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I made great use throughout of R. Wolfs Geschichte der Astronomie, and of the six volumes of Delambre's Histoire de l'Astronomie (Ancienne, 2 vols.; du Moyen Age, 1 vol.; Moderne, 2 vols.; du Dixhuitième Stècle, 1 vol.). I shall subsequently refer to these books simply as Wolf and Delambre respectively. I have used less often the astronomical sections of Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences (referred to as Whewell), and I am indebted—chiefly for dates and references—to the histories of mathematics written respectively by Marie, W. W. R. Ball, and Cajori, to Poggendorffs Handwörterbuch der Exacten Wissenschaften, and to articles in various biographical dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and scientific journals. Of general treatises on astronomy Newcomb's Popular Astronomy, Young's General Astronomy, and Proctor's Old and New Astronomy have been the most useful for my purposes.

It is difficult to make a selection among the very large number of books on astronomy which are adapted to the general reader. For students who wish for an introductory account of astronomy the Astronomer Royal's Primer of Astronomy may be recommended; Young's Elements of Astronomy is a little more advanced, and Sir R. S. Ball's Story of the Heavens, Newcomb's Popular Astronomy, and Proctor's Old and New Astronomy enter into the subject in much greater detail. Young's General Astronomy may also be recommended to those who are not afraid of a little mathematics. There are also three modern English books dealing generally with the history of astronomy, in all of which the biographical element is much more prominent than in this book: viz. Sir R. S. Ball's Great Astronomers, Lodge's Pioneers of Science, and Morton's Heroes of Science: Astronomers.