet others we should find used in distributing 

 time to the neighboring cities or states, or regulating 

 chronometers for the shipping of a port. I dare not 

 guess how many we should find engaged in work really 

 requiring an instrument of the finest class, and gaining 

 results which are to contribute to the astronomy of the 

 luture, but in our own country there would hardly be 

 more than three. 



The general cause ot this state of things lies upon the 

 surface. It is as true in astronomy as in any other depart- 

 ment of human affairs that the best results can be at- 

 tained only by a careful adaptation of means to ends. 

 Failures have arisen, not from the intervention of any 

 active opposing agency, but because observatories have 

 been founded without a clear conception of the object to 

 be attained, and therefore without the best adaptation of v 

 means to ends. To build an observatory before know- 

 ing what it is going to do is much like designing a ma- 

 chine shop and putting in a large collection of improved 

 tools and machinery before concluding what the shop is 

 to make, and what are the conditions of the market open 

 to its products. Some hints on the considerations which 

 should come into play in the erection of any new obser- 

 vatory may not be out of place, as pointing out the rem- 

 edy for the evils we have described. 



Heretofore, the practice has usually been first to decide 

 upon the observatory, and to plan the building ; next, to 

 provide instruments ; and lastly to select an astronomer, 

 and, with his advice, to decide what direction the activi- 

 ties of the establishment should take. This order of 

 proceeding should be reversed. The first thing to be 

 done is to decide what the observatory shall be built to 

 do. The future astronomer would, of course, have a con- 

 trolling voice in this decision, and should, therefore, be 

 selected in advance, One thing which it is especially 



important to decide is to which of the two great divisions 

 of astronomical research attention shall principally be 

 directed. If the prosecution of geometrical astronomy is 

 kept in view, the conditions of advance in that department 

 of the science must be kept in mind. The public is too 

 apt to associate astronomy with looking through a tele- 

 scope. That some of the greatest astronomers of mod- 

 ern times, such as Kepler, Newton, Hansen, Laplace and 

 Leverrier, scarcely ever looked through a telescope as 

 astronomers, is not generally understood. For two 

 thousand years, astronomy has furnished the great 

 geometers of the world with many of their profoundest 

 problems, and thus has advanced hand in hand with 

 mathematics. It borrows its fundamental data from 

 obseivation, but the elaboration and development of its 

 results taxes the powers of the mathematical investigator. 

 The work of making the necessary observations is so 

 much easier than that of developing the mathematical 

 theories to which they give rise, that the latter is com- 

 paratively neglected alongside the former. It is lamenta- 

 ble to see what a collection of unused observations are 

 found in the pages of scientific periodicals, to say nothing 

 of those which have remained unpublished in the records 

 of observatories. Under these circumstances, it is not 

 worth while to found any more observatories for the 

 prosecution of geometrical astronomy, except under spe- 

 cial conditions. Among these conditions we may 

 enumerate the following: 



First. The institution should have such an endow- 

 ment as to secure the continuous services of two or three 

 observers, and to publish at least the results of their ob- 

 servations in a condensed form. 



Second. The instrument should be of the finest class, 

 but not necessarily of large size. This is not a difficult 

 condition to fulfill, since such instruments are not very 

 costly. One reason for observing it is that it is only 

 within the last few years that the highest perfection has 

 been attained in the construction of instruments of 

 measurement. 



If these two conditions can be really fulfilled, it is very 

 desirable to add a few more to the great number of 

 meridian circles now in existence, for the simple reason 

 that it is easy to exceed them in perfection. It is, how- 

 ever, to be remarked that a good climate is a scientific ' 

 prerequisite for the success of an observatory of any kind. 

 The value of observations is decidedly lessened by the 

 breaks in their continuity due to the intervention of 

 clouds. It is therefore extremely desirable that, so far as 

 possible, new observatories should hereafter be erected 

 under sunny skies. 



If an observatory is to be devoted to physical research, 

 a more modest outfit, both in the way of endowment and 

 of instrumental means, may be sufficient to serve an ex- 

 cellent purpose. Instead ot being a great co-operative 

 work, requiring the continuous labor of several persons, 

 physical research may be divided up into sections almost 

 as small as we please, each of which may be worked by 

 an individual astronomer with any instrument suited to 

 the purpose in view. To the success of such an obser- 

 vatory, a clear sky is even more necessary than to one 

 engaged in measurement. Whether a great telescope 

 will be necessary, will depend principally upon what is to 

 be done. The consideration which is really of the first 

 importance is the astronomer. The man who is really 

 wanted will do more with the most inexpensive instru- 

 ments than another one with the most costly ones. As 

 already remarked, physical research is mainly the work 

 of the individual, and what we want is to secure the ser- 

 vices of the ablest man and then supply him with such 

 means of research as are necessary to the problems he 

 has in view. New questions are arising so frequently, 

 and the field of physical research is now so wide, that it 

 is impossible to lay down any general rules for a physical 

 observatory, except that means should be furnished for sup- 

 plying the investigator with any instrument he may want. 



