s given us. This was
partly, but not wholly, due to his being, for several years, the
president of the Royal Society. I would willingly say much more,
but I am unable to write authoritatively upon the life and work of
such a man, and must leave gossip to the daily press.

For the visiting astronomer at London scarcely a place in London has
more attractions than the modest little observatory and dwelling house
on Upper Tulse Hill, in which Sir William Huggins has done so much
to develop the spectroscopy of the fixed stars. The owner of this
charming place was a pioneer in the application of the spectroscope
to the analysis of the light of the heavenly bodies, and after nearly
forty years of work in this field, is still pursuing his researches.
The charm of sentiment is added to the cold atmosphere of science by
the collaboration of Lady Huggins. Almost at the beginning of his
work Mr. Huggins, analyzing the light of the great nebula of Orion,
showed that it must proceed from a mass of gas, and not from solid
matter, thus making the greatest step possible in our knowledge of
these objects. He was also the first to make actual measures of the
motions of bright stars to or from our system by observing the wave
length of the rays of light which they absorbed. Quite recently an
illustrated account of his observatory and its work has appeared in
a splendid folio volume, in which the rigor of science is tempered
with a gentle infusion of art which tempts even the non-scientific
reader to linger over its pages.

In England, the career of Professor Cayley affords an example of the
spirit that impels a scientific worker of the highest class, and of
the extent to which an enlightened community may honor him for what
he is doing. One of the creators of modern mathematics, he never
had any ambition beyond the prosecution of his favorite science.
I first met him at a dinner of the Astronomical Society Club.
As the guests were taking off their wraps and assembling in the
anteroom, I noticed, with some surprise, that one whom I supposed
to be an attendant was talking with them on easy terms. A moment
later the supposed attendant was introduced as Professor Cayley.
His garb set off the seeming haggardness of his keen features so
effectively that I thought him either broken down in health or just
recovering from some protracted illness. The unspoken words on
my lips were, "Why, Professor Cayley, what has happened to you?"
Bein