returns are out of all proportion to the money expended. The trustees of
such a fund as is here proposed should not regard themselves as patrons
conferring a favor on those to whom grants are made, but as men seeking
for the means of securing large scientific returns for the money
entrusted to them. An astronomer who would aid them in this work, by
properly expending a grant, would confer rather than receive a favor.
They should search for astronomical bargains, and should try to purchase
results where the money could be expended to the best advantage. They
should make it their business to learn of the work of every astronomer
engaged in original research. A young man who presented a paper of
unusual importance at a scientific meeting, or published it in an
astronomical journal, would receive a letter inviting him to submit
plans to the trustees, if he desired aid in extending his work. In many
cases, it would be found that, after working for years under most
unfavorable conditions, he had developed a method of great value and had
applied it to a few stars, but must now stop for want of means. A small
appropriation would enable him to employ an assistant who, in a short
time, could do equally good work. The application of this method to a
hundred or a thousand stars would then be only a matter of time and
money.

The American Astronomical Society met last August at a summer resort on
Lake Erie. About thirty astronomers read papers, and in a large portion
of the cases the appropriation of a few hundred dollars would have
permitted a great extension in these researches. A sad case is that of a
brilliant student who may graduate at a college, take a doctor's degree
in astronomy, and perhaps pass a year or two in study at a foreign
observatory. He then returns to this country, enthusiastic and full of
ideas, and considers himself fortunate in securing a position as
astronomer in a little country college. He now finds himself overwhelmed