FROM -THE- 
 
 SCIENTIFIC- LIBRARY- OF 
 
 JACQUES -LOEB- 
 
NOTICE 
 
 Additional copies of this beautiful and 
 mspmng work combining both Science and 
 
 THOS. P. NICHOLS & SON CO 
 
 Price, $2.50. LYNN ' MASS ' 
 
BRIEF 
 
 AND 
 
 POPULAR ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES 
 
 OF 
 
 T. J. J. S-EJE, 
 
 A. M., LT. M., Sc. M. (Missou.); A. M., PH. D. (BEROL.); 
 
 FAMOUS ASTRONOMER, NATURAL PHILOSOPHER, AND FOUNDER OF THE 
 NEW SCIENCES OF COSMOGONY AND GEOGONY. 
 
 ,3J*attmt to ti\t H*wt*r <rf % Junto" 
 
 BY W. L. WEBB, 
 
 ' 
 
 Amateur Astronomer, Author of "The Story of the Stars," and Inventor of the "Star Finder; 
 Author of a "History of Missouri;" "History of Greater Kansas City;" 
 "Biography of Champ Clark;" etc. 
 
 1913 
 THOS. P. NICHOLS & SON CO., 
 
 PUBLISHERS, 
 
 LYNN, MASS., U. S. A. 
 WM. WESLEY & SON, LONDON, ENGLAND. 
 
Copyright, 1913 
 
 by 
 W. L. WEBB. 
 
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WILLIAM MUGGINS. 
 
 THE HERSCHEL OF THE SPECTROSCOPE," 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE NEW SCIENCE OF ASTROPHYSICS, 
 
 EX-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, 
 
 STEADFAST FRIEND OF PROFESSOR SEE, 
 
 AND 
 
 ONE OF THE EARLIEST TO RECOGNIZE HIS HIGH PROMISE 
 FOR THE DISCOVERY OF NEW TRUTH. 
 
 iii 
 
 770640 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION . . ... . . . . . . vii 
 
 SKETCH OF PROFESSOR SEE'S BIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . xi 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD. 1866-1872 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION PREPARATORY TO COLLEGE. 1872-1884 . 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 FIVE YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI. 1884-1889 , . 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THREE AND A HALF YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. 1889-1892 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 FOUR YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 1893-1896 . . 53 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Two YEARS AT THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY. 1896-1898 ... 62 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THREE AND A HALF YEARS AT THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY, WASHINGTON. 
 
 1899-1902 71 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY AND MARE ISLAND, CALIFORNIA. 1902-1913 78 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE RESEARCHES ON THE INTERNAL CONSTITUTION 
 
 OF THE SUN AND THE PLANETS. 1904-1906 .... 89 
 
 V 
 
Vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 OUTLINE OF THE NEW THEORY OF EARTHQUAKES. 1906-1908 . . 97 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 How THE MOUNTAINS WERE MADE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. 1908 120 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HIMALAYA MOUN- 
 TAINS AND THE PLATEAU OF TIBET. 1913 .... 137 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE STARRY HEAVENS. 1911 . . . 160 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE DETERMINATION OF THE DEPTH OF THE MILKY WAY. 1912 . 197 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE HERSCHEL-SEE RESEARCHES ON THE ORIGIN OF CLUSTERS AND ON 
 THE BREAKING UP OF THE MILKY WAY, UNDER THE CLUSTERING 
 POWER OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 214 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE NEW SCIENCE OF COSMOGONY. 1912 225 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY CHARACTER OF THE NEW THEORIES, AND THEIR 
 
 TRIUMPHANT VERIFICATION BY EMINENT ASTRONOMERS . . 242 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ' THIS MOST INDEFATIGABLE AND INTREPID OF EXPLORERS,' 'THE 
 
 AMERICAN HERSCHEL,' AND 'THE NEWTON OF COSMOGONY.' . 257 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTES ON SOME EARLY PROPHECIES AND ON THE PUBLIC BANQUET 
 TENDERED DR. SEE BY THE SCIENCE ASSOCIATION OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI, JANUARY 20, 1898 .... 275 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES. 281 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 most eminent philosophers occasionally establish new 
 foundations for the individual physical sciences. But, so 
 far as we are aware, history presents no previous record of 
 one man revolutionizing and laying new foundations for two great 
 physical Sciences. And yet this unprecedented achievement has 
 been accomplished by Professor See, an American just in the prime 
 of life. 
 
 The two New Sciences which he has established are: 
 
 COSMOGONY, dealing with the Creation of the Heavens; 
 GEOGONY, which treats of the Creation of the Earth. 
 
 The New Sciences are as distinct and clearly defined as the 
 problems of the development of the Heavens and of the Earth, 
 respectively; and taken together they unfold the majestic pano- 
 rama of the Creation of the entire Universe. There is thus 
 opened to the mind a vision almost divine! 
 
 The marvelous story of how these unparalleled discoveries 
 were made by a young man of penetrating intuition and steady 
 purpose, working independently, and thus absolutely free of en- 
 tangling alliances, without other than his own moderate means, 
 in an age characterized by increasing restriction of individual 
 freedom incident to growing centralization and vast expenditure, 
 ostensibly for scientific investigation, cannot fail to be of interest 
 to a great and increasing circle of readers in both hemispheres. 
 
 It is often lamented that the simple life and individual inde- 
 pendence enjoyed by the pioneer investigator is passing away with 
 the complexity arising from the centralizing consolidations of 
 
 vii 
 
Viii INTRODUCTORY 
 
 modern industrialism, by which the individual is reduced to a 
 mere cog in the wheel of a vast machine. 
 
 It is therefore very reassuring to have a concrete proof, in 
 Professor See's discoveries, that the time will never come when IN- 
 DIVIDUAL INDEPENDENCE AND FREE INITIATIVE, which character- 
 ized the philosophic habits of Aristotle and Plato, will not bear fruit 
 in the modern, as in the ancient, world. Indeed the failure of many 
 contemporary Scientific Institutions is due to disregard of the 
 mature and wholesome truths taught and practiced by the wisest 
 of the Athenian Sages. 
 
 We are thus impressed with the wholesome doctrine that 
 great discoveries cannot be made by the methods of the factory, 
 the counting-house and the department-store, which have well- 
 nigh destroyed the creative efficiency of some of our most liberally 
 endowed and best supported scientific institutions. 
 
 Professor See is universally recognized as the most intrepid 
 and indefatigable of the explorers of Nature; and since the death 
 of Poincare and Sir George Darwin, in 1912, occupies easily the 
 first place among living natural philosophers. These eminent men 
 were in fact mathematicians rather than investigators of the 
 physical universe; and thus were not so careful in their premises 
 as is usual with discoverers of the first order. 
 
 In vain does the mathematician strive after the laws for 
 the unfolding of the mysteries of the universe, so long as the 
 premises underlying his reasoning are insecure. It is one of 
 Professor See's greatest services to Science to have emphasized 
 impressively this great weakness in much of our contemporary 
 thought; and the lesson thus taught can not be read too often 
 by those who are interested in the progress of Truth. 
 
 I first came into close relations with Professor See a quarter 
 of a century ago, while serving with Hon. Champ Clark on the 
 
INTRODUCTORY ix 
 
 Legislative Committee for the Investigation of the University of 
 Missouri. The student then foremost in the University has now 
 become foremost among men of Science; and naturally I have 
 followed his triumphant career with pride and unabated enthusi- 
 asm. 
 
 While preparing a biography of Hon. Champ Clark, Speaker 
 of the National House of Representatives, in 1911, I decided to 
 undertake the more ambitious work of popularizing the discover- 
 ies of Professor See. Several learned colleagues of this eminent 
 savant, in Missouri and elsewhere, have helped to lighten the 
 burden thus assumed. It was further decreased by Professor 
 See's kindness in granting permission to reprint several articles 
 and addresses of great interest, including the paper on the Origin 
 of the Himalaya Mountains presented to the American Philosoph- 
 ical Society in April, 1913. Grateful acknowledgments are 
 due for priviliges of reprinting extended by this illustrious 
 Society. 
 
 I am especially indebted to Professor L. M. Defoe and Pro- 
 fessor Harris Hancock, close friends of Professor See at the Uni- 
 versity of Missouri and the University of Berlin, respectively; and 
 to the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Missouri, for 
 the loan of a copy of the " Records of the See Family of Virginia," 
 which furnishes authentic genealogical data dating back to 1734, 
 when the early members of this Family came to America from 
 Prussian Silesia. 
 
 W. L. WEBB. 
 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI, 
 June 6, 1913. 
 
SKETCH OF PROFESSOR SEE'S BIOGRAPHY. 
 (From Who's Who in America, 1912.) 
 
 EE, THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON, astronomer, 
 mathematician; born near Montgomery City, Mo., Feb. 19, 
 1866; son of Noah and Mary Ann (Sailor) See; A. B., L.B., 
 S.B., University of Missouri, 1889; A.M., Ph.D., University of 
 Berlin, 1892; married Frances Graves of Montgomery City, June 
 18, 1907. In charge Observatory of University of Missouri, 
 1887-9; volunteer observer Royal Observatory, Berlin, 1891; 
 traveled in Italy, Egypt, Greece, Germany and England, 1890-2; 
 organized and had charge of Department of Astronomy, and aided 
 in organization of Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago, 
 1893-6; astronomer Lowell Observatory in charge Survey of 
 Southern heavens, 1896-8; with 24-inch Clark refractor at Flag- 
 staff, Arizona, and City of Mexico, examined about 200,000 fixed 
 stars, in zone between 15 and 65 degrees south declination, which 
 led to discovery and measurement of about 600 new double stars 
 and remeasurement of some 1,400 double stars previously recog- 
 nized by Sir John Herschel and other observers. Professor of 
 Mathematics, U.S. Navy, since 1899; in charge 26-inch equatorial 
 telescope, U.S. Naval Observatory, 1899-1902; Professor of Math- 
 ematics, U.S. Naval Academy, 1902-3; Naval Observatory, Mare 
 Island, California, since 1903; lecturer on Sidereal Astronomy, 
 Lowell Institute, Boston, 1899. During 1901-2 investigated 
 diameters of planets and satellites by daylight, deducing their 
 constants of irradiation and absolute densities. Published re- 
 searches on Laplace's Invariable Plane, and on the internal densi- 
 ties, pressures, temperatures, rigidities, and moments of inertia 
 of the principal bodies of the planetary system, 1903-6. Observed 
 earthquake at San Francisco, April 18, 1906, and proved that 
 world-shaking earthquakes and mountain formation depend on 
 leakage of oceans and expulsion of lava, producing great wall along 
 
 xi 
 
Xii SKETCH OF PROFESSORS SEE'S BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 margin of sea, as in typical case of the Andes. During 1908-9 
 established laws of the Formation of the Solar System, showing 
 that the planets and satellites were not detached from the bodies 
 which now govern their motions, as supposed by Laplace, but have 
 all been captured, and have since had their orbits reduced in size 
 and rounded up into almost perfect circles under the secular action 
 of a resisting medium. The moon is thus shown to be a planet 
 captured by the earth, and not a detached portion of the terres- 
 trial globe, as held by Sir George Darwin and earlier investigators. 
 Carried out also important researches on the eclipses of the past 
 3,000 years, and the moon's secular acceleration, the rotation of 
 the earth and other planets, the formation of lunar craters, origin 
 of comets, cause of variable and temporary stars, thus founding a 
 new science of cosmogony, since adopted by Poincare and other 
 eminent authorities. During 1911 investigated the depth of the 
 Milky Way, improving and extending the forgotten methods of 
 Sir William Herschel, and showed that this depth is several million 
 light-years, and thus about a thousand times greater than astron- 
 omers have recently believed. This confirmation of the neglect- 
 ed theories of Sir Wm. Herschel led to a movement for the republi- 
 cation of his collected works by the Royal Astronomical and Royal 
 Society of London. Has computed about sixty orbits of double 
 stars. Fellow or member of many scientific societies in United 
 States and abroad. Author: Die Entwickelung der Doppel-Stern 
 Systeme, Berlin, 1893; Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar 
 Systems, Vol. I, Lynn, 1896; Vol. II, The Capture Theory of 
 Cosmical Evolution, 1910; Researches on the Physical Constitu- 
 tion and Rigidities of the Heavenly Bodies, Kiel, 1904-6; Re- 
 searches on the Physics of the Earth, and especially on the Cause 
 of Earthquakes and Mountain Formation, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 
 Philadelphia, 1906-8; Determination of Depth of the Milky Way, 
 Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 1912. Also double star catalogues and about 
 250 contributions to technical journals and magazines. Address: 
 Mare Island, California. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 1866-1872. 
 
 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 SPECULATED ON THE SUN, MOON AND STARS WHEN ONLY TWO 
 
 YEARS OLD. 
 
 nature of genius always has been deeply mysterious, and 
 heretofore philosophers have labored in vain to account for 
 its appearance. It seems to be an accentuation of the usual en- 
 dowments of the individual, combined with a power of concentra- 
 tion which produces the maximum efficiency, and doubtless is an 
 extraordinary gift of Nature designed for the protection and 
 improvement of the race. At least this is the purpose which 
 genius serves in the economy of the world. 
 
 But as genius is the culmination of the more normal creative 
 effort, and appears only under favorable conditions, we may re- 
 mark that to understand the forces that produce a great man one 
 has to look into the environment of his individual life, and also 
 examine the ancestry of his family. Taken together these two 
 influences, in some mysterious way, determine the mental and 
 bodily powers and tendencies, always a very important factor in 
 those labors which make for high achievement. It takes genera- 
 tions of good stock to produce the best type of man, just as it 
 does to produce the best types in the rest of the animal kingdom. 
 
 For although it is a recognized maxim of the most eminent 
 historians, as Thucydides and Tacitus, Gibbon and Grote, Ranke 
 and Niebuhr, Mommsen and Curtius, that the importance of an- 
 cestry often is overrated, yet the Southern saying that "blood 
 will tell" holds true in our History; and nowhere is this steadying 
 influence more effective than in the persistence required for the 
 higher intellectual life. To develop the noblest products of the 
 
2 . BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 human mind, such as discoveries which lay the foundations of 
 new sciences, the forces must all be strong and well balanced and 
 the mental intuition clear and penetrating. When these con- 
 ditions are favorable Nature occasionally supplements her ordinary 
 creative efforts by examples of the extraordinary type called genius. 
 
 Needless to say the ancestry of Professor See is of the sturdiest 
 kind, and marked by great strength of character for many genera- 
 tions, on both sides of the family. His talents have been very 
 largrly inherited, but they are also original gifts of Nature, which 
 have been developed by industry and favorable environment. 
 
 The earliest American ancestor by this name was Adam See, 
 a Protestant and an adherent of a sect of Baptists, who fled from 
 Prussian Silesia, with the colony of Schwenkf elders in 1734*, 
 and settled first in Bucks Co., Penn. Adam See's wife was named 
 Barbara, and he had an elder brother, Michael Frederick See, 
 whose wife's name was Catherine. They were all quite young 
 at the time of the immigration from Germany, to escape from 
 religious persecutions! ; and the Adam See family continued to 
 use German Bibles to the third generation. 
 
 * This was the same year in which the Moravian Evangelists first came to 
 Pennsylvania, but their first temporary settlement and mission to the Indians was 
 at Savannah, Ga., 1735. In 1740 these Moravians moved to Pennsylvania, and 
 with Count Zinzendorf and others from Herrnhut, Saxony, founded Bethlehem, 
 1741. 
 
 tThe persecution under which the Schwenkfelders fled from Prussian Silesia 
 is described in the Encyclopedia Britannica, ninth edition, Article Schwenkf eld, as 
 follows: "In Silesia they formed a distinct sect, which has lasted until our own 
 times. In the 17th Century they were associated with the followers of Jacob 
 Bohme, and were undisturbed until 1708, when an inquiry was made as to their 
 doctrines. In 1720 a Commission of Jesuits was despatched to Silesia to convert 
 them by force. Most of them fled from Silesia to Saxony, and thence to Holland, 
 England and North America. Frederick the Great of Prussia, when he seized 
 Silesia, extended his protection to those who remained in that province. Those 
 who had fled to Philadelphia in Pennsylvania formed a small community under 
 the name of Schwenkfeldians; and Zinzendorf and Spangenberg, when they 
 visited the United States, endeavoured, but with little success, to convert them 
 to their views. This Community still exists in Pennsylvania, and according to 
 information obtained from their ministers by Robert Barclay they consisted 
 in 1875 of two congregations of 500 members, with three meeting houses and six 
 .ministers." 
 
THE RETURN OF THE GREENBRIER CAPTIVES, AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE 
 
 FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1765. 
 
 (From an old History). 
 
HON. CHARLES MICHAEL SEE. 
 
 One of the most widely known and highly respected citizens of Central Illinois. Mr. See 
 has a notable record in the Union Army, 1861-65; and a remarkable service of 40 years as Station 
 Agent of the Illinois Central Railroad, at Alma. He took up the study of the Family History, 
 about 1880. at the suggestion of Judge Silas Bryan, who had long known the Sees in Virginia. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 3 
 
 In 1745 they moved from Pennsylvania to the Valley of 
 Virginia, and settled near the present town of Moorefield, in Hardy 
 County. Here Adam See became a prominent planter, and lived 
 till about 1790. About 1760, his elder brother and family moved 
 on to Greenbrier settlement, where he was killed in the Indian 
 massacre of July 17, 1763, and the family, consisting of wife and 
 four children, carried captive to Old Town (Chillicothe), Ohio. 
 After the treaty of peace, at the close of the French and Indian 
 Wars of 1765, they were all restored to their people, except John 
 See, a child of seven, who had been adopted in an Indian family, 
 and, as the captives were leaving, ran back and stayed with 
 the Indians, till ransomed by his Uncle Adam See some years 
 later. 
 
 John See then grew up with his Uncle Adam's son George 
 See, and both fought in the Revolution, John being so badly 
 wounded at Brandywine that he was pensioned by the government 
 in old age. He lived to be ninety, dying near Peoria, 111., in 1848. 
 When he was very old he gave a detailed account of the early 
 history of the family to his grandson, the Rev. Michael See, of 
 Wyman, Iowa, who was appointed a member of the Sanitary 
 Commission by President Lincoln during the Civil War. The 
 Rev. Michael See gave this account to Hon. Charles Michael 
 See of Alma, 111., who took up the study of the family history about 
 1880, at the suggestion of Judge Silas Bryan, father of Hon. 
 Wm. J. Bryan, and later gave the data thus gathered to Hon. 
 Noah See, father of Professor See; so that all the records are 
 authentic and preserved in enough detail to make an interesting 
 history. 
 
 Adam See seems to have had a family of one or more daugh- 
 ters, and the son George mentioned above. Before the Revolu- 
 tion, probably about 1767, George See had married Jemima Har- 
 ness, by whom he had a family of nine children: Adam, Michael, 
 George, Charles, and John; and the daughters: Barbara, Hannah, 
 Elizabeth, and Dorothy. The history of the family of this gen- 
 eration is fully kept, but most of it need not be given here. 
 
4 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 It suffices to say that the second Adam See was a student at 
 Dickinson College, and afterwards became an eminent lawyer, a 
 senator at Richmond during the War of 1812, and a member of 
 the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. 
 
 His brother Michael See married Catherine Baker, and raised 
 a family of nine children, the names of the six sons being: Adam, 
 Anthony, Jacob, John, Solomon, and Noah; and of the daughters: 
 Mary, Elizabeth, Barbara. This Noah See, the youngest child, 
 and the most talented, was the father of Professor See, the sub- 
 ject of this Biography. His grandfather, George See, and son 
 Charles had been killed by lightning while stacking hay, about 
 1794; and the two brothers, Adam and Michael, with their fami- 
 lies, then moved to Randolph County, Va., about 1795, where 
 Noah See was born September 19, 1815. Michael See served in 
 the War of 1812, while his brother Adam was a Senator at Rich- 
 mond. 
 
 In 1837 Noah See visited the West, traveling on horseback 
 through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and finally settled in Mont- 
 gomery County, Mo., whither his father, mother, and three 
 brothers and two sisters soon followed, so that the See family has 
 been prominent in that part of Missouri for three quarters of a 
 century. Michael See lived as a highly respected citizen of Mont- 
 gomery County till his death in 1857. 
 
 Noah See was educated in the High School at Beverly, Vir- 
 ginia, and trained as a cabinet-maker. He also became an archi- 
 tect and civil engineer, having built a bridge over the Cheat 
 River in Virginia before he was twenty-two. In these early days 
 he also studied land surveying, which he afterwards followed as 
 a life-long profession, having been twice elected county surveyor 
 of Montgomery County, and generally considered one of the finest 
 surveyors in Missouri. The profession of architect he also kept 
 up, having built a great many houses still standing in Montgomery 
 County; while his talents as an engineer caused him to be chosen 
 as bridge commissioner of the county for nearly thirty years. 
 His conduct of these several offices was always marked by great 
 

HON. NOAH SEE. 
 
 Professor See's Father, as he appeared when about sixty years of 
 age. He was born in Randolph County, Virginia, Sept. 19, 1815, and died 
 in Montgomery County, Missouri, Feb. 9, 1890. Owing to his experience 
 as a Civil Engineer, Surveyor, and Architect, he served as Bridge Com- 
 missioner of the County for over 3(Tyears. 
 
MRS. MARY A. SEE. 
 
 Mother of Professor See, from a photograph taken in 1899, when she was 
 67 years of age. Mrs. See was born in Montgomery County, Missouri, Jan. 14, 
 1832, and has always resided in the County. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 5 
 
 fidelity to the interests of the community. By virtue of natural 
 abilities and strictly legitimate industry he became wealthy and 
 influential, and for fifty-two years was one of the most highly 
 respected citizens in the county. 
 
 On October 18, 1853, Noah See married Miss Mary A. Sailor, 
 daughter of James and Sabina (Cobb) Sailor. The Sailors were 
 a highly respected family which came from near Mt. Sterling, 
 Montgomery County, Kentucky*, but were originally from Vir- 
 ginia. The earliest American ancestor by this name, John Sailor, 
 born about 1750, was an Englishman, who settled in Virginia 
 about 1772, and afterwards fought in the Revolution. He moved 
 to Montgomery County, Ky., about 1790, and resided near Jack- 
 son's Mill, on the Licking River, being by profession a skilled 
 machinist. He had a family of six children five sons: John, 
 Emanuel, Mathias, Jacob, and William, and the daughter Sarah, 
 who married Samuel Cobb, a brother of Phillip Cobb. His second 
 son, Emanuel Sailor, with his wife and family of three sons, James, 
 John and Thomas, settled in Montgomery County, Mo., in 1824, 
 and their descendants have always been highly respected citizens 
 of that part of Missouri. Emanuel Sailor's wife, at the time of 
 their marriage, was a widow, her first husband having been Dr. 
 James Geary, of Ohio, and her maiden name Ann Hollett, of New 
 York City. 
 
 Mrs. Noah See, mother of the famous astronomer, still lives 
 at the old home near Montgomery City, and is one of the most 
 remarkable women in the United States. The family consisted 
 of nine children, of whom eight are still living, one daughter 
 having died in childhood. Mrs. See has long been noted for her 
 devotion to the family, and for her energy and force of character. 
 She has always been greatly beloved by the whole community, 
 as such model mothers usually are. The names of the children 
 in order of age are: Anna Maria, Millard Filmore, Missouri 
 Virginia, Robert E. Lee, Lucy Elizabeth (died at age of two and 
 
 * The State of Missouri was settled by Virginians and Kentuckians, and Pro- 
 fessor See therefore is a typical Missourian in every sense. 
 
6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 half years), Thomas Jefferson Jackson*, George Washington, 
 Sylvester Clay, Edward Everett. 
 
 From this list it will be seen that the astronomer is the sixth 
 child and third son in a family of nine, all of whom are talented. 
 All the boys were raised as farmers, and most of them have ad- 
 hered to the family tradition. Three of Professor See's brothers, 
 namely, M. F. See, Geo. W. See, and E. E. See have decided 
 scientific tastes, however, and could have become eminent pro- 
 fessional men; while the eldest sister, Anna Maria (Mrs. A. M. 
 Weeks) has extremely varied talent. The other living sister, 
 Missouri Virginia (Mrs. S. T. Weeks) has the domestic taste of 
 her mother and has raised a family of nine children. Robert E. 
 Lee See is a farmer and land surveyor; while S. C. See is one of 
 the best and most prosperous farmers in Montgomery County. 
 The little sister Lucy Elizabeth, who died in childhood, was very 
 talented, and already showed a remarkable sense for music. 
 
 As a further account of Professor See's brothers it may be 
 stated: 
 
 1. That the eldest, Millard Filmore, is a great reader of 
 scientific literature, having made a careful study of such celebrated 
 philosophers as Darwin, Spencer, Haeckel, Huxley, John Stuart 
 Mill; and of late years has given much attention to astronomy 
 and cosmogony, along the lines marked out in Professor See's 
 ' ' Researches. ' ' His mind is noted for its scientific turn, and he has 
 practical talent as a builder, and inventor of mechanical appli- 
 ances. Moreover he is well read in law and public administration. 
 His son, Russell See, is a distinguished graduate of the Missouri 
 University, and now a civil engineer in the U.S. Reclamation Service- 
 
 * Originally named in honor of the famous Confederate General Stonewall 
 Jackson, but as the name Jonathan in the General's name did not seem the most 
 suitable, it was replaced by Jefferson and the new name then considered as repre- 
 senting three celebrated men: Thomas in honor of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson, 
 in honor of Jefferson Davis and Jackson in honor of Stonewall Jackson. Professor 
 Newcomb once remarked to Professor See in Washington that his father must 
 have been a great admirer of American history to have given him such a distin- 
 guished name. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 7 
 
 2. The intellectual tastes of George W. See are about equally 
 pronounced. He made a good record at the Missouri State Uni- 
 versity, including a year in the Law School; and has been quite 
 active in public affairs. In 1898 he represented Montgomery 
 County in the State Legislature, and served on important com- 
 mittees. He has long been a warm friend and trusted adviser of 
 Speaker Champ Clark; and in 1912 was designated by the State 
 Central Committee a Presidential Elector at Large on the Demo- 
 cratic Ticket, to fill a vacancy, but did not serve, owing to subse- 
 quent ruling of the State Supreme Court sustaining the claims of 
 the first nominee, whose legal right to act as Elector was in doubt. 
 
 3. The youngest brother, E. E. See, was a promising student 
 at the Missouri State University, and made notable progress in 
 biology, under the celebrated Dr. Howard Ayers; and his subse- 
 quent studies have included geology, astronomy and cosmogony. 
 All of Professor See's brothers take a deep interest in his dis- 
 coveries, and Edward also has artistic talent. 
 
 Missouri Virginia's husband, Judge S. T. Weeks, was a man 
 of high standing and liberal attainments. He was elected county 
 Judge of Callaway County, and afterwards State Senator; and 
 aided in important legislation looking to the betterment of the 
 State. The offices which he held came to him quite unsought. 
 While Senator he was a trusted advisor of Governor Francis, whose 
 administration is reckoned among the best in the history of 
 Missouri. 
 
 Before dismissing the subject, it may be remarked that Pro- 
 fessor See's Uncle, Jacob See, was in his time also a leading citizen 
 of Montgomery County. He was elected sheriff, and afterwards 
 represented the county in the Legislature, during the session of 
 1876-7. But his greatest fame was won as a raiser of fine stock. 
 The celebrated ox, " Stonewall Jackson," weighed 4,300 pounds, 
 and was by far the largest animal of the kind in the world. This 
 mammoth ox was exhibited in many cities of the Union, and 
 finally taken to the Centennial at Philadelphia, where it was 
 crippled and died. 
 
8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Jacob See's son, Randolph E., was twice elected sheriff of 
 Montgomery County, and later was appointed marshal of the 
 Supreme Court at Jefferson City. Under Governor Folk, Rand- 
 dolph See became chief assistant warden of the Penitentiary, 
 where he rendered such eminent services, on the occasion of an 
 outbreak of the prisoners, that his widow was voted the sum of 
 $2,000. by the Legislature, in recognition of bravery which 
 shortened his life, owing to the extreme exertions then made in 
 the discharge of his duties to the State. His death soon after this 
 heroic conduct was viewed as a public calamity. 
 
 From these indications it will be seen that the prominence 
 attained by the See family in Virginia was not temporary, but 
 has been much increased in Missouri during successive generations, 
 and in several branches. 
 
 Returning now to the subject of this biography we notice 
 that Professor See was born at the "Prairie Place," a large farm of 
 some six hundred acres, three miles northwest of Montgomery City, 
 Mo., Feb. 19, 1866. This was just after the close of the Civil War, 
 and when the terrible days of test oaths and reconstruction were 
 coming on. During that fearful conflict, Noah See was an outspoken 
 Southern sympathizer, and was persecuted accordingly. \ He had 
 owned two or three slaves before the war broke out, but they were well 
 treated and remained faithful to their old master during these terri- 
 ble times, and continued to live near him after the close of the war. 
 
 Having a growing family of small children, Noah See could 
 not well leave them when the country was so overrun with maraud- 
 ers, who carried away live stock and provisions and pretty much 
 everything in sight, and often burned houses and towns, and com- 
 mitted many cold blooded murders. Thus Mr. Hamp Logan, an 
 innocent and unoffending young man, was killed by licentious 
 and drunken soldiers within a mile of Noah See's home. By these 
 depredations Mr. See lost property during the war worth at least 
 sixteen hundred dollars. 
 
 Much of the time he had to keep in hiding, to come to his 
 family in time of need, and to provide for the devoted wife and 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 9 
 
 children. For two or three years, at times of greatest danger, 
 he camped in the creek bottoms, often sleeping in caves, or in 
 ravines or hollows, with nothing but a low canvas over his head 
 as a shelter against the wind and snow. 
 
 First one set of raiders would come, and then another. On 
 two or three occasions he narrowly escaped capture at the hands 
 of desperate and drunken soldiery. Finally he was captured unex- 
 pectedly, and detained as military prisoner in Danville, where 
 he worked as carpenter, building the block house which was used 
 as a fort by the Federal troops. He always had good friends 
 among the Union sympathizers, and they secured his safety. After 
 some months he escaped and ran away, while the guard was inat- 
 tentive, but was again apprehended, though not long detained; 
 and he was then allowed to remain at liberty, as one of the inof- 
 fending Southerners.] 
 
 Noah See had in fact never taken any part in the war, and 
 was persecuted by a few envious individuals of the community 
 just because he was prosperous and well-to-do. Those who were 
 trifling and penniless made the war a pretext to spy on their pros- 
 perous neighbors, and aid in parceling out their property. It was 
 just such lawlessness as this that ruined the Federal cause in 
 the eyes of the best citizens of Montgomery County. The town 
 of Danville lost standing in this way, and after it was burned 
 during the war never recovered. As a law-abiding and peaceful 
 citizen, persecuted and thus compelled to camp out during the 
 war, much like Daniel Boone, in his conflicts with the Indians, 
 Noah See has related that he used to lie awake at night, with 
 nothing but the stars overhead, and wonder if there could be a 
 God governing the world, who would permit the triumph of such 
 injustice and wickedness. Few men ever went through a more 
 trying experience than the future father of the famous astrono- 
 mer, who was destined to be born a year after the close of the 
 war. 
 
 It is worth recording in this connection, thatj Mrs. Noah See, 
 while her husband was in seclusion, or detained under military 
 
10 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 guard in Danville, was under the necessity of managing the farm 
 as well as the household, and with very little help. A part of 
 the time her younger brother, John T. Sailor, then a boy of twelve 
 or fourteen, helped her about the place, and around the house. 
 But oftentimes the militia would come at night in their search 
 for firearms, and stay so long, by the comfortable fire, that they 
 would burn up all the wood in the house, and leave none for use 
 next morning. 
 
 They stole and carried away flour, bacon, lard, sugar, coffee, 
 live stock, hay, cattle, sheep and hogs, as well as horses and mules. 
 On one occasion they tried to kill one of the only yoke of oxen on 
 the place, wanting to shoot the ox while yoked to the feed wagon. 
 But Mrs. See was brave as a lion, and emphatically ordered them 
 off the place, using very strong language in laying down the law. 
 As she got between their guns and the ox, and simply would not 
 yield, they finally desisted, and went elsewhere for beef. 
 
 During several of the winters of the war the snow was very 
 deep, and the cold intense; yet Mrs. See herself had to yoke the 
 oxen and attend to the feeding, besides^aring for a family of five 
 children, several of them quite small./ If ever a woman deserved 
 a place in Missouri history it is Mrs. Mary A. See, the mother of 
 the great astronomer. No heroine of the American Revolution 
 ever went through more trying experiences than this noble and 
 good woman. , 
 
 It was from such sturdy stock, tested in the crucible of bitter 
 experience during the war, that the future illustrious scientist 
 was to be born. And strange to say, he first saw the light on the 
 birthday of Copernicus (1473-1543), the founder of modern as- 
 tronomy, Feb. 19, 1866. This date of birth might be an accident, 
 but the believers in astrology will find in the career of Professor 
 See and his revolutionary work in astronomy so much to remind 
 them of his great predecessor, as to cause many to think that after 
 all our destinies are shaped by the stars under which we are born. 
 
 As a baby, the future astronomer was large and vigorous, 
 weighing nearly ten pounds. He suffered from no important ill- 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 11 
 
 i ness in childhood, except a croupy tendency, which however was 
 relieved without much difficulty. He was a quiet child, but 
 bright and inquisitive as soon as he developed to the talking age. 
 As soon as he could walk about the house, he was fond of following^ 
 his mother around, and asking all kinds of questions, such as why 
 do you do this, and why that, etc. 
 
 It is authenticated that when not more than two years of age, 
 he would count the leaves on the trees, and the wild geese flying 
 in flocks overhead; and cry out: "Geese, geese! how many? 
 A hundred, or a thousand?" This showed a mind for number- 
 ing all things; and naturally it extended to the stars lighting 
 up the sky at night. They too had to be counted before the 
 little boy closed his eyes in sleep. Nor was the Moon, as the 
 chief ornament of the nocturnal sky, overlooked. On the con- 
 trary, it was his special pet, and he used to debate whether it 
 could not be brought down to the earth, like a plate on the 
 table^ 
 
 The little boy of three never dreamed in this happy childhood 
 that some day he was to be the one astronomer who could en- 
 lighten the world regarding the origin of the Moon. Yet all these 
 tendencies in childhood marked the boy as a born investigator, 
 and his questions ran all the way from who made the Sun, Moon 
 and Stars, to who made God. Even in childhood he was every 
 inch a natural philosopher.] 
 
 On August 7, 1869, a"total eclipse of the Sun took place, the 
 path of totality passing over Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and North 
 Carolina. It was so dark in eastern Missouri that the cows came 
 home, as in the evening, lowing for the calves, while the chickens 
 went to roost, and the cocks crowed, as at night. The little boy, 
 under the safe keeping of his good mother, observed all this, and 
 it produced a lasting impression on his childish mind. He went 
 out to look at the Sun when covered by the Moon, but finding it 
 almost as dark as night, with only a halo of rays about the Sun, 
 due to the corona, he hastened back into the house and hid under 
 the bed, till all danger was passed. 
 
12 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 r- 
 
 As a child, Professor See learned his letters so early that no 
 teacher was required. Without instruction, he learned to spell, 
 probably from the example of the older children. He first went 
 to a district school, in a log school house, where his mother had 
 acquired the elements of her education years before, ; This school 
 house is shown in the accompanying picture. It had slabs for 
 seats, which were without any backs; and was heated by a fire- 
 place, and thus as primitive, as in the time of Andrew Jackson, 
 the neighborhood having undergone but little change in the forty 
 years since his mother's birth, Jan. 14, 1832.}' fiut the place was 
 safe, and in this rural Arcady the little boy passed an ideal child- 
 hood, i 
 
 His first teacher was Professor Benjamin Elliot, who still 
 lives in Montgomery County, and is naturally very proud of the 
 great man now grown out of the little "Tommy" See of six, who 
 came to him to learn the elements of reading, writing and arith- 
 metic, forty years ago. 
 
