Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/835

Rh Astronomische Gesellschaft, which, although less important than the elder society, has organized and brought to a successful conclusion some important astronomical labors. It has an international character; and one of its principal aims is to establish among the astronomers of all countries, by meetings every two years in some city of Europe, bonds of friendship and scientific confraternity.

In the General List of Observatories and Astronomers, of Astronomical Societies and Reviews, of which M. Lancaster has just published a third edition, a special chapter is given to Astronomical Societies. We extract from it the facts that follow relative to the foundation and organization of societies created in later years. A society was founded at Chicago in 1862 for the purpose of furnishing the observatory—by the purchase of instruments, the payment of honorariums to astronomers, etc.—with the means of carrying on its work. Associations of spectroscopists and observers of luminous meteors were formed in Italy in 1871, for the publication of special works. A society was founded in Liverpool in 1882, the principal object of which was to cultivate the taste of amateurs for astronomical observations. A special amateur directs the observatory of the society, and verifies by its instruments the observations made by the members, assists his colleagues in their researches, and carries on special work in the name of the society. The American Astronomical Society was founded in 1887, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1889. The latter society, at the end of the first eighteen months of its existence, had three hundred members and possessed two funds; one for a medal to be awarded to discoverers of new comets, and another for the purchase of an astronomical library. Popular scientific societies have been formed in France since 1864, at Paris, Argentan, Marseilles, Lyons, Nantes, and Narbonne—to which each member brings his quota of work and intelligence. The Astronomical Society of Paris has been able, through the popularizing talent and indefatigable zeal of its director, M. J. Vinot, to create two hundred and one minor observatories, and to establish a circulating library of more than four thousand volumes.

The Astronomical Society of France, which hopes to rival the great societies of England and America, was founded under the