A Course in Astronomy.

With the growth of Harvard the gaps in the curriculum which the university should offer if it is properly to fulfill its functions have become more and more conspicuous. A constant demand on the part of many students for a course in astronomy the college has hitherto failed to meet, alleging lack of funds. Since 1878 the faculty have offered no course in astronomy whatever. This year, however, a determined effort will be made to do away with this deficiency. Mr. Wilson, who has for four or five years been engaged in special research in electricity at the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, has been appointed instructor in astronomy, and will take charge of a course in practical astronomy, consisting chiefly of laboratory work at the Jefferson and at the Observatory. The course will be designed especially to meet the requirements of students in the Lawrence Scientific School and can be taken by members of the college only as an extra. The number of men who will be allowed to take the course can hardly be larger than six as the principal instrument to be employed, the transit, is very expensive, and can be used by only two men at a time. Men intending to become civil engineers need the course especially, as they can hardly do their work properly without being able to determine latitude and longitude and the time of day.

If the course is the success which it promises to be, it will probably become permanently established and the college will gradually purchase a sufficient number of instruments to conduct it with perfect efficiency.