 In a letter dated Mineola, Mo., January 8, 1906, Professor 
 Elliott wrote Professor See regarding these early days at school 
 as follows: 
 
 "I am in receipt of your favor of recent date (regarding the 
 mathematical researches on the constitution of the Sun), which I 
 read with the greatest pleasure. You can not conceive the grati- 
 fication it is to me to know of the success you have had in your 
 chosen field of labor. Well do I remember the first day that you 
 were under my care at school. The methodical manner, in which 
 you took up the duties assigned to you, attracted my attention; 
 for even in childhood you employed system in everything you did; 
 and this led me to conclude, and rightly, that I had found the ideal 
 boy. And I never had the least cause to change my first impres- 
 sion, as long as we were together in school. 
 
 "I had thought to give some recollections of those days, but 
 there are so many pleasant ones that present themselves, that to 
 write even a small part of them, would make this letter too long. 
 There is ever a warm place in my heart for you, and an earnest 
 
MR. BENJAMIN ELLIOTT. 
 
 Professor See's earliest teacher, as he ap- 
 peared when about 70 years of age. From a photo- 
 graph taken in 1906. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 13 
 
 wish that you may succeed in all your undertakings; for it seems 
 to me that your success is my success. I claim part of it any- 
 way. 
 
 "I have no photograph at present, but shall have some made 
 soon, and send you one. I met your mother at the Old Settlers' 
 Reunion last August, the first time I had seen her since the family 
 moved from Loutre. Was real glad to meet her, as I am to meet 
 any of the old-timers. Be sure to visit me when you come to 
 Missouri next time." 
 
 Something in these earliest days led little Tom See to learn 
 by heart the familiar poem: 
 
 "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 
 How I wonder what you are, 
 Up above the world so high, 
 Like a diamond in the sky. 
 
 "When the blazing sun is set, 
 And the grass with dew is wet, 
 Then you show your little light, 
 Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. 
 
 "And if I were in the dark, 
 I would thank you for your spark; 
 I could not see which way to go 
 If you did not twinkle so. 
 
 "And when I am sound asleep 
 Oft you through my window peep, 
 For you never shut your eye 
 Till the sun is in the sky." 
 
 It was observed that he had a prodigious memory, and he 
 used to repeat such poems at play time, to the delight of all the 
 pupils. Little did his associates then imagine that the little boy 
 with methodical methods and brilliant memory was to become 
 the greatest astronomer in the world, and one of the greatest of 
 all time! 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 1879-1884. 
 
 BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION PREPARATORY TO COLLEGE. 
 
 KEEN INTEREST IN SCIENCE SUPPLEMENTED BY ARTISTIC TASTE 
 AND BY THE STUDY OF DRAWING AND PAINTING. 
 
 EFORE proceeding with the story of Professor See's boyhood, 
 it is advisable to dwell briefly on his father's activity at this 
 period. We have already related that Noah See was a man 
 of remarkably keen mind. He was rather stocky in build, about 
 five feet eight inches in height, but active as a farmer, builder, 
 engineer, and surveyor, till within a few years of his death in 1890. 
 He was a good business man, and acquired in time an independent 
 fortune. He invested his savings chiefly in land, and thus the 
 estate finally included some eight thousand acres. Accordingly 
 in the latter years of his life Noah See was one of the largest land 
 holders in northeast Missouri. 
 
 In the early days, from 1840 to 1870, Mr. See acquired land 
 little by little. He entered some of it himself, and in other cases 
 bought it from others who wished to sell. In the forties and fifties 
 the whole country from Montgomery City to Palmyra, in Marion 
 County, was an open prairie, with grass as high as a horse's back. 
 The flies were so bad that people could not live in the prairie, and 
 the early settlements had therefore all been along the creek bot- 
 toms and in the timbered regions, where water also was more ac- 
 cessible than in the prairie country. 
 
 But Mr. See himself moved to the Prairie Place, three miles 
 northwest of Montgomery City, about 1852, and settlers began to 
 enter the prairie land also. At this time they had to go to Pal- 
 myra to obtain the land patents, and thus had to ride about sixty 
 miles through the high grass. It was impossible to travel by day, 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 15 
 
 because the flies were so bad on the horses, and the custom was 
 to travel by night. Many times did Noah See traverse this 
 stretch of open prairie with nothing but the stars to guide him. 
 As he was a surveyor, he knew how to reach his destination by the 
 shortest route, which often decided who got the land offered for 
 patent by the Government. Guided by the stars he would ride 
 all night, and rest his horse by day, under a cover to protect the 
 animal from the flies; and then on the second night reach Palmyra 
 by the light of the morning stars. 
 
 Most of Professor See's country place on Loutre, was entered 
 by his maternal great grandfather, Phillip Cobb*, from whom 
 Noah See purchased it in 1837; but he calls it Starlight, in memory 
 of the nightly journeys of his father, who thus acquired so much 
 of his land by entry at Palmyra. Besides the name Starlight is 
 very appropriate for the home of an astronomer, who first learned 
 to study the heavens in this most beautiful region of Montgomery 
 County. 
 
 After his marriage in 1853, Mr. See gave up building and con- 
 structing houses for others, but as he had acquired several farms 
 of his own, he continued to improve them with buildings, barns, 
 and tenant houses. And he continued to act as bridge com- 
 missioner for the county till after 1880. While Noah See always 
 took a keen interest in public affairs, and was so patriotic in his 
 feelings that he named his sons largely after the Presidents, he did 
 not like political life, as it is carried on. Hence he made it a rule 
 not to hold public office. But upon the solicitation of friends he 
 was persuaded to be a candidate for county surveyor twice in 
 the seventies, and was each time elected by good majorities. 
 
 * The Cobbs, like the Sailors, were of English origin, having settled in Virginia 
 before the Revolution. After participating in that struggle some of them moved 
 to Montgomery County, Ky. Phillip Cobb settled in Montgomery County, Mo., 
 in 1823, and his daughter Sabina married James Sailor, Dec. 28, 1828. 
 Among well known descendants of the Cobbs of Virginia are Professor Collier 
 Cobb of the University of North Carolina, the celebrated Confederate States- 
 man Howell Cobb, Justice A. J. Cobb of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and 
 others. 
 
16 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 For many years he was accustomed to ride about the County 
 on bridge inspections, surveying, and other work; and often 
 attended court at Danville to hear speeches by the more eminent 
 lawyers. He would also attend political meetings, to hear Sena- 
 tors Vest, and Cockrell, or Champ Clark. In earlier days he 
 heard ex-Senators John B. Henderson, and Waldo P. Johnston, 
 and predicted eminent careers for both of them. He had been a 
 great admirer of Henry Clay, but said that he was too honest to 
 be elected President. 
 
 On account of these habits Noah See was accustomed to be 
 much away from home during the day, but seldom stayed over 
 night, and when he did it was with some of the substantial citizens. 
 Occasionally his surveying work took him to remote parts of the 
 County, and he might be gone a week; but this was exceptional. 
 He knew everybody in the County of any standing, and had a 
 strong personal following, and very few enemies. His fondness 
 for riding and his activity about the farm, in spite of severe weather, 
 kept him in fairly good health till within a year of his death in 
 1890. 
 
 As Noah See always lived on large farms in the country, only 
 the district schools were available for the education of his children, 
 except when special arrangements were made for their stay in town, 
 or at the University, after T. J. J. See went there in 1884. \ In 
 Professor See's boyhood the family lived at the Loutre place, about 
 seven miles west of Montgomery City. The father might go to 
 town on business, every day or every few days, but the rest of the 
 family stayed close at home, and were actively occupied with the 
 work of the farm, the children being in school about four months 
 during the winter. This was the common country school, very 
 good as far as it went, but usually not going beyond the elements 
 of reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, history, geography, and 
 in a few cases the elements of physics, geometry and physical 
 geography. 
 
 With only four months of the year devoted to school, it is 
 clear that advancement could not be very rapid. Each year the 
 
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UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 17 
 
 pupils got a little further than the year before, and the brighter 
 ones took up new studies. Noah See was "good in figures" or a 
 good mathematician, and he taught his son Thomas some of the 
 most important processes of arithmetic. Usually, however, the 
 children depended upon the teacher, and the older children who 
 had gone over the ground before. But, on the one hand, if the 
 schools were limited and somewhat short and inadequate, yet on 
 the other they were not crammed with such a mass of stuff as to 
 confuse both teacher and pupil, as they so often are nowadays. 
 
 Thus Professor See's early educational advantages were lim- 
 ited, but such as to give a clear understanding of what he did 
 study. Professor Benjamin Elliott was his earliest teacher, and 
 he was a good mathematician, and clearheaded in all that he did. 
 Professor See's later instructors during the years at Loutre, in- 
 cluded his sister Mrs. A. M. Weeks, who was an excellent teacher, 
 and especially good in arithmetic. From his earliest studies it was 
 observed that Tom See always stood at the head of his classes. Good 
 in everything, he would spell down every one in school, the teacher 
 not excepted; and it was the same way in arithmetic. If there 
 was any problem which no one could solve, in such books as Ray's 
 Arithmetic, it was put up to Tom See, and not once did he fail. 
 
 The old Loutre school house was burned down during Christ- 
 mas week of 1875, and a new frame school house built by Noah 
 See for the district, on a tract of land donated by him for the pur- 
 pose. It is now called Starlight, and is included within Professor 
 See's country place. It was here that Tom See as a boy of twelve 
 and thirteen went to school during the winter of 1878 and 1879. 
 He won the first prize for scholarship, a beautiful picture, and on 
 the last day of school surprised everybody by solving a very diffi- 
 cult problem in Ray's Third Part of Arithmetic, which Professor 
 Elliott and many others believed could not be solved. ^ 
 
 In these early school days, which were characterized by few 
 but excellent books, Tom See became familar with Longfellow's 
 "Psalm of Life" by hearing this famous poem recited from time 
 to time: 
 
18 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 "A PSALM OF LIFE.' 
 
 " What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist." 
 
 "Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 
 
 Life is but an empty dream! 
 For the soul is dead that slumbers, 
 And things are not what they seem. 
 
 "Life is real! Life is earnest! 
 
 And the grave is not its goal; 
 Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 
 Was not spoken of the soul. 
 
 "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
 
 Is our destined end or way; 
 
 But to act, that each to-morrow 
 
 Finds us farther from to-day. 
 
 "Art is long, and Time is fleeting, 
 
 And our hearts, though stout and brave, 
 Still, like muffled drums, are beating 
 Funeral marches to the grave. 
 
 "In the world's broad field of battle, 
 
 In the bivouac of Life, 
 Be not like dumb, driven cattle! 
 Be a hero in the strife! 
 
 "Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! 
 Let the dead Past bury its dead! 
 Act, act in the living Present! 
 Heart within, and God o'erhead! 
 
 "Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime, 
 And, departing, leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time; 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 19 
 
 "Footprints, that perhaps another, 
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 
 Seeing, shall take heart again. 
 
 "Let us, then, be up and doing, 
 
 With a heart for any fate; 
 Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 Learn to labor and to wait." 
 
 It is undeniable that even in the boyhood period Tom See had 
 such pride that he dreamed of some day becoming a great man. 
 Thus the stanza: 
 
 "Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime, 
 And, departing, leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time." 
 
 seems to have sunk deep into his soul how deep, perhaps only 
 the record of his unrivaled achievements in mature manhood can 
 adequately tell. At any rate the fire of youthful ambition thus 
 enkindled by Longfellow's inspiring song never wholly died out; 
 for even in deepest adversity he still remembered vividly those 
 
 "Footprints, that perhaps another, 
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 
 Seeing, shall take heart again." 
 
 Thus it is believed that such poems, taken earnestly and sink- 
 ing deep into the subconscious mind, had a great influence in 
 moulding Professor See's career. The two conditions necessary 
 for this effect were a serious and earnest view of life, and a pro- 
 digious memory both of which Tom See had in the highest 
 degree. And with all he had resolute purpose to adhere to plans 
 once formed, and thus triumph over all difficulties, like the heroes 
 we read about in history. 
 
20 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 While living at Loutre, within half a mile of the beautiful 
 river by this name, two astronomical events especially impressed 
 the boy Tom See. On the evening of January 1, 1877, the family 
 had retired early, after an active day about the farm, when, to the 
 terror and consternation of mother and children, a great meteor 
 suddenly appeared in the west and traversed the heavens with 
 a rapid flight towards the northeast. It was so bright as to cast 
 a brilliant light through the windows, and the shadows on the 
 floor moved rapidly around with the flight of the meteor, so that 
 the effect was very terrifying. Some thought it was so near as to 
 hit the barn, but a moment's observation showed it to be very far 
 away. Subsequent reports declared that it passed over central 
 Iowa. A blazing train was left behind, and a thundering noise 
 followed sometime after the meteor had disappeared. 
 
 At the time of this occurrence Noah See was absent from 
 home, on surveying work, and spending the night with Mr. Black, 
 near Wellsville. He saw the phenomenon and knew immediately 
 that it was a meteor. Needless to say, he watched its flight with- 
 out alarm, just as he had the brilliant star shower of Nov. 12, 1833, 
 in Virginia. He described the train of the meteor as equal to the 
 Moon in width, and ten times as long as it was broad, so that the 
 light was very intense. Great pieces of fire seemed to fall from 
 the meteor as it traversed the heavens, with dazzling splendor, 
 inferior only to the light of the Sun; and the earth was so lighted 
 up that the smallest objects could be seen on the ground, even in 
 a forest. The suddenness of the phenomenon and its great bril- 
 liancy inspired general terror and not only in human beings, but 
 even in animals of all kinds, which were awakened from their 
 slumbers as by an earthquake, and for some time could not be 
 quieted. 
 
 The other event of special astronomical interest was the solar 
 eclipse of July 29, 1878, which was total in Colorado and Wyom- 
 ing. It so much cut down the sun's light in Missouri as to give 
 the afternoon the appearance of moonlight. The See boys were 
 at work in the fields, and on coming home found the rest of the 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 21 
 
 family and Squire McLoughlin of Williamsburg looking at the 
 Sun through a smoked glass. This eclipse interested the boy Tom 
 See almost as much as that of 1869 had the child, though the dark- 
 ness was only a great reduction of the Sun's light, the belt of total- 
 ity not having crossed over Missouri. 
 
 Loutre Creek is noted for its fine fish, and in those days the 
 See boys were great fishermen. At the end of the week, when 
 the farm work was done, they would go to the Creek for some good 
 sport. Noah See had built a boat, for use on the large hole of 
 water near the school house, and this added to the safety and 
 pleasure of the fishing, in which the boy Tom See was no laggard. 
 He liked to fish, though he cared little for hunting. 
 
 The Loutre region is hilly and heavily timbered, and the work 
 of the large farm included the felling of trees, rolling of logs, and 
 all manner of hauling, as well as plowing, planting and cultivating 
 the corn and other crops. Tom See participated in all such 
 work, and as this kept him in the healthiest of outdoor activity 
 it probably gave him the physique requisite for the hard mental 
 work he has since done in science. But for the work on the farm, 
 in boyhood and young manhood, it is practically certain that he 
 could not have achieved what he has in the way of discovery. 
 
 It is a common belief that discovery is a matter of genius, and 
 so it is; but genius itself is chiefly a matter of hard work and ever- 
 lasting perseverance. It was long ago remarked by Michael 
 Angelo, the celebrated Italian painter, sculptor and architect, 
 that genius consists in eternal patience. Another great authority 
 says it is the ability to do hard work. Professor See himself says 
 that genius is a combination of all these and more besides: " It is 
 the ability to do hard work, combined with eternal patience and 
 the faith that moves mountains." Without all these qualities 
 genius of the highest order does not exist; and the rarity of the 
 combination is the reason why we have so little genius of the first 
 rank. Modern society, as now organized and conducted, does 
 next to nothing to support the labors of genius; and therefore we 
 should wonder not that we have so little genius, but that we have 
 
22 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 any at all, especially in those branches of human effort which are 
 without profit, such as scientific discovery. Professor See's de- 
 cision to be a scientist was a matter of gradual development, as 
 more fully set forth in the next chapter. In his boyhood he could 
 not forsee the opportunity, which came later, for devoting his life 
 to scientific research. 
 
 r~~In the month of October, 1879, the See family moved to the 
 large farm of 920 acres on Elkhorn Creek, three miles southeast 
 of Montgomery City, where the mother still lives. While feeding 
 the turkeys one winter morning of 1878-9, Noah See fell on the 
 sloping ground, about the Loutre residence, and fractured the 
 bones in his left foot, which confined him to the house for a time. 
 This led him to think of the greater safety of the level prairie for 
 an elderly person. Then too, it happened that the eldest son, 
 Filmore, was already feeding cattle on an extensive scale at Elk- 
 horn, where the pasture of nearly a thousand acres was at hand. 
 Mr. See and the eldest son were in partnership, and as the other 
 boys were nearing manhood, it seemed that the prairie offered the 
 best opportunity for the future. The family therefore quit Loutre 
 and settled permanently between Montgomery City and New 
 Florence. 
 
 Before parting from Loutre in this narrative, however, we 
 may remark that a terrible tornado visited that region, Jan. 1, 
 1876, just a year before the great meteor appeared. Many of the 
 strongest trees were uprooted, and twisted to pieces, fences swept 
 away, and even crab apple bushes torn from the ground. In the 
 case of rail fences not even the ground rail was left in its bed. 
 This storm came unexpectedly about one o'clock in the afternoon 
 when the family had just finished dinner. Jacob Stewart, Esq.,* 
 of near Wellsville, an old time Virginian and a tried friend of the 
 terrible days of the Civil War, was stopping at the house, having 
 come on foot the day before to pay his taxes at Danville, and re- 
 mained over to recall the stories of narrow escapes which had 
 
 *A first Cousin of Margaret (Stewart) See, wife of John See, and Sister-in- 
 Law of Noah See. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 23 
 
 enabled him and Mr. See to live through that desperate con- 
 flict. 
 
 As soon as it was realized that a storm was breaking, Tom 
 See and his brothers ran to the windows, only to behold the largest 
 oaks whirling and falling before the blast of the tornado. The 
 whole forest for a mile was in an uproar; but the center of the 
 cyclone had missed the house and passed nearer Loutre Creek. 
 The family immediately scattered to look after the animals on the 
 farm, now unrestrained by any fences, and Mr. Stewart, fearing 
 for the safety of his own family near Wellsville, struck out for 
 home. This terrible storm produced a deep impression on the 
 mind of Tom See, then a boy ten years old, but it is remarkable 
 that no fatalities resulted from the tornado, because the region 
 was thinly populated. The force seems to have spent itself on 
 the forests of Loutre hills, and but little damage resulted else- 
 where. Yet some of the large trees blown down had turned up 
 immense rocks as much as eight feet high, attached to their roots; 
 and for years the travelers along the public road wondered at the 
 scene of devastation presented to their eyes, and used to inquire 
 the particulars from Tom See and his brothers. 
 
 Aside from the occasional appearance of a comet in the 
 heavens, and floods of Loutre Creek, following terrible storms 
 of thunder and lightning, which are very common there, the 
 natural phenomena of most significant character have now been 
 recorded. 
 
 It should be remarked, however, that little Tom See from 
 childhood had a great fondness for large trees, and especially for 
 trees of beautiful shape. Trees with snags or irregularities in 
 their limbs were considered by him very ugly, and he was con- 
 stantly devising ways and means to get rid of them. Once the 
 family went to church, when Tom was about three years old, and 
 he happened to sit near the window, where he could look out into 
 the neighboring forest. The snags on the trees interested him 
 much more than the sermon; and if he did not have a swinging 
 lamp to study, as young Galileo had in the Cathedral at Pisa, he 
 
24 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 kept his mind on the improvements needed for beautifying the 
 symmetry and regularity of the grove of trees about the Church. 
 It is probable that this craving for regularity and symmetry in 
 the trees was an expression of the mathematical talents then 
 latent in the mind of the child. His mother had always been very 
 fond of trees, and Professor See to this day dearly loves a fine 
 forest, and will not allow any timber to be destroyed on his country 
 places. 
 
 At the large estate of Noah See on Elkhorn,the school facili- 
 ties were no better than on Loutre. The boys were occupied with 
 the business of the farm, and as before school did not extend over 
 more than four months. During the winter of 1882-3, Tom See 
 missed school entirely. His eldest sister, Mrs. A. M. Weeks, was 
 much disturbed about his lack of suitable opportunity for extend- 
 ing his education. It happened that the Montgomery City School 
 was being improved, under a superior teacher, Professor A. L. 
 Jenness, who had been a student at Amherst, but had not gradua- 
 ted. Mrs. Weeks now besought her father to let Tom go to the 
 town school, by riding back and forth on horseback. After con- 
 siderable effort this plan was fixed upon, and Tom made the best 
 of his opportunities. 
 
 In this place it "may be noted that the teachers of Professor 
 See, during boyhood and youth, prior to his entrance at the Mont- 
 gomery City High School, Sept., 1883, were as follows: 
 
 1872- 3, Benjamin Elliott, 
 
 1873- 4, Benjamin Elliott, 
 
 1874- 5, Benjamin Elliott, 
 
 1875- 6, Lafayette Brelsford, 
 
 1876- 7, Miss Mattie Phipps, 
 
 1877- 8, Benjamin Elliott, 
 
 1878- 9, Mrs. A. M. Weeks, 
 1879-80, Miss Rhetta Lens, 
 1880-81, Miss Helen Huddleston, 
 1881-82, Miss Helen Huddleston. 
 
MR. T. J. J. SEE, AS HE APPEARED WHEN A YOUTH OF SEVENTEEN. 
 From a photograph by Varnum, Montgomery City, Mo., 1883. 
 
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UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 25 
 
 At the Montgomery City High School, 1883-4, Professor See's 
 teachers were the principal, Professor A. L. Jenness, and Miss 
 Lillian Jones, first assistant. 
 
 The arguments used by Mrs. Weeks with her father were to 
 the effect that Tom was so talented that he ought to have a good 
 education. Others had made similar arguments before, and she 
 merely emphasized the current view. Senators Vest and Cockrell, 
 she said, could not always serve Missouri in the Senate; and Col- 
 onel A. H. Buckner would need a successor in Congress (this was 
 of course before the days of Champ Clark.) Noah See had a poor 
 opinion of the legal profession, as now carried on, and did not wish 
 any of his sons to adopt a profession in which he could not be 
 honest and preserve a good conscience. He had such a high 
 opinion of Tom's abilities and steady qualities that he was inclined 
 to think he would make a great man, if given an opportunity; and 
 as others in the community told him the same thing about the 
 promise of this son, he gradually came to favor more elaborate 
 education for him. 
 
 There were some other favorable circumstances which came 
 to Tom's support. About 1882 his father had purchased at low 
 price a large tract of land in Vernon County, by which he made 
 considerable money. Former United States Senator Waldo P. 
 Johnson of St. Louis said that Noah See made $10,000 by this 
 trade. It may have been more. And he added to it other tracts 
 of land also purchased at low price, till he had about 4,000 acres 
 in southwest Missouri. The increase in the value of this property 
 made Mr. See feel that his large family eventually would be well 
 provided for. When his older children were of school age he had 
 not been so well off, and could not so easily provide for their educa- 
 tion, as he now could for Tom's. There was some jealousy in the 
 family over this outlook, but it was felt to be right to provide for 
 Tom even if such full provision had not been made for others when 
 circumstances were less favorable. 
 
 There was one other more powerful reason than any other 
 why Tom had his way, namely, he was always a most industrious 
 
26 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and efficient worker, and his father saw that he would not waste 
 money or neglect opportunities. By strict attention to business 
 Tom came to enjoy his father's confidence more than any other 
 of his sons. He therefore entered the Montgomery City School 
 in the autumn of 1883, and kept going from home daily till May, 
 1884. Tom See was now seventeen, and quite tall, being almost 
 a six footer*. He was poorly trained in comparison with some of 
 the town boys, but they did not have the industry and determina- 
 tion which Tom had, and before spring came around he stood first 
 in the school. 
 
 He distinguished himself especially in geometry, physics, 
 and astronomy. For although there was no regular course in 
 astronomy, Tom had obtained at Jas. R. Hance's store a copy of 
 Steele's Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy, and read it with such ab- 
 sorbing interest that at the close of the term he delivered an origi- 
 nal composition on astronomy, which led Rev. Henry Kay to 
 remark that he saw in the effort made indications like those noticed 
 by the sculptor who saw a beautiful statue in a rough block of 
 marble. 
 
 It must not be supposed that this year at the Montgomery 
 City School was without its trials and hardships, and serious ones 
 at that. But the significiant fact was that the country boy of 
 energy, ambition and purpose, though entering but poorly pre- 
 pared, had distanced all his city competitors in the race for scholar- 
 ship. Tom See had made good in the general estimation of the 
 school and in the eyes of his teacher, and won the support of his 
 father to such other educational career as he might wish to enter 
 upon. He missed only two days of the school year, when the 
 creeks were beyond their banks and impassable; and on each of 
 these occasions he notified the teacher by U. S. Mail why he was 
 detained. No wonder his efforts commanded confidence, even 
 among doubting Thomases! Such serious and determined effort 
 had not been expected by anyone. At first the town boys had 
 
 * His present height is six feet four inches, and weight about 240 pounds, so 
 that he is a man of very commanding presence. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 27 
 
 been inclined to laugh at the simple farmer from the country; but 
 before the year closed they saw their mistake, sighed that they had 
 lost in the race with him, and were in a more serious mood. 
 
 Before closing this account of Professor See's boyhood days, 
 mention should be made of the fact that he always had great taste 
 for art. While still occupied on the farm he would spend his even- 
 ings with books, or in drawing and copying pictures. He drew 
 a good picture of the great comet of 1882, which in 1910 was en- 
 graved in the second volume of Professor See's monumental work, 
 Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems. His artistic 
 work included portraits, done with pencil, and resembling steel 
 engravings. Water color work was one of his favorite labors, 
 and he painted flowers and fruit after the manner of veteran artists. 
 This was all done without any teacher, and at such moments as 
 he could snatch from daily outdoor life on the farm. Some of his 
 drawings gained prizes at the Montgomery County Fair; and when 
 he entered the Missouri University in the autumn of 1884, Pro- 
 fessor Diehl, the Professor of Art, told him that they showed great 
 originality and artistic power. Since he became a scientist Pro- 
 fessor See has found no little use for his talent, by way of drawing 
 and illustrating, though naturally he has not cultivated art in a 
 professional way. Yet this childhood and boyhood tendency to 
 seek the true and beautiful gives the key to the labors of his life. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 1884-1889. 
 
 FIVE YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI. 
 
 FIRED WITH ENTHUSIASM BY THE STUDY OF HUMBOLDT, NEWTON, 
 LAPLACE AND HERSCHEL, YOUNG MR. SEE GRADUATES AT THE 
 HEAD OF HIS CLASS, WITH HIGHEST HONORS IN ASTRONOMY. 
 
 'E have already pointed out that Professor See as a youth 
 of seventeen had some difficulty in securing an opportun- 
 ity to attend the Montgomery City High School, but he 
 made good to such a degree that he fixed his eye on the State 
 University at Columbia, and none there were to oppose his going._) 
 Accordingly soon after the High School closed in May, 1884, 
 young Mr. See visited Columbia on a tour of inspection, to see 
 what the University looked like. He had a letter of introduction, 
 from a Mr. Lovelace, a former student of the University, to 
 Professor Paul Schweitzer, of the Department of Chemistry. 
 
 Columbia, in the first days of June, always wears a gay aspect, 
 in honor of the commencement week; but on arriving there young 
 Mr. See only looked about the town, walked over to the Univer- 
 sity, inspected the buildings, attended some services in the Chapel, 
 met and conversed with Professor Schweitzer, was introduced to 
 Dr. Laws, the President, who advised him to study agriculture 
 and return to the farm. It is a curious fact that Dr. Laws did 
 not encourage young Mr. See in the idea of a scientific career, nor 
 did the young man himself at that time think it prudent to discuss 
 his inmost hopes beyond a mere hint that he was interested in 
 science. Yet he satisfied himself that the University was an im- 
 portant center of learning, representing the State of Missouri, 
 and that it offered ample opportunities for his present needs. 
 Accordingly, after a stay of two days at Columbia, Mr. See return- 
 
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 w I 
 
MR. T. J. J. SEE AS HE APPEARED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY 
 
 Then a student at the University of Missouri. From a photograph by Douglass, 
 Columbia, Mo., 1886. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 29 
 
 ed to his home at Montgomery City, to wait for the opening of 
 the University in the autumn. 
 
 A few words must now be added to explain Mr. See's early 
 interest in natural science. While attending school under Pro- 
 fessor Benjamin Elliott, during the winter of 1877-8, he had taken 
 up the study of physical geography in a very elementary way. 
 He used Monteith's Geography, which included an outline of the 
 theories of the interior of the Earth. Molten matter and volcanic 
 action henceforth were familiar to the boy's mind. The taste was 
 further developed during succeeding winters, and the name of 
 Humboldt was so often quoted that he longed to see his Cosmos. 
 
 During the winter of 1882-3, when Tom See was out of school, 
 he corresponded with a book agent, having advertisements in the 
 Journal of Agriculture, St. Louis (a Mr. A. E. Wardner, of Perry, 
 Mo.), who procured for him a copy of the Bohn translation of the 
 Cosmos, nicely bound in half calf, for $17.00. It was understood 
 to have been purchased in Chicago. Mr. See tried to read it, but 
 of course most of it was beyond his grasp; yet he did get a great 
 deal of inspiration from it, and some idea of the extent and variety 
 of the physical sciences. The subsequent study of physical geo- 
 graphy in the Montgomery City High School was more thorough, 
 and enabled him to better appreciate Humboldt. But little could 
 the young man then have dreamed that twenty-two years later 
 he would himself become an authority of the physics of the earth 
 greater than Humboldt or any other naturalist of former times. 
 
 Now when Mr. See was in his first session at the University, 
 in December, 1884, a teachers' conference was in progress, and 
 who should he meet there but Mr. A. E. Wardner of Perry, Mo., 
 who had procured him the copy of Humboldt 's Cosmos? The 
 meeting was very agreeable, and Mr. Wardner encouraged the 
 young man to go on with his studies. Mr. See had found himself 
 well prepared for some studies at the University, and poorly trained 
 in others. Geometry presented no difficulty, but algebra was 
 more troublesome, owing to a confusion in the use of the signs, 
 arising from defective teaching at the High School. The mathe- 
 
30 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 matical work of the first college year was thus carried through, 
 but not with entire satisfaction. And during the next summer, 
 while at home, Mr. See found time to review his algebra thorough- 
 ly, so as to master every step; and from that day on he never once 
 encountered a seroius difficulty in any branch of mathematics. 
 He believes that mathematics naturally is an easy subject, and 
 that most people find it difficult only because the processes are 
 not made clear as the student goes along. 
 
 Among the fortunate events of Mr. See's first year at the 
 University must be counted his instruction in Latin under Pro- 
 fessor J. C. Jones, who advised him to take up also the study of 
 the Greek language. During the second semester, therefore, he 
 entered the class in Greek, and came under the influence of Pro- 
 fessor A. F. Fleet; and it turned out later that this entry upon 
 the comprehensive study of the classics, as the best educational 
 basis for a profound knowledge of science, alone made it possible 
 for Professor See to take high rank among the great scholars of 
 history. 
 
 In an account of his stay at Berlin during the winter of 1787-8, 
 Humboldt recalls that he applied himself in emulation of his in- 
 dustrious Brother Wilhelm, afterwards founder of the University 
 of Berlin, more assiduously to Greek; and in the following May 
 he writes to his friend Wegener that he works hard under Bar- 
 tholdi's instruction, and finds the study of the language a pleasure. 
 "The more I know of the Gereek language, the more I am con- 
 firmed in my preconceived opinion that it is the true foundation 
 of all the higher branches of learning. It was certainly very ill 
 contrived of me to build my house on mere sand; yet the founda- 
 tions of so temporary a structure as mine may easily be relaid, 
 and therefore it does not distress me that I am only learning to 
 decline exiSva in my nineteenth year." (Bruhns' Life of Hum- 
 boldt, transl. by Lassell, Vol. I, p. 54). 
 
 Similar reasoning evidently was employed by young Mr. See, 
 for he too first learned Greek in his nineteenth year, because he 
 conceived that it was indispensable to a thorough mastery of the 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 31 
 
 sciences. Mr. See never had occasion to alter this impression of 
 his early student life at the University; and he remains to this 
 day a firm believer in the high value of Greek to the scientific 
 investigator. In the opening sentence of Chapter XXII of 
 his Researches, Vol. II, 1910, pp. 625, he says: "The Science of 
 the physical Universe begins with the Greeks, and it will therefore 
 be of interest to examine their theories of the Milky Way, although 
 it would be unreasonable to expect more than sound fundamental 
 principles from the greatest philosophers who lived before the in- 
 vention of the telescope." 
 
 It may have been this classic standard of scholarship as well 
 as his admiration for Humboldt and the most assiduous industry 
 in the pursuit of scientific truth that caused Mr. See to be fre- 
 quently spoken of at this early period of his undergraduate life 
 as the "Humboldt of the University." At any rate he acquired 
 this name among the students; and now it almost seems as if the 
 saying that great events cast their shadows before them had a 
 prophetic basis of truth. 
 
 Humboldt's charm of style is due to his classic training, and 
 modern readers notice the same elegance and beauty of style in the 
 writings of Professor See. These literary accomplishments are 
 comparatively rare among men of science, and it is unfortunate 
 for science that it is so; because elegance adds to the beauty and 
 artistic finish of even the greatest works. Among modern scien- 
 tists who are noted for elegance and simplicity in their writing, 
 one recalls especially Laplace and Sir John Herschel, Lord Kelvin 
 and Sir George Darwin, Newcomb and Poincare; but the com- 
 bination of a classic style with scientific thought is sufficiently rare 
 to occasion remark. 
 
 Thus after the appearance of the second volume of Professor 
 See's famous Researches, in 1910, Professor W. B. Smith of Tulane 
 University, New Orleans, writes with enthusiasm how fortunate 
 it is that America had produced such an astronomer who is also 
 in learning and spirit a Hellenist. It is not wonderful therefore 
 that Professor See has always shown great appreciation of his 
 
32 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 early instruction under Professor J. C. Jones, and Professor A. F. 
 Fleet, who awakened his love for the classic languages. 
 f^ During Mr. See's first year at the University it happened that 
 his studies did not include physics or natural philosophy. That 
 department was in charge of Professor B. F. Thomas, who at the 
 end of the year resigned to go to the University of Ohio; while 
 Professor W. B. Smith of Central College, Fayette, Mo., was 
 called to the University to fill the chair of physics. This seems 
 to have been especially fortunate for Mr. See. For Smith was a 
 most inspiring teacher, and both his learning and charm of manner 
 set up an enthusiasm for knowledge which carried several of the 
 Missouri students into high professional careers as investigators, 
 among whom See and Defoe are the most famous. ) 
 
 But before dwelling on the influence of Smith, it may be 
 pointed out that Professors Ficklin, Cauthorn, and Tindall, in the 
 department of mathematics, had confirmed Mr. See more and 
 more in his enthusiasm for geometry and the related mathemati- 
 cal studies. Ficklin was a quiet man, of slow methodical habits, 
 but an excellent teacher, and a very clear-headed mathematician. 
 He was kind and gentle, but not very intimate with the students. 
 When, however, he came to know the serious turn of a student he 
 would take a deep interest in him; and thus it was that Ficklin 
 heard of the promise of Mr. See in the geometry class of Professor 
 Cauthorn. 
 
 The second year of Mr. See's career at the University was 
 one of the most important of the five. He had then entered upon 
 his studies with zeal and enthusiasm, and during the year obtained 
 a good start in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, as well as 
 in German and the classics. \ 
 
 As already mentioneoT'Professor W. B. Smith held the chair 
 of physics at the beginning of the session of 1885-6, and he con- 
 tinued to occupy it till Professor Ficklin' s death in the summer 
 of 1887, when Smith was given charge also of mathematics, and 
 later formally made professor of mathematics. Mr. See's studies 
 in mathematics were therefore first under Ficklin and his associ- 
 
PROFESSOR PAUL SCHWEITZER. 
 
 Head of the Department of Chemistry, one of the most eminent Pro- 
 fessors of the University of Missouri. He was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1840, 
 and died at Columbia, Mo., in 1911, after 40 years service to the University. 
 He was strict, but very just, and always much beloved by the students, a firm 
 friend of Professor See, and among the first to recognize his great discoveries in 
 Geogony and Cosmogony. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 33 
 
 ates, and subsequently under Smith. The students whom Pro- 
 fessor Smith had enthused by his labors in the department of 
 physics now followed him to the department of mathematics. 
 He was the center of thought and inspiration in the University - 
 the one member of the faculty who could fill with credit and suc- 
 cessjmy chair, from Greek and logic to mathematics and physics. 
 
