Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/255

 1880-1920] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 223 tion to the utter insufficiency of the system hitherto used. Lunar formations were distinguished either by separate names or by the names of adjacent formations with a letter added. But the limits of the districts to which the particular names should apply had never been clearly denned, so that it often happened that when a letter is found on a map it was difficult to determine to which of several names it should be attached. Again, many selenographers considered themselves entitled to add fresh names to the map, and as there was no recognised authority, it had hap- pened that the same name has been given to two different forma- tions, or that the same formation had received two different names. It was therefore resolved by the Council (on the motion of Professor Turner) that an International Committee on Lunar Nomenclature was desirable, and that the Council would learn with satisfaction that the International Association of Academies would be prepared to appoint one. Saunder's representations were also supported by the Royal Society and reached the Inter- national Association at its meeting at Vienna in 1907, when a Committee on Lunar Nomenclature was appointed. Of the work done by this Committee this is not the place to speak, but two publications instigated by it (Die Randlandschaften des Mondes, by Franz, and the Collated List of Lunar Formations, by Miss Blagg) show how opportune the appointment of the Committee had been. It was further determined to make an accurate map of the moon as a vehicle for the authoritative names, the inner portions of which were drawn by the skilful hands of Mr. Wesley, our Assistant Secretary. The outer portions were to have been drawn by Franz ; since his death they have been drawn by Miss Blagg, to Mr. Wesley's entire satisfaction. Geodesy being closely connected with astronomical work, it is natural that the Council should be warmly interested in the geodetic operations carried on in this country. In 1904 May attention was drawn by Major Hills to the alleged inferiority of English geodetic measures to those of neighbouring parts of the continent ; and it was proposed that the Council should take steps to obtain a reobservation of a geodetic arc in this country. A resolution was passed a month later, stating that the Council felt strongly the need of meridional and longitudinal arcs being remeasured in the United Kingdom. The question was again brought forward by Major Hills at the York meeting of the British Association in 1906 ; and again at the Dublin meeting in 1908 there was a discussion on the proposed remeasurement. Soon after, Major Close * suggested to the Council of the Association that, before definitely accepting the view that the linear errors
 * Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, 1911-1922.