SCIENCE. 
189 
SCIENCE: 
A Weekly Record of Scientific 
Prog r ess. 
JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 
Published at 
229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
P. O. Box 3838 . 
SATURDAY. OCTOBER 16, 1880. 
We have for several years entertained a favorable 
opinion regarding the advisability of establishing a 
well equipped observatory for the almost exclusive 
purpose of astronomical discovery. One has only to 
recount the labors of American astronomers during a 
brief term of years to remark the great advancement 
of their science, which has resulted from the direction 
of energy toward this end. Professor Bond’s discov- 
ery of a new satellite and a dusky ring to the planet 
Saturn ; Mr. Burnham’s well-known discoveries of 
new double stars ; the discovery of the companion of 
the bright star Sirius by Mr. Alvan G. Clark ; the 
discovery of fifty or sixty small planets between Mars 
and Jupiter by Dr. Peters and Professor Watson; 
the independent discovery of three or four comets by 
Professor Swift ; the discoveries of intra-Mercurial 
planets, at the time of the eclipse of 1878, by Profes- 
sors Watson and Swift ; the extraordinary discovery 
of the two satellites of Mars by Professor Hall ; the 
brilliant spectroscopic discoveries by Dr. Henry 
Draper of the existence of oxygen in the sun, and of 
the inherent heat of the planet Jupiter — are recalled at 
once. We might add greatly to the list without diffi- 
culty ; but that is not necessary for the support of the 
belief that astronomers have not discovered all there 
is to discover in the solar system even, although their 
labors have been very arduous, and their means of 
research most powerful. We should be inclined to 
predict a scientific record of great importance and 
usefulness for any observatory of high instrumental 
capacity, which should set out upon a line of syste- 
matic observation, with reference to astronomical dis- 
covery simply. It is gratifying, therefore, to learn 
that the new observatory, now in process of erec- 
tion at Rochester, N. Y., would seem to be 
dedicated to this sort of work. Professor Lewis 
Swift, of that place, has, we believe, been in- 
stalled the life director of that institution, constructing 
and endowed by the munificence of Mr. H. H. 
Warner, an enterprising merchant of Rochester, and 
entitled, from its founder, the Warner Observatory. 
About $50,000 will be expended in the construction 
of the observatory proper, and the connected struc- 
ture. The Messrs. Clark, of Cambridgeport, are 
now making a large refracting telescope (aperture of 
the object-glass, sixteen inches) for this new observa- 
tory. We regret that, in the proposed construc- 
tion of this edifice, the architect should, in some 
measure, have resorted to the former system of build- 
ing observatories — -that of mounting the great tele- 
scope upon a pier of masonry built high up from the 
surface of the ground. A series of properly conducted 
experiments will usually indicate, however, whether 
this method is free from objection in any particular 
case. We note a connected contrivance — hitherto 
unknown in astronomy — a passenger-elevator to the 
floor of the dome. We shall express the hope that 
the abundance of new devices with which this new 
observatory is to be supplied may not be marked, as 
is frequently the case, by a less amount of good astro- 
nomical work than is performed in observatories of 
like capacity, where nothing is for convenience and 
everything for pure utility. 
A lecture on “ Microphysiology ” was recently de- 
livered before the Polytechnic Association of New 
York, by a person having an unenviable reputation 
for making extravagant assertions on scientific ques- 
tions. It has been widely reported by the public 
press, and we notice that a claim is made that the 
origin of Bacteria and minute forms of life in the at- 
mosphere has been discovered by the lecturer. 
It was also asserted at the same time that micro- 
scopical organisms can be developed in the laboratory 
under conditions which exclude atmospheric contact, 
a fact in direct contradiction to the exhaustive experi- 
ments of Tyndall and others. 
The problems thus professed to be solved have de- 
fied the intelligent research of such men as Huxley, 
Dallinger, Beale, Sanderman and Bastian, aided by 
the most powerful and perfect objectives obtainable. 
The present assertions to the contrary will, therefore, 
be received with humor by those acquainted with the 
subject, if the mischief caused by such reckless state- 
ments be not considered. 
The announcement made at the same time of the 
discovery, by the lecturer, of a new form of objective, 
the extended application of which nearly doubles the 
present limit of the magnifying power of microscopical 
objectives, requires but a passing notice. 
This individual appears to have fallen into the error 
of supposing that the excellence of a microscope is 