 We shall not go into the details of Mr. See's studies, further 
 than to say that his work in physics, chemistry and mathematics 
 had its foundation laid in the years 1885-7, and was more fully 
 rounded out during the last two years at the UniversityJ The 
 department of chemistry under Professor Schweitzer was es- 
 pecially fine. It was in this department that See broke the record, 
 making the best grade since the foundation of the University. 
 Professor Schweitzer wanted him to be a chemist, but his mind 
 was already set on the study of the stars. Mr. See has always 
 said that his inspiration in science was especially due to Smith 
 and Schweitzer, both of whom were greatly beloved by the stu- 
 dents, because they really tried to develop the young people by a 
 personal interest in their intellectual progress. 
 
 Many students at college grope in the dark and waste time, 
 merely finding the way to knowledge, because no one of greater 
 experience is approachable as a guide to them. On account of 
 this need of competent guidance, President Woodrow Wilson, 
 while at the head of Princeton University, introduced a system 
 by which all students were brought into close personal contact 
 with the members of the Faculty, each professor and instructor 
 being assigned responsible advisory power over a small group of 
 young men, and all of them thus cared for systematically. This 
 is an educational reform of the first magnitude, and will have 
 to come into universal use before our Universities can be made 
 really efficient. The problem of developing professors of the 
 highest class is not yet solved, and presents great difficulty in view 
 of the inadequate rewards of intellectual effort. In our modern 
 universities, overcrowded with numbers, this condition is greatly 
 aggravated; but at the University of Missouri, in Mr. See's day, 
 
34 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the numbers were not so great, and close personal contact with 
 the professor was possible. And it happened that the quality of 
 some of the professors was so high that it could hardly be improved 
 on anywhere. Thus Ficklin was a good teacher, clear-headed, 
 just, honest and candid in all his work; while Smith and 
 Schweitzer had all these high qualities, and besides were attrac- 
 tive to students and inspired them with energy and ambition 
 for high scholarship and research. 
 
 At that time the Missouri University was, properly speaking, 
 only a college, but it was a good college; because the elective 
 system had not weakened the vigor of the college curriculum. The 
 courses for degrees were prescribed, and such as might properly 
 be considered appropriate, though some of the studies gave only 
 an introduction to the different subjects. 
 
 It was in this second year also that Mr. See made a great dis- 
 covery in the University library a copy of Bowditch's Trans- 
 lation of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste, bound in boards, with the 
 leaves uncut. Apparently it had never been used by anyone, or, 
 if at all, very little. Of course no other student had ever thought 
 of looking into this great work. But no sooner was the discovery 
 of the monumental work made by Mr. See than he sought access 
 to it daily. At first the work could not be withdrawn from the 
 library, and could only be read during office hours, but by the 
 time the session of 1886-7 came around Mr. See was sufficiently 
 established in the confidence of everybody that the librarian 
 allowed him to take volumes of the precious work home with 
 him. 
 
 Mr. See's enthusiasm over the Mecanique Celeste of Laplace 
 knew no bounds. It was his subject of meditation day and night, 
 Sundays and holidays. The other students might go in for sports 
 or games, but he would be found working at the Mecanique Celeste 
 of Laplace of the Principia of Newton. Mr. See purchased a copy 
 of Newton's Principia in the autumn of 1886 and studied it zeal- 
 ously. The Bowditch translation of the Mecanique Celeste was 
 much more expensive and difficult to get. But he could not rest 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 35 
 
 content without it, so that in the summer of 1887 he had the 
 Columbia book store of Kirtley & Phillips advertise for it in New 
 York, and in November, 1887, they obtained for Mr. See a copy 
 originally purchased by Dr. John Sage, of Sag Harbor, Long Is- 
 land, at the time of publication (1839), and left by him to his cous- 
 in, Wm. S. Pelletrean, of Southampton, Suffolk Co., New York. 
 
 This great work is directly responsible for Mr. See's becoming 
 an astronomer it was the determining factor in fixing his career 
 in science. Prior to this time Mr. See had been aroused to enthu- 
 siasm for science by the writings of Humboldt and Newton; but 
 as the nebular hypothesis had interested him from boyhood, since 
 his purchase of Steele's Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy (Oct. 1, 
 1883) it only required the greatest work of Laplace to make him 
 supremely happy*. 
 
 Probably it was his secret hope that he might sometime add 
 to Laplace's work, but he never dared to believe that his own re- 
 searches in cosmogony, twenty years later, would supplant those 
 of Laplace. Naturally there was a vast difference between read- 
 ing a work of Laplace, and meditating over his ideas, and devising 
 mathematical proofs and methods to supplant the theories of the great 
 French geometer. This was to be Mr. See's labor during the next 
 twenty years, and well was it worth this effort, since it has now 
 given us an entirely new theory of the formation of the heavenly 
 bodies. To the State of Missouri has come the imperishable honor 
 of discovering the laws of the development of the solar system, 
 which will mark an epoch in astronomy not inferior to those made 
 by Copernicus, Kepler and Newton. 
 
 During the summer of 1887, Professor Ficklin died, after an 
 illness of some months, from a kind of dropsy. He had already 
 seen Mr. See grapple with the different branches of Mathematics, 
 through calculus and analytical geometry, and also Astronomy. 
 He was so impressed with Mr. See's earnestness and reliability 
 
 * Mr. See was always a very active worker in the Athenean Literary Society, 
 and wrote numerous essays on scientific subjects, especially on the discoveries of 
 Laplace relating to the Mechanics of the Heavens. 
 
36 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 that he gave to this undergraduate student the keys to the Obser- 
 vatory, and invited him to make free use of all the instruments. 
 Considering how tenacious Ficklin was in holding on to the per- 
 sonal supervision of the Observatory this was a remarkable testi- 
 monial to the esteem in which young Mr. See was held. It used 
 to be said by the students of the University that by hard work 
 during his first three years See had made such a reputation for 
 high standing and scholarship that after that time any Professor 
 would give him the highest grades without question. But of 
 course Mr. See never ceased to work, any more than he has since 
 leaving the University. 
 
 During the summers of 1887 and 1888 he remained in Colum- 
 bia, hard at work in the Observatory, returning to his home at 
 Montgomery City only for short visits. He began the work under 
 Ficklin, and after his death carried it on under Smith, who was 
 later given charge of the department of mathematics and astron- 
 nomy. Thus for two years before graduation Mr. See was actually 
 in charge of the Observatory, and did all kinds of work, from de- 
 termining the latitude, with the altazimuth, to observing the 
 planets, comets, sun spots and prominences, with the 7>-mch 
 equatorial. 
 
 Among the first objects which especially interested Mr. See 
 were the double stars gigantic systems of double suns revolving 
 about one another under the Newtonian law of gravitation. Hav- 
 ing once seen such double stars as Mizar in the Great Bear, he 
 never afterwards lost sight of these systems, but kept them con- 
 stantly in mind, and in 1889 wrote his graduating thesis on the 
 "Origin of Binary Stars" to which was awarded the Missouri 
 astronomical medal. 
 
 Mr. See took to the problems of cosmogony, on account of 
 his interest in Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis, from boyhood days. 
 Professor George H. Darwin, of Cambridge, England, had recently 
 modified Laplace's theory to some extent; and Mr. See's under- 
 graduate effort was to consider the influence of tidal friction on 
 systems such as the double stars. The thesis was very notable, 
 
MR. T. J. J. SEE, AS HE APPEARED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-TWO. 
 From a photograph by Douglass, Columbia, Mo., 1888, about eight months 
 before Mr. See graduated at the head of his class. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 37 
 
 as a beginning of the more celebrated researches since carried out 
 at the University of Berlin, and in his monumental work, Researches 
 on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems, Vol. I, 1896, and Vol. II 
 1910. 
 
 During the period of his student days, Mr. See was always the 
 most respected and influential student in the University. He 
 was the one whose work had weight with both students and facul- 
 ty; yet in a student assembly he was not so popular as some of 
 the more reckless talkers, and on one or two occasions they were 
 preferred over him, as editors of the college paper. While Mr. 
 See was open and democratic in manner, he was dignified and a 
 little austere by his high standing as a student. Then, too, he was 
 a Greek fraternity man a member of the Phi Delta Theta 
 and that tended to set an element of the "Barbarians" against 
 him. He had positive convictions and dared to express them, so 
 that, as usually happens with positive characters, he had very 
 devoted friends, and a few enemies among a class whose methods 
 were none too scrupulous. 
 
 The events of the last year, 1888-9, showed his unquestioned 
 supremacy in the most conclusive manner. There were a series 
 of crying abuses in the University, now growing noticeably worse* 
 and Dr. Laws, the President, had been there so long that he was 
 set in his way, and would do nothing to alleviate the dissatis- 
 faction. The complaints ran all the way from incompetent pro- 
 fessors to injustice to students and general lack of progressiveness, 
 and in some cases involved bad faith with the people of the State. 
 Senator Morton of the visiting board appointed by the Governor 
 reported to the Legislature early in the year that things were not 
 satisfactory at the University. A great commotion followed 
 among the students, and then a special committee of the Senate 
 and House of Representatives was appointed to investigate the 
 University, at the head of which Hon. Champ Clark was placed, 
 because he was the recognized leader in the Legislature. 
 
 The committee visited the University, held a long and search- 
 ing investigation, with the result that the Legislature reorganized 
 
38 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the Board of Curators and removed Dr. Laws, by a rider attached 
 to the appropriation bill. Above all others, Mr. See was the 
 student on whom the insurgents at the University had to rely for 
 the management of their fight for the overthrow of the old regime. 
 He desired to keep out of the fight, but could not do it, with the 
 faculty split, and most of his devoted teachers on the side of the 
 insurgents. 
 
 Rather than desert his devoted teachers, to whom he owed 
 so much, he took the side against the president, who had very 
 antiquated methods and had much outlived his usefulness. When 
 the contest began in earnest, the students came to Mr. See and 
 said: "Now, See, you must come to our support. You have 
 influence and prestige here and you alone can save the day for us." 
 With great reluctance, but from a sense of duty, Mr. See went over 
 to the cause of progress, and did the hard work of making the 
 movement a success. Everyone trusted See, and he gathered all 
 the data, drew the questions, and conducted the prosecution for 
 the students. 
 
 Hon. Champ Clark conducted the inquiry from the legisla- 
 tive point of view, and afterwards carried through the heavy work 
 ^reorganization in the House of Representatives. And a won- 
 derfully able effort he made. It saved the life of the University, 
 and enabled it to enter upon a period of progress and greatly in- 
 creased usefulness. By this well nigh incomparable service to the 
 State, Mr. Clark earned the title of "Founder of the University," 
 in distinction from the College, which it had been before, and of 
 which Major James S. Rollins was justly entitled to be called the 
 Father. 
 
 It is not necessary to say anything more about Mr. See's 
 college days, except to include here the commencement program, 
 which tells its own story: 
 
\/ 
 
 Jv|issouri 
 
 Thursday Morning, 
 
Proqrarp, 
 
 Music Prayer - M usic. 
 9 - - - . - John Locke and His Theories of Education. 
 
 RICHARD GEORGE HADELICH, Pe. P. 
 English Prize Essay, ------- The Poetry of Browning. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY STUMBERG,A. B., L.B. 
 
 n^cusia. 
 
 Stophens Medal Oration, The World's Heroes 
 
 GEORGE FAUST YOUMANS. S. B. 
 
 Astronomical Prize Thesis,, ----- Origin of Binary Stars. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE, A. B., L. B., S. B. 
 
 Valedictory Address of haw Class. 
 
 BYRON BUCKINGHAM BEERY, LL. B. 
 
 Valedictory Address of Academic Classes. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE, A. B., L. B., S. B. 
 
 DELIVERY OF DIPLOMflS AND PRIZES. 
 
 Stephens Medal, ...... GEORGE FAUST YOUMANS. 
 
 Astronomical Medal, - THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 McAnally Medal, - * - - - CHARLES HENRY STUMBERG. 
 Appleton Prize, ........ JAMES HENRY COONS. 
 
 31. C. "Lilly Sword Prize, ..... LUTHER YAGER EERR. 
 
 A Salute of Forty-Two Guns by University Cadets, 
 
 LIEUT. E. H. CROWDER, U. S. Army, Commandant. 
 
OIF 1 1889. 
 
 ACADEMIC COLLEGE. 
 First Rank (Av. grade 00-06..) 
 
 Thos. TefTerson Jackson See, A. B., L. B., S. B. die Belle Denny, S. B. 
 Charles Henry Stumberg, A, B., L. B. George Faust Youmans, 8. B. 
 
 Curtis Fletcher Marbut, S. B. Samuel David uromer, S. B. 
 
 Louis Elmer Pitts, A. B. 
 
 Second Rank . ( \ v. grade 70-90 . ) 
 
 Myron Alfred Cttruer, S. B. Elston Holmes Lonsdale, S. B. 
 
 Charles Breckwjridge Farls, L. B. Mitchell Cross Shelton, A. B. ' 
 
 James Tliaddeus Duk, S. B. Sterling Price Dorman, L. B. 
 
 LAW COLLEGE. (Degree Of LL. B.) 
 
 BACHELOR OF LAWS, Robert Terrel Halnes. 
 
 ftim taude. Frank M. Howell, 
 
 Byron Buckingham Beery. Thomas Henry Jenkins. 
 
 George Alvin Dabbs. Charles Fielding Keller, 
 
 BACHELOR OF LAWS. Wlliam Echols Ralney, 
 
 William Kennedy Amlck, Joseph Johnston Reynolds. 
 
 Rudolph.Bahn, John Fletcher Sharp. 
 
 Marion Richard Btgs:s T William Henry Utz. 
 
 Robert Alexander IJrown, Samuel Newton YanPool, 
 
 James Peddicord Chlnn, Conrad Waidecker, 
 
 Eugene Warrlngton Couey, Sam Mason Wallace. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson Dlckson, John Samuel Wash. 
 William Henry.Young. 
 
 ENGINEERING COLLEGE. 
 
 John Thomas Gnrrett, C. E. William Florlan Seldel, C. E. 
 
 Alexander Maitund. C. E. Kirby Calhoun Weedln. 0. El 
 
 Orvilie Hlckman Browning Turner, Top'l Eng'r. 
 
 CERTIFICATE IN SURVEYING. 
 
 Oliver Neal Axtell . Charles Decatur Potts.. 
 
 Charles Alden Bonfils. Samuel Glrard Ratekln. 
 
 Edgar Fisher Fielding. Samuel William Shinkle. 
 
 Bernard Wilbern Hays. Theodore Arthur Sturnberg. 
 
 MEDICAL COLLEGE (Degree of M. D.) 
 
 [Eighty-three young men were graduated from section No. 2 (Missouri Medical Col- 
 lege, St. Louis,) in March. Of this number,Uiose given belovr received the joint Diploma 
 of section No. l and section No. 2. 
 
 Arthur L, Engle. Roscbe w. Maintz. 
 
 George J. Field. John D. Proweil. 
 
 George E. Gray. Robert W. Renwlck. 
 
 Gustave A. Keehn. Rufus B. Schoffeld. 
 
 John L. McGhee. James H. Smith. 
 
 AlfordR. McLeod. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, (Degree Of B. A. S.) 
 Thomas Doss. 
 
 -NORMAL COLLEGE. 
 Degree of Pe. B. (Bachelor of Pedagogics.) 
 
 Ulie Belle Denny, S. B. James Thaddeus Dick, 8. K. 
 
 Samuel David Gromer, S. B. Elston Holmes Lonsdale. S. B. 
 
 Myron Alfred Corner, is. B. Sterling Price Dorman, L, B. 
 
 Charies L. Mosely, L. B. '82. 
 
 Degree of Pe. P. (Principal In Pedagogics.) 
 
 Richard George lladelicli. Fannie McNutt. 
 
 Una Verda Peters. John Charles Storm. 
 
 Annn Calvin Payne. . Noah Els worth Sutton. 
 
 Minnie Ann Pettinglll. Walter CaldvveU Cox. 
 
 Eva Liggett. Jennie Lorena Hall. 
 
 Anna Maud Reed. Annie Margery Byrne. 
 
 Carrie Man rer. . Lula Graves. 
 
 Maggie Chapman Maupln. Ida Orissa Post, 
 
 Ida May Knepper. Eva Levy, 
 
 wiiber Flsk Johnston. Ruby Moss Westlake. 
 
 Gilbert Newton Harrison. Ella Bowden. 
 
 Kilen Winchester Dorsett. Amanda Bay Ruc.'cer. 
 
 Georgie Olive Nagel. Brookey Ann Yowell. 
 Sallle Pierce. 
 
 MASTER'S DEGREES,.A. M. 
 Thomas L. Rubey, A. B. '85. Edgar D. Watson, A. B. '86. 
 
 L. M. 
 Payne A. Boulton, L. B. '85. Edward E. Longan, L. B. -8<> 
 
 S. M. % 
 Wm. Wallace Clendenin, S. B. 'S6. * Ida May Cleudenin, S. B. '86. 
 
Honorable flftention. 
 
 1888-9. 
 
 All students, who have finished the work of any department, 
 and who have reached in it an average grade of 96 to 100, shall be 
 named by the Professor in charge of such department in his annual 
 report to the President of the University for HONORABLE MENTION in 
 the catalogue ; this fact of honorable mention shall likewise be 
 stated on the Commencement programme tn the case of graduates. 
 [From rules for grading students, adopted April, 1884.] 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 MYRON ALFRED CORNER. 
 CURTIS FLETCHER MARBUT. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 GEORGE FAUST YOUMANS. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY STUMBERG. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOOY AND MINERALOGY. 
 
 ELSTON HOLMES LONSDALE. 
 CURTIS FLETCHER MARBUT. 
 MITCHELL CROSS SHELTON. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSOtf SEE. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF HEBREW. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF LATIN. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 CHARLES HENRY STUMBERG. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF METAPHYSICS. 
 
 JAMES THADDEUS DICK. 
 CHARLES HENRY STUMBERG. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON SEE. 
 THE JAMES S. ROLLINS UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS. 
 
 These scholarships have been awarded as follows : 
 
 College of Arts, A. B. Course... JAMES HENRY COONS. 
 
 College of Arts, S. B. Course .....^......CHARLES PAGE WILLIAMS, 
 
 College of Agriculture JOHN LEWIS TANDY. 
 
 College of Law...... JAMES L. NICHOLAS. 
 
 College of Medicine. JOHN GARTH RUCKEJ*. 
 
 College of Engineering, C. E. Course- ...... FRANK BLAIR WILLIAMS. 
 
 Next session begins September 10th. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 43 
 
 On account of the action of the Legislature in reorganizing 
 the University, this commencement was notable. Some weeks 
 before it occurred Dr. Laws had spoken before the Legislature, in 
 Jefferson City, but finding the tide there too strong for him, he 
 had presented his resignation to the Governor, who held also the 
 resignations of all the Curators. The Governor thereupon ap- 
 pointed a new Board of Curators, met with them at Columbia, 
 and had them accept the resignation of the President of the Uni- 
 versity. This carried out the decree of the Legislature, and the 
 University began to enter upon a new period of growth and greatly 
 increased usefulness. 
 
 Governor Francis was always capable of doing the best thing, 
 and is known as the best Governor Missouri ever had. By his 
 presence at the Commencement he raised the spirits of everyone, 
 and delivered the diplomas to the graduating class, at the head of 
 which stood Mr. See, a great admirer of the Governor. When 
 Mr. See had delivered the Valedictory address and received the 
 Medal for his Thesis in Astronomy, the Governor remarked that 
 he was the hero of the day; afterwards introduced him to Mrs. 
 Francis, and offered him an official letter of introduction with the 
 Seal of the State of Missouri on it, and duly countersigned by the 
 Secretary of State, which proved of great value during his studies 
 and travels abroad. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 1889-1892. 
 
 THREE AND A HALF YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. 
 
 POSTGRADUATE RECORD DISTINGUISHED FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND THE 
 PUBLICATION OF FAMOUS THESIS ON THE ORIGIN OF DOUBLE 
 STARS. 
 
 ^IMMEDIATELY after graduation at the University of Mis- 
 Jjl souri, June 6, 1889, Mr. See returned home for a short visit, 
 and then proceeded to Berlin, where he spent the next three 
 and a half years in postgraduate study. \ Noah See naturally was 
 greatly rejoiced over the high honors which his son had won, as 
 the result of five years of hard work at the University of Missouri* 
 and cordially approved his plan for study abroad. He realized 
 the high promise of eminent distinction which the career of his 
 son held out, and he desired to support him in every possible way. 
 The visit home, however, was saddened by the father's failing 
 health. It was considered very doubtful if he would live to see 
 his son return from Germany, for the stay abroad was to extend 
 over several years. 
 
 Yet with characteristic fatherly affection Noah See desired 
 his son to go on with his educational career, which promised event- 
 ually to shed such renown on the family name. Accordingly he 
 explained to his son the provisions of his Will, which made special 
 arrangements to enable him to complete his education in Europe; 
 and the executors were carefully enjoined to see that this trust 
 was faithfully executed, the money thus advanced to Thomas J. 
 J. See to be deducted from his share of the estate, on final settle- 
 ment. With this provision for his financial support assured, Mr- 
 See could go abroad with definite hope of completing his course 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 45 
 
 of postgraduate study and obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philo- 
 sophy, which would give him a favorable start in the world. 
 
 Young Mr. See was very loath to leave his father, in his 
 feeble condition, but as the latter was well cared for at home, he 
 finally started for Europe, his father merely cautioning him not 
 to work too hard, and to " Remember that Rome was not built in 
 a day." After reaching Berlin he corresponded with his father 
 regularly till within a few weeks of the latter's death, which came 
 earlier than had been expected, Feb. 9, 1890. Noah See showed 
 a constant interest in all that his son did, and was very proud of 
 the great name he was making in the world of science. 
 
 One of Mr. See's chief teachers at Berlin was the celebrated 
 Professor Helmholtz, and the young man sent a picture of this 
 master of science to his father, who had it framed and hung on 
 the wall of his room. If Noah See could have foreseen that his 
 son twenty years later would have become even more famous than 
 the great Helmholtz, what is there that he would not have done 
 for him? His cup of joy would have been filled to overflowing! 
 Yet it is certain that his father must have expected for his son a 
 great career, since from boyhood T. J. J. See made good in every- 
 thing which he undertook, and even surpassed the expectations 
 of his best friends. It was this characteristic of young Mr. See 
 which enabled him to triumph over all difficulties, and to gain a 
 decisive victory where others would have failed. 
 
 On the way to Europe, Mr. See spent several days in Wash- 
 ington, D. C., and saw the large telescope of the Naval Observ- 
 atory, visited the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, where 
 he met Professor Rowland; then stopped at Princeton, for a day 
 with Professor Young; sailing from New York on the Etruria, 
 June 22, and landing at Liverpool, June 30. From there he pro- 
 ceeded to London, but only remained overnight, and then visited 
 Paris, for four days at the Exposition; and finally started for 
 Berlin, July 5, and reached his destination next day. 
 
 The ocean passage on the Etruria was uneventful, but London 
 impressed Mr. See as very noisy and as full of rush as New York 
 
46 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 City. Paris had the charm of great works of art, and magnificient 
 buildings and monuments. Mr. See saw as many of these as he 
 could in four days, with a guide who knew the city. The Arc de 
 Triomphe, Napoleon's Tomb, the Louvre, the Pantheon, various 
 museums, the Exposition, the National Observatory, and the Pere 
 la Chaise Cemetery and the grave of Laplace (found to have been 
 removed) all claimed his attention. At the Observatory Mr. See 
 saw the beautiful statue of Leverrier holding the planet Neptune 
 in his hand. As he was not yet recognized as a professional man 
 of science, but was still a student, he did not seek introductions 
 to the French astronomers and mathematicians. 
 
 When Mr. See went to Europe, he did not know a living soul 
 in that part of the world. His loneliness therefore was consider- 
 able, and he desired to be at the University of Berlin as soon as 
 possible. When he reached there July 6, he found the summer 
 semester of the University about to close, and hence he could do 
 nothing till the autumn, except perfect his knowledge of German, 
 and accustom the ear to the accent, so that he could follow lec- 
 tures when the winter semester opened, in October. He located 
 at 97 Zimmer Strasse, about half a mile from the University, and 
 an equal distance from the Royal Observatory. This was a Pen- 
 sion, or boarding house with meals, and was kept by Frau Kahrn. 
 And while many of the boarders were transients, coming and going 
 from time to time, others were there for whole seasons, and some 
 for several years. Members of the nobility, such as counts and 
 barons, and diplomats, as well as high ranking officers of the Ger- 
 man army dined there, and attended the dances held in the Pen- 
 sion occasionally. And whilst Mr. See was too seriously occupied 
 with his studies to take part in such gay functions, he saw some- 
 thing of them, and became acquainted with citizens of various 
 countries France, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, 
 Italy, and Austria, but naturally the Germans predominated. 
 
 Very soon after his arrival in Berlin Mr. See had called on 
 some of the leading professors of the University, to find out what 
 studies he ought to take up preparatory to the lectures. Thus 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 47 
 
 he called on Helmholtz, Weierstrass, Fuchs, Foerster, and several 
 others of the more renowned of his future teachers. It turned 
 out that Professor Weierstrass was ill, but this illustrious mathe- 
 matician received him with great kindness, and carefully advised 
 him regarding the books which should be read, and then referred 
 him to Professor Fuchs, as he (Weierstrass) had little hope of being 
 able to lecture again. In their turn Fuchs and Foerster proved 
 equally kind and helpful. Helmholtz too was approachable, and 
 kind, but a man of few words, from a habit he had learned in child- 
 hood; and thus not easy to get much out of. Lord Rayleigh told 
 Mr. See when he visited London in 1892 that he had once enter- 
 tained Helmholtz in England, and found the same difficulty in 
 conversing with him. 
 
 The lectures of Helmholtz were on mathematical physics, 
 and naturally of the finest quality; for in the lecture room he 
 had to talk. The finest lecturer in physics, however, was Pro- 
 fessor Kundt, who was also a delightful man to work with in the 
 laboratory. In mathematics the best lecturer was Fuchs, who had a 
 slow methodical way which enabled the student to follow every 
 step with entire clearness. Other important lecturers in mathe- 
 matics from whom Mr. See profited were Knoblauch and Schwartz; 
 and in astronomy, Foerster, Tietjen, Lehmann-Filhes, and Brendel. 
 
 In practical astronomy Mr. See was working with Professor V. 
 Knorre, at the Royal Observatory, and for several months during 
 the summer of 1891, in charge of the 9-inch equatorial telescope, 
 just as he had formerly been in charge of the 7> inch telescope at 
 the University of Missouri. This 9-inch telescope is famous as the 
 one which Dr. Galle used in discovering Neptune, Sept. 23, 1846. 
 Mr. See used it for measuring double stars, and his results were 
 later included in one of the volumes of the Royal Observatory. 
 
 The fact that Mr. See, as an American student, had these 
 priviliges showed the entire confidence and esteem in which he 
 was held by the German professors. He had access to the Ob- 
 servatory Library, and a key to the building, so that he could come 
 and go when he chose. When observing with the 9-inch telescope 
 
48 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 in 1891 Mr. See used to work till daylight, and Professor Foerster, 
 Director of the Observatory, was more than once surprised to see 
 him going home after the members of his own family were pre- 
 paring for breakfast. It was by such serious effort that Mr. See 
 made such a great reputation at the University of Berlin. Coming 
 there in 1889 without a friend, he left there in 1892 with everyone 
 his friend and unwilling to part with him. 
 
 Once in 1892 Emperor William visited the Observatory. 
 While entertaining His Majesty, Professor Foerster told of the fine 
 work being done there by a young American, Herr See. In this 
 way Mr. See's fame spread to every department of the great Uni- 
 versity, and in fact all over Germany, and even to Italy, France, 
 Russia, and England. It happened that in going back and forth 
 to the University Mr. See would pass the Emperor almost daily, 
 driving in his carriage, and dressed as a General of the German 
 army. The Emperor always returned the salute, in military 
 fashion, of those who greeted him on the street; and thus Mr. See 
 became accustomed to this military salute, but of course he had 
 no occasion to be presented to the Emperor. 
 
 When the Emperor of Russia visited Berlin, in 1891, Mr. See 
 was admitted to the Ministry of Education, and thus obtained a 
 close and excellent view of the great military parade, with the 
 Emperors of Germany and Russia, Bismarck, and other high offi- 
 cials. These great military parades are one of the striking features 
 of life in Berlin, and as the parades pass right in front of the Uni- 
 versity, the students naturally see much of them. 
 
 The study of the art treasures in the museums of Berlin was 
 one of the chief delights of Mr. See's stay abroad. Sunday was 
 free to all, and on many Sunday afternoons Mr. See would wend 
 his way to one of the museums or to the National gallery, to study 
 archselogy, statuary, painting, or some other form of the fine arts. 
 
 The course of lectures in the history of Greek philosophy 
 under the renowned Professor Edward Zeller was especially at- 
 tractive to Mr. See, for he revered Zeller as a kind of modern Plato, 
 then nearly eighty years of age, but working on with the unabated 
 
!2 i 
 
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 
 
 (From the portrait by Schrader, in possession of Albert Havemeyer, Esq., New York; Guyot's Physical Geography). 
 
 It was in May, 1802, that Humboldt was exploring the' great volcanoes and other peaks of the Andes about Quito, and 
 forming the impressions which so powerfully influenced his writings. Exactly 104 years later, May, 1906, an interest in 
 Earthquakes and Volcanoes which Humboldt and his writings had awakened in boyhood, enabled Professor See to discover 
 the true laws of Earthquakes and Mountain Formation, as a result of the earthquake at San Francisco, and the revival of 
 early studies in the Physics of the Earth. 
 

UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 49 
 
 zeal and enthusiasm of youth. The great Zeller literally lived 
 for truth, like Plato in ancient times, and was so revered by all 
 that Mr. See was especially proud to have this venerable and good 
 man as one of his examiners, when he made his doctor's degree, 
 December 10, 1892. 
 
 Before such examinations are held the candidate for the de- 
 gree, in evening dress and white gloves, calls on the Professors 
 chosen as his examiners, by consent of the university dean, and 
 invites them to be present and take part in the examination. When 
 Mr. See called on Professor Zeller he found the venerable philos- 
 opher in his study, with a book in hand, but with sight so defective 
 that it had to be held at very close range. If an aged professor 
 has such enthusiasm for "Light, more Light," as Goethe said, 
 how much more zeal, thought Mr. See, ought a young man have 
 for the advancement of truth? The effect of Teller's example on 
 Mr. See was profound, though no one ever had need to tell him to 
 work; yet in adversity it is said that this recollection has more 
 than once sustained him. 
 
 One other very inspiring influence was Mr. See's visits to the 
 country seat of Alexander von Humboldt, at Tageldorf, a suburb 
 of Berlin. Here the student who read the Cosmos in boyhood 
 beheld the homes of the Humboldt brothers Wilhelm, the 
 founder of the Berlin University, and Alexander, the great natural- 
 ist and often visited the graves of these illustrious men in the 
 pine forest north of the house, to pluck an ivy souvenir, or to view 
 the beautiful park about it, with the tawny deer playing among 
 the bushes. As Alexander von Humboldt had been the inspira- 
 tion of Mr. See's boyhood days, and now, by good fortune, he 
 attended the University founded by Wilhelm, and he himself 
 wished to be an investigator of the physical universe, the pilgrim- 
 age was natural and appropriate. Besides, Mr. See's old teacher 
 Professor Paul Schweitzer, had been born in Berlin, and had acted 
 as assistant to Gustave Rose, the eminent chemist who accom- 
 panied Alexander von Humboldt on the trip to Central Asia. 
 Thus he was drawn to the home of the Humboldts by ties of pecu- 
 
50 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 liar interest, while his own thoughts were centered on the study 
 of the physical universe. 
 
 During the stay of three years at Berlin, Mr. See often visited 
 Potsdam, to see the palaces, and the astrophysical observatory; 
 so that he formed an intimate acquaintance with all the surround- 
 ings of the German capital. Mr. See was especially impressed 
 with the classic style in art and architecture so generally followed 
 by the Germans; and with the classic spirit in the University of 
 Berlin, which was originally introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt 
 and his contemporaries and firmly maintained in more recent 
 times. Without a classic education Mr. See would have been out 
 of sympathy with his beautiful surroundings, but as he had wisely 
 pursued those very studies before specializing in science, he could 
 in spirit visit Athens or Rome any Sunday afternoon, by going to 
 the museum. 
 
 This awakened in Mr. See a profound interest in classic things, 
 and led him to visit successively Italy, Egypt, and Greece. The 
 trip to Italy was made in company with Professor D. W. Shea of 
 the Catholic University, Washington, D. C., in March and April, 
 1890; and included stops at Basel, Turin, Milan, Pisa, Naples, 
 Pompei, Vesuvius, Baiae, Pozzuoli, Rome, Florence, Orvieto, 
 Venice, Verona, Munich, and Leipzig. It would take up too much 
 space to describe this wonderful journey, and we must be content 
 with saying that it included the objects of highest intellectual inter- 
 est in each place. Thus, at Naples, Vesuvius was ascended, owing 
 to Mr. See's life-long interest in volcanoes, while Pompei was vis- 
 ited for the best available insight into the Roman cities of the first 
 century, A. D. At Pisa and Florence on the other hand, special 
 attention was paid to the things associated with Galileo, such as 
 the leaning tower, and swinging lamp at Pisa, and the first toy-like 
 telescopes and other relics preserved at Florence. The grandeur 
 and inspiration of the scenes and antiquities at Rome simply beggar 
 description. It must suffice to say that here one is on holy ground, 
 and in the Roman Forum the traveler still walks on the very same 
 stones on which Caesar's legions trod nearly 2,000 years ago. 
 
1 
 
 g 
 
 *o 
 
 033 
 
 X ti 
 
 W -^ 
 
 1 
 
 W P 
 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 51 
 
 The stay in Lower Egypt was limited to about ten days (March 
 5-15, 1891), and Memphis was as far south as Mr. See journeyed. 
 But it enabled satisfactory visits to be made to the Pyramids and 
 other objects about Cairo; gave good views of the desert, and the 
 clear skies of Egypt, famed in the history of astronomy, as well as 
 of the Southern Constellations, such as the Ship Argus, with the 
 brilliant Canopus, and the stars of the Centaur. At Alexandria 
 effort was made to locate the site of the ancient library and 
 museum, where Hipparchus and Ptolemy labored 2,000 years 
 ago; but so little excavation has been done there that the loca- 
 tions are doubtful, and only the general surroundings of the 
 Alexandrian school of astronomy could be studied with any 
 success. Mr. See recalls that on the morning as the ship from 
 Trieste neared Alexandria the stars appeared very bright, 
 and Venus actually shone by reflection from the waves of the 
 sea. 
 
 From Lower Egypt Mr. See crossed over to Athens, for a visit 
 of six weeks in Greece. It would take too long to describe the 
 wonders of this center of Greek civilization, but it may suffice to 
 say that of all the places visited by Mr. See in the old .world, 
 Athens is the one he most admires, from the point of view of won- 
 derful skies of blue and violet, and other natural scenery, art and 
 history. As a student trying to make the most of his opportuni- 
 ties he visited the most interesting sights, the ruins about Athens; 
 including all parts of the Acropolis, the temples, and the museums; 
 Mount Pentelikon, Eleusis, ^gina, and the Homeric cities of 
 Tyrins and Mycenae; and also Corinth, Delphi, and Olympia. 
 The olive groves in which Plato taught had an especial charm for 
 Mr. See. The visit to Delphi also proved of very great interest, 
 as well as that to Olympia, where the Hermes of Parxitelles, ex- 
 cavated by the Germans in 1871 is recognized to be the most 
 beautiful statue ever created by the chisel of a sculptor. At Pyr- 
 gos, on the way to Olympia, the party* experienced a considerable 
 
 *Mr. See, two students from Cambridge, and two from Oxford, including Mr. 
 J. L. Myres, now Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 
 
52 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 earthquake, which caused general alarm among the people. From 
 Olympia Mr. See returned to Berlin by way of Corfu, Trieste, and 
 Vienna. 
 
