VI 
PRELIMINARY GENERAL CATALOGUE OF STARS FOR 1900 
results until the completion of the entire work, so far as now definitely planned. It 
seemed to the author that, generally speaking, the work ought to be so planned that 
parts of it which may be useful in the progress of science could be published with 
advantage whenever such results in a well-defined field have been attained in the 
current computations, even though these partial results might be swallowed up 
later in the final results. 
Meanwhile, the desire to provide the means for present utilization of some of the 
smaller and less precise star-catalogues, as well as of the Gesellschaft-zones, through 
the ascertainment of their systematic errors, had brought about the increase of the 
so-called standard catalogue to nearly 4000 numbers. It then appeared that to 
increase this list still further, to include especially all stars of the sixth magnitude 
or brighter, would add, proportionally, no excessive amount of labor. Thus the 
resolution was somewhat suddenly formed to present for publication, at an early 
date, this General Catalogue, preliminary to the much more extensive one that is 
contemplated as among the favorable probabilities. These results might have been 
held back to await completion of the larger work, but this course would have entailed 
delay in making generally available what are believed to be useful results. 
Thus the preparation of this work for publication at once is not so much the 
result of an original deliberate plan as it is the consequence of an evolution in the 
progress of these investigations. 
In addition to acknowledgments for assistance in the preparation of this 
Catalogue furnished by Dr. Seth C. Chandler, and by the directors (and other 
astronomers) of various observatories, mentioned at appropriate places in these 
pages, my thanks are due to the corps of assistants and computers who have 
labored so zealously upon this work. Mr. Arthur J. Roy, chief assistant, has been 
of very great service in all departments of the work, and particularly in applying 
the checks and scrutiny necessary for the avoidance of errors in the final work. For 
this duty he has an unusual aptitude; and if the results of computation as they 
appear in the final manuscript should prove to be unusually free from mistakes, 
this will be due as much to the skill and diligence of Mr. Roy as to my own efforts. 
Mr. Varnum, besides other responsible work, took charge of the solution of equations 
of condition employed in deduction of the positions and annual variations of the 
stars. Miss Beulah Benway is also deserving of special recognition for the great 
extent and accuracy of her work upon the more responsible parts of the computations. 
In fact, all the members of the staff of assistants and computers labored with the 
zeal and industry betokened by a personal interest in the work. The reading 
of proof-sheets for the Catalogue itself was carried through, during my absence 
from the country, under charge of Mr. Benjamin Boss, Secretary of the Dudley 
Observatory. 
