1900 - 1 .] Meetings of the Society. 449 
to Dr T. D. Anderson for his discoveries of New and Variable 
Stars. 
The Chairman, on presenting the Prize, said : — 
The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh have decided to 
award the Gunning Prize to Dr T. D. Anderson for his distin- 
guished services to astronomical science. Dr Anderson’s name has 
come prominently before the astronomical world by his discovery of 
a large number of variable stars, visible in our latitudes, as well as of 
two temporary stars, one in the constellation of Auriga and the other 
in that of Perseus. In the present highly developed state of 
stellar spectroscopy, the discovery of these two remarkable stars in 
such close succession was bound to lead to a considerable enrich- 
ment of our knowledge with regard to the physical constitution of 
these celestial bodies, and still promises to shed new light on 
important and perplexing problems in the domain of stellar evolu- 
tion. In the case of Nova Persei, the present new star, the value 
of Dr Anderson’s timely discovery is enhanced by the fact that it 
afforded astronomers the unique opportunity for watching the 
course of development in the initial stages of this phenomenon, and 
in this respect the importance of the discovery has been fully 
appreciated by astro-physicists. 
Brilliant, however, as these startling discoveries undoubtedly 
were, they are only, so to speak, incidental results of a lifelong 
labour devoted to a systematic search for variable stars ; and this, 
indeed, is what constitutes Dr Anderson’s principal contribution to 
astronomical science. The indomitable zeal and perseverance by 
which he has been enabled to add as many as thirty-five variables 
to the catalogue of this important class of celestial objects are all the 
more creditable to him, as the small optical power of the instru- 
ments at his disposal, and the distinctly unfavourable site of his 
private observatory, were bound to render his observations very 
difficult and laborious. Not being in possession of star-maps, the 
essential requirements for a work of this kind, Dr Anderson had to 
prepare his own charts from the star-catalogues of the Bonn Durch- 
musterung. The extremely fatiguing labour involved in the con- 
struction of these charts, which include more than 70,000 stars 
down to the 9‘5th magnitude, is a signal proof of his enthusiastic 