 The spring vacation of 1892 was spent in England, and was of 
 very great importance, on account of the lifelong friendships which 
 Mr. See formed with eminent astronomers and mathematicians. 
 Naturally he visited the great universities of Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, and the principal places of interest about London, such 
 as the British Museum, Natural History Museum, Westminster 
 Abbey, the House of Parliament, the Royal Society, Royal Astro- 
 nomical Society, Royal Observatory, etc. He met and was en- 
 tertained by Professors Darwin and Forsyth in Cambridge, and 
 by the fellows of St. John's College. He was also entertained in 
 London by Sir William and Lady Huggins, the founders of Astro- 
 physics; Miss A. M. Clarke, the historian of astronomy; and Mr. 
 A. C. Ranyard. a well known astronomer, who had a private obser- 
 vatory. In traveling to England via Rotterdam and returning 
 via Antwerp, Mr. See was enabled to enjoy a bird's-eye view of 
 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 Mr. See had now remained in Germany so long that he was 
 anxious toxeturn to America as quickly as possible after his exam- 
 ination. His Inaugural Dissertation, was printed in advance of 
 the examination, except the title page, and on December 10, 1892, 
 he was granted the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Master 
 of Arts, with high honors. His thesis at once made a great rep- 
 utation, and was much discussed all over Europe. . At the public 
 disputation in the aula of the university, when the degree was 
 conferred, it was remarked by several of Dr. See's professors in 
 attendance, that it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies that 
 they had ever seen, and that Dr. See spoke German almost as 
 fluently and accurately as a native, which is seldom true of the 
 foreign students taking degrees in Germany. It is now twenty 
 years since Dr. See left Berlin, but it is well known that he still 
 speaks German fluently, and often delights his German friends by 
 conversing with them in their own language. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 1893-1896. 
 
 FOUR YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY STARTING 
 OF THE YERKES OBSERVATORY, AND PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST 
 VOLUME OF RESEARCHES ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE STELLAR 
 SYSTEMS. 
 
 MMEDIATELY after graduating at the University of 
 Berlin, December 10, 1892, Dr. See sailed from Bremen for 
 New York,] December 13, on the North German Lloyd steam- 
 ship Saale. He landed at New York Christmas day, the passage 
 having been slow and so stormy that the ship was four days late, 
 and general alarm felt for her safety, when at last she was sighted 
 covered with snow and ice. The New York newspapers of 
 Christmas morning had scare headlines: "Where is the Saale?" 
 This was of course before the days of wireless telegraphy, and at 
 that time a ship had to be observed before its arrival or where- 
 abouts could be ascertained. 
 
 fWhile traveling in Egypt, Mr. See had met at the Hotel de 
 Nile, in Cairo, March 6, 1891. Professor Eri B. Hulbert of the old 
 University of Chicago. The meeting was quite accidental,! but 
 Dr. Hulbert liked Mr. See so well, after traveling with him about 
 Cairo, that he entrusted to him some pictures of their party taken 
 on camels at the Pyramids; and said that after his journey to the 
 Holy Land, he would visit Berlin and claim the pictures. ( At that 
 time Mr. See only knew Mr. Hulbert was from Chicago, but had 
 no inkling that he was connected with the University. What 
 was Mr. See's surprise, when his traveling friend reappeared in 
 Berlin, claimed his pictures, and then told him that he (Hulbert) 
 was a professor at the University of Chicago, a colleague of Dr. 
 
54 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 I 
 
 Harper, the president of the new university, and wanted See to 
 join the faculty at Chicago when he finished his studies in Berlin? ; 
 Dr. Hulbert then said that he had written to Dr. Harper about 
 Mr. See, and that he (Harper) would be in Berlin that winter 
 (1891-2) . At that time little was thought of the matter, but later 
 sure enough Dr. Harper^came to Berlin, as Dr. Hulbert had said 
 he would; and of courselMr. See met Dr. Harper at the home of 
 Rev. Dr. J. H. W. Stuckenberg, the pastor of the American church 
 in Berlin, who kept open house once a week, for the American 
 colony. It was generally known that Dr. Harper was buying 
 books and libraries and selecting professors for the new university; 
 and he had therefore consulted with Dr. Stuckenberg and others, 
 but Mr. See made no application for any position at Chicago, nor 
 had he talked with Dr. Harper about the plans the latter was 
 developing. 
 
 It turned out, however, that Dr. Stuckenberg had recom- 
 mended Mr. See, just as Dr. Hulbert had done, and therefore when 
 Mr. See was at length in sight of his doctor's degree, and he wrote 
 President Harper at Chicago that he would be seeking a position 
 later for 1893, the president immediately replied, wishing Mr. See 
 to join the faculty at Chicago, and aid him in securing an observa- 
 tory to cost from $200,000 to $300,000. This was in July, 1892, 
 before anything had been done about the Yerkes observatory. 
 Things moved rapidly at Chicago, however, and before the negoti- 
 ations with Mr. See were concluded, Mr. George E. Hale, who had 
 a private observatory in Chicago, was brought into relationship 
 to the University; and Mr. Hale and Dr. Harper together pre- 
 vailed on Mr. Yerkes to buy the 40-inch glass discs, then lying 
 unground in the shops of Alvan Clark & Sons, Cambridgeport, 
 Mass., for the lenses of what has since become the great telescope 
 of the Yerkes Observatory. It seems that Mr. Hale had written 
 Mr. Yerkes a letter asking if he would consider buying the discs; 
 and when he replied in the affirmative, Dr. Harper and Mr. Hale 
 secured his promise of the required funds, about October 1, 1892. 
 This was the beginning of the Yerkes Observatory. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 55 
 
 When Dr. See reached Chicago the day after Christmas, 1892, 
 many of the departments of the University, which had opened 
 October 1, were just being organized, some of the classes meeting 
 in sheds, stores, and other temporary buildings. His first busi- 
 ness was to organize the department of astronomy. As he was 
 familiar with the work in astronomy at the great universities of 
 Berlin and Cambridge, he naturally tried to plan similar work at 
 Chicago, though its full development could only come gradually. 
 His first classes in the calculation of orbits of comets had about 
 eight graduate students, which was very satisfactory, considering the 
 attendance of only about two hundred students at the University. 
 
 Up to July 1, 1893, the fees from students allowed Dr. See, 
 as Docent, were only about $150.00; and it was therefore arranged 
 to advance his position to assistant, which would pay $800.00 per 
 annum, and be self-supporting for a young man. The work of 
 the department was rapidly developed and it was not long till it 
 was recognized everywhere as one of the best in the country. 
 
 Meanwhile the mounting of the large telescope was finished 
 by Warner & Swasey of Cleveland, Ohio, and exhibited at the 
 World's Fair, about two miles from the University. The grinding 
 of the glass discs, on the other hand, was a much slower process 
 than making the mounting, yet this optical work was making some 
 progress. During the winter of 1893-4 Mr. Hale was abroad for 
 study and some solar observations on Mt. Aetna. Everything 
 seemed to hang fire about the observatory, and no progress seemed 
 to be in sight, beyond what had been done by Warner & Swasey, 
 and the grinding of lenses by Alvan Clark & Sons. 
 
 It should be said in this connection that Professor S. W. Burn- 
 ham, long famed as the greatest double star observer in the world, 
 had quit Lick Observatory in California, in August, 1892, and 
 thus he was in Chicago when Mr. Yerkes agreed to give the funds 
 for the glass discs, October 1, 1892. He held a very lucrative, and 
 not very onerous but very responsible position as clerk of the 
 United States Court, and had his offices in the old post office build- 
 ing. Burnham thus had no connection with the University, but 
 
56 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 it was understood that he was to have such connection as soon as 
 the Observatory was built. Naturally in his private situation he 
 could do nothing to promote the progress of the Observatory. In 
 the summer of 1894 Professor Hale returned from Europe, and 
 took steps to establish the Astrophysical Journal, and yet there 
 was not the least sign of any progress about the Observatory. 
 The site had not been selected, no buildings had been started, and 
 it looked as though it might be years before anything was done. 
 
 Now it happened that the promised advancement of Dr. See 
 and Dr. Laves at the University was predicated on the building of 
 the Yerkes Observatory; and as this was hung up, there was a 
 dubious prospect ahead for all concerned Burnham, Hale, See, 
 and Laves, as well as those whom it was hoped to have associated 
 with the Observatory later, of whom Professor Barnard was the 
 most famous. 
 
 In this state of general paralysis, about October 1, 1894, Dr. 
 See called to interview President Harper as to the cause for the 
 apparently indefinite delay in the building of the Observatory. 
 He was told that the running of the Observatory was estimated 
 to cost $30,000 per annum, and there was no avaiable source 
 of income adequate to meet this demand, nor likely to be any 
 during the rest of the present (19th) century thus there was 
 nothing in view but waiting for six years at least. " I like to get 
 gifts for the University, but I am worried to death to find funds 
 for the maintenance of the Observatory after it is built!" patheti- 
 cally cried President Harper. Dr. See assured him that he could 
 show him how to start the Observatory on the available income 
 of the University; and, at the president's request, submitted a 
 plan, a few days later, which accomplished this object, so that the 
 building began immediately. 
 
 Dr. See's plan consisted in cutting down the inflated budget, 
 on the principle that necessities come before luxuries, and a child 
 must crawl before it can walk. So also if an Observatory can get 
 started, and make a record for efficiency, it too should grow and 
 prosper; while by planning for the impossible it might be delayed 
 
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 2 
 
 I 
 
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 Bl 
 
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 B-i 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 57 
 
 for many years, or never get started at all. Mr. Yerkes died in 
 1905, and if it had not been built during his life- time, the whole 
 matter probably would have fallen through and come to nothing. 
 Accordingly whatever the Yerkes Observatory has accomplished 
 must be ascribed largely to the timely help of Dr. See. 
 
 As the outcome of this forward movement Burnham at once 
 became officially connected with the University as professor of 
 practical astronomy, while still holding his office in the court. 
 Barnard was called to Chicago from Lick Observatory in Cali- 
 fornia, and the site selected and work rushed forward at such a 
 rate that the Observatory was opened for observations and for- 
 mally dedicated in September, 1897, with an address by Professor 
 Simon Newcomb of Washington. 
 
 The importance of this founding and opening of the Yerkes 
 Observatory for American science has been considerable; for it 
 has now had sixteen years of creditable activity, and that many 
 years of the life of Burnham and Barnard have been usefully em- 
 ployed, whereas they were likely to be largely wasted, under the 
 unfortunate conditions existing prior to 1894 both at Lick and 
 at Chicago. Moreover enlarged opportunities have been opened 
 for Frost, Ritchey and others. Dr. See also was rewarded for 
 his untiring efforts, but not at Chicago. 
 
 It is well known that President Harper greatly appreciated 
 the services of Dr. See at the University, yet he ungratefully let 
 him leave, probably hoping thereby to placate the jealously of 
 Professor Hale, who is said to have blamed Dr. See for the reduc- 
 tion of the inflated budget, which alone made possible the building 
 of the Yerkes Observatory. It might be unfortunate that the 
 University could not better provide for the support of the Observ- 
 atory; yet it was obviously better to have a half loaf than no 
 bread, since with half a loaf it was possible to live and struggle 
 for more, whereas without it even the struggle could not be kept 
 up. 
 
 We must now dwell on Professor See's scientific work at the 
 University of Chicago. It has already been pointed out that from 
 
58 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the first he had a goodly number of students, including some of 
 very great promise, such as the late Mr. George K. Lawton, Pro- 
 fessor F. R. Moulton, and Professor Eric Doolittle, and thirty or 
 forty others now holding responsible positions in various colleges, 
 universities and observatories. Dr. See's work and department 
 stood high at the University, but he felt that he labored at a great 
 disadvantage because of his rank being only that of instructor, 
 whereas many members of the faculty of nothing like his quali- 
 fications and experience were given the rank of assistant professor, 
 associate professor, or even professor. 
 
 Accordingly when Professor Percival Lowell, early in 1896, 
 offered him an opportunity to make a survey of the Southern 
 Heavens for the discovery and measurement of double stars, Dr. 
 See accepted it. President Harper then offered him leave of 
 absence, with the rank of assistant professor, but Dr. See insisted 
 that for obvious reasons it should be associate professor, the same 
 as that held by Professor Hale. When President Harper could 
 not see his way to grant that, Dr. See declined the assistant 
 professorship and merely went away, on leave, yet not expecting 
 to return, because it was evident that at the University of Chicago 
 nothing was being done on merit. 
 
 Soon after coming to Chicago in December, 1892, Dr. See had 
 come to be closely associated with Professor S. W. Burnham, the 
 greatest known authority on double stars. See would frequently 
 visit Burnham each week, and sometimes every few days, to get a 
 list of observations, for the calculation of the orbits of particular 
 double stars; for it was found in 1893 that all the published orbits 
 required revision, on the basis of recent observations, and by the 
 shorter and simpler methods which had been worked out by Burn- 
 ham and See. This work finally included the revision of the orbits 
 of forty double stars, and occupied Dr. See about three years, 
 from the summer of 1893 to 1896. 
 
 It was also made to embrace a critical mathematical investi- 
 gation into the action of central forces, with a new spectroscopic 
 method for testing the law of Newtonian gravitation among the 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 59 
 
 stellar systems. This latter work was published in July, 1895, 
 and attracted universal attention, because it had been held by 
 such authorities as Professor Asaph Hall of the Naval Observatory, 
 at Washington, (cf. article in the Astronomical Journal, Vol. VIII) 
 that it would never be possible to really test or prove the opera- 
 tion of the Newtonian law among the double stars, but that we 
 could merely make it more and more probable, by adding to the 
 number of orbits investigated. 
 
 Dr. See had been occupied with this question at Berlin in 
 1890, and had then prepared a small paper on the subject, and now 
 he gave it the final form, showing that a real test is actually possi- 
 ble, with the highest degree of rigor attainable in the observations 
 of the fixed stars, by means of the combination of the micrometer 
 and spectrograph. The latter instrument is a photographic 
 spectroscope for determining the motion in the line of sight, by 
 the method of slight displacement of the spectral lines, developed 
 by Huggins in 1868. Dr. See thus completed the methods for 
 testing the validity of the Newtonian law of attraction throughout 
 the sidereal universe, and they have since been used by Professors 
 Campbell and Wright of Lick Observatory, on Alpha Centauri, 
 Sirius, and other double stars. 
 
 During the month of April, 1895, Dr. See was making obser- 
 vations at the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University 
 of Virginia, and in August at the Washburn Observatory of the 
 University of Wisconsin, to secure the latest positions of the com- 
 panions of certain double stars. With the assistance of his post- 
 graduate students Lawton, Moulton and Doolittle he was rapidly 
 completing the forty orbits, which were to be made the basis of 
 the first volume of the famous Researches on the Evolution of the 
 Stellar Systems. President Harper had agreed to have this work 
 published by the University when finished. 
 
 Finally, in the spring of 1896, all was ready for the press, but 
 the excuse was made that no funds were available, for the Uni- 
 versity to do its part with; and so Dr. See had to publish it at his 
 own expense. About the time Dr. See was disheartened by this 
 
60 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 breach of faith on the part of the University, after all his labor in 
 doing the work, he received a telegram from Professor Percival 
 Lowell to undertake the survey of the double stars of the Southern 
 Hemisphere with the 24-inch telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona, and 
 at the City of Mexico. The first volume of Dr. See's Researches 
 appeared in January, 1897, while he was at the City of Mexico, 
 surveying the brilliant region of the ship Argus, Centaurus, and 
 the Southern Cross, in which many important new double stars 
 were discovered. 
 
 As this volume of Researches was essentially finished at 
 Chicago, and only the proof read at his home in Montgomery City, 
 and later at the Lowell Observatory, we may state here that the 
 volume was everywhere recognized as setting a new standard in 
 double star astronomy. The enthusiasm over the work was 
 general throughout the scientific world. Thus Lord Kelvin wrote 
 Dr. See as follows: 
 
 The University, Glasgow, March 20th, 1897. 
 Dear Dr. See: 
 
 I thank you very much for your letter of January 
 7, and the accompanying copy of your new work "On the Evolu- 
 tion of the Stellar Systems," which you have kindly sent me and 
 which I duly received. It is a splendid book and full of matter 
 most interesting to me. 
 
 Double star astronomy has always been exceedingly interest- 
 ing in giving us some fundamental information of systems in dif- 
 ferent parts of the Universe analogous to our Solar System in 
 respect to orbital motion under gravitational force but different 
 from ours in that grand detail of two suns instead of one. And 
 the interest is now greatly enhanced by the revelations of physical 
 properties and of velocities relatively to our system which spectrum 
 analyses have given us within the last thirty-three years. 
 
 I enclose an extract from a letter which I received from Tis- 
 serand only a few months before his death, by which you will judge 
 how eagerly I looked to your Chapter 3, 4, and how interested I was 
 
LORD KELVIN, (1824-1907) 
 
 From a photograph by Falk, New York, 1902. The most eminent British Natural 
 
 Philosopher of the past century, and one of the foremost of all time. He was one of 
 
 the first British authorities to adopt See's discoveries on the Constitution of the Sun 
 
 and on the Cause of Earthquakes and Mountain Formation. 
 
PROFESSOR G. V. SCHIAPARELLI, OF MILAN. (1835-1910). 
 
 The most eminent Italian astronomer since the time of Galileo, and one of the first to 
 adopt Professor See's Theories in Cosmogony and Geogony. He was so impressed 
 with the discovery of the Cause of Earthquakes and Mountain Formation, that, 
 although at an advanced age, he addressed young Professor See as " Revered Colleague. 1 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 61 
 
 to find in it the italicized paragraph on page 251. The physical 
 cause of the great eccentricities of the orbits of double stars is cer- 
 tainly a very important subject for investigation or speculation. 
 
 I hope the continuation of your work may prosper and that 
 before very long we may have a second volume. 
 
 Believe me, with kind regards, yours truly, 
 
 KELVIN. 
 
 From Milan the illustrious Italian astronomer Schiaparelli 
 wrote that Dr. See's Researches "would constitute the third great 
 epoch in double star astronomy since those of W. Herschel and W. 
 Struve." To understand this fully we should recall that Sir 
 William Herschel first discovered and proved the existence of 
 double stars by the observations made with his great telescopes 
 from 1780 to 1802; while the celebrated William Struve of Dorpat, 
 Russia, first carried on a systematic campaign for measuring over 
 three thousand double stars, 1825-1837, and published the results 
 in his famous Mensurae Micrometricae, Petersburg, 1838. Thus 
 Herschel had found out that double stars exist, and proved that 
 some of them are in motion; while Struve had investigated the 
 motions on an extensive scale, with a view to determining their 
 orbits. These were the two great epochs in double star astronomy, 
 and Schiaparelli declared that the third great epoch (troisieme 
 grande epoque) would be made by Dr. See's Researhes on the Evo- 
 lution of the Stellar Systems, by which the origin of these wonderful 
 systems would be explained. 
 
 What Schiaparelli predicted, in 1897, is now a matter of 
 history. For it is now universally recognized that Dr. See's 
 Researches have marked the third great epoch in double star as- 
 tronomy, and that it is fully as important as the original epoch 
 made by Sir William Herschel, or the later great epoch made by 
 the systematic observations of W. Struve, at Dorpat, and subse- 
 quently at Poulkowa. The classic achievements of Herschel and 
 Struve have been repeated in the different and much more difficult 
 line of Cosmogony by America's famous astronomer, T. J. J. See. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1896-1898. 
 
 TWO YEARS AT THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY, FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA, 
 AND AT THE CITY OF MEXICO. 
 
 SURVEYING THE DOUBLE STARS OF THE SOUTHERN CELESTIAL 
 HEMISPHERE. LECTURES ON SIDEREAL ASTRONOMY AT 
 LOWELL INSTITUTE, BOSTON, 1899. 
 
 'P to the time Dr. See joined the Lowell Observatory he was 
 known chiefly as a mathematician and calculator of orbits 
 of double stars. As astronomers are in many cases, un- 
 fortunately, either mere observers with the telescope, and almost 
 without knowledge of the mathematical branches of the science, 
 or, on the other hand, mere mathematicians and equally devoid 
 of a practical knowledge of the heavens as derived from the use 
 of the telescope, Dr. See became impressed with the view that 
 to obtain a really deep knowledge of the universe as it is, one 
 must be both a mathematician and a telescopic explorer of the 
 heavens. 
 
 Accordingly after careful consideration he deemed it ad- 
 visable to accept Professor Lowell's generous offer of an oppor- 
 tunity to survey the Southern Heavens. Some of the mathema- 
 ticians, such as Dr. G. W. Hill, of New York, probably thought 
 that Dr. See was making a mistake to give up his mathematical 
 researches, even temporarily, to do telescopic work; but Dr. See 
 had before him the example of the two Herschels, and wisely de- 
 cided that intimate knowledge of the heavens was as necessary 
 now as it was a century ago. He rightly believed that it is the 
 one-sidedness of most modern investigators that prevents them 
 from obtaining the breadth of view required for the greatest ad- 
 vances in science. Since Professor See's revolutionary work in 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 63 
 
 establishing a New Science of Cosmogony (1910), itis certain that 
 his intuition of 1896 was right; for no one but an astronomer of 
 the widest experience could have sustained this comprehensive 
 creative effort, which marks one of the greatest epochs in the 
 history of astronomy. 
 
 Before joining Professor Lowell at Flagstaff, Arizona, about 
 August 1, 1896, Dr. See spent some J:hree months, May to July, 
 at his home near Montgomery City. Prior to leaving Chicago he 
 had planned for the work of the department of astronomy, during 
 his absence, and had the work of instruction divided between Dr. 
 Laves and Mr. Moulton. Mr. Moulton was considered by Dr. 
 See one of his ablest students, and President Harper had appointed 
 him (Moulton) upon Dr. See's sole recommendation, without even 
 seeing the young man so great was the President's confidence 
 in any recommendation submitted by Dr. See. 
 
 While visiting his Mother at Montgomery City, in June, 1896, 
 Dr. See suffered a mild attack of typhoid fever. It lasted some 
 twenty days, and left him weak, and somewhat emaciated, though 
 not extremely so. Accordingly when he first joined the Lowell 
 Observatory he had not yet fully recovered, and had to begin 
 heavy work by easy stages. 
 
 Professor Lowell was accompanied to Arizona by two assist- 
 ants, Mr. A. E. Douglass, and Mr. D. A. Drew; Alvan G. Clark, 
 the telescope maker; a secretary, Miss W. L. Leonard; and Dr. 
 See and his assistant, Mr. W. A. Cogshall, who were occupied with 
 the double star work. Mr. Clark went along chiefly to see that 
 all was right with the lens as finally fitted in its cell. The party 
 reached Flagstaff, over the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- 
 road, during the last week in July, Dr. See and Mr. Cogshall 
 coming two days later than the rest, owing to arrangements for 
 the shipping of books which he had to be made in Chicago, where 
 the party first assembled. 
 
 The town of Flagstaff is in a desert, on the high plateau of 
 Northern Arizona, about 7,000 feet above the sea, and the observ- 
 atory is on Mars' Hill about a mile west of the town. The astron- 
 
64 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 omers had to live at some of the hotels*, and climb the hill of 
 some four hundred feet elevation in going to their observations. 
 The observatory is surrounded by a magnificient pine forest and 
 the location is beautiful, except for the dryness, which, however, 
 is necessary for the best conditions in the investigations of the 
 heavenly bodies. All astronomical observations have to be made 
 through the terrestrial atmosphere, and in order to secure steady 
 seeing the observatory ought to be in a dry climate, and also on 
 a high plateau, which is above the densest part of the atmosphere. 
 Such was the site selected by Professor Lowell for his Observatory 
 in Arizona, at which so much famous work has been done. 
 
 The citizens of Flagstaff were very appreciative of the Lowell 
 Observatory, in fact it was the pride of the whole territory. People 
 came from all over the southwest to visit the observatory, as well 
 as from Chicago, New York and Boston, and even from Europe. 
 
 Professor Lowell had great enthusiasm for his favorite study 
 of the planet Mars. Thousands upon thousands of drawings and 
 sketches were made and afterwards digested and discussed in the 
 Annals of the Lowell Observatory, as well as in more popular books. 
 In this way Professor Lowell not only made his observations, but 
 got them before the world in an impressive form. Accordingly 
 ever since 1894 Lowell has been generally recognized as the highest 
 authority on the observations of the surfaces of the planets. 
 
 Dr. See's work consisted in sweeping the southern heavens 
 for the discovery of new double stars. His zone of work began at 
 about fifteen and extended to about sixty-five degrees south decli- 
 nation. Accordingly it included over half the southern celestial 
 hemisphere, but of course a period of two years was not enough 
 time in which to make the survey exhaustive. The southern most 
 part of the work could only be done at the City of Mexico. The 
 
 * While living at the Grand Canon Hotel Dr. See had the serious misfortune 
 to lose his library, valuable correspondence and many personal effects by fire, 
 September 14, 1897. He had to flee from the burning building at three o'clock in 
 the morning, carrying the unpublished records of the Lowell Observatory under 
 one arm, and Bowditch's Translation of Laplace's M^canique Celeste under the 
 other the latter being deemed priceless among the valuable books of the library. 
 
THE 24-INCH TELESCOPE OF THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY, AS MOUNTED IN 
 THE DOME AT FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA, 1896. 
 
 The telescope is here shown east of the pier, but in the Double Star work of Dr. See usually 
 was reversed, so as to be on the other side. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 65 
 
 observatory was in Mexico city, however, only during the winter 
 months of 1896-7; the observations at that southernmost point 
 being all included within the months of January, February and 
 March, 1897. And hence by far the larger part of the double 
 star work was done at Flagstaff. Yet while at Mexico, the ex- 
 tremely favorable location, within nineteen degrees of the equator, 
 enabled Dr. See to reach all the stars of the Southern hemisphere 
 except those in the small cap within twenty-five degrees of the 
 South Pole; and it is needless to say that every moment of the 
 time available during the three months was utilized to the utmost. 
 
 At Flagstaff the double-star work often would begin at sun- 
 set, and extend till about eleven o'clock, when the Mars work 
 would have preference; and then, when several hours had been 
 devoted to Mars, the double-star work might be resumed again 
 towards daylight. This breaking of the double-star work into 
 two parts made it hard on Dr. See and Mr. Cogshall, but it was 
 not felt so severely except at the City of Mexico, where nearly every 
 night was clear, and no time could be lost, owing to the shortness 
 of the stay in that southern location. Accordingly, at Mexico 
 double stars had to be taken both morning and evening, of every 
 available night, and the observers always went home just as the 
 Southern Cross was fading away on the southern horizon, where 
 it shone with great beauty over the mountains lying in that di- 
 rection. 
 
 The usual practice in the sweeping was for Mr. Cogshall to 
 look through the finder and bring the stars into the field of the 
 large telescope, while Dr. See examined them with various magni- 
 fying powers, according to circumstances. It did not take long 
 practice before Dr. See could tell almost at a glance whether a 
 star had a companion or not, but in some cases he had to wait for 
 the image of the star to get quiet, or put on higher power, before he 
 could make out the existence of a companion with entire clearness 
 and certainty. Then it was necessary to revolve the micrometer 
 and measure the position angle and distance at which the com- 
 panion was seen. While Dr. See was making the measures, Mr. 
 
66 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Cogshall sketched the stars in the field of the finder and recorded 
 the micrometer measures in a book kept at hand for the purpose. 
 
 As a rule the dome of the observatory was turned so as to 
 leave the opening pointed a little to the west of south, and the 
 stars were therefore observed just after they had passed over the 
 meridian. This was found to be the most favorable position for 
 work, and by taking the stars as they went by it saved constantly 
 moving the dome, which would have consumed much time and 
 proved to be very troublesome. By working for five or six hours, 
 Dr. See and Mr. Cogshall used often to examine at least a thou- 
 sand of the larger stars in the region swept over. This usually 
 included a belt of the sky about a degree wide, or twice the diam- 
 eter of the Moon, and extending one-fourth of the way around 
 the heavens. Such sweeps did not always include every bright 
 star in the region traversed, for in measuring the stars found to 
 have companions, some would pass by and have to be left for 
 another occasion. 
 
 At Mexico City the time was so precious that the telescope 
 was pointed first on the naked eye stars, so conspicuously bright 
 in that region, and then on those which were invisible to the naked 
 eye. Among the important stellar systems thus discovered at 
 Mexico City may be mentioned Eta Centauri, Alpha Phoenicis, 
 p Velorum, d Centauri, and many others. Some are pairs of 
 nearly equal stars, lying almost in contact, under the highest 
 telescopic power; others are composed of a faint companion close 
 to a bright star; while still others have excessively faint com- 
 panions far away, and just barely visible to the keenest eye in the 
 best seeing. About a dozen of these objects looked like planets 
 shining by reflected light. Their color usually was almost black. 
 The double stars thus present an amazing variety of phenomena 
 and some are very highly colored. The tints usually are com- 
 binations of yellow or reddish light for the larger stars with bluish 
 or purple companions. 
 
 When Dr. See entered upon this survey of the southern double 
 stars but little work of importance had been done there since the 
 
SWEEPING FOR THE DISCOVERY OF NEW DOUBLE STARS, AT THE CITY OF MEXICO. 
 In this view Dr. See is at the finder and Mr. Cogshall at the large telescope. Dr. See frequently 
 changed place with his associate, in order that the latter might have a chance to share in 
 the work of discovery. 
 
THE DOME OF THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY AT TACUBAYA, MEXICO. 
 
 In this view the Dome is turned to the east 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 67 
 
 memorable survey carried out by Sir John Herschel at the Cape 
 of Good Hope half a century before (1834-1838) . But it happened 
 that while Dr. See was working at the Lowell Observatory, Mr. 
 R. T. A. Innes was working also at the Royal Observatory, Cape 
 of Good Hope. Sometimes Dr. See would announce his dis- 
 coveries to Mr. Innes, after they were already independently noted 
 at the Cape; and, vice versa, Mr. Innes would send notice of dis- 
 coveries at the Cape which Dr. See already had secured sometime 
 earlier at Lowell Observatory. It is agreeable to note that this 
 rivalry always was of the most generous nature, each freely con- 
 ceding to the other whatever belonged to him. 
 
 The survey of Dr. See extended over only two years, the ten- 
 tative plans for extending it further south, by locating the obser- 
 vatory in Peru, having to be given up, because of a nervous break- 
 down unexpectedly experienced by Professor Lowell. This illness 
 lasted over some two years, and meanwhile Dr. See had become Pro- 
 fessor of Mathematics in the United States Navy, and was in charge 
 of the 26-inch telescope of the Naval Observatory at Washington. 
 
 Although not completed, owing to Lowell's unexpected ill- 
 ness, the effect of Dr. See's double-star survey throughout the 
 world was considerable. It stimulated effort in all southern ob- 
 servatories, and even helped the double-star work at Lick Observa- 
 tory, and at many other places in America as well as at Greenwich, 
 Potsdam, Poulkowa, Paris, Brussels, and other observatories in 
 Europe. In his introduction to Mr. Innes' "Reference Catalogue 
 of Southern Double Stars," published by the Royal Observatory, 
 Cape of Good Hope, in 1899, Sir David Gill, H. M. Astronomer, 
 speaks of this work of See and Innes as follows: 
 
 "Up to the present time no general catalogue of the double 
 stars of the Southern Hemisphere has been published. The ob- 
 server who desired to work in this field of research has, therefore, 
 been compelled either to expend much time in searching for suit- 
 able objects in the sky, or to consult and compare many different 
 publications, in order to find the objects most likely to repay labor, 
 with such means as may be at his disposal. 
 
68 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 "Greater activity may, in future, be confidently looked for 
 in double-star work, owing to the increased number of suitable 
 instruments recently erected in the Southern hemisphere. A 
 strong additional stimulus will undoubtedly be given by the ex- 
 ample of Dr. See's labors in this comparatively unexplored field, 
 and by the publication of his Researches on the Evolution of the 
 Stellar Systems." 
 
 Fourteen years after these words are written we find Sir David 
 Gill's predictions fully verified. Mr. Innes for some years has 
 been doing a great deal of double-star work at Johannesburg, in 
 the Transvaal; and Professor W. J. Hussey of the Detroit Obser- 
 vatory, University of Michigan, is now in La Plata, extending his 
 double-star work over the unexplored regions near the South Pole. 
 It is probable that within five or ten years, several thousand more 
 new double stars will be discovered in the Southern Hemisphere. 
 As a sequel to Dr. See's survey at the Lowell Observatory, this is 
 all very interesting, and very encouraging to those who believe 
 in scientific progress. Without this work of Dr. See, as Sir David 
 Gill hints, in the above extract, little or none of this work of ex- 
 ploration is likely to have been undertaken. 
 
 At the City of Mexico very considerable public interest was 
 awakened by the location of the Lowell Observatory there. Gen- 
 eral Diaz, the President of Republic, accompanied by Secretary 
 of State Mariscal, visited the Observatory in state, under a mili- 
 tary escort, and spent several hours viewing Venus and Mercury 
 by daylight. All the scientific and literary men in Mexico showed 
 an equal interest, some coming by day and some by night, to view 
 the planets, and especially to observe Mars. This was quite 
 gratifying to Professor Lowell and his associates; and it had the 
 effect of encouraging Science in Mexico, where the Astronomical 
 Society of Mexico has since been established, probably as an out- 
 come of this expedition. 
 
 The removal to and from Mexico of all the machinery of the 
 observatory, and its erection in suitable order was a considerable 
 mechanical undertaking. Professor Lowell had a good engineer 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 69 
 
 in Mr. Godfrey Sykes, of Flagstaff, who accompanied the expedi- 
 tion; but in addition to his help, Dr. See, Mr. Cogshall, Mr. Doug- 
 lass, and Mr. Drew aided in putting up and taking down the 
 buildings and machinery. It was found that the Mexican peon 
 laborers were so wholly devoid of mechanical sense that one Ameri- 
 can Vas worth a dozen Mexicans in these building and dismounting 
 operations. 
 
 Before leaving Mexico, several of the astronomers, including 
 Dr. See, ascended the volcano Popocatapetl. The trip was very 
 interesting for the view of the country it offered; and for the sight 
 of the sulphur refinery, at an altitude of some 12,000 feet, where 
 the party spent the night. 
 
 Professor Lowell was suffering from fatigue and nervousness 
 before he left Mexico for Boston. After reaching home his ailment 
 increased, and although he started again for Arizona, and got as 
 far as Chicago, he had to turn back and take a long rest and treat- 
 ment before health could be restored. Finally, after two or three 
 years he was himself again, and could conduct the observatory 
 with his old time vigor and enthusiasm. 
 
 Mr. W. A. Cogshall who assisted Dr. See most of the time in 
 his work at the Lowell Observatory, developed a good taste for 
 astronomy, and has since attained considerable prominence as 
 professor of astronomy and director of the Kirkwood Observatory, 
 of the University of Indiana. He is an indefatigable worker, and 
 loves to observe the heavenly bodies. The enthusiasm of one 
 worker, as is well known, usually bears fruit in another; and of 
 late years the University of Indiana has produced several prom- 
 ising young astronomers. 
 
 After concluding his two years at the Lowell Observatory, 
 Dr. See spent part of the summer of 1898 at his old home, in 
 Missouri, preparing a course of public lectures for the Lowell 
 Institute. These were on the subject of Sidereal Astronomy, and 
 were given during the months of December, 1898, and January, 
 1899. They included the most splendid illustrations known, and 
 excited generous enthusiasm among the people of Boston. It was 
 
70 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 generally said that it was the finest and most impressive course 
 of lectures given at the Lowell Institute since the famous course 
 delivered by Professor Benjamin Peirce in 1879. 
 
 This course of lectures is important in another way. It im- 
 pressed Dr. See greatly with the hazy veil of cosmical dust spread 
 over the back ground of the sky in Barnard's magnificient photo- 
 graphs of the Milky Way, which had excited such enthusiasm in 
 Boston. In these lectures and another at Wellesley College, Dr. 
 See pointed out that this dust might be expelled from the stars; 
 and he thus anticipated Arrhenius and others in publicly advoca- 
 ting the modern theory of repulsive forces in nature. 
 
 Even before Dr. See gave the Lowell lectures, it was known 
 that Secretary Long and President McKinley were considering 
 his appointment to a Professorship of Mathematics in the Navy, 
 with a view of building up the scientific force at the Naval Obser- 
 vatory in Washington. As soon as his Lowell lectures were finish- 
 ed, and he was returning to his home by way of Washington, he 
 found to his astonishment that he had been appointed by the 
 President and his name already sent to the Senate for confirmation. 
 
