SCIENCE. 



SCIENCE: 



AWeekly Record of Scientific 

 Prog r ess. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



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 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1881. 



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THE WARNER PRIZES. 



We afforded to Professor Swift ample space in our 

 last week's issue, to reply to our strictures on his dis- 

 position of Mr. Warner's prize for Comet b, 1881. 

 Our readers have now the facts before them and can 

 judge for themselves on the merits of this matter. 

 For ourselves we would say that, realizing the benefits 

 that may accrue from Mr. Warner's gifts, we are not 

 disposed to be too critical in regard to the benefactor 

 nor to the dispenser, and we are far from supposing 

 that either are knowingly walking in the paths of what 

 Professor Swift calls " crookedness." But reading 

 Professor Swift's reply, we cannot interpret it other- 

 wise than as a confirmation of our objections to the 

 course he has taken. 



We admitted that, in this instance, under the con- 

 ditions of the Warner prizes, no claimant could justly 

 claim the prize. We followed by asserting, that as Mr. 

 Warner waived the special conditions and told Mr. Swift 

 to give the $200 to the man who first saw the Comet, 

 it was his duty to have carried out his instructions to 

 the letter. 



Professor Swift confirms the position we took on 

 this subject; in his letter he says : " all conceded that 

 no just demands could be made on Mr. Warner " in 

 regard to Comet b. Then Mr. Warner said, " inas- 

 much as the Comet was such a large and brilliant one, 

 and as so many people seemed not to have under- 

 stood the conditions imposed, he would offer a speeial 



prize of $200 to the one who I, after an examina- 

 tion of claims, should decide had first seen it." 



Now comes the muddle. Mr. Warner admits that 

 wider his conditions no one can claim the prize ; and 

 therefore offers a special prize for the one who first 

 saw the Comet. And yet Professor Swift in his let- 

 ter of explanation says : " the conditions of the orig- 

 inal prize were, neither in this nor in any other, to be 

 deviated from ; " and on this account concludes that 

 " not an astronomer in the world would have awarded 

 it." 



What can be said or done with men who are so 

 thoroughly and flagrantly inconsistent ? Mr. Warner's 

 course throughout appears to have been thoroughly 

 practical ; he saw the difficulty in awarding this par- 

 ticular prize, and met it in a most liberal spirit, and 

 had his intentions been carried out, the thanks of the 

 community would have been the unanimous response. 



Passing over Professor Swift's apparent misinter- 

 pretation of Mr. Warner's instructions, the question 

 may be asked : could " the one who had first seen it" 

 be named? Waiving the claim of the " 1000 persons 

 with affidavits " who claimed to have seen the Comet 

 in the United States before its possible appearance, 

 and the 2000 other clod-hoppers and rustics whose 

 claims appeared to have clouded the judgment of 

 Professor Swift, we offer a few simple facts in regard 

 to the first discoverer of Comet b, which would have 

 influenced our judgment if called upon to decide on 

 this matter: — 



We believe that the first person in the United States 

 who saw the Comet in question, noted its position, and 

 duly reported the fact to Professor Swift was Mr. 

 Edgar L. Larkin, of New Windsor, 111. If Mr. Warner, 

 however, prefers to award the prize to the first person 

 who saw the Comet, irrespective of locality, then we 

 are advised that the following facts bear on che sub- 

 ject : — 



Dr. Gould's name was mentioned prominently 111 

 connection with its discovery, but according to his 

 own statement, his attention was directed to it by his 

 assistant, Mr. Wilson. But prior to this date it had 

 been observed by Cruls, in Brazil, and also by several 

 English astronomers at Melbourne. It now appears 

 that Mr. John Tebbutt, of Windsor, New South 

 Wales, is credited as the first astronomer to get an 

 observation of this Comet; so that if the prize is to be 

 awarded to the first discoverer, Tebbutt appears to be 

 the man. 



The assertion in Professor Swift's letter that Mr. 

 Warner, without consultation with any, pays the prize 

 in certain cases, causes us some surprise, as we 

 thought that his previous experiences hardly war- 

 ranted him to decide on matters astronomical, and 

 that he delegated the task to others. 