 While calling on the Secretary of the Navy nobody could have 
 been more surprised than Dr. See to be told, in reply to his remark 
 that he hoped to be considered for a vacancy expected to occur 
 in May: "Professor, I have already made your appointment. 
 The President approved your selection yesterday and your nomi- 
 nation has gone to the Senate. You will of course have to pass a 
 professional and physical examination, but you will have no 
 difficulty about that." Such a pleasant surprise from Secretary 
 Long encouraged Professor See very much. For it looked as if a 
 proper estimate had been put on his strenuous labors of the past 
 six years, since he had returned from Germany. 
 
 Naturally his plans of going on to Missouri had to be sud- 
 denly altered, and instead he tarried in Washington to pass his 
 examinations, and be assigned duty at the Naval Observatory; 
 after which he obtained leave to arrange his business affairs in the 
 West. 
 
w i 
 
 H 
 
 .*, 
 
 W 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 1899-1902 
 
 THREE AND A HALF YEARS AT THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY, WASHINGTON . 
 
 OBSERVING DOUBLE STARS AND SATELLITES, AND MEASURING THE 
 DIAMETERS OF THE PLANETS BY DAYLIGHT TO ELIMINATE THE 
 EFFECTS OF IRRADIATION. 
 
 February 7th, 1899, Dr. See was formally nominated* by 
 President McKinley to be Professor of Mathematics in the 
 Navy, and the nomination confirmed by the Senate on 
 February 10. After a short absence at his home in Missouri, Pro- 
 fessor See was regularly on duty at the Naval Observatory in 
 Washington. At first he was occupied with the reduction of the 
 Meridian observations and participating in the observations of 
 the sun, moon, and planets, with the meridian circle. This is an 
 important branch of the observatory work, and Professor See 
 wished to get into close touch with it by actual practice, his pre- 
 vious experience having been mainly with equatorial telescopes 
 of large size. But after the retirement of Professor Edgar Frisbie, 
 U.S.N., in May, 1899, Professor See was given charge of the 12- 
 inch equatorial telescope of the Naval Observatory, till December, 
 when he was given charge of the great 26-inch equatorial, with 
 which he made so many fine observations during the next three 
 years. 
 
 The experience gained in the meridian work during 1899 en- 
 abled Professor See to effect important improvements in the piers 
 of the new 6-inch transit circle during the year 1901. This instru- 
 ment had been mounted on marble piers, but the grain of the 
 marble was not symmetrical in the two piers, being tilted in one 
 and horizontal in the other; so that with changes of temperature 
 
 *To fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Professor Newcomb, 
 March 12, 1897. 
 
72 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 during the day the azimuth of the instrument varied in a trouble- 
 some manner. In the summer of 1901 a navy board composed 
 of Professor See, Professor Updegraff, and Assistant Astronomer 
 George A. Hill, recommended the removal of the marble piers, 
 and their replacement by piers of brick, with the result that the 
 instrument afterwards performed with entire satisfaction, and 
 gave results of unrivaled accuracy. This improvement of the 
 six-inch transit circle enable Professor Updegraff to greatly im- 
 prove the standard of the meridian work of the Naval Observatory. 
 
 Professor See's observations with the twelve-inch equatorial 
 were mainly of asteroids, comets and double stars. Professor 
 S. J. Brown, U.S.N., was on the point of giving up the large equa- 
 torial telescope to become Astronomical Director of the Naval 
 Observatory, and naturally this powerful instrument was assigned 
 to Professor See as the most experienced astronomer available 
 for this duty. 
 
 Early in the month of October, while the twenty-six-inch was 
 still officially in charge of Professor Brown, Professor See began 
 with it a series of observations of the satellite of Neptune. The 
 seeing at this season of the year often is very fine, because it is 
 just before winter comes on, and the air quiet, hazy and smoky, 
 as in Indian summer. These favorable conditions were unusually 
 conspicuous in 1899, and on October 10, while observing the 
 satellite of Neptune, Professor See noticed indications of faint 
 belts on the disc of the planet. They seemed to be bands like 
 those on Jupiter and Saturn, but very much fainter and more 
 indistinct, because the disc of Neptune always appears small even 
 in the largest telescope. The belts on Neptune were observed on 
 several subsequent occasions, and noted also by Mr. Dinwiddie, 
 who assisted Professor See in the work on the great equatorial, so 
 that the existence of the belts is beyond doubt. This beautiful 
 discovery is a severe test of the astronomer's vision, telescope, 
 and atmospheric conditions; and it shows that the planet Neptune 
 is physically of the same type as Uranus, on which belts were dis- 
 covered by the Henry brothers at Paris in 1884. 
 
VIEW OF THE LARGE TELESCOPE OF THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY AT 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 Showing the mounting, and the elevating floor, by which the observer is brought to 
 convenient height in any position of the instrument. 
 
PROFESSOR SEE OBSERVING WITH THE LARGE TELESCOPE OF THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY. 
 
 It was with this fine instrument that Dr. See carried out his delicate researches on the diameters of the 
 Planets and Satellites by daylight and also at night, to eliminate the effects of Irradiation, which 
 had never been done before. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 73 
 
 During the first year after Professor See took charge of the 
 large equatorial he was occupied mainly with the measurement of 
 satellites; but later he enlarged the plan of work so as to include 
 in it the determination of the diameters of all the planets and 
 satellites. This was, of course, a considerable program, requiring 
 time, energy and rare mental and physical powers in the observer, 
 but Professor See was able finally to carry it to a conclusion. The 
 satellite observations and those on the diameters of the planets 
 were made simultaneously, without either line of work interfering 
 with the other. And the work on the diameters of the planets 
 was done both at night and by daylight, to eliminate the trouble- 
 some effects of the irradiation. 
 
 It is a curious fact of history that as many measurements as 
 had been made on the diameters of the planets and satellites by 
 astronomers during the three centuries since the invention of the 
 telescope by Galileo, no one had previously attempted to eliminate 
 the irradiation systematically, so as to get the true diameters of 
 the planets, till Professor See executed this important investiga- 
 tion in 1901 and 1902. The result was a series of planetary diam- 
 eters which never can be much improved upon. See's deter- 
 minations have now come to be recognized as standard, and thus 
 occupy a classic place in the literature of astronomy. 
 
 It should be explained that irradiation makes all the planets 
 seem to be larger than they really are. It is illustrated by the 
 apparent enlargement of the outer rim of the new moon and by 
 the blunting of the points of the crescent, whereas they should 
 really appear quite sharp. This is owing to the sensation of the 
 light spreading on the retina of the eye; and this enlargement is 
 called the irradiation. There was no previous method for getting 
 rid of this disturbing cause, and Professor See therefore devised 
 the scheme for taking observations by daylight and afterwards by 
 night. It was found that the night diameters were considerably 
 larger than those taken by daylight; and this difference gave the 
 constant of the irradiation, as found by actual measurement, with- 
 out regard to any theory. Professor See's empirical method 
 
74 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 therefore is recognized to be safe, and sound; and this doubtless 
 is the reason why his results have been so generally accepted by 
 the scientific world. 
 
 When Lord Kelvin was visiting Washington in April, 1902, a 
 public reception by the leading men of science in the city was 
 tendered him at the Cosmos Club. At this reception he took par- 
 ticular pains to inquire of Professor See about the experiments for 
 finding empirical values of the constants of irradiation for the 
 different planets and satellites of the solar system. He dwelt on 
 the problems of irradiation altogether nearly half an hour, and 
 when satisfied with the account given passed on to the problem 
 of a resisting medium and the motions of comets, and their de- 
 rangement in moving through the system of Jupiter's satellites, 
 which has been considerably studied by astronomers since the 
 earliest researches of Laplace and Burckhardt a century ago. 
 
 The other work carried on so unremittingly by Professor See 
 from 1899 to 1902 was the measurement of the positions of the 
 satellites of the solar system. This included extensive observa- 
 tions of eight satellites of Saturn, four of Uranus, and one of 
 Neptune; besides measurements of the diameters of all the satel- 
 lites which have sensible discs. The satellite program was thus 
 an extensive campaign, and the measures made have since proved 
 to be accurate and well adapted to the determination of precise 
 orbits. 
 
 See's observations have been used by Dyson, Bergstrand, 
 Struve, and several other astronomers for improving the theories 
 of the motions of these bodies. The two inner satellites of Uranus 
 proved to be excessively faint; and the same was true of Hyperion 
 in the system of Saturn, but by screening off the glare of the planet, 
 Professor See was able to get an excellent series of measures, when 
 these objects could scarcely be seen by any other astronomer in 
 the world, owing to the low southern declination of Saturn and 
 Uranus, which placed them below the reach of European observers. 
 
 Altogether it may be said that the campaign on the diameters 
 of the planets and the positions of the satellites attracted wide and 
 
THE PLANET MERCURY. 
 
 As glimpsed by T. J. J. See with the 26-inch refractor at Wash- 
 ington, in June, 1901. It had long been known from photometric obser- 
 vations that Mercury behaved like the Moon, flashing out with great 
 brilliancy near opposition, but otherwise reflecting very little light. If the 
 surface of the planet were very rough and covered with craters and maria, 
 as in the case of the Moon, this behavior would be explained. Professor 
 See was the first observer to glimpse this Moon-like aspect of Mercury 
 at moments of the best seeing. (From See's Researches, Vol. II.) 
 
J " 
 
 b a 
 
 W 
 
 S S 
 
 H 
 
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE EARTH AND MOON AS THEY WOULD APPEAR 
 FROM A POINT IN SPACE. 
 
 THE PLANET MARS AS DRAWN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY LOWELL. 
 
 The latter view is the drawing made from a number of the Lowell photographs by the 
 skillful hand of Mr. W. H. Wesley, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society. 
 
 THE PLANETS, THE EARTH AND MOON, AND MARS. 
 (From See's Researches, Vol. II). 
 
DRAWINGS OF THE PLANET JUPITER. 
 
 Made by Keeler at Lick Observatory, 1889. (From See's Researches, Vol. II.) 
 
THE PLANET SATURN, 
 
 As Drawn by Proctor, but modified to take account of the Extension of the Dusky Ring observed by 
 T. J. J. See at Washington in 1901 (A.N., 3768). (From Researches, Vol. II, 1910, Plate XXII). 
 
FIG. o. THE PLANET URANUS, WITH EQUATORIAL BELTS. 
 As drawn by the Henry Brothers at Paris, 1884. 
 
 FIG. b. DRAWING OF THE PLANET NEPTUNE. 
 
 Showing the faint equatorial belts discovered by T. J. J. See with 
 the 26-inch refractor at Washington, Oct. 10, 1899. Views of the 
 planets Uranus and Neptune. (From See's Researches, Vol. II.) 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 75 
 
 favorable notice throughout the world. Professor See's great 
 activity was especially commended by the celebrated French 
 astronomer Callandreau, and by such observers as Schiaparelli, 
 Struve, Burnham, Barnard, and a number of others; while the 
 results of this work naturally were rapidly adopted in the litera- 
 ture of science. 
 
 One other very notable feature of See's labors at the Naval 
 Observatory relates to the improvement of the personnel. There 
 was a well known advancement in the standard of the Observatory 
 as a whole between 1899 and 1902, and in this upward movement 
 See naturally took a leading part. Young men of promise and 
 ability were encouraged and given opportunity for some dis- 
 tinction, with the result that there was a general advance in the 
 standard and quality of all the scientific work. Accordingly this 
 proof of progress attracted considerable attention not only in 
 America, but also in Europe. The work of this period in the 
 history of the Observatory will always be recognized as one of 
 high promise and proved efficiency. 
 
 See had not only worked very hard ever since entering the 
 service in 1899, but also without the usual vacations, and in 1901 
 was found to be suffering from stomach trouble and sleeplessness, 
 due to disturbance of the digestive processes. He had with diffi- 
 culty kept up with the heavy program of work in 1901 and 1902; 
 and when he was detached from the Observatory in September, 
 1902, a leave of absence for some months of rest was found ad- 
 visable. Full recovery did not follow very quickly, but was a 
 gradual process of some years. The difficulty was somewhat 
 increased by the unfamiliar duties and surroundings at the Naval 
 Academy. Whilst partial recovery was attained at the Naval 
 Academy, full recovery was not possible till several years had been 
 spent at increased outdoor activity in the beautiful climate of 
 California. 
 
 The three and a half years which Professor See spent at the 
 Naval Observatory were well employed, and led to beautiful and 
 important results, in the way of measurements with the large 
 
76 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 telescope; but the work was done at a very considerable sacrifice 
 of health and strength. It was profitable intellectually, but 
 physically exhausting. 
 
 In addition to the work of observing with the great telescope 
 See investigated the orbit of the satellite of Neptune; and also 
 the orbits of several double stars. One double star, known as 
 13 Ceti, was found to be moving very rapidly. The period later 
 on turned out to be only 7.4 years, the second most rapid known 
 visual binary yet discovered. 
 
 The double star measures at Washington naturally were taken 
 at odd times, when the planetary observations could not be made. 
 They were thus of minor importance, and yet led to a number of 
 valuable individual results. 
 
 In addition to these several lines of work Professor See carried 
 out a critical investigation of the micrometer screw of the large 
 telescope, by an elaborate triangulation of the Pleiades. This 
 requires extremely delicate and accurate work, because all the 
 observations of the large telescope depend on the result obtained. 
 When the measures were all reduced they were found to be very 
 accordant, and ranked See as one of the most accurate of living 
 observers. 
 
 In the year 1901 the little planet Eros came very near the 
 earth, and an elaborate international campaign was entered upon 
 for determining the parallax of the sun. The Washington observa- 
 tions were made by See. When reduced in 1908, they proved to be 
 remarkably accurate. They were discussed by Hinks of Cam- 
 bridge, England, and by the Naval Observatory at Washington, 
 and found to give a solar parallax of 8".806, while the standard 
 value most used by astronomers is 8".796. It was thus accurate 
 within one-thousandth part of the whole. The work of the Lick 
 Observatory agreed almost exactly with See's work at Washington, 
 and seemed to indicate that after all the true value is a little larger 
 than 8".800. 
 
 From this survey of Professor See's researches at the Naval 
 Observatory, it will be apparent that he attained eminent success 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 77 
 
 in every line of inquiry undertaken. This is the real test of effi- 
 ciency. He who makes a first rank success in the work under- 
 taken, when the work itself is of high quality, is a genuine leader 
 in science. Other astronomers, as those at the Lick and Yerkes 
 observatories, had larger instruments than See; but no one of them 
 has done work of more classic standard. Thus more depends on 
 the judgement and sagacity of the astronomer in choosing his 
 work and devising good methods for doing it, than on mere size 
 of telescope. In other words it is the astronomer at the little end 
 of the telescope who wins the laurels of science, just as it is the 
 man behind the gun who wins the victory in battle. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 1902-1913. 
 
 AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY AND MARE ISLAND. 
 
 ILL HEALTH AND RECOVERY: BEGINNING OF UNPARALLELED 
 RECORD OF DISCOVERY IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 several months after he was transferred to the Naval 
 Academy, Professor See was too ill for duty, but yet kept 
 active outdoors, hoping to wear off the tendency to sleep- 
 lessness. He took long walks in the country daily, and also rowed 
 in a boat on Chesapeake Bay. This was all of some value, but 
 the trouble would yield only in part. The great difficulty was that 
 See was afflicted with a severe internal catarrhal condition ap- 
 proaching a mild form of appendicitis, but even the most experi- 
 enced physicians were unable to discover the real nature of the 
 disturbance, till a violent attack occurred in 1909, and an opera- 
 tion gave permanent relief. 
 
 As soon as he could go on duty at the Academy, in February 
 1903, he was engaged in teaching the midshipmen mathematics. 
 This work was mainly in algebra, trigonometry and spherical pro- 
 jections; and proved very interesting, because of the charm of 
 manner of the midshipmen. It would have been perfectly delight- 
 ful if Professor See had not been in ailing health; so that even 
 three hours of instruction caused him considerable fatigue. As 
 it was he enjoyed the work, and formed lasting attachments to 
 the young officers under his instruction, many of whom are now 
 lieutenants. 
 
 Pursuing a method different from most of the instructors at 
 the Academy, See would help the midshipmen along when they 
 were embarrassed and likely to fail, by hinting how they might 
 start to solve their problems. The result was that they made 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 79 
 
 rapid headway under him, whereas they would have been dis- 
 heartened under a less sympathetic teacher. And after a short 
 time the classes which were most deficient in mathematics were 
 assigned to Professor See, so that by his help they could regain 
 their standing. In this way he acquired a great reputation for 
 saving the members of the class who might otherwise have been 
 dropped. Naturally there was general regret at the Academy 
 when it was learned that he was to be transferred to the Naval 
 Observatory at Mare Island, California. 
 
 Professor See had remained on duty at the Academy all 
 summer in 1903, and was bringing up the midshipmen who were 
 deficient in trigonometry and spherical projections. The weather 
 had been hot and enervating, and he was seriously afraid of losing 
 his health permanently. The prospect of such duty, without 
 improvement in his physical condition, was far from reassuring; 
 and he hoped for duty in which he could at least recover his health. 
 When he was told that he could have duty at Mare Island, where 
 the climate would be ideal, it did much to reconcile him to life on 
 the west coast. There his health was gradually improved, till 
 he had the full vigor of his early years, except that the tendency 
 to mild appendicitis occasionally produced some inconvenience. 
 
 As the method employed by Professor See for restoring his 
 health is of some interest to others, it may be related here very 
 briefly. Ever since settling at Washington in 1899, his sister, Mrs. 
 A. M. Weeks, had lived with him, and thus he had his own house- 
 hold, with food and cooking of the kind desired. The eminent 
 Dr. Franz A. R. Jung, of Washington, had been his medical ad- 
 viser there, and had given him the necessary instruction in the 
 articles of diet. Suitable bread, however, proved very difficult 
 to obtain, and the problem was not solved till December, 1904, 
 when in desperation over the internal soreness which afflicted him, 
 Professor See began to grind his own flour with a hand-mill. This 
 produced as flour a coarse product of the whole wheat, and when 
 baked as muffins, with egg, salt, soda and butter milk, it gave 
 a bread at once very delicious and very wholesome. 
 
80 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 This bread is emphatically superior to anything heretofore 
 known to the medical profession, and several doctors have used 
 it with great benefit to their health. As soon as the new flour was 
 tried the first time, it was realized that at last they had found 
 Nature's own remedy. Professor See rapidly recovered and built 
 up his general strength to the ideal point, by living carefully on 
 this muffin bread of coarse whole wheat flour, and taking long 
 walks in the country, about Mare Island. Sometimes he would 
 go ten miles a day, and seldom less than six. During 1905, there- 
 fore, he was able to carry out the very long and difficult investi- 
 gations on the sun. Previously, just before leaving the Academy, 
 he had finished and published an important mathematical investi- 
 gation on Laplace's Invariable Plane of the solar system. 
 
 A more complete account of the several investigations made 
 at Mare Island will be given in the following chapters. Here it 
 must suffice to note the order of the work, which was as follows: 
 
 1. Researches on the Internal Constitution and Rigidity of 
 the Heavenly Bodies, 1904-6. 
 
 2. Researches on the Cause of Earthquakes, Mountain 
 Formation, and kindred phenomena connected with the Physics 
 of the Earth, 1906-8. 
 
 3. Researches on the Evolution of the Solar System and of 
 Cosmical Systems generally, 1908-9. 
 
 4. Publication of Volume II of the Researches on the Evolu- 
 tion of the Stellar Systems, 1910; 735 pages quarto, with fifty-seven 
 full page plates, and other figures in text. This laid the founda- 
 tion for a New Science of Cosmogony. 
 
 5. Determination of the Depth of the Milky Way, 1911. 
 
 6. Dynamical Theory of the Globular Clusters and of the 
 Clustering Power inferred by Herschel from the observed figures 
 of Sidereal Systems of high order, 1912. 
 
 A study of this order will show that the researches on the 
 sun and planets, in 1904-6, paved the way for those on earth- 
 quakes and mountain formation in 1906-8. But for his recent 
 work on the internal conditions of the planets See probably would 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 81 
 
 not have been able to detect the fallacy in the old theory of earth- 
 quakes and mountain formation. On the other hand, this out- 
 side work, on the physics of the earth, in 1906-8, gave a rest to 
 his mind, and a freshness, which enabled him to solve the problems 
 of Cosmogony, with rapid and unprecedented success, when they 
 were resumed in 1908. The correct solution of the individual prob- 
 lems of Cosmogony thus gave the basis for a wholly New Science 
 of Cosmogony. And in 1911 See was able to fathom the depth of 
 the Milky Way, by methods of greater certainty than those em- 
 ployed by Sir William Herschel. He thus found the depth of the 
 Galaxy about a thousand times greater than astronomers have recently 
 believed. 
 
 Lastly, in 1912, he triumphantly confirmed by mathematical 
 methods of a high order the general argument outlined by Her- 
 schel a century and a quarter ago to show that the star clusters 
 developed by the drawing together of stars formed separately 
 and originally at much greater distance apart. This enabled Pro- 
 fessor See to render the foundations of the New Science of Cos- 
 mogony much more secure, and in fact to base Cosmogony on a 
 fundamental law of the sidereal universe, of which a fuller account 
 will appear later in Chapter XV. 
 
 On June 18, 1907, Professor See was married to Miss Frances 
 Graves, daughter of the late Dr. James F. and Fannie (Jefferson) 
 Graves, of Montgomery City, Mo. Mrs. See's family came orig- 
 inally from Virginia, but they have lived in the county for some 
 seventy years. Her father was for thirty years one of the best 
 beloved and most highly respected physicians in eastern Missouri. 
 Her mother, who raised a family of ten children, and is one of the 
 most remarkable women in the United States, is the daughter of 
 the late Hon. Booker Jefferson, of the famous Jefferson family of 
 Virginia. 
 
 Professor and Mrs. See lead a simple home life, going but 
 little in society, and are both very fond of children. To their 
 infinite grief they had the misfortune to lose their fine infant son, 
 born July 28, 1909. 
 
82 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Mrs. See had some years' experience as a teacher both in 
 Missouri and in New Mexico, and was very successful. Her 
 education at the University of Missouri and in school work gave 
 her the command of exact methods and thorough knowledge of 
 many branches. She is fond of music, well read in literature, and 
 speaks Spanish fluently. Naturally taking a great deal of interest 
 in the scientific work of her distinguished husband, she has proved 
 a tower of strength to him on numerous occasions, but more es- 
 pecially when he was unexpectedly stricken with a violent attack 
 of appendicitis, January 11, 1909. 
 
 Fortunately he was in excellent health at the time, and but 
 for that could hardly have survived this terrible attack. For 
 sixteen days the operation was delayed, in the hope of reducing 
 the fever and obtaining more favorable conditions, but finally 
 it had to be made after all this illness. In consequence of the 
 delay the case became so grave that for many days Professor 
 See's life was despaired of. But it was not long after the operation 
 was made till the process of recovery appeared and proved to be 
 so rapid* and satisfactory as to surprise his physicians. Professor 
 See was fortunate to have had the eminent professional services 
 of surgeon H. E. Odell, U.S. Navy. Without very skillful surgical 
 treatment his recovery would not have been possible. 
 
 It is worthy of mention here that for weeks, while Professor 
 See lay at the point of death, with the doctors in despair, Mrs. 
 See nursed him, and cooked and brought from home a mile distant, 
 the slight liquid nourishment, which alone is allowable in such 
 grave illness. But for this heroic devotion it seems certain that 
 his life would have been cut short before his greatest discoveries 
 were given to the world. A touching and beautiful tribute to his 
 wife's devotion in this crisis is duly recorded on the last page of 
 the monumental Researches, Vol. II, 1910, as follows: 
 
 "But of all the persons to whom I am indebted, I owe most 
 to my wife, MRS. FRANCES GRAVES SEE. Without her 
 devotion through a dangerous illness, the author could scarcely 
 have survived to finish the work, and without her constant sup- 
 
 * Due to life-long habits of total abstinence from liquors or tobacco in any 
 form. 
 
MRS. T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 Daughter of the late Dr. James F. Graves of Montgomery Gity, Mo., and grand-daughter of 
 
 Hon. Booker Jefferson. 
 
O 
 
 fa 
 
 8 
 
 II 
 
 w 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 83 
 
 port and encouragement the steadfast labor and sacrifices required 
 for the development and publication of this large volume could 
 not have been undertaken. If it contains any important dis- 
 coveries I wish it always to be remembered that she contributed 
 in an eminent degree to their development and presentation to 
 the scientific world." 
 
 After Professor See's recovery the difficulty of getting the 
 second volume of these Researches through the press proved to be 
 enormous. But little of the work was in form for printing when 
 he left the hospital, February 18, 1909. All the work had to be 
 prepared and arranged as fast as the printer needed the manu- 
 script. This proved very difficult, but by July, 1909, Professor 
 See's strength was better than for many years, and this alone 
 enabled him to carry that great undertaking to completion. 
 
 After the loss of her infant son, Mrs. See herself was ill, and 
 long required careful attention and treatment. This naturally 
 added to the difficulties under which Professor See labored. Often 
 he would go to the office at five o'clock in the morning, when 
 everyone else at Mare Island was asleep, in order to be free of 
 interruption in writing out the chapters of the second volume of 
 his famous Researches. They were thus prepared between numer- 
 ous and pressing engagements, and yet they have all the finish 
 and elegance characteristic of the most perfect work of the human 
 intellect. It has been justly remarked that See's rapid and re- 
 markable development of the second volume of his Researches is 
 comparable only to Newton's writing of the Principia in 1685-6; 
 and the two intellectual triumphs equally important and unprec- 
 edented. 
 
 It will be seen from the list of researches mentioned above 
 that Professor See's activity at Mare Island is by far the most 
 important of his life. Not only are the individual results the 
 most striking, but also the most closely related one to another, 
 giving an unparalleled series of achievements of the very first 
 order. The result of this wonderful activity has been the creation 
 of an entirely New Science of the Starry Heavens, at an epoch so 
 
84 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 late in the world's history that everyone believed that all the 
 Sciences already had been developed.* 
 
 Cosmogony naturally has been a most difficult science to 
 treat, because the Creative Processes are not directly visible to the 
 watchers of the skies, but must be inferred from the observed order 
 of the universe. Moreover it must harmonize many apparently 
 discordant phenomena, and involves mathematical knowledge 
 of a high order. Obviously all the reasoning must be founded on 
 correct premises; and it happens that these false assumptions are 
 the rocks on which shipwreck was most frequently experienced. 
 
 The other fact of importance is that prior to the Researches 
 of See there was no deep study of the subject; but in all former 
 efforts the premises of Laplace were assumed, without any critical 
 investigation to determine whether these premises were admissi- 
 ble. At last it is gratifying to find that all such illogical proced- 
 ure is altered; for a new foundation was found to be necessary, 
 and built up on a basis as solid as a mountain of granite. With 
 this new foundation once correctly laid, the resulting new science 
 is greatly simplified, and all the celestial phenomena easily harmo- 
 nized, so as to make Cosmogony the latest science of the starry 
 heavens. 
 
 It is needless to say that Professor See's life at Mare Island 
 has been one of great activity. In addition to walking in the 
 country, for the contemplation of the beautiful scenery of the 
 earth, sea, and sky, and especially of the mountains, and glorious 
 sunsets of California, he is fond of gardening and all kinds of out- 
 door exercise. A recent trip to the Yosemite Valley and the Big 
 Trees was the joy of his life. His house is full of fine pictures, 
 including magnificent oil paintings of the Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, 
 the Sierras, and the Himalayas. 
 
 As mentioned in Chapter II his natural taste for art dates 
 
 from childhood. These fine paintings and natural scenery of the 
 
 mountains seem to inspire his imagination with the eagle-soaring 
 
 flights required for the development of new sciences of the universe. 
 
 * The New Science of Geogony was also developed at Mare Island. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 85 
 
 It is well known that the illustrious Sir William Huggins 
 had a similar taste for beautiful things and delighted in the con- 
 templation of them in his study. Such taste was characteristic 
 of the Greek mind, and as Professor See is thoroughly Hellenic 
 in his feelings for truth and beauty in poetry and art, it may be 
 that Professor Fleet was more of a prophet than was believed 
 when he used to tell his classes that young Mr. See was like the 
 typical Greek. 
 
 Since his settlement at Mare Island Professor See has passed 
 in rapid review authoritative judgment upon many of the greatest 
 problems of the universe; and not only summarized the work pre- 
 viously done by others, but added to it capital discoveries of his 
 own. It has been generally remarked by eminent men of science 
 that in every line of research his development was amazingly 
 original. Without this spirit of daring, this soaring on the wings 
 of Pegasus, probably it would not have been possible to introduce 
 order into Cosmogony, where only bewilderment and chaos had 
 reigned before. 
 
 The small and the timid naturally would be too cowardly to 
 lead in this great enterprise. Fortunately, it is not so with Pro- 
 fessor See. He recognized no authority save that of demon- 
 strable truth, based in the centralizing tendency of the force of 
 gravitation and the dispersion of dust from the stars under re- 
 pulsive forces. This cyclic order in Nature rests on sound sense, 
 and the logic of Mathematics. And having once made sure that 
 he was right in his premises, like Davy Crockett, See dared to go 
 ahead. 
 
 As the public often is unable to distinguish between a true 
 cloud of God's firmament, with a plentiful supply of life-giving 
 rain, and a mere mass of dust stirred up by the activity of the 
 envious, we may point out that the evil spirit of professional 
 jealousy is a curious thing. It is in fact nothing but an effort of 
 the weak to pull down the strong, in order that they may keep 
 afloat on the stream of time. To concede frankly the true value 
 of the achievements of the really great would leave the weak with- 
 
86 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 out a raison d'etre; and naturally they like to justify their own 
 existence, even if they are inefficient. Accordingly whenever we 
 see some one very grudging in acknowledging the merits of another, 
 in the same line of activity, we may suspect that he is too small 
 to be generous, or even fair and just. The world is full of this 
 kind of business, and it pervades every walk of life. 
 
 It cankers the lives of statesmen, literary men, artists, poets, 
 and scientists alike. Only the really great rise above petty jeal- 
 ousy; for the sun's light is not dimmed by that of a candle. And 
 so it is in the world of science. Only the great feel that they can 
 afford to be fair, whereas as a matter of fact no one can really 
 afford to be unfair, but the small are so narrow that they cannot 
 see the unworthiness of such conduct. It is well known that Pro- 
 fessor See is a great comfort to his friends, in that he is never dis- 
 turbed by outbreaks of jealousy, but quietly pursues the assuring 
 even tenor of his way. Incidents which would distress less calm 
 individuals do not disturb him. In fact he says jealousy is a 
 favorable sign of progress, and advises his friends to be on the 
 lookout for it. 
 
 If these weaknesses of human nature are very deplorable, 
 See probably reasons that they do not sway the judgment of 
 history. Only he who is truly great will have his name chiseled 
 upon the sacred walls of her temple. The efforts to inscribe thereon 
 the names of the small and inefficient is vain and fleeting like rec- 
 ords written in dust, only to be washed away by the first shower 
 of rain that descends from the clouds of God's firmament. 
 
 It is doubly beautiful if the great in ability are also morally 
 great, so as to present the aspect of a really commanding and 
 heroic figure in history, who will shine throughout all time. Many 
 of the most eminent philosophers are of this grand type. Thus 
 the luster of Newton and Herschel grows brighter rather than 
 dimmer with the flight of ages. Every generation has remarked 
 how great were the labors they had to endure, how dear the heart's 
 blood they had to sacrifice! To such wonderful men the world 
 pays no adequate reward. They are beyond all praise and above 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 87 
 
 all price ! The very wealth of a nation, great as it is, could not buy 
 them, nor any process of searching for their equals replace them. 
 It has been justly said that great men are the chief assets of nations. 
 They are the crowning glory of the human race! 
 
 If it be sad to think how little the greatest men are appreci- 
 ated during their life time, it is yet comforting to remember that, 
 as was said of the dying Lincoln, they belong to the ages, and their 
 light does not go out with their lives. The work of the great 
 philosopher endureth unto all generations, as ageless as the 
 heavens. 
 
 Some readers may not realize that the discoveries of Professor 
 See belong to the whole earth, and not merely his native state. 
 They will even outlast the Republic itself, and still be the topic of 
 contemplation for philosophers when many thousands of years 
 have elapsed; just as the works of Aristotle and Plato now belong 
 not to Greece but to all mankind and to all time. It would be 
 especially fortunate for America and her people if she is able to 
 appreciate her great men during their life time; for that would 
 show an enlightened State, and stand to her credit in history. 
 Such biographies as this, it is hoped, may thus be of no small public 
 service. 
 
 Since genius of the highest order is wholly beneficial to the 
 State, and men of this type derive little or no pecuniary reward 
 for their efforts, they deserve and ought to have public apprecia- 
 tion, since this sustains them in doing the work which the Deity 
 intended them to do. After Newton had struggled along through 
 one disappointment after another, and finally accomplished his 
 great work, not so much by virtue of generous appreciation, as in 
 spite of public indifference, the poet Thomson speaks of him thus: 
 
 "Say ye who best can tell, ye happy few, 
 Who saw him in the softest lights of life, 
 All unwithheld, indulging to his friends 
 The vast unborrowed treasures of his mind. 
 Oh, speak the wondrous man! how mild, how calm, 
 
88 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 How greatly humble, how divinely good, 
 How firm established on eternal truth! 
 Fervent in doing well, with every nerve 
 Still pressing on, forgetful of the past, 
 And panting for perfection; far above 
 Those little cares and visionary joys 
 That so perplex the fond impasssiored heart 
 Of ever-cheated, ever-trusting man." 
 
 When will an American poet sing of the labors of the Newton 
 of Cosmogony? This would be a task of no mean order, and require 
 a genius like that of eagle-soaring Pindar. After See, too, shall 
 have passed away, happy will be the few who can boast that they 
 
 "Saw him in the softest lights of life, 
 All unwithheld, indulging to his friends 
 The vast unborrowed treasures of his mind," 
 
 mild, calm and good, like Newton, but withal having also, like 
 the author of the Principia, vigor, and courage, to war against 
 wrong and injustice, whether it be practiced by a King in tramp- 
 ling on the rights of a University, or by a clique of grafters among 
 men of science. Historians have remarked that Newton's whole 
 life was a struggle against injustice; and as for See it is well known 
 that he never shirks his duty in the hard work of this world. After 
 truth has triumphed all seems serene and simple, but establishing 
 it is always a more difficult task, and thus the founder of a new 
 science has to have courage as well as humility. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 1904-1906 
 
 POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE RESEARCHES ON THE INTERNAL CON- 
 STITUTION OF THE SUN AND THE PLANETS. 
 
 'HE Naval Observatory at Mare Island, California, has no 
 telescope larger than a five-inch refractor, which is a mere 
 pigmy compared to the giant telescopes which Professor 
 See had used at the Lowell Observatory, Arizona, the Naval Obser- 
 vatory at Washington, D. C., and elsewhere. If therefore he was 
 to make any important scientific researches in California, it could 
 not well be with the telescope in use at Mare Island; but rather 
 must be work along mathematical lines, in which nothing but a 
 few books and a clear head is required. 
 
 It is to be remembered that in Astronomy all the important 
 discoveries are not made with telescopes, much of the highest work 
 being purely a matter of theoretical research or mathematical 
 calculation. There are telescopic discoveries of facts made by 
 looking through instruments, and others of theoretical or mathe- 
 matical character, even more important, made by the mind's eye, 
 in the quiet study of the mathematical astronomer. 
 
 As Professor See was without large instruments at Mare Is- 
 land, he naturally turned to account his great abilities as a mathe- 
 matician. Thus where a mere telescopic observer would have 
 failed, See achieved a triumph of the first order, when in fact no 
 one expected it. When he came to Mare Island in November, 
 1903, the place was quite unknown to the scientific world; now 
 it is known in the remotest parts of the earth for a series of dis- 
 coveries of the highest significance. 
 
 This brilliant achievement did not come by chance, but re- 
 sulted from the consummate ability of the astronomer in charge 
 of the Mare Island Observatory. See has always made it a prac- 
 
90 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tice to take up those lines of inquiry in which he could attain the 
 first rank for such is the nature of leadership; and so it was in 
 the unparalleled series of discoveries made in California. 
 
 The first of these discoveries related to the internal densities, 
 pressures, and physical constitution of the sun and planets. Prior 
 to Professor See's work in 1904-6 the interior constitution of the 
 planets was a veritable terra incognita, a subject on which nothing 
 was yet known; and there was little prospect that anyone would 
 attempt to explore the physical conditions down in the depths of 
 the planets. We cannot descend into the earth or other planets, 
 much less into the sun, and actually observe with instruments 
 what the conditions are in these dark and invisible regions, inside 
 of the heavenly bodies. Many therefore doubtless reasoned that 
 nothing could ever be known of the state of the matter thus inac- 
 cessible to our observations. It is scarcely necessary to remark 
 that See did not share this view he knew too well the power of 
 mathematics! 
 
 He had long ago learned to calculate all manner of things from 
 the Newtonian law of gravitation. And he realized that if the 
 arrangement of the law of density within a planet such as the earth 
 could be made out, it would be comparatively easy for the mathe- 
 matician to calculate the pressure clear down to the center of the 
 globe. Each layer of the globe presses upon the layers beneath 
 it, and the total pressure at the center is the proper sum of all these 
 combined pressures, which can be calculated by the higher mathe- 
 matical methods known as the Calculus, the first principles of 
 which were invented by Newton in 1666. 
 
 Now See set about the following problems: 
 
 1. To find the most probable laws of density within the sun 
 and planets. 
 
 2. To calculate the resulting laws of pressure in the interior 
 of these bodies, by the methods of higher mathematics. 
 
 3. To deduce the physical properties of matter thus im- 
 prisoned under tremendous pressure, and high temperature. 
 
 And by great labor during the years 1904-6 he gradually 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 91 
 
 solved all these problems, so as to give us in fact a new science of 
 the interior constitution of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 To understand this work, let us first consider the case of the 
 earth. Our globe appears to be solid, and is covered by a rocky 
 crust, but earthquake movements occur; and it is important to 
 know whether these are just beneath the surface, or deep down in 
 the bowels of the globe, as Humboldt believed to be the case three 
 quarters of a century ago. 
 
 See first investigated the law of density of the earth suggested 
 by Laplace, and satisfied himself by careful inquiry that it must 
 be either accurate or very nearly so. The proof of this result can- 
 not be given here, but it is a matter on which astronomers are 
 essentially agreed. This law of Laplace makes the density at the 
 earth's center 11.2, that of water being unity, and the average 
 density of the whole earth 5.5. Thus the density of the earth's 
 matter increases quite rapidly as we go down, and at the center 
 becomes equal to that of lead. At the surface the density is 2.55, 
 so that the central density is over four times that at the surface. 
 
 Without going into the methods of calculation employed by 
 See, we may say that he found the pressure at the earth's center 
 over three million atmospheres, each atmosphere being the weight 
 of a column of quicksilver thirty inches high, as in a barometer, 
 or fifteen pounds to the square inch. This made the pressure at 
 the earth's center over 45,000,000 pounds to the square inch. 
 
 To represent this in a simple way, imagine a column of quick- 
 silver an immensely heavy liquid considerably denser than 
 lead as long as from St. Louis to San Francisco. Let this 
 column be erected vertically, in a tube strong enough to hold it, 
 and every part of it pressing down just as quicksilver does at the 
 surface of the earth; then the tremendous pressure of this column 
 1,700 miles in length becomes just equal to the pressure at the 
 center of the earth. 
 
 Could any result be more wonderful than this? Yet it is very 
 accurate, and we may absolutely depend upon it. And not only 
 did See find the pressure at the center of the earth, but also the 
 
92 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 law of its increase as we go downward, from the surface, where it 
 is nothing, to the center, where it becomes equal to the weight of 
 a vertical column of quicksilver as long as from St. Louis to San 
 Francisco. 
 
 The outcome of this study was the conclusion that the greater 
 the pressure the more difficult it is for the matter thus imprisoned 
 to circulate or move in any way. Consequently deep down in the 
 earth, where the pressure is very great no motion ever takes place; 
 and the only place where motion can occur is just beneath the 
 earth's crust, as in earthquake movements. In fact it was shown 
 by See that the deep interior of the earth always is absolutely 
 quiescent; and, even just beneath the surface, it takes all the 
 power involved in the throes of an earthquake to enable the molten 
 lava to readjust itself. In this readjustment of lava the crust 
 naturally is terribly shaken, and cities may be laid waste and 
 whole countries devastated. 
 
 Accordingly See was able to conclude with certainty that 
 Humboldt was wrong in holding that earthquake disturbances are 
 propagated from deep down in the globe. Measurements by 
 modern seismographs also show that these disturbances are shallow, 
 in no case exceeding a depth of some twenty miles, which is the 
 thickness of the earth's crust. Earthquake phenomena, however, 
 will be more fully discussed in the next chapter, and we must here 
 treat of the interior conditions of the other planets. 
 
 In general the larger the body the greater the pressure at the 
 center; so that the sun has at its center by far the greatest pres- 
 sure of any of the bodies of our solar system. The next greatest 
 pressure is in the center of Jupiter; then comes Neptune, Uranus, 
 and Saturn, the latter coming after the two former because its 
 average density is very small (0.71 that of water). 
 
 At the center of the sun the pressure becomes 11,215,540,300 
 atmospheres, each amounting to 15 pounds to the square inch. 
 This is equivalent to the weight of a column of quicksilver about 
 one-eighth as long as from the earth to the sun, when all parts of 
 it press downward, as at the surface of the earth. Truly an 
 amazing pressure! 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 93 
 
 To form some idea of the physical condition of the matter 
 in the sun, we must recall that it is at a temperature of millions 
 of degrees, and on the other hand held in confinement by this 
 tremendous pressure. Therefore the matter is kept so "tight" 
 as to be highly rigid, though it would prove to be gaseous if the 
 pressure were removed. On this point there is no doubt what- 
 ever. Though we cannot experiment with such immense forces, 
 we can calculate them with accuracy and certainty. 
 
 A very good comparison of the state of the matter in the 
 interior of the sun was made by Professor Newcomb some years 
 ago, when he said that if the pressure were suddenly relieved this 
 matter would instantly expand, and in fact explode with a violence 
 exceeding that of dynamite or any other known substance. If, 
 for example, gravitation should suddenly cease, the whole sun 
 would expand into a nebula filling the universe. Such a thing as 
 this of course will never happen, yet the picture of such an ex- 
 plosion enables us to realize what dreadful compression and im- 
 prisonment matter is subjected to in the sun's interior. 
 
 This imprisoned matter is really gaseous, and would expand 
 into a nebula if the pressure were relieved; but in confinement 
 it has the property of a solid, owing to the tremendous pressure 
 at a temperature of millions of degrees. See concluded that at 
 the surface of the sun the temperature lies between 6,000 and 
 12,000 degrees centigrade; and that deeper down it mounts up 
 enormously, according to laws which he has worked out, and at 
 the center probably lies between 10,000,000 and 100,000,000 
 degrees, on the same scale of temperature. 
 
 Now in dealing with the interior constitution of the earth 
 Lord Kelvin and Sir George Darwin found our globe to be a solid 
 of about the rigidity of steel. In other words our globe is about 
 as hard as a steel globe of the same size would be if the parts of 
 it be imagined to be devoid of the power of gravity. But gravi- 
 tation exists, and it is in fact the pressure under gravity which 
 makes the earth so highly rigid the imprisoned matter may be 
 molten or even gaseous, and yet so confined that it is not free to 
 
94 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 circulate, but actually made to act as a rigid solid. By careful 
 mathematical calculation See proves that the earth has a rigidity 
 nearly as great as nickel steel used in the armor plate of our battle- 
 ships. 
 
 The nickel steel of moderate grade has a rigidity of about a 
 million atmospheres. The modern vanadium steel is said to be 
 even more rigid, but we need not extend the comparison. It suf- 
 fices to say that by considering the layers of which the earth is 
 made up, and the pressure in each layer, See finds for the earth 
 an average rigidity approaching that of nickel steel. This result 
 confirms the conclusion of Lord Kelvin and Sir George Darwin, 
 but See's reasoning is much simpler than theirs. In other words, 
 the rigidity of the earth is due to the pressure which makes the 
 matter behave as a solid; and by the theory of Professor See we 
 may calculate the rigidity of any layer in the globe. He finds 
 that the rigidity at the surface is equal to that of common granite, 
 which is about one- fourth that of steel; while at the center the 
 rigidity is three times that of armor plate or nickel steel. 
 
 One very remarkable thing about See's process for dealing 
 with the rigidity of the earth is the generality of the method, 
 which makes it applicable also to the other planets and the sun; 
 whereas the methods of Lord Kelvin and Darwin apply only to 
 the earth, and cannot be applied to the planets, sun or fixed stars. 
 Thus See's method is one of entire generality, like the law of New- 
 tonian gravitation, whereas the method of Kelvin and Darwin 
 applies only to the earth, and is thus extremely special. It may 
 be said therefore that See generalized the law of rigidity, some- 
 what as Newton did the law of gravitation. For before Newton's 
 work of 1685, Dr. Hooke had proved the law of gravity for the 
 simple case of circular motion; but Newton proved it also for the 
 ellipse, parabola and hyperbola, and thus generalized it for all the 
 orbits described by the heavenly bodies. 
 
 Applying these methods of investigation to the sun, See found 
 that the average rigidity of that globe is over 2,000 times that of 
 nickel steel used in armor plate. Surely a wonderful result! Prior 
 
Scale showing Rigidity 
 
 of Various substances 
 
 expressed in thousands 
 
 of Atmospheres. 
 
 of Rigidity I " " 260 OOO Atmospheres 
 divisions - Rigidity of Nickel Steel. 
 
 Outer Tenth of the Sun's Radius, on larger Scale. 
 
 Rigidity In millions of Atmospheres, so 
 
 that 1 ^' Rigidity of Nickel Steel. 
 
 Temperature In millions of Degrees C. 
 
 Density 10 fold. Water = I. 
 
 T 
 
 I .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 I. 
 
 Seate o^R^rMHy tfL'-^y^JO 000 Atm?sphr e<v 
 gidity or Nickel Stie'l. ' 
 
 The Sun: 
 
 Rigidity or Pressure in Billions of Atmospheres. I -,' Rigidity 
 I 000 times that of Nickel Steel used in Armor Plate. 
 
 Density on usual Scale. Water =-l. 
 Temperature Scale I d ^ 3 Million Decrees C. 
 
 Mercury: 
 
 Scale of Rigidity I c " v " 10 000 Atmospheres. 
 Rigidity due to Pressure is small, but 
 Planet may be a mas; of Solid Rock. 
 
Scale of Rigidity I Si 10 OOO Atmospheres 
 
 Scale of Rigidity I "Si IO 000 OOO Atmospheres 
 Scale of Temperature I d iT'40000C. 
 
 i\ 
 
 VSfc 
 
 \ 
 
 le of Rigidity I "i 1 "- 2 OOO 000 Atmospheres. 
 
 Scale of Temperature I **-' 10 OOO C. 
 le of Density for all the Planets, Water = |. 
 
 F Rigidity \~=- 3 000 000 Atmo.phe 
 Scale of Temperature I *= 10 OOO C. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 95 
 
 to See's work of 1904-6, many astronomers had believed that the 
 currents noticed at the surface of the sun extend to great depths, 
 and even to the very center. This was just like the geologists 
 believing that currents circulate deep down in the earth, which 
 See proved to be quite impossible. In the same way he showed 
 that circulation at any considerable depth in the sun could not 
 take place, because of the enormous pressure and great effective 
 rigidity of the matter. At a depth of one-tenth of the sun's radius 
 the rigidity is already twenty-two times that of nickel steel, and 
 hence See argues that all circulation in the sun is confined to a 
 thin layer near the surface, while the great interior globe is quies- 
 cent and hundreds and thousands of times more rigid than armor 
 plate. 
 
 These profound and original investigations give us new ideas 
 in science, and have revolutionized many of the old theories. 
 Naturally such advancement could only come from a bold and 
 daring leader, who had the courage to lead the way to truth, with- 
 out regard to traditional opinion. This power of leadership is a 
 striking characteristic of See. He is at home in pioneer research, 
 and shows the same courage and independence of mediocre opinion 
 that enabled Archimedes and Galileo to win victories in past 
 centuries. And just as they triumphed over the jealous opposi- 
 tion of ignorance and medievalism, so also See has blazed a sim- 
 ilar new and luminous path for progress throughout coming ages. 
 
 Galileo's opponents often could not refute his arguments, 
 as when he pointed to Jupiter's satellites as verifying his theories; 
 and in this perplexity they could do nothing but refuse to look 
 through the telescope, lest they be convinced. They did not want 
 to know the truth. There are still persons of that kind in the 
 world, and no doubt always will be. 
 
 One form of the contemptible opposition to Galileo may be 
 recorded here. When his opponents knew they were beaten, and 
 could no longer make an honest argument against the progress of 
 truth, they tried to get learned societies arrayed against him. 
 Thus it is said that the Academy of Cortona unanimously resolved 
 
96 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 that the satellites of Jupiter did not exist. Yet Galileo would 
 have shown them to anyone who wished to look through the newly 
 invented telescope. So also there are now people of this type 
 who have fought the progress of See's discoveries till they found 
 out the futility of their efforts. Then they gave up the fight, and 
 now probably they would not admit that they ever opposed the 
 progress of his discoveries, which are in every respect comparable 
 to those of Galileo and Archimedes. 
 
 The modern geometer who can devise a method for inves- 
 tigating the physical properties of matter confined under tremen- 
 dous pressure and enormously high temperature, in the deep 
 interior of the sun and planets, where no instrument or direct 
 observation can ever aid us, evidently is in the same class with 
 the ancient mathematician who could invent burning mirrors, 
 and the principle of floating bodies, as well as deduce the proper- 
 ties of curves and spirals. And hence we have pointed out the 
 parallel between the labors of the celebrated geometer of Syracuse 
 and the famous American geometer whose discoveries have added 
 so much new luster to the American name. 
 
RELIEF MAP OF THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE. 
 
 Illustrating the relations of the mountains to the sea, which has uplifted great walls along the borders 
 of the Continents, by the expulsion of lava from beneath the ocean and its injection under the land. 
 This impressive view of the Earth shows at a glance that the mountains have been formed by the Sea. 
 From Frye's Complete Geography, by permission of Ginn & Co., Puolishers. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 1906-1908. 
 
 OUTLINE OF THE NEW THEORY OF EARTHQUAKES.* 
 By T. J. J. SEE 
 
 AMONG all the varied natural phenomena witnessed upon 
 our planet nothing so excites the dread and terror of man- 
 kind as an earthquake, which is at once violent and so 
 sudden and unexpected as to alarm the calmest mind. That this 
 direful feeling has prevailed in all ages we are amply assured by 
 the comparisons made in the Bible and other venerable works of 
 antiquity, which make known the consternation inspired among 
 the people by these terrible natural commotions. Thus we read 
 in history that some of the Emperors of Rome, especially Trajan 
 and Hadrian, while witnessing the chariot races at Antioch and 
 other places, found it advisable to withdraw from the amphi- 
 theatre and retire into the open spaces, in order to avoid the danger 
 of falling walls. And the history of Greece and Rome abounds 
 in stories of the religious anxiety excited among the people by 
 earthquakes, which were believed to be signs of evil omen, sent 
 from the infernal and marine divinities, but especially Poseidon, 
 "the Earth-shaker/' to whom so many temples were dedicated on 
 isthmuses, promontories and other regions in the neighborhood 
 of the sea. 
 
 When a great earthquake took place, and was followed by 
 a series of after-shocks, impressively recalling both the terror and 
 the disaster of the principal disturbance, which may have laid 
 waste cities and devastated whole countries, it is not wonderful 
 that the people who had sustained such losses were troubled and 
 wrought up to a high pitch of excitement. In such emergencies 
 
 * Address delivered at the University of Missouri, May 30, 1907, being Lec- 
 ture No. 2 of a general course in Natural Philosophy. Reprinted from Popular 
 Astronomy No. 154, April, 1908. 
 
98 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the god Poseidon above all others* called forth the veneration of 
 the people; and he was generally held to be the most important 
 of the infernal and marine divinities, because he held both the 
 power of earthquakes and of those dreadful inundations by the 
 sea, which were so often noticed to accompany violent seismic 
 disturbances in the Peloponnesus and elsewhere. 
 
 The wide-spread alarm and religious affliction of the inhab- 
 itants of the Peloponnesus after the great Achaian earthquake of 
 373 B. C. is especially remarked by Diodorus Siculus, and other 
 historians. At the same time it is stated that the natural philo- 
 sophers explain these phenomena by natural and necessary causes, 
 rather than by the wrath of the gods. But during the ages of 
 Greek Polytheism, and even during the earlier centuries of Christi- 
 anity, such disasters were always believed by the multitude to be a 
 sign of the Divine displeasure. Sometimes they were attributed 
 to the wickedness of an emperor, or to the sins of factional oppo- 
 nents; the heathens charging them upon the Christians and the 
 Christians laying them to the idolatrous conduct of the heathens. 
 
 In view of the undeveloped state of Science in former times 
 a modern student can easily understand the great perplexity of 
 the ancients, in the midst of such terrible calamities. The Senate 
 of Rome on more than one occasion did what it could to alleviate 
 the sufferings of the people, which were partly real and partly 
 imaginary. We find several accounts of the sending of formal 
 embassies for the offering of public sacrifices to the angry divinities. 
 If these sacrifices did not quiet the agitating forces of nature, they 
 at least calmed the people and thus allayed their imaginary afflic- 
 tions and were therefore of service to the State. 
 
 It is well known that both the ablest statesmen and generals 
 of antiquity regarded earthquakes as proceeding from natural 
 causes; and I have recently been at some pains to translate the 
 theories held by Aristotle and other leading Greek philosophers. 
 
 " Once when an earthquake shook the ground where a Spartan army 
 was encamped, the whole army sang a hymn to Poseidon." 
 
 Article Poseidon, Encycl. Britannica, 9th edition. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 99 
 
 Aristotle gives the views of those who preceded him, and his own 
 theory was generally adopted by his successors. We may infer 
 this by the way in which it was followed by such writers as Strabo 
 and Pliny. 
 
 Aristotle placed his discussion of earthquakes in the book on 
 Meteorology, because he ascribed the shaking of the earth to vapor 
 confined within the crust, and agitating to effect an escape, so as 
 to diffuse itself in the atmosphere. He recognized the high inter- 
 nal temperature of the earth from the warm springs observed to 
 break forth in many places, and from the eruptions of volcanoes 
 which he had witnessed in the Aeolian Islands and elsewhere. 
 Both he and Strabo mention eruptions occuring in the bed of the 
 sea, and they also notice the great seismic sea waves which fre- 
 quently accompany violent earthquakes originating near the sea 
 shores. 
 
 Aristotle and Pliny distinctly remark that earthquakes are 
 especially prevalent in maritime districts; and they attribute this 
 phenomenon to submarine passages, conceived as deep conduits, 
 by which air and water obtain access to the heated matter in the 
 bowels of the earth. They held that earthquakes are due to the 
 agitation of imprisoned vapors even when none of it escapes to 
 the surface, but all remains hidden beneath the earth's crust. That 
 the cause is the same when a volcanic outbreak occurs and when 
 only an earthquake takes place without eruption, Aristotle affirm- 
 ed on the ground of the similarity of the movement in the two cases. 
 
 To an unbiased naturalist like Aristotle it did not seem strange 
 that in the one case the vapor should break through and diffuse 
 itself in the atmosphere, while in the other it continued to agitate 
 till movements occurred which gave more space beneath the earth's 
 crust, and was then followed by a cessation of the shocks. Aris- 
 totle's view was thus consistent with Newton's rule of philosophy, 
 that the same effects are to be ascribed as far as possible to the 
 same causes; and in marked contrast with the modern method of 
 dividing earthquakes into two arbitrary classes, volcanic and 
 tectonic, according as they are accompanied by eruption, or only 
 
100 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 by a surface dislocation of the earth's crust along a fault 
 line. 
 
 While Aristotle's theory is imperfect in many respects, the 
 general ideas underlying it are essentially sound; and in reading 
 this work written more than twenty- two centuries ago, one cannot 
 but be impressed both by his penetration into the nature of things, 
 and by the vast extent of his knowledge. With characteristic 
 independence he refused to accept the views of his predecessors, 
 but examined de now all questions upon their merits, so far as the 
 existing state of Science would permit. He is thus led to many 
 interesting remarks, and the criticisms which he offers are often 
 as good as can be made to-day. 
 
 In view of the great afflictions due to earthquakes suffered 
 by so many countries from the earliest ages, it seems to the modern 
 student truly remarkable that our understanding of the cause of 
 these disturbances has remained so unsatisfactory. Whether we 
 read in Strabo or Pliny that a great earthquake in Syria had laid 
 waste twelve cities in a single night, or turn to the current books 
 and press dispatches, which tell of widespread devastation by 
 modern earthquakes, we are left equally in the dark as to the cause 
 of these calamities. In current discussions we often see it stated 
 that earthquakes may occur anywhere, and that no place is free 
 from the dreadful ravages which they inflict upon large portions 
 of mankind. This statement obviously is not correct, yet it shows 
 that heretofore Science has not reached the true laws of these phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 The main object of Science is the illumination of the human 
 mind, and much of it scarcely admits of application to practical 
 affairs, so as to alleviate human suffering; but if we had a true 
 science of earthquakes it ought to be indeed of the highest humane 
 as well as scientific interest. Shall our cities continue to be de- 
 vastated and rebuilt without an understanding of the disturbing 
 cause? If so, what advance has our boasted civilization made over 
 that of the Greeks and Romans? Nay, shall we not know even 
 the regions especially afflicted by earthquakes? We could indeed 
 
MOUNT PELEE. 
 
 The Burning Cloud of December 6, 1902, seen from the sea. A most impressive 
 illustration of the vast quantities of steam emitted from volcanoes. 
 
THE SHATTERED OBELISK OF MOUNT PELEE. 
 
 Photographed by Professor Angelo Heilprin. This vast mass of granite rock 
 1,000 feet high and 500 feet in diameter, was ejected from the volcano with terrific 
 force, but caught and held fast in the orifice, till at length it crumbled to pieces. If 
 steam can eject such a massive column, there is no mountain uplift which it is 
 incapable of producing. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 101 
 
 have learned this from the study of Aristotle; but in our time we 
 claim, though not always justly, to have improved on the knowl- 
 edge of the ancients. If we do not find out the regions especially 
 subject to eartquakes, so as to forewarn the people as to what kind 
 of houses to build and how to protect their cities from fire in the 
 case of an earthquake, of what practical use is Science to the com- 
 munity? Some branches of Science might be very excellent indeed 
 and still be of no use to the multitude of people; yet this obviously 
 is not true of a science which deals with earthquakes imperiling 
 the lives and property of thousands of our fellow citizens. 
 
 We must confess that heretofore this knowledge of the cause 
 of earthquakes has not been forthcoming. But as a physicist 
 believing in the existence of natural laws, which, if known, would 
 be of the greatest service to mankind both now and throughout 
 coming ages, I am going to treat of earthquakes and kindred 
 phenomenon connected with the physics of the earth. The theory 
 of which I shall treat has been recently presented to the American 
 Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and I take this occasion to 
 acknowledge my indebtedness to this illustrious society for the 
 publication of lengthy arguments which can be mentioned here 
 only with the utmost brevity.* 
 
 At the time of the great earthquake at San Francisco, I had 
 just finished the researches on the Physical Constitution of the 
 Heavenly Bodies which have been recently published in the Astro- 
 nomische Nachrichten; and as the explanations of the earthquake 
 
 * 1. The Cause of Earthquakes, Mountain Formation and Kindred Phe- 
 nomena connected with the Physics of the Earth. Proc. Am. Philos. Society, 1906, 
 issued March, 1907. 
 
 2. On the Temperature, Secular Cooling and Contraction of the Earth and 
 on the Theory of Earthquakes held by the Ancients. Proc. Am.Philos. Society, 
 1907. 
 
 3. The New Theory of Earthquakes and Mountain Formation as illustrated 
 by Processes now at work in the Depths of the Sea. Proc. Am. Philos. Society, 
 1907, issued in March, 1908. 
 
 [4. Further Researches on the Physics of the Earth, and especially on the 
 Folding of Mountain Ranges and the Uplift of Plateaus and Continents pro- 
 duced by movements of Lava beneath the Crust arising from the secular 
 leakage of the Ocean Bottoms, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., No. 189, Sept., 1908.] 
 
102 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 then made public by men of science did not seem to me to be well 
 founded, I temporarily laid aside astronomical work in order to 
 take up this problem of the Physics of the Earth. It is not too 
 much to say that the papers which the American Philosophical 
 Society did me the honor to publish have awakened a lively inter- 
 est in the scientific world ; and whilst one can scarcely hope that 
 every difficulty has been overcome, it is evident that at least a 
 good foundation has been laid for the true theory of earthquakes, 
 mountain formation and kindred phenomena connected with the 
 physics of the globe. 
 
 Since the processes involved in earthquakes are forever hidden 
 from mortal view, the discovery of the cause involved naturally 
 has been very difficult. But as the effects would become most 
 sensible in earthquakes of the world-shaking class, it was felt at 
 the outset that the investigation should be restricted to the study 
 of these great phenomena. If the study of the greatest earth- 
 quakes enabled us to reach the underlying cause, the inquiry could 
 later be made to include the smaller disturbances, many of which 
 are after-shocks of the great earthquakes. 
 
 In speaking of earthquakes therefore we shall have in mind 
 primarily earthquakes of the world-shaking class. If we had 
 attempted to study all earthquakes together, the results could 
 only have been hopeless confusion; for we should have been un- 
 able to discover the processes even of the greatest earthquakes. 
 
 One of the most remarkable results of these inquiries is the 
 conclusion that the earth is not shrinking, as commonly held in 
 all the physical sciences for the past eighty years; but that it may 
 indeed be slightly expanding. Another is that there is a pro- 
 gressive secular desiccation of the oceans, which are becoming 
 narrower and also deeper in many places, so that as the world 
 grows older the intensity of the earthquakes is slowly increasing, 
 not diminishing. But obviously there has been no sensible change 
 within the historical period. 
 
 We shall now proceed to state the cause of earthquakes and 
 related phenomena, and after so doing shall resume the considera- 
 
a. Mountain formation just beginning. 
 
 b. Mountain formation in the middle stages. 
 
 c. Mountain formation in the later stages. 
 
 d. New range rising fi;om* th sea". ' 
 
 DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE PROCESS 
 
 OF MOUNTAIN FORMATION, BY THE EXPULSION OF LAVA FRO M 
 
 BENEATH THE SEA AND ITS INJECTION UNDER THE LAND. 
 
r 
 
 H >> <u 
 
 n3 "" u 
 
 03 ** 
 S tj ^ 
 
 OH CQ O 
 H U 4; 
 
 oil 
 
 85 
 
 U *j 3 
 
 fcd S - 
 
 ill 
 
 H o I 
 
 U '5 oj 
 
 
 6.-|"l 
 
 Pu fe w 
 
 2 co OJ 
 
 en -. 
 
 S 5 _a 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 103 
 
 tion of the other questions connected with the physics of the 
 globe. 
 
 1. It is shown that the principal cause of world-shaking 
 earthquakes is the secular leakage of the ocean bottoms, which 
 produces steam beneath the earth's crust. When the pressure 
 has sufficiently accumulated the movement of the underlying 
 molten rock shakes the earth, lays waste cities and devastates whole 
 countries. Much steam is formed under the ocean, but scarcely 
 any under the land, and hence the usual process of movement 
 consists in the expulsion of lava from beneath the sea, and the 
 pushing of it under the land. The crust is thus pushed up and 
 broken along the seashore, and thus forms mountains parallel to 
 the coast. 
 
 2. The mountain systems of the world have been formed 
 by this expulsion of lava from under the sea, and not at all by the 
 shrinkage of the globe. Taking account of the mere lay of the 
 mountains relatively to the sea, it is proved by the theory of prob- 
 ability that the chances are at least a decillion decillions to one 
 that they were formed so exactly parallel to the coast by a true 
 physical cause depending on the oceans. Moreover there are other 
 phenomena to be considered of such weight that it becomes an 
 absolute certainty that the mountains are formed by the sea. 
 
 3. The coast frequently is noticed to be upheaved during 
 earthquakes, and the adjacent sea bottom is shown to sink, from 
 the way in which the water retires before the inrush of the accom- 
 panying seismic sea wave. The sea does not withdraw from the 
 land by the violence of the agitation of the ground during the 
 earthquake, but slowly drains off afterwards, as in the ebbing of 
 a tide, only the withdrawal is more rapid in the case of the move- 
 ment before the sea wave; and as the sea level near the shore is 
 thus lowered sometimes by forty or fifty feet, so that vessels at 
 anchor in seven fathoms of water are left resting on the ground, 
 it follows that the sea bottom sinks some distance from the shore, 
 and the water rushes in from all sides to fill up the depression. 
 When the currents meet at the center the water is forced up into 
 
104 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 a corresponding elevation, above the normal sea level, and the 
 collapse of this aqueous ridge sends a great wave ashore, to add 
 to the horror of the earthquake. 
 
 4. If, then, the sea bottom frequently sinks and the coast is 
 simultaneously upraised, it follows that lava is expelled from under 
 the sea and pushed under the land. For in the regular order of 
 nature the sea bottom could not sink unless it was in some way 
 undermined, and the coast could not be uplifted unless something 
 was pushed under it; and as one sinks while the other rises it 
 follows that lava is expelled from under the sea and pushed under 
 the land. Not only is this process now going on along the west 
 coast of South America, and elsewhere, as repeatedly observed 
 within historical times, but we may also affirm that the long con- 
 tinuation of this undermining in the past has sunk the sea bottom 
 down into a deep trough and at the same time pushed such vast 
 quantities of lava under the adjacent mountains that the lofty 
 peaks in the Andes with snow-capped summits now seem to near 
 the stars. There is thus direct continuity between the small 
 movements observed within the historical period and the vastly 
 greater effect of these forces operating over immense periods of 
 time. 
 
 5. The process by which mountains and deep ocean troughs 
 are formed is even better, illustrated in the Aleutian and Kurile 
 Islands, where the mountains under water are just rising out of 
 the sea and the adjacent ocean trench is very narrow, and runs 
 exactly parallel to them for great distances (see Manual of Tides, 
 Coast Survey Reports, 1900, Part IV, A, by Rollin A. Harris, 
 including maps of the depths of the ocean). This chain is also 
 one of the worst earthquake belts in the world, and many of the 
 mountains have burst open and become volcanoes. The earth- 
 quakes are frquently accompanied by great seismic sea waves, 
 showing that the bed of the ocean sinks after lava has been ex- 
 pelled from under it in the formation of mountains. If the pro- 
 cess thus made out is a true law of nature, it follows that all the 
 great mountain chains of the globe were formed by this same pro- 
 
RELIEF MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 From Frye's Complete Geography, by permission of Ginn & Co., Publishers. Illustrating the 
 New Theory that the Mountains were formed by the oceans, and thus run parallel to the Sea Coast, as 
 in the typical case of the Andes. It was this vast wall along the Western sea-board of South America 
 and the earthquakes afflicting that region that led to the discovery of the cause of Earthquakes and 
 Mountain Formation in 1906. The foundations of the New Science of Geogony were thus laid by 
 
 Professor See in 1906. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 105 
 
 cess, though in some cases the recession of the sea coast due to the 
 movement of the crust by earthquakes, has changed the original 
 shapes of the troughs, and consequently can now be made out only 
 by careful investigation. 
 
 6. Our present knowledge of the earth's surface does not en- 
 able us to decide just what movement of the land has taken place 
 in each case, but the parallelism of the mountains to the sea coast 
 is sufficiently remarkable to attract universal attention. Here- 
 tofore the cause of this phenomenon has been quite obscure, and 
 some have inferred that it is a "coincidence which is only in part 
 casual." It is shown, however, as already remarked, that the 
 chances are at least a decillion decillions to one that the parallelism 
 depends on a true physical cause connected with the sea. It is 
 absolutely unthinkable that the Pacific Ocean could be so effective- 
 ly walled in by great mountain chains all around, unless the moun- 
 tains were formed about the Ocean itself, by the expulsion of lava, 
 in the way we have described. 
 
 7. In 1899, September 3-20, a terrible earthquake took place 
 at Yakutat Bay, Alaska, during which the coast was elevated for 
 more than a hundred miles, and at the maximum the elevation 
 amounted to forty-seven and one-third feet. Elevations of from 
 seven to twenty feet were common, while small depressions also 
 occurred in a few places. This case was carefully investigated by 
 Professor R. S. Tarr, of Cornell University, and Mr. Lawrence 
 Martin, of the National Geographical Society; and their memoir 
 in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. 17, May, 
 1906, is illustrated by photographs of the most convincing kind, 
 showing the uplifted coasts, with barnacles still adhering to the 
 rocks. Their investigation is classic and absolutely conclusive. 
 In the confused state of scientific opinion heretofore prevailing, 
 geologists could deny the bodily uplift of the solid land; but after 
 the publication of this memoir, they could no longer legitimately 
 maintain this attitude. And if one instance of elevation by a 
 powerful earthquake could be clearly established, it naturally 
 followed that others could arise from similar causes. Last year 
 
106 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the earthquake at Valparaiso, August 16, 1906, is said to have 
 raised the Chilian coast about ten feet; and many similar move- 
 ments at other places both in ancient and modern times can be 
 certainly established. 
 
 8. The fact that no active volcano exists over about one 
 hundred miles from the sea or other large body of water, and the 
 further fact that according to Geikie 999 in 1,000 parts of the 
 escaping vapor is steam, shows the dependence of volcanoes on 
 the sea. The activity of one hundred and five volcanoes in the 
 Andes within historical time shows that volcanoes are nothing but 
 ordinary mountains broken through by the pressure of subterra- 
 nean steam. Hence it follows that the same forces which raise 
 the mountain chains and peaks also cause the eruption of some 
 of them. 
 
 9. The vapor of steam and no other is the cause of both 
 mountain building and of volcanic outbreaks; for mountain build- 
 ing always takes place in or near the sea, and volcanoes through- 
 out the world develop near the center of the earthquake belts. 
 Volcanoes emit chiefly vapor of stream, and eruptions generally 
 cease when the vapor has escaped into the atmosphere. Thus 
 earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain formation, and seismic sea 
 waves are all due to a common cause. 
 
 10. As the expulsion of lava from under the sea causes the 
 earthquakes and seismic sea waves, it follows also that all moun- 
 tains are underlaid with pumice of various degrees of density, 
 which is simply molten rock inflated with stream and then cooled 
 and dried. The expulsion of such vast quantities of pumice from 
 volcanoes shows that there must be a process for its abundant 
 manufacture in nature, and that it must have been formed under 
 all mountains when they were originally upheaved. The preva- 
 lence of pumice in volcanic regions is therefore accounted for in a 
 perfectly simple manner. The grinding up of pumice makes 
 volcanic ashes, and hence arise the vast quantities of this dust 
 blown out of many volcanoes. Pumice and its disintegrated prod- 
 uct in the form of ashes, result from the diminished pressure 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 107 
 
 exerted on steam saturated lava, when it is pushed under the 
 mountains where the crust is broken, and increased expansion of 
 the molten rock takes place. 
 
 11. The formation of islands in the sea and of plateaus on 
 land, is to be explained by elevation of a portion of the earth's 
 crust by the injection of lava beneath. This lava comes from 
 neighboring areas, which are thus undermined, unless the partial 
 cavity is again filled up by an additional supply of molten rock. 
 Hence plateaus such as those of Titicaca and Tibet are closely 
 associated with the expulsion of lava, which originally caused the 
 uplift of the Andes and Himalayas. In many cases islands in the 
 sea have depressions near them, showing that the sea bottom was 
 undermined in the elevation of the islands, and afterwards sank 
 down to secure stability. 
 
 12. As all mountains and plateaus exhibit a feeble attraction 
 when measured in geodetic operations, it follows that the cause 
 of this phenomenon is the pumice underlying these elevated por- 
 tions of the crust, which makes them attract as if they were hollow, 
 or filled with caverns. This was noted by Bouguer and LaCanda- 
 mine in their observations on Chimborazo as early as 1738. 
 
 13. When the subterranean pressure becomes great enough 
 to shake the earth's crust, it naturally moves at the nearest fault 
 line, where the rocks are broken, and the resistance is least, but the 
 movement observed is the result, not the cause of the earthquake. It 
 has been customary heretofore to explain earthquakes by the 
 movement of faults, without assigning the cause of the fault move- 
 ment, or by vague references to the supposed secular cooling of 
 the earth. Such procedure is altogether illogical, for it does not 
 account for the origin of faults, nor even point out the correct 
 cause of their movement. 
 
 14. If faults were due to the secular cooling of the earth they 
 ought to originate and move in the interior of continents as well 
 as along the ocean shores. Acre for acre as much heat is being 
 lost by Kansas, or Sahara, as by any sea coast or ocean bed in the 
 world. Yet no important movements occur inland, while the sea 
 
108 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 coast is repeatedly shaken. The constant shaking of the Andes 
 compared to the general quiescence of the Rocky Mountains shows 
 the effect of proximity to the sea, and proves that the secular cool- 
 ing of the earth is not a true cause of earthquake movements. 
 
 15. In the papers published by the American Philosophical 
 Society at Philadelphia it is shown that the effects of secular cool- 
 ing are wholly inappreciable, and that the earth is not really con- 
 tracting; but in all probability slightly expanding, owing to the 
 predominant effects of elevations of the land by world-shaking 
 earthquakes, 120,000 of which have occurred since the beginning 
 of the Christian Era. And it is calculated that the effects of 
 elevation may exceed the effects of contraction from ten to one 
 hundred times, so that in all probability the globe is really ex- 
 panding. 
 
 16. It turns out therefore that the doctrine of mountain 
 formation based on the theory of contraction and now held for 
 some eighty years is quite devoid of real foundation. If the earth 
 is not shrinking another cause must be sought to account for the 
 observed elevations of the crust as seen in mountain folds; and it 
 should explain mountain ranges in the sea as well as on the land. 
 The present theory meets this severe test perfectly, and is beauti- 
 fully illustrated by the phenomena exhibited near the Aleutian 
 and Kurile Islands. Here the earthquakes are raising islands and 
 at the same time sinking down the adjacent sea bottom, as may 
 be confidently inferred from the accompanying seismic sea waves. 
 These long narrow trenches have been dug out by the expulsion 
 process, and it is still going on at the present time. No other 
 interpretation of the observed phenomena is really possible. 
 
 17. The whole plateau west of the Rocky Mountains has 
 been raised from the sea in recent geological time. This is shown 
 by the abundant beds of fossils, and by the numerous parallel 
 mountain ranges nearer the Pacific Coast. The San Joaquin and 
 Sacramento Valleys have been recently raised from the sea, and 
 the great earthquake at San Francisco, April 18, 1906, was but 
 one of an infinite number which have raised the Coast Range little 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 109 
 
 by little and finally lifted California above the ocean level. Earth- 
 quakes obviously will recur in California, but no important dis- 
 turbance is to be expected at San Francisco for at least a genera- 
 tion. This is inferred from the study of other places similarly 
 disturbed during the historical period, and from the nature of the 
 process of ocean leakage, which is very slow and gradual. 
 
 18. The cause of the terrible earthquakes in Japan is now 
 perfectly clear, namely, the leakage of the deep sea just to the east 
 of Nipon, known as the Tuscarora Deep. By the expulsion of 
 lava from under this area the whole island of Nipon has been lifted 
 above the sea, and the process still continues with increasing 
 violence. The east coast of Japan has risen considerably within 
 the historical period, and naturally a movement of this kind con- 
 firms the theory here developed. 
 
 19. The present theory of mountain formation enables us 
 to account for all the principal mountain ranges of the globe, and 
 the more gradual slopes which they exhibit towards the sea from 
 which the lava has been expelled in the process of elevation. In 
 the case of islands the mountains run lengthwise, right through 
 their centers like veritable backbones. In other cases lava escapes 
 under larger submarine areas which will eventually be raised above 
 the sea and formed into larger islands or continents. The princi- 
 pal cause of the movement of the earth's crust is everywhere the 
 same, but we do not yet know the details of all parts of the globe, 
 because most of it is under water, and even that above sea level 
 is very imperfectly surveyed. 
 
 20. As land is raised above the sea by earthquakes, it fol- 
 lows that the chief effect of seismic activity is the formation of 
 more land. Since this narrows the oceans, and water is also con- 
 stantly sinking down into the earth, and only a small part of it 
 again escapes through the vents of volcanoes, it follows that there 
 is a secular desiccation of the oceans, but the process is excessively 
 slow, and not certainly recognizable within the historical period. 
 Yet a portion of the lowering of the strand line noticed in later 
 geological ages may be due to this cause. 
 
110 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 21. In studying the sinking of the sea bottoms in connection 
 with the expulsion of lava for the elevation of coasts and the for- 
 mation of mountains, the writer took up the problem of the sink- 
 ing of the Homeric City of Helike, after the great earthquake in 
 Achaia, in 373 B.C., which occurred during the lifetime of Aris- 
 totle and Plato. And it was possible to prove from historical 
 authorities that the subsidence amounted to about one hundred 
 feet, which shows that after that earthquake had pushed lava 
 under the mountains in Arcadia, the bed of the Gulf of Corinth 
 gave down, and carried the shore on which Helike stood down with 
 it, so that, as Pausanias says, only the tops of the trees about the 
 temple of Poseidon remained above the water. This famous 
 disaster, which happened when Plato was fifty-four and thus at 
 the head of the Academy in Athens, and Aristotle was a boy eleven 
 years old, was therefore due to the expulsion of lava from under 
 the Gulf of Corinth. Is it not remarkable that after the lapse of 
 so many centuries we should be able to explain by simple principles 
 a calamity which so disturbed the Greek world, and completely 
 bewildered even the wisest of the Athenian sages? 
 
 22. As the result of his researches Aristotle held that earth- 
 quakes are due to vapors in the earth, seeking to escape and diffuse 
 themselves in the atmosphere. This view was generally adopted 
 by the ancients, for we find it clearly stated by Strabo and Pliny, 
 who studied the writings of Aristotle. Strabo also holds the theory 
 that the land is uplifted and depressed by earthquakes. He seems 
 to have held that not only islands and continents but also moun- 
 tains are thus produced, which essentially accords with the theory 
 of Aristotle, who had carefully studied volcanic and earthquake 
 phenomena, including several eruptions observed to occur in the 
 sea. Aristotle had observed that maritime districts are especially 
 subject to earthquakes. In view of the results of modern observa- 
 tions and the theory now established, may we not justly consider 
 this to be one of the most remarkable inductions of antiquity? 
 
 23. The theory now developed was therefore vaguely out- 
 lined by the leading Greek philosophers, especially by Aristotle, 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 111 
 
 who associated the causes producing earthquakes and volcanoes, 
 islands and seismic sea waves, all of which were attributed to the 
 accumulation of vapors in the earth. This natural order of 
 thought as developed by the Greeks presents a striking contrast 
 to the disconnected and anachronous views on these subjects still 
 current in our own time, and admonishes us to give ample heed to 
 the independent conceptions of the Greeks who were not so much 
 swayed as some moderns are by contemporary opinion. 
 
 24. The theory recently current that great seismic disturb- 
 ances of the earth's crust are due to unequal loading of different 
 areas arising in erosion, denudation and deposits of sediment is, 
 to say the least, unworthy of modern science, because such forces 
 could produce no uplifts whatever, nor could they produce any 
 serious continuous shaking, even if a slight movement of the 
 ground should occur. It is the movement of molten rock under 
 the earth's crust, in the process of adjustment of steam pressure, 
 which forms mountains, shakes down cities and lays waste whole 
 countries. The development of the highest mountain ranges 
 about the deepest oceans shows that these great uplifts of the 
 crust depend upon the sea and not at all on the shrinkage of the 
 globe. The indications of nature indeed are as clear as the noon- 
 day sun, and all we have to do is to apply to these phenomena a 
 little of the saving common sense which has distinguished man- 
 kind in the better ages of the human mind. 
 
 This summary of the results of these researches is necessarily 
 incomplete, but probably sufficiently extended to afford an idea 
 of the trend of the investigation. Among American geologists 
 Dana approached most nearly to the true views of the physics of 
 the earth's crust, and we shall therefore quote his statements as 
 they were made over forty years ago. Some of his intuitions are 
 quite remarkable. 
 
 VIEWS OF DANA. 
 
 In the first edition of his Manual of Geology, 1863, J. D. Dana 
 treats of the general features of the earth and shows how the con- 
 
112 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tinents are walled in by mountains, erected about their borders, 
 and finally adds (p. 29) : 
 
 (a) "The continents thus exemplify the law laid down, and 
 not merely as to high borders around a depressed interior, a princi- 
 ple stated by many geographers, but also as to the highest bor- 
 der being on the side of the greatest ocean (first announced in 
 American Jour. Sci. (2) xvii, vols. iii, iv, 1847, and xxii, 335, 1856). 
 The continents then are all built on one model, and in their struc- 
 ture and origin have a relation to the oceans that is of fundamental 
 importance." He also observes that the borders of continents 
 are from five hundred to one thousand miles wide, and infers that 
 "a continent cannot be less than a thousand miles, (twice five 
 hundred), in width," otherwise it would not have the character- 
 istic basin form with mountain barriers about a low interior. 
 
 (b) On page 731 he discusses the evolution of the earth's 
 great outline reliefs, and of the successive phases in its progress, 
 summarizing his conclusions as follows: 
 
 I. "The continents have mountains along their borders, 
 while the interior is relatively low; and these border mountain 
 chains often consist of two or three ranges elevated at different 
 epochs." 
 
 II. "The highest mountain-border faces the largest ocean, 
 and conversely." 
 
 III. "The continents have their volcanoes mainly on their 
 borders, the interior being almost wholly without them, although 
 they were largely covered with salt water from the Azoic age to 
 the Tertiary. Also metamorphic rocks later than the Azoic are 
 most prevalent near the borders." 
 
 IV. "Nearly all of the volcanoes of a continent are on the 
 border which faces the largest ocean." 
 
 V. "The strata of the continental borders are for the most 
 part plicated on a grand scale, while those of the interior are rela- 
 tively but little disturbed." 
 
 VI. "The successive changes of level on coasts, even 
 from the Azoic age to the Tertiary, have been in general 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 113 
 
 parallel to the border mountain chains; as those of the eastern 
 United States, parallel to the Appalachians, and those of the 
 Pacific side, as far as now appears, parallel to the Rocky 
 Mountains/ ' 
 
 VIII. "The continents and oceans had their general outline 
 or form defined in earliest time. This has been proved with re- 
 gard to North America from the position and distribution of the 
 first beds of the Lower Silurian, those of the Potsdam epoch. 
 The facts indicate that the continent of North America had its 
 surface near tide-level, part above and part below it (p. 196), and 
 this will probably be proved to be the conditions in primordial 
 time of the other continents also. And, if the outlines of the 
 continents were marked out, it follows that the outlines of the 
 oceans were no less so." 
 
 The three other conclusions announced by Dana are of less 
 interest, and need not be quoted here. 
 
 (c) The following deductions (p. 732) regarding the positions 
 of the reliefs are of high interest: 
 
 "1. The situation of the great mountain chains, mainly near 
 the borders of the continents, does not indicate whether the eleva- 
 ting pressure acted within the continental or oceanic part of the 
 earth's crust. But the occurrence between the principal range 
 and the sea coast of the larger part of the volcanoes (and, therefore, 
 of the profound and widely-opened fractures) of these borders, of 
 the most extensive metamorphic areas, and of the closest and most 
 numerous plications of the strata, as so well sfyown in North 
 America, are sufficient evidence that the force acted most strongly 
 from the oceanic direction." 
 
 "2. The relation between the extent of the oceans and the 
 height and volcanic action, etc., of their borders proves that the 
 amount of force in action has some relation to the size and depth 
 of the oceanic basin. The Pacific exhibits its greatness in the 
 lofty mountains and volcanoes which begirt it." 
 
 "3. In such a movement, elevation in one part supposes 
 necessarily subsidence in another; and, while the continental was 
 
114 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the part of the crust which was elevated, the oceanic was the sub- 
 siding part." 
 
 In connection with the theory that the mountains are formed 
 by the expulsion of lava from under the sea, though the operation 
 of world-shaking earthquakes, these early views of Dana are of 
 great interest. But in other respects he was led astray by the 
 doctine of the secular refrigeration of the globe; for he says that 
 "no other cause presents itself that can comprehend in its action 
 the whole globe and all time." He thus speaks as if the entire 
 globe were shrinking, whereas local changes only are occurring, 
 and these always near the sea. Dana's views that "the pressure 
 of the subsiding oceanic portion has acted against the resisting 
 mass of the continents; and thus the border between them has 
 become elevated, plicated, metamorphosed and embossed with 
 volcanoes," is alike misleading and unjustifiable. To produce 
 such an effect the settling of the ocean basin would have to be 
 many miles, and we have shown that no such shrinkage has taken 
 place since the crust was formed; on the contrary there is reason 
 to think that the earth is expanding at a rate of from ten to one 
 hundred times that of the contraction due to secular cooling. 
 Moreover we have no more right to assume that the continent is 
 squeezed by the settlement of the ocean, than that the ocean is 
 squeezed by the settling of the continent. 
 
 (d) We have, however, recalled these views in order to do 
 justice to the most original of the older American geologists, and 
 also to let the student see where he departs from the true line of 
 thought. Many years ago Rev. O. Fisher showed that shrinkage 
 was wholly inadequate to account for the height of the mountains 
 observed upon the earth, which are hundreds of times higher than 
 the contraction theory will explain. In the paper on the cause 
 of earthquakes it is shown that the contraction theory is also em- 
 phatically contradicted by the present distribution of mountains. 
 And in the second paper, "On the Temperature, Secular Cooling 
 and Contraction of the Earth, and on the Theory of Earthquakes 
 held by the Ancients," it is shown that at present the earth is not 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 115 
 
 contracting at all; so we are compelled to abandon the older 
 theories entirely. 
 
 As heretofore developed, geology has presented the strange 
 anomaly of offering no theories adequate to account for the uplift 
 of mountains or the deposits of fossil beds thousands of feet above 
 the sea. This is the more remarkable, since in the days of Hum- 
 boldt, Lyell, and Darwin, the bodily elevation of the land was an 
 accepted item of belief. But subsequently Lord Kelvin, Sir 
 George Darwin and other eminent British physicists, showed from 
 the investigation of tidal and other phenomena that the earth as 
 a whole behaved as a solid, and under the influence of this line of 
 thought geologists gave up the doctrine of the bodily elevation of 
 the land, and restricted themselves to the collapse of portions of 
 the crust under gravity. Such a line of thought, however, utterly 
 fails to explain mountains and plateaus and islands, as well as 
 shells and other organic remains at great height above the sea 
 level. But it was felt that the argument of the physicists against 
 the bodily yielding of the earth was unanswerable, and so it was, 
 yet this does not exclude the existence of a layer just beneath the 
 crust which in earthquakes behaves as fluid. 
 
 In my researches a theory is developed by which these two 
 views may be reconciled, and it is, I think, clearly proved that in 
 earthquakes there is movement of molten rock beneath the crust. 
 It is this movement of molten rock beneath the earth's crust which 
 produces most of the dislocations, crumpling, folding, and other 
 phenomena studied in geology. If such a view is justifiable, it 
 shows us how cautious we must be in drawing final conclusions, 
 and how incomplete all the sciences still are today. 
 
 We must now refer to Daubree's experiments, and the prob- 
 lem of explaining how the water gets beneath the earth's crust, 
 to develop the steam power operative in earthquakes. Daubree's 
 experiments have shown that under pressure of its own superin- 
 cumbent column, water may pass through cold and enter hot rocks, 
 by capillary action, and increase the pressure within, notwith- 
 standing the increase of steam pressure on the under side. In 
 
116 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 this way Daubree explained volcanic eruptions, by which a column 
 of molten lava is forced up into the vent of a volcano. Though 
 Daubree's results appear to have a good experimental basis, we 
 may prove our fundamental proposition regarding the leakage of 
 the oceans quite independently of these experiments. 
 
 Earthquakes are the processes by which mountains are pro- 
 duced, and observation shows that these forces act at a depth of 
 some fifteen miles, where the pressure is so great that no vacancies 
 exist. When the coast is upheaved by an earthquake it is clear 
 that no real cavity is allowed to form beneath; in the same way 
 we may conclude that when the sea bottom sinks after an earth- 
 quake no condensation of the matter of average density takes 
 place beneath the bed of the sea. But matter is expelled 
 from beneath the sea bottom and pushed under the land, so 
 that the coast is upraised and the sea bottom sinks, to fill up 
 the partial cavity formed beneath the sea by the expulsion 
 of lava. 
 
 These phenomena are repeatedly observed in South America, 
 the Aleutian Islands and elsewhere, and, so far as one can see, 
 admit of but one interpretation. Hence we may conclude with 
 certainty that the Andes have been formed by the expulsion of 
 lava from beneath the bed of the adjacent ocean; this is the true 
 meaning of the thundering of the earthquakes under the margin 
 of the sea already witnessed for centuries, but not heretofore un- 
 derstood by men of science. This subterranean thunder is the 
 outward expression of the mighty explosive forces by which the 
 crust along the coast is uplifted into some of the mightiest moun- 
 tains of the globe. 
 
 Since the earth is not contracting, nor experiencing any 
 sensible changes due to secular cooling, it is evident that this ex- 
 pulsion of lava can only be accomplished by explosive vapor such 
 as is seen to issue from neighboring volcanoes, which often break 
 out into eruption simultaneously with an earthquake noticed to 
 produce an elevation of the coast and a sinking of the sea bottom. 
 This vapor therefore is nothing else than common steam. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 117 
 
 Now the steam developing beneath the earth's crust and pro- 
 ducing earthquakes and volcanic activity can be traced to but 
 two possible sources: First, the original magma of the globe, 
 which, in default of a better explanation, has been frequently 
 invoked by the geologist; Second, the secular leakage of the 
 ocean bottoms, effected through fifteen miles of solid rock like 
 granite, which naturally appeals to the physicist. If the escaping 
 steam, or any sensible part of it, came from the central magma 
 of the globe, volcanoes and earthquakes necessarily would occur 
 in the interior of the continents as well as along the coasts, on 
 islands, and in the depths of the sea. For the continents are 
 large areas, and altogether cover more than one-fourth of the total 
 surface of the globe; yet the volcanoes and world-shaking earth- 
 quakes are confined to the neighborhood of the oceans or other 
 large bodies of water. 
 
 It clearly follows therefore that the agitating vapor does not 
 come from the central magma of the globe, but must come from 
 the secular leakage of the ocean bottoms. This is unmistakably 
 indicated by the most overwhelming evidence of nature, and hence 
 it follows that the secular leakage of the ocean bottoms through 
 fifteen miles of rock like granite is effected by the constant pressure 
 of the water upon the bed of the sea. When we recall that the 
 column of water resting on the sea bottom is often five miles deep, 
 giving a steady pressure theoretically adequate for throwing a jet 
 to that height, it is not at all surprising that the water should work 
 down through fifteen miles of rock like granite. 
 
 Accordingly it follows also that Daubree's experiments are 
 applicable to layers of rock from fifteen to twenty miles thick, and 
 our fundamental proposition regarding the secular leakage of the 
 ocean bottoms is proved quite independently of Daubree's experi- 
 ments. In the case of our thinly encrusted planet so largely 
 covered with water, the natural arrangement between the over- 
 lying oceans and the underlying molten globe constitutes a 
 laboratory of the most imposing magnitude, infinitely transcend- 
 ing anything ever conceived by man, with gigantic experiments 
 
118 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 constantly going on. All that is needed therefore is for the philos- 
 opher to interpret Nature's stupendous operations, which unfortu- 
 nately only too often prove disastrous to human life, owing to 
 our ignorance and disregard of natural laws. The highest duty 
 of the philosopher is to discover these laws and make them 
 available to the public, so as to contribute as much as possible 
 to the safety and repose of mankind. 
 
 It is often imagined by many that the captains of industry 
 are the principal creators of national wealth and prosperity, and 
 that discoveries of natural laws are of little value compared to 
 material things. Is it necessary to point out the inadequacy of 
 this view? Is not he who discovers how to safeguard and preserve 
 the property of the State as essential to the public well-being as 
 he who merely develops, without knowing how to build so as to 
 preserve, the products of human labor? Would it be extreme to 
 hold that a real discoverer, a true philosopher, is as valuable to 
 the State as any captain of industry? His worldly possessions, it 
 is true, may be small, but his discoveries are useful to all mankind 
 of the present and future generations; yea, they are the one im- 
 perishable product of the age, a priceless heritage of civilization, 
 and given freely to all the nations of the earth. 
 
 In view of what has been proved in the researches here 
 sketched, there will in the future be no excuse for our cities on the 
 coasts of deep seas being consumed by conflagrations after earth- 
 quakes; for it is shown that all places on the coasts of deep seas 
 are liable to earthquake disturbances, and the people should 
 be prepared for such emergencies by extra and independent 
 systems of water works. If San Francisco had possessed such 
 knowledge before the late disaster, and had had the courage 
 to live up to it, she would not have been laid waste by the 
 fire, nor would the earthquake damages have proved very 
 serious. But human frailty is such that we can learn only by 
 experience. Let us hope that the lesson will not soon be for- 
 gotten, and that other cities on the coast will be prepared for 
 possible emergencies. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 119 
 
 In the same way there is little excuse for damage by seismic 
 sea waves. If ships put promptly to sea on the first sign of the 
 withdrawal of the water from the shore, they will usually be safe, 
 and can ride securely over the waves due to the sinking of the 
 sea bottom; whereas if they remain in the harbor they are almost 
 sure to be stranded and perhaps destroyed, with enormous losses 
 of life and property. 
 
 The researches of Science therefore have an eminently prac- 
 tical and humane value, in addition to their purely philosophic 
 interest. The preservation and promotion of Science has there- 
 fore become one of the highest duties of the State; for the discovery 
 of natural laws is really necessary to the protection of the people 
 and the preservation of civilization. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 1908. 
 
 HOW THE MOUNTAINS WERE MADE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.* 
 
 By T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 in 1906 the daily press published accounts of the 
 sudden appearance in Alaskan waters of Metcalf Island, 
 and the illustrated weeklies have since given photographs 
 showing its eruption above the sea as a volcano. More recently, 
 another island has been raised in the Aleutian chain; and every 
 month or so we read in press dispatches of eruptions occurring 
 somewhere in the sea, and of islands being lifted above the water. 
 
 The experienced navigator has often heard of or seen these 
 submarine outbreaks, and regards the uplift of islands as a common 
 occurrence long familiar to the explorer of the oceans. It never 
 occurs to him that these volcanic outbreaks are especially extraor- 
 dinary. On the other hand, the learned scientist in the secluded 
 life of the University, constantly occupied with books, is largely 
 withdrawn not only from the world, but also from contact with 
 actual nature, and overlooks or underestimates the significance of 
 what is so often reported by the ocean voyager. The more active 
 scientist explores the mountains on the land, but gives very little 
 thought to those in the depths of the sea. 
 
 Thus the observations of the navigator have not been ade- 
 quately considered by the explorer of the continent, and conse- 
 quently the theories formed from the study of the land do not 
 accord with the facts observed in the ocean. But as our knowl- 
 edge of the ocean has increased, it has been remarked with sur- 
 prise that the sea bottom is here and there upraised and folded 
 into mountains, which sometimes project above the water as 
 
 * Reprinted from the Pacific Monthly for September, 1908, by permission 
 of Sunset the Pacific Monthly. 
 

UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 121 
 
 islands, and again are entirely hidden from our view by the great 
 depths of the sea. The naturalist who has been occupied with 
 the investigation of mountains on the land finds himself greatly 
 perplexed to account for those in the oceans. 
 
 For a long time it was supposed that only isolated cones arose 
 from the deep, and now and then appeared above the water as 
 volcanic islands. This was in fact observed in the classic period 
 by the Greek and Romans. Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny distinctly 
 mention eruptions in the sea, and give accounts of how certain 
 islands were raised above the water within historical times. In 
 striking contrast to this natural attitude of the ancient writers, 
 we find in the modern geologies no general theory of island 
 formation. Considering the enormous advance in science 
 during the past two thousand years, this appears to be a strange 
 and almost unaccountable neglect on the part of the modern 
 investigator. 
 
 When, however, the exact measurement of the ocean depths 
 made within recent years showed not only peaks and cones scatter- 
 ed widely over the sea bottom, but also great ranges of mountains 
 in the depths of the sea, the old view that islands arose only from 
 isolated cones obviously could no longer be held. Geologists have 
 long accepted the theory that the mountains were formed by the 
 shrinkage of the earth, due to the progress of secular cooling, and 
 they have explained the mountains on the land by the subsidence 
 of the ocean basins, which, it was held, pushed up the edges of the 
 continents. Yet if mountains exist also in the depths of the sea, 
 this theory of oceanic subsidence would not well account for these 
 submarine folds. Thus the discovery of mountain chains in the 
 ocean excited the surprise without satisfying the curiosity of the 
 naturalist. 
 
 By what process, then, are mountains formed in the sea, and 
 are they formed on the land by the same cause? This is a question 
 which we shall endeavor to answer in the course of this paper, and 
 the result is so general as to be of interest to every reader of 
 scientific literature. 
 
122 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Just south of the Aleutian Islands there is a deep trench in 
 the sea, which has a depth of from 3,000 to over 4,000 fathoms 
 from 18,000 to over 24,000 feet. This depression is long and nar- 
 row, just like a trough, as if dug out by supreme intelligence; and 
 right next to it on the north, the Aleutain Islands run parallel to 
 this depression all along. The Aleutian Islands are in fact a 
 mighty mountain range under water, with only a few peaks here 
 and there projecting above the sea as islands. This great ridge 
 is not only parallel to the deep trench just south of it, but also 
 of almost exactly the same volume; so that if one had a shovel 
 large enough to take off the island ridge and throw it in the trench, 
 it would about fill it up. 
 
 Now if we go along in a level plain and come to a mound, with 
 a depression by the side, of about the same volume, do we not 
 immediately conclude that the mound came out of the hole in 
 the ground, and that the mound-builders have been at work there? 
 And if we find not only one mound, but many, each accompanied 
 by an adjacent hole of corresponding volume, do we not infer that 
 the several mounds came out of the respective holes, and that the 
 whole group of mounds is the work of a colony of mound-builders? 
 Such a group of mounds once existed where the city of St. Louis 
 now stands, and for that reason the metropolis of the Mississippi 
 Valley often is called the Mound City. 
 
 Again, suppose the mounds were arranged in a line, with the 
 holes all on one side, and close together; a little shoveling would 
 convert them into a continuous trench with a bank on one side, 
 like an irrigation ditch. If we go into a level field and find such a 
 trench and adjacent embankment of equal volume, so that the 
 bank would fill up the depression, if shoveled in, we know that the 
 ditch diggers have been at work, and that the bank was made of 
 earth taken out of the ditch. 
 
 What we have here considered with regard to familiar sights 
 on the land, we encounter also in the bed of the sea. There are 
 islands with depressions or holes near them, of about equal volume; 
 and there are ridges or mountain ranges with trenches near them 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 123 
 
 of so nearly the same volume that the depressions could be filled 
 up by shoveling off the elevations. Thus we are led to conclude 
 that the elevations and the depressions are physically connected; 
 and that the elevations resulted from matter taken from under 
 the depressions, and transferred to its present position beneath the 
 adjacent range. 
 
 Now in the case of these inequalities on our level fields, some 
 process equivalent to surface shoveling was actually used. The 
 islands and mountain ranges in the sea, however, were formed by 
 a much mightier process; namely, by the expulsion of lava from 
 beneath the earth's crust, which pushes it up in one place, and 
 permits it to sink down in another, so that matter is transferred 
 from one place to the other by the movement of lava streams 
 beneath the cool, solid crust of the globe. 
 
 To understand how this takes place, let us consider the world- 
 shaking earthquakes which so frequently occur in the Aleutian 
 Islands. Major Button justly observes that this region is one 
 of the chief breeding-grounds of world-shakers. And if we com- 
 pare the distribution of earthquakes given in Milne's earthquake 
 map of the world, with this region, we shall find that the trench 
 and adjacent ridge run right through the center of the blackest 
 part of the great earthquake belt surrounding the Pacific Ocean. 
 This indicates that the earthquakes are concerned with the digging 
 out of the trench to the south of these islands, and with the eleva- 
 tion of the islands themselves, a number of which have been raised 
 above the water during the historical period. In fact three or 
 more new volcanoes in this range have broken out since these 
 islands were first explored by Europeans. 
 
 When a great earthquake occurs in the Aleutian Islands the 
 shaking frequently is so violent that persons cannot stand upon 
 their feet. In one well-known case further east, at Yakutat Bay, 
 Alaska, September 10-15, 1899, a party of explorers felt the shaking 
 so terribly that they could not stand on their feet and had to lie 
 on the ground; and while they were thus prostrate, expecting the 
 earth to open or an avalanche from the mountains to overwhelm 
 
124 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 them, the adajcent sea was thrown into great eddies, and a huge 
 wave swept the shore, up-rooting the forests, and carrying the 
 helpless explorers some distance inland. By good fortune, how- 
 ever, they escaped without serious injury. 
 
 It may well be imagined that they were not altogether sur- 
 prised to find that great avalanches of stone and ice had slid down 
 the mountains, and vast glaciers had slipped into the sea, carrying 
 everything before them. Nay, worse still! The solid land of the 
 coast for over a hundred miles had been bodily uplifted many feet, 
 the maximum ascertained elevation being forty-seven feet and four 
 inches. Barnacles, and other marine animals were now sticking 
 to the rocks far above the reach of the highest tides, and furnished 
 conclusive proof of the mighty uplift of the earth's crust. 
 
 This great earthquake was carefully investigated in 1905 by 
 Professor R. S. Tarr, of Cornell University, and Lawrence Martin, 
 of the National Geographical Society. Their investigation as 
 published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 
 May, 1906, included photographs showing the barnacles still 
 sticking to the rocks. Now from what is shown here, it follows 
 that when the sea coast is upraised by an earthquake, as often 
 happens, lava is expelled from under the sea and pushed under the 
 land. It is in this way that mountains are formed along the coasts 
 and in the depths of the sea. The parallelism of the mountains to 
 the sea coast is familiar to every student of elementary geography. 
 
 It often happens in the Aleutian Islands that a great earth- 
 quake is followed by a so-called "tidal wave," or as it is more 
 properly called, a seismic sea wave. In the most important class 
 of these waves it is noticed that after the earthquake the water 
 withdraws from the shore, by a gradual draining away, as in the 
 tides, only more rapidly. Ships anchored in the harbor are often 
 left stranded, and the bottom laid bare, even when the previous 
 depth of the water was seven fathoms. But in an hour's time or 
 less, the sea returns as a great wave, which, near the shore, becomes 
 a mighty vertical wall of water, and carries everything before it. 
 Ships are thus washed a long distance inland, and many of them 
 
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UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 125 
 
 lost by dashing against rocks during the dreadful inundation of 
 the sea; and in the same way, cities lying near the sea level are 
 overflowed. In some cases they are first shaken down by the 
 earthquake, and then overwhelmed by the sea; so that Nature 
 seems bent on their utter destruction one calamity following 
 swift upon another. 
 
 Now the cause of the withdrawal of the sea from the shore is the 
 sinking of the sea bottom. The subsidence of the bed is indicated 
 by the way in which the water drains away. Lava has been ex- 
 pelled from beneath the sea bottom till the overlying crust becomes 
 unstable, and when it is again shaken in a great earthquake it 
 often gives down. The water then flows in on all sides to fill up 
 the depression in the sea level caused by the sudden drop of the 
 sunken area; and after a little while the currents meet in the center 
 of the depression, and by their mutual impact raise the depressed 
 level into a ridge. The flowing of the currents towards the center 
 of the depression draws the water away from the shore, so that 
 the ships are left stranded on the bare bottom and perfectly help- 
 less. And when the ridge upraised by the mutual impact of the 
 currents at length collapses by the gradual settlement of the water 
 under its own gravitation, a great wave is sent ashore to add to 
 the horrors of the earthquake. 
 
 Many cases of the sinking of the sea bottom are known, and 
 in some instances it is found that the drop amounted to hundreds 
 of fathoms. It is by this process of undermining and sinking that 
 the deep trench has been dug out near the Aleutian Islands. In 
 fact, Nature gives a clear indication of her own mighty processes; 
 for on the west coast of South America, in Japan, in the East Indies 
 and elsewhere, the coast often is upraised by the same earthquake 
 which causes the sinking of the sea bottom so clearly foretold by 
 the withdrawal of the sea and its return as a great wave. 
 
 The uplifting of the sea coast indicates that something has 
 been pushed under it, and the sinking of the adjacent sea bottom 
 shows that it has been undermined by the expulsion of the lava 
 which has been injected under the land. As the two areas are 
 
126 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 side by side, and both movements occur in earthquakes which 
 disturb the intervening region most terribly (as if molten rock 
 were moving beneath the crust) it follows that a mass of lava is 
 expelled from under the sea and pushed under the neighboring 
 coast. This unquestionably is the general process in the greatest 
 earthquakes. 
 
 The continuation of this process over long periods of time 
 gives rise to the expulsion of a vast quanity of lava from beneath 
 the sea, and the crust along the shore becomes upheaved into a 
 mighty ridge of mountains. In South America such uplifts of 
 the coast, with accompanying seismic sea waves, have often been 
 observed. This is the continuation of the process by which the 
 Andes were formed. 
 
 The coast of Chile was raised by the earthquake of 1822. And 
 in 1835, the movement was repeated on a still larger scale, in the 
 earthquake witnessed by Darwin and Fitzroy, who were then on 
 their famous voyage around the world. This disturbance raised 
 the coast five or six feet for several hundred miles, and the city of 
 Concepcion was totally destroyed. 
 
 On August 16, 1906, when Valparaiso was laid waste by one 
 of the most terrible earthquakes of modern times, it is said that 
 the coast was raised about ten feet. The earthquake of 1835 was 
 calculated by Lyell to have raised the coast by an amount cor- 
 responding to the bulk of Mt. Aetna; in other words, according 
 to our modern view, a bulk of lava equal to Mt. Aetna was pushed 
 under the shore, and the sea bottom correspondingly under- 
 mined. 
 
 Not only are the displacements of matter beneath the crust 
 large, but also in the same direction as those great movements of 
 the past, by which the mountains have been so greatly uplifted, 
 and the sea bottom so deeply sunk down. 
 
 For the beaches at Valparaiso were found by Darwin to have 
 been uplifted 1,300 feet in recent geological time; and more recent 
 travelers have found marine shells in the Andes at a height of at 
 least 15,000 feet. Thus we connect the fossils at the greatest 
 
II 
 
 hJ 
 < a 
 
 O n rt 
 
 W ^ 
 
 U 3 
 
RELIEF MAP OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Illustrating the New Theory that the Mountains are formed by the oceans, and thus run parallel 
 to the sea coast. From Frye's Complete Geography, by permission of Ginn & Co., Publishers. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 127 
 
 altitude with the uplift of the sea coast by earthquakes, and may 
 affirm that most of our highest mountains were once beneath the 
 sea, and have since been raised to such great heights by the con- 
 tinuation of the earthquake process. The small uplifts of the 
 coast witnessed at the present time are but a part of the great 
 expulsions of lava from beneath the sea towards the land, which 
 resulted in development of mountains along the coasts and in the 
 depths of the ocean. 
 
 In this manner the Aleutian Islands are being raised into a 
 mighty mountain chain in the sea; eventually it will rise above 
 the water and connect North America with Asia, so that the Arctic 
 will be entirely cut off from the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 If now the question be asked why the earthquake and moun- 
 tain-forming forces are so powerful in certain places, and so feeble 
 in others, we reply that it is all due to the leakage under the hydro- 
 static pressure on the bottom resulting from the depth of the ocean. 
 The deeper the ocean becomes the greater the pressure on the 
 bottom, and the more water leaks through the crust, to form steam 
 beneath. The explosive vapor slowly accumulates, and when it 
 must have relief, the region shakes till a fault moves, and the crust 
 readjusts itself so as to give more space beneath. Fault is the 
 term used by geologists to denote a crack in the rocks of the earth's 
 crust, which is made up of blocks like pavement, only very much 
 larger. 
 
 It is observed that the earthquakes are always worst where 
 the sea is deepest, because the leakage there is greatest. If one 
 looks at a map of the ocean depths as laid down by the Coast- 
 Survey measurements, he may tell from the trenches in the sea 
 where the earthquakes are worst. These deep troughs always 
 follow the earthquake belts, or rather the earthquakes follow these 
 deep troughs, though some earthquakes occur remote from them. 
 The vast majority of the greatest earthquakes, however, always 
 occur near these dugout places in the sea bottom; as along the 
 coast west of South America, near Guam, in the Friendly Islands 
 of the Southern Pacific Ocean between Samoa and New Zealand, 
 
128 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 in the East Indies, near the Phillipines, the Japanese, Kurile, and 
 Aleutian Islands. 
 
 It is well known that the worst earthquake country in the 
 world is Japan, and just east of these islands the sea over an area 
 of considerable extent is 4,600 fathoms deep. The hydrostatic 
 pressure at the bottom of the sea is here great enough to throw a 
 jet of water five and a half miles high. Is it any wonder that such 
 a pressure should force the water slowly into the bowels of the 
 earth? 
 
 The crust is made of solid rock, like granite, twenty miles 
 thick, yet under such a pressure as that exerted by the deepest 
 oceans, the water will slowly leak through, and form so much 
 steam in the underlying lava that it will swell and finally shake, 
 till it gets more space by pushing out at the edges. 
 
 The whole island of Nipon has thus been raised above the 
 ocean. If Nipon were dug off and thrown into the Tuscarora 
 Deep, it would just about fill up that immense depression. The 
 earthquakes in Japan are due to the fact that the islands are still 
 rising from the sea, and as the Tuscarora trench is deepening all 
 the time, Japan will always be greatly afflicted by earthquakes 
 and seismic sea waves. 
 
 The region of the Friendly Islands in the Southern Pacific 
 Ocean, between Samoa and New Zealand, affords a good illustra- 
 tion of the formation of mountains in the open sea at some distance 
 from a continent. Here two long, narrow connecting trenches are 
 dug out to a depth of over 4,000 fathoms; and on the west, just 
 parallel to the trenches, a mountain chain is lifting its crest above 
 the water, a few of the highest peaks already projecting as islands. 
 
 It is observed that the range always is formed on the side of 
 the trench opposite to the ocean, because the secular leakage of 
 the ocean causes the expulsion of the lava to be effected in the 
 direction of the land. The reason of this is that steam is formed 
 under the ocean, but scarcely at all under the land; and hence it 
 always works out towards the edges of the oceans, and thus walls 
 in the sea by high mountains about their borders. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 129 
 
 Over half a century ago the veteran American geologist, J. 
 D. Dana, the famous professor at Yale College, noticed that the 
 highest mountains lie opposite the deepest oceans, and conversely- 
 He inferred that the relation of the extent and depth of the ocean 
 to the height and grandeur of the mountains about its borders was 
 of fundamental importance. Yet Dana did not perceive correctly 
 the real cause of mountain-making, for all geologists have hereto- 
 fore ascribed the formation of mountains to the shrinkage arising 
 from the secular cooling of the earth. 
 
 Even now many persons will be surprised to learn that this 
 old theory has no valid foundation in Nature, and will have to be 
 entirely abandoned. But such is the case. It will have to be 
 given up and thrown overboard, just like the more famous Ptole- 
 maic system of astronomy, which was finally overthrown by Coper- 
 nicus in 1543. Previous to that time Ptolemy's system had stood 
 the test of fourteen centuries, since the epoch of the school of 
 Alexandria, where the Almagest was composed in the reigns of 
 Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, about 140 A.D. 
 
 In the same way, the contraction theory is venerable from 
 age. It was vaguely hinted at by Newton, and in 1829 was given 
 its final form by the famous French geologist, Elie de Beaumont. 
 He held that the earth is cooling by the gradual dissipation of heat 
 into space, and the nucleus shrinking away from the crust; so that 
 at intervals the crust collapses to fill up the vacant space, and this 
 causes the rocks to be crumpled and pushed up into mountain 
 ranges formed along the lines of fracture. 
 
 If this theory were true the mountain chains ought to run in 
 any direction with respect to the oceans; and they certainly would 
 not always run parallel to the sea coast. In some cases at least 
 the mountains would run diagonally across the continents; yet 
 this never happens in practice, and we may be very sure that this 
 antiquated theory has no foundation whatever in actual Nature. 
 
 The doctrine of the secular cooling of the globe has behind it 
 the weight of ancient opinion, and still finds a place in most books 
 which deal with the earth's development. But as a matter of 
 
130 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 fact secular cooling is of very little consequence, and the theory 
 is correspondingly misapplied in many of the sciences today. 
 
 In my investigations on the Temperature of the Earth recently 
 published by the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, 
 it is shown that the cooling is confined almost exclusively to the 
 crust of the globe, and that practically no shrinkage occurs from 
 the escape of heat from the deep interior, because the amount of 
 heat lost is altogether too small. Nor has such shrinkage been 
 appreciable at any time since the crust was formed, in the original 
 consolidation of the globe. Before the formation of a crust, when 
 the primordial consolidation had not yet begun, there may indeed 
 have been a considerable loss of heat from the incandescent sur- 
 face, but since the outer layers became cooled and encrusted, 
 and the oceans were formed from vapor previously floating in 
 the atmosphere, the effects of cooling have been very slight 
 indeed. 
 
 We may easily convince ourselves of the correctness of this 
 view by recalling that no important changes now going on upon 
 the earth can be clearly ascribed to the effects of secular cooling. 
 The most important changes are those due to earthquakes, and 
 earthquakes certainly are not due to that cause; for if they were, 
 they would break out in the interior of the continents as well as 
 along the coasts and in the depths of the sea. 
 
 Is not an inland region such as Kansas or Sahara cooling as 
 much as an equal area of any sea coast? If cooling were the cause 
 of the great earthquakes, why should they occur near the sea and 
 not in high dry regions in the interior of the continents? 
 
 Moreover the Andes and the coast mountains in Alaska are 
 constantly shaken, while those in Colorado, far from the sea, are 
 never seriously disturbed. This shows that mountain-making 
 depends in some way upon the sea; and we have seen that it arises 
 from the leakage of the oceans, which develops steam beneath the 
 crust. This swells and finally shakes and pushes out some of the 
 saturated lava at the edges, so that the crust is uplifted into moun- 
 tains along the borders of the continents and in the sea. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 131 
 
 Fossils now found far inland show that at one time the sea 
 covered the high plateaus of our western states, and extended to 
 the Rocky Mountains. The whole country west of Laramie, 
 Wyoming, has been raised out of the sea in recent geological times; 
 and earthquakes obviously have been the means of this great 
 uplift, which has widened the continent by a thousand miles, and 
 raised the plateaus about a mile above the sea. 
 
 In the same way the great plateaus in South America and in 
 Asia have been uplifted by earthquakes. The plateau of Tibet 
 is three miles above the sea, and bones of elephants and rhi- 
 noceroses now found there show that the uplift has occurred 
 within recent geological time, because those animals could not 
 live at that altitude. Accordingly they must have flourished 
 there when Tibet was only about a mile above the sea, and 
 the uplifting has since carried their bones to much greater 
 elevation. 
 
 Perhaps the reader will agree that the process here outlined 
 for certain mountain chains is the true one, but yet ask whether 
 it is not possible that some have been formed by other causes, such 
 as the shrinkage of the globe? He may notice that all mountains 
 are not parallel to the sea coast, and thus imagine that such ex- 
 ceptional inland ranges were formed by a different cause. To 
 this conjecture we may reply that Nature has one uniform process, 
 and the formation in all cases is due to the same physical agency. 
 And while we have not yet explored the earth's surface sufficiently 
 to ascertain exactly how all the mountains were produced, we 
 may be sure that the cause is always the same. 
 
 That some mountains could be formed by one process and 
 some by another is inconceivable. We do not know the extent 
 of the sea in past geological ages, and until this unwritten history 
 is fully developed it may take centuries to do it properly - 
 we cannot make out the precise details by which all the moun- 
 tains were formed. But we have proved how they are formed in 
 the clearest cases, and as nearly all are parallel to the shore, as if 
 due to the expulsion of lava from beneath the sea, there can be no 
 
132 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 possible doubt that we have found the true and universal cause of 
 mountain formation in general. 
 
 The chief purpose of earthquakes is to raise land above the sea. 
 These disturbances seem very destructive to animal and vegetable 
 life, and especially to mankind; but without them the earth would 
 still be entirely covered by the oceans, and none of the higher 
 forms of life could have been developed on our planet. 
 
 Though the cosmical purpose of earthquakes was not under- 
 stood by the ancients, the uplift of strata by these disturbances 
 was distinctly taught by Strabo; and he cited the presence of 
 shells far inland as proof of the former extent of the sea. These 
 views have long been held by investigators, but in recent years 
 Lord Kelvin and Sir G. H. Darwin have proved from their mathe- 
 matical researches on the tides and other phenomena that the 
 earth behaves as a solid, and hence does not have a liquid 
 nucleus, as geologists had long been led to suppose. On this 
 restricted view of the case, the uplift of the land above the sea 
 could not be explained. 
 
 The geologists therefore gave up the theory that the interior 
 of the earth is liquid, and the solid crust subject to uplifts, and 
 adopted the view that the globe is solid throughout. This con- 
 clusion, however, is unjustifiable; for just beneath the crust is a 
 layer which in earthquakes is shown to behave as a fluid. Molten 
 rock actually moves beneath the solid crust in great earthquakes, 
 and it is this enforced movement of the lava, some twenty miles 
 beneath our feet, under accumulating steam pressure, that shakes 
 down cities and often devastates whole countries. 
 
 When we have the oceans for an overlying tank of water, and 
 the incandescent nucleus of our globe for a furnace, the natural 
 arrangement is such that the leakage of the thin crust between the 
 water and the underlying fire, is likely to give rise to some gigantic 
 experiments. It is this secular leakage and nothing else which 
 produces earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain formation, the uplift 
 of islands and plateaus, seismic sea waves, and the feeble attraction 
 of mountains long since noticed in geodesy. Six great classes of 
 
MT. CHIMBORAZO, NEAR QUITO, ALTITUDE 20,498 FEET. (WHYMPER, 1880) 
 One of the most celebrated of the Andean Peaks. Encyclopedia Americana. From the Article, Andes, by special permission 
 
 MT. POPOCATEPETL, MEXICO. 
 A typical volcano, rising to an altitude of about 17,000 feet. Publications of the Sierra Club, June, 1911. 
 
MT. HUASCARAN, IN CENTRAL PERU, ALTITUDE ABOUT 24,000 FEET. 
 
 Photograph and copyright by Miss Anna S. Peck, National Geographical Magazine, for June, 1909. 
 
 Used by special permission of Miss Peck. 
 
 MT. ACONCAGUA, IN CENTRAL CHILE. 
 The highest Volcano in the world, and long considered the summit of the Andes. 
 
 Altitude, 22,800 feet. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 133 
 
 phenomena are thus connected and shown to depend on a single 
 physical cause. 
 
 Volcanoes are only particular mountains, and it was noticed 
 by the ancients that they are always developed in or near the sea. 
 Thousands of eruptions occur in the sea bottom, but only occasion- 
 ally do the new volcanoes reach the surface. More frequently 
 the presence of fire under the sea is told by the boiling of the water, 
 and by dead fish found floating on the surface. Even the Greeks 
 and Romans noticed these submarine outbreaks, and their dis- 
 astrous effects on marine animals. 
 
 Volcanoes on land always break out near the shore, in moun- 
 tain ranges which are folded sharply upward as in the Andes 
 and the Aleutian Islands. Such sharp folds are always near the 
 sea, and their dependence on it is also proved by the vast prepon- 
 derance of water vapor which they emit. According to Sir Archi- 
 bald Geikie, 999 in 1000 parts of all the vapor they emit is steam. 
 The pumice which they blow out is only molten rock saturated 
 with steam and other vapors, and afterwards dried up. And as 
 pumice underlies every mountain, an earthquake which opens an 
 orifice is sure to blow out considerable quantities of this light 
 material. When pumice is ground up it makes ashes, and hence 
 the vast clouds of dust blown out of volcanoes, which obscure the 
 sun and are carried over the earth for hundreds and even thou- 
 sands of miles. 
 
 As recently developed, geology has presented the singular 
 anomaly of admitting the existence of shells and marine fossils 
 thousands of feet above the sea, without any means of explaining 
 how they got there; and at the same time denying the bodily ele- 
 vation of the sea coasts by earthquakes, though formerly this 
 doctrine of elevation was generally accepted. It is now easy to 
 see how all these phenomena can be reconciled and explained by 
 indicating the simplest of causes, the leakage of the ocean bottoms, 
 which produces elevations and also depressions. 
 
 Not only do we prove the elevation of the sea coasts by earth- 
 quakes, which thus push lava under the land, from beneath the 
 
134 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 sea, but also that subsidences may happen somewhat less fre- 
 quently. The sea bottom often sinks when lava is expelled from 
 beneath it, so as to undermine the support from below; and in 
 like manner any coast may subside temporarily if the subterranean 
 movement of lava is such as to undermine the foundation. This 
 has happened in numerous historical cases, of which we shall 
 mention only a few. 
 
 In 1692, Jamaica was visited by a terrible earthquake, and 
 afterwards about three-fourths of Port Royal sank into the sea, 
 where the houses long afterwards could be seen beneath the waves. 
 
 The sinking was caused by a block of the earth's crust giving 
 down during the earthquake, which had weakened the founda- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1746, Callao, Peru, was terribly shaken by an earthquake, 
 and the coast inundated by a seismic sea wave, said to have been 
 eighty feet high. In this case the sea bottom sank some distance 
 from the land, and it carried parts of the shore down with it. Old 
 Callao was thus submerged beneath the waves, and the houses 
 could be seen in the bottom of the new harbor. 
 
 Another good illustration of this undermining is afforded by 
 the coast of Pamphylia, in Asia Minor. In the fourth century 
 B.C., Alexander the Great marched his army along a road on the 
 sea coast overhung by the Climax Mountains. Strabo says that 
 on a stormy day, when the waves beat on the road, the soldiers 
 waded to the middle of their bodies in water; at the present time 
 the same road is covered by the water to a depth of over twelve 
 feet, even when the weather is calm. Hence the whole coast must 
 have subsided by about this amount. The shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean present numerous cases of harbor works of the classic 
 period, some above and some below the present level of the sea. 
 
 But the most celebrated case of subsidence is that of the 
 Homeric City of Helike, which formerly stood on the southern 
 shore of the Gulf of Corinth. In the year 373 B.C., the whole 
 of Peloponnesus was shaken by a terrible earthquake. Helike and 
 Bura were leveled to the ground, and great chasms opened in the 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 135 
 
 ground near the latter place; then the bed of the Gulf of Corinth 
 gave down at least 100 feet, and carried Helike down with it. The 
 inrush of the mighty sea wave destroyed ten Lacedemonian vessels 
 lying in the harbor, and the sea rose so high about the Temple of 
 Neptune that only the tops of the trees remained above the water, 
 though for centuries afterwards the houses could still be seen be- 
 neath the waves. This happened when Plato was fifty-four, and 
 at the head of the Academy in Athens, and Aristotle was a boy 
 eleven years old. The sinking of Helike greatly perplexed the 
 wisest of the Athenian sages, but in spite of all their learning and 
 acuteness they were utterly unable to account for such a strange 
 phenomenon. 
 
 In the light of the above theory it is easy to see that the earth- 
 quake had pushed lava from beneath the Gulf of Corinth, and thus 
 caused the chasms to open near Bura. No doubt the mountains 
 of Arcadia were badly shaken and somewhat uplifted; then the 
 sea bottom gave down, and Helike disappeared beneath the 
 waves. Such subsidences are less frequent than uplifts of the 
 coasts, but they occur occasionally and sometimes cause great 
 destruction. 
 
 Now that the cause of earthquakes and sea waves is perfectly 
 clear, the people have a better means of protecting themselves 
 against such calamities than formerly. No city on the coast of a 
 deep sea is ever entirely safe from earthquakes and sea waves; 
 but if good houses are built, and a place for refuge exists, in case 
 the water retires from the shore after an earthquake, indicating 
 that the sea bottom has sunk, the danger to the population is com- 
 paratively small. The only means of safety is to flee with the 
 utmost speed to the high grounds, as the people in South America 
 have learned to do by long and bitter experience. There is gen- 
 erally time enough for escape, before the wave returns; and even 
 the ships in the harbor will be safe, if they promptly put to sea; 
 for in the open sea, they can ride over the wave without injury, 
 but if they lay in the harbor they are sure to be lost or washed 
 inland. 
 
136 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Studies of the phenomena of the ocean and of the laws of the 
 physical world by which the mountains are formed, owing to the 
 secular leakage of their waters through the crust of the earth, may 
 thus contribute greatly to the safety of mankind, as well as throw 
 light on the mystery and grandeur connected with all the great 
 secrets of Nature. 
 
 In this brief outline of the results embodied in four scientific 
 memoirs recently published by the American Philosophical Society 
 at Philadelphia, we have touched only upon those topics which 
 seemed likely to be of most popular interest. The new theory has 
 been adopted with enthusiasm in the highest circles of the scientific 
 world; and hence the results here given may be considered as 
 demonstrated. Since the death of Helmholtz, of Berlin, 1894, 
 Professor Arrhenius, of Stockholm, has gradually taken the fore- 
 most place among the physicists of Continental Europe. He is 
 one of those who have adopted the new theory from the first. 
 Among others may be mentioned Professor Suess, of Vienna, the 
 most eminent geologist in Europe, and the veteran physicists, Lord 
 Kelvin and Sir Wm. Huggins, two of the most illustrious ex- 
 presidents of the Royal Society. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1913. 
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HIMALAYA 
 MOUNTAINS AND THE PLATEAU OF TIBET.* 
 By T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 1. Introductory Remarks. 
 
 E four memoirs dealing with the cause of earthquakes, 
 mountain formation, and kindred phenomena connected 
 with the physics of the earth, which the writer had the honor 
 to communicate to this Society in the years 1906-08, and have 
 published in the Proceedings, have laid the foundations of a new 
 theory of the physics of the earth's crust. The new theory already 
 is widely adopted by the most eminent investigators, and the pur- 
 pose of the present paper is merely to add a final confirmation of 
 some interest. 
 
 During the past five years the writer's attention has been so 
 fully occupied with the problems of Cosmogony that the problems 
 relating to Geogony, or the formation of the earth, have been left 
 largely in abeyance; and yet some new light has been shed on 
 them, especially by the researches showing that the lunar craters 
 are due to impact, and thus in no way similar to terrestrial vol- 
 canoes as was so long believed. 
 
 Quite recently it was thought worth while to re-examine the 
 phenomena of the earth's crust, in the light of the New Science of 
 Cosmogony resulting from the researches of the past five years. 
 For in studying the problem of the origin of the Himalayas and the 
 plateau of Tibet some important considerations were brought out 
 that were not included in my former papers, and thus it seems 
 
 * Presented to the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia, on 
 the occasion of the Annual General Meeting, April 17-19, 1913. 
 
138 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 advisable to place them on record as confirming and extending my 
 former investigations. 
 
 Moreover, the subject of the origin of the Himalayas is attract- 
 ing attention abroad. Apparently without knowledge of my work 
 Colonel Sidney G. Burrard, R. E., F. R. S., Surveyor-General of 
 India, has been devoting considerable attention to the subject 
 in 'Professional Paper No. 12, Survey of India,' a summary 
 of which is given in The Observatory for November, 1912, 
 p. 413: 
 
 "It may be remembered that several years ago Col. Burrard 
 showed that there appears to be a subterranean mass of great 
 density lying across India in mean latitude 23 north. He now 
 shows that the observations indicate the existence of a line of low 
 density between this subterranean mass and the Himalayas, and 
 suggests that there was, or is, one long crack in the earth's sub- 
 crust extending from Sumatra round the Arrakan coast across 
 Northern India, through the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, 
 traces of which are seen in the parallel shores of the Gulf of Oman 
 and the Persian Gulf. The crack has been filled with alluvial 
 deposit across Northern India and in other places, but the Hima- 
 layas remain as the result of the rift in the earth, a great mass of 
 matter having been pushed northward. It has been supposed by 
 others that the Himalayan range was formed by the southward 
 advance of the northern part of the Asiastic continent on to the 
 Indo-African tableland." 
 
 The idea here developed by Colonel Burrard, including especi- 
 ally the light material under northern India, and the pushing of the 
 Himalayas northward, is so very similar to that developed in my 
 memoirs that it must be regarded as an independent confirmation 
 of the theory that the mountains are formed by the sea. And as 
 this conclusion applies to the greatest and most intricate range in 
 the world, the external relations of which are not entirely simple, 
 I deem it worthy of attention. 
 
 Finally, it may be noted that much interest has been awak- 
 ened in this subject in England and other countries of Europe. 
 
o> a) co 
 
 J= J2 
 
 1*1 
 
 I! 
 
 % If* 
 
 9 1 SB 
 
 fi] 
 
 all 
 
 to 1 
 
13 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 139 
 
 The new theory already is widely taught in the schools of Great 
 Britain and the Continent; and in his new work The Growth of a 
 Planet, (The MacMillan Co., New York, 1911), the London geo- 
 physicist Mr. Edwin Sharpe Grew, M. A., concedes that the 
 author's reasoning on the Aleutian Islands is unanswerable, and 
 finally says: 
 
 "Dr. See has arranged his facts with great ingenuity, and the 
 presentation of his case is the most powerful argument which has 
 ever been advanced in favor of the view held since the days of 
 Strabo, Aristotle or Pliny, that the expansive force of steam is the 
 prime cause of volcanic and seismic disturbances." 
 
 In view of this general interest a few additional considera- 
 tions on the origin of the Himalayas maybe important. For after 
 careful reflection I regard the Himalayas as the crucial test; and 
 as the theory is triumphantly verified by a more complete study 
 of this great range, it must hereafter be regarded as firmly and 
 permanently established. 
 
 2. The Volumes of the Plateaus of the Rocky Mountains, of 
 the Andes, and of the Himalayas. 
 
 In the four Memoirs included in the Proceedings of this Society 
 for 1906-08, the new theory of mountain formation is treated with 
 considerable detail, but some numerical relations between the 
 plateaus above mentioned are worthy of more attention than they 
 have yet received. 
 
 The Pacific plateau of North America is of variable width, 
 being less than 500 miles wide in Mexico, and perhaps 600 miles 
 wide in Canada, but from 1,000 to 1,500 miles wide in the United 
 States. Perhaps 750 miles wide would be a good average estimate 
 of the whole plateau. And the height may be taken as approxima- 
 tely 5,000 feet, or a mile above the sea. These average figures 
 will satisfactorily represent the Pacific plateau in North America. 
 It is noticed also in many places that where the plateau is broadest 
 it is of less average height; but where it is narrower the height is 
 somewhat increased. 
 
140 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 In the Andes the same principles prevail. The plateau is 
 highest in the region of Lake Titicaca, where the elevation is over 
 12,600 feet, or 2.5 miles. The width here does not exceed 300 
 miles. Further north, near Quito, it narrows up, and is not over 
 half this width; but in Columbia it again spreads out to a width 
 of 300 or 400 miles, but is only about 6,000 or 8,000 feet in height, 
 scarcely more than half that along the more southern portion of 
 the Andes. 
 
 It is noticeable that the height decreases from 12,600 feet 
 near Lake Titicaca, to 11,000 feet in central Peru, and perhaps 
 10,000 feet at Quito; while south of Titicaca the height does not 
 decrease appreciably till central Chile is reached, after which it 
 falls steadily till the continent sinks beneath the sea at Cape 
 Horn. 
 
 Now it is remarkable that if we take a typical section of the 
 highest and broadest part of the Andean plateau, 2.5 miles high 
 by 300 miles wide, the numerical product of width by height in 
 miles is 750. And the Rocky Mountain plateau, one mile high 
 and 750 miles wide, gives the same product, 750 square miles. 
 
 To be sure this product can be varied considerably by taking 
 different sections of the plateaus of North and South America, 
 but all in all this average estimate appears to be a fair one. For 
 in the article Andes, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, 
 Sir Archibald Geikie estimates the bulk of the Andes as of the 
 average width of 100 miles, and the height 13,000 feet. The 
 present estimate gives greater width but somewhat less height. 
 
 On the whole, I am inclined to think that the average sectional 
 area in the Andes is somewhat less than that in the Rocky 
 Mountain plateau; for between Colorado and the Pacific coast 
 the width is about 1,500 miles, and the average height about a 
 mile. The plateau is much narrower in Canada, and very much 
 narrower in Mexico, practically disappearing entirely in Central 
 America and Panama. Thus at one point in the United States 
 the sectional contents may be twice that in the Andes; yet the 
 average sectional volume for the Pacific plateau of North America 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 141 
 
 is not much greater than the larger sectional volumes for the 
 plateau of the Andes. 
 
 The significance of this equality in the sections of the two 
 plateaus lies in the fact that both are the products of the common 
 Pacific Ocean, one in the northern, the other in the southern conti- 
 nent. The new theory does not require that the volumes should 
 be exactly equal, but it implies that they should be comparable, 
 and such is the fact in a very striking degree. 
 
 Let us now consider the plateau of Tibet, in comparison with 
 that of the Andes. The height of western Tibet is about 15,000 
 feet, while eastern Tibet has an elevation of only 11,000 feet. The 
 breadth also varies from some 200 miles on the west to 500 miles 
 at the eastern extremity (General Strachey, Article Himalayas, 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition). 
 
 Accordingly, if we take the wider part of western Tibet as 
 having a sectional height of three miles and a breadth of 250 miles, 
 the product in miles is 750, exactly the same as in the Andes and 
 the Rocky Mountains. Further east in Tibet the width may be 
 500 miles, and the height about two miles, which gives a sectional 
 product of 1,000. This is larger than the average Andean prod- 
 uct adopted above, and more like that of the Rocky Mountain 
 plateau west of Colorado. 
 
 But the circumstance that the sectional volumes of three 
 great plateaus in the three leading continents of the globe should 
 all be so nearly equal is fully as impressive a fact as the related 
 fact that all of these plateaus should overlook the same great ocean 
 by which they were elevated. 
 
 Altogether the similarity in the volumes of sections of these 
 three greatest plateaus is so striking as to make it difficult to deny 
 that it constitutes practically a mathematical demonstration that 
 these plateaus were uplifted by the Pacific Ocean. The relation- 
 ships here brought out as to the volumes of these plateaus, in 
 addition to the situations about the Pacific Ocean, could not well 
 be accounted for by chance, even if we did not know the cause of 
 mountain formation. But as the cause of mountain formation 
 
142 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 is fully understood, the cause which has built the plateaus is also 
 clearly shown, and it is impossible to consider any other explana- 
 tion than that here outlined. 
 
 3. General Law that where a Continuous Plateau increases 
 in width, it decreases in elevation. 
 
 This law doubtless results from the process of uplifting by 
 which the mountains and plateaus have been raised above the 
 sea. For example, in case of the continuous plateau crowned 
 with mountain crests which surrounds the Pacific Ocean from Cape 
 Horn to Alaska, and then extends down the south eastern shores 
 of Asia, runs westward through India, and down the east shore of 
 Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, it is observed in each of the four 
 continents traversed that where the plateau is highest it usually 
 narrows in width, and vice versa. 
 
 Thus we have seen that the plateau of the Andes is high in 
 Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, but in Columbia falls to about 
 half its former level, but expands to about double width. This 
 expansion of the width of the plateau in Columbia is character- 
 istic of plateau formation in general. There are slight exceptions 
 to the rule, but the conformity to it is much more noticeable. 
 For example, at Titicaca the width is about 250 miles, but some 
 distance north of this region the Andean plateau seems to narrow 
 up till the width scarcely exceeds 150 miles, in Ecuador; but it 
 then spreads out again as the range enters Columbia. 
 
 It is not easy to explain this narrowing of the range, unless 
 the great width and great height at Titicaca are due to the indenta- 
 tion of the coast at this point, giving uplifting forces from both 
 directions, at the same time. This explanation seems to be well 
 founded, and is confirmed by the corresponding effect north of 
 central India, where the plateau of Tibet reaches its maximum 
 elevation. 
 
 Accordingly, we probably should conclude, that the width of 
 the Andean plateau is normally less than at Lake Titicaca, and 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 143 
 
 the width there is due to a combination of forces from the two lines 
 of coast, meeting at an angle of about 135. It is therefore a fact 
 in South America that wherever the plateau is widest, it decreases 
 in elevation, as in Columbia. 
 
 In this problem of uplift, however, something depends on the 
 depth and width of the adjacent elevating ocean, and thus a cer- 
 tain amount of variety should result. Since the adjacent sea is 
 not of uniform effectiveness, we should expect minor deviations 
 from the law; but obviously they should not be too pronounced. 
 
 In North America, the same general law holds true. Where- 
 ever the plateau is narrow, as in central Mexico, the elevation is 
 great; but where it is wide, the elevation generally is lower. There 
 are of course some exceptions to the rule, but it generally holds 
 true. 
 
 For example, along the Rocky Mountain range the highest 
 part of the plateau probably is in Colorado, where the whole 
 Pacific plateau is widest; but this only indicates that the forces 
 which raised such high mountains as Pike's Peak, also raised a 
 high plateau in the general region, independent of the width of 
 the plateau afterwards elevated from the sea. And so on gene- 
 rally. 
 
 The rule that the plateau decreases in height when it increases 
 in width, must be understood to apply to a region of not too great 
 width. For when the width is very great, we have rather a series 
 of plateaus added together side by side than a single one; and the 
 final result is a composite effect, one plateau section fitting onto 
 another, and the whole series of sections running together as an 
 unbroken embankment of variable height. ' 
 
 In view of these considerations, a plateau so wide as that 
 between Colorado and California is really a series of plateaus, each 
 of unusual width at this point, and the whole effect therefore a 
 very broad compound plateau. The entire Pacific plateau is the 
 cumulative work of the ocean, done in successive sections; and 
 as the ocean is deepest opposite California, the uplift naturally 
 has been greatest in this part, which also developed the Sierra 
 
144 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Nevada Mountains, and at a still earlier stage the Wasatch range 
 in Utah. 
 
 The history of the building of the Pacific plateau from Colo- 
 rado to California is too long to be described here, but these hints 
 on the method by which it was elevated give some idea of the 
 growth of the continent westward from the ancient border which 
 was east of the present Rocky Mountain range. 
 
 4. The Cause of the great height of the plateaus of western 
 Tibet and Titicaca. 
 
 Since writing the Memoirs of 1906-08, I have had occasion 
 to re-examine the relationship of the great mountains to the 
 plateaus, and of the plateaus to the sea, with the result of con- 
 firming in the most conclusive manner the uplift of the plateaus 
 by the ocean. It is found that the plateau of western Tibet has 
 almost exactly the relationship to the ancient sea valley formerly 
 covering northern India, that the plateau of Titicaca now has to 
 the border of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 If we examine a good map of northern India, we shall find 
 not only that the Indus and Ganges now flow in the ancient sea 
 valley formerly depressed below the waves, and now elevated less 
 than 1,000 feet above the ocean; but also that this valley made 
 a sharp bend in north central India. It has the form of the Greek 
 letter lambda, with the Ganges leg of the lambda by far the longest, 
 and the included angle about 105. 
 
 If the lava expelled from beneath this ancient sea valley came 
 from two directions, at such an angle, the forces of uplift naturally 
 would accumulate at the head of the sea valley. For they would 
 come from the southeast and also from the southwest, as well as 
 from the south; and the result of compounding these forces, would 
 be magnified forces of unusual intensity, directed to the elevation 
 of the Himalayas of north central India. This is exactly what 
 has taken place; and hence we see why the plateau of Tibet is so 
 high in the western part of that great "roof of the world." 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 145 
 
 If now we turn to the region of Lake Titicaca, in South Amer- 
 ica, we find an exactly similar relative situation. The coasts from 
 the south and northwest meet at an angle of some 135; and the 
 forces producing the uplift have come from the two directions, and 
 also from the west. The result has been a convergence of the 
 forces tending to produce an uplift; but as the angle of 135 is 
 less acute than in northern India, where the angle is 105, it 
 is not remarkable that the plateau of Titicaca is less elevated 
 than that of western Tibet, where the forces converged more 
 powerfully and were so compounded as to produce the maximum 
 elevation. 
 
 It certainly is not accidental that these two highest plateaus 
 of the world stand in similar centers of converging forces directed 
 from the ocean; and that the higher plateau of western Tibet has 
 the forces converging at the smaller angle of 105, and therefore 
 compounding more effectively to produce a greater power of uplift, 
 for equal energy directed from the side of the sea. 
 
 And as the observed phenomena confirm the theory in every 
 detail, one finds it very difficult to believe that any other cause 
 has shaped these stupendous uplifts of the earth's crust. 
 
 It is also easy to see why the height of the plateau of Tibet 
 is less towards the east, where the elevation is only 11,000 feet. 
 For in the eastern part only a side pressure was available for the 
 uplift, and the forces of elevation did not converge towards a 
 point, as in western Tibet and near Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia. 
 
 5. Some phenomena connected with the great earthquake at 
 Arica, August 13, 1868. 
 
 One of the most important means of judging of earthquake 
 phenomena is the evidence afforded by eye-witnesses; and this 
 becomes especially valuable when we know the nature of earth- 
 quake processes, because it then becomes possible to see in the 
 descriptions given by eye-witnesses new meaning. 
 
 Accordingly, we add a brief account of the terrible earthquake 
 at Arica, August 13, 1868, which was a continuation of the move- 
 
146 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ments directly concerned with the uplift of the plateau of Titicaca. 
 For it was a survival of the ancient movements which brought 
 about this elevation, and as the region is still near the sea, it is of 
 special interest, because it bears on the elevation of the plateaus 
 of the Himalayas, now further inland. 
 
 In his "Light Science for Leisure Hours," p. 199, the late 
 Professor R. A. Proctor describes the havoc wrought by the earth- 
 quake at the neighboring town of Arequipa as follows: 
 
 "At five minutes past five (P.M.) an earthquake shock was 
 experienced, which, though severe, seems to have worked very 
 little mischief. Half a minute later, however, a terrible noise was 
 heard beneath the earth; a second shock more violent than the 
 first was felt; and then began a swaying motion, gradually in- 
 creasing in intensity. In the course of the first minute this 
 motion had become so violent that the inhabitants ran in terror 
 out of their houses into the streets and squares. In the next two 
 minutes the swaying movement had so increased that the more 
 lightly built houses were cast to the ground, and the flying people 
 could scarcely keep their feet. 'And now/ says Von Tschudi, 
 'there followed during two or three minutes a terrible scene. The 
 swaying motion which had hitherto prevailed changed into fierce 
 vertical upheaval. The subterranean roaring increased in the 
 most terrifying manner; then were heard the heart-piercing shrieks 
 of the wretched people, the bursting of walls, the crashing fall of 
 houses and churches, while over all rolled thick clouds of a yellow- 
 ish-black dust, which, had they been poured forth many minutes 
 longer, would have suffocated thousands.' Although the shocks 
 had lasted but a few minutes, the whole town was destroyed. Not 
 one building remained uninjured, and there were few which did 
 not lie in shapeless heaps of ruins." 
 
 This description was drawn for the phenomena observed at 
 Arequipa, but that it would serve equally well for Arica is suffi- 
 ciently indicated by the accompanying photographs of the town 
 as it was before and after the earthquake. A more terrible record 
 of desolation could hardly be imagined. 
 
THE CITY OF ARICA, PERU, AS IT APPEARED BEFORE AND AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE 
 AND SEA WAVE OF AUGUST 13, 1868. 
 
 From photographs in the possession of Mrs. E. V. Cutts, of Mare Island, California. 
 
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UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 147 
 
 With this brief but striking description of the earthquake, we 
 may now turn to the seismic sea wave at Arica, and here I shall 
 again quote Proctor's account, which is based on the elaborate 
 technical memoir prepared by Professor F. Von Hochstetter in the 
 Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy of Sciences for 1868, Vol. 
 LVIII, Abth. II. Proctor's account runs thus: 
 
 "At Arica the sea wave produced even more destructive 
 effects than had been caused by the earthquake. About twenty 
 minutes after the first earth-shock, (i.e. 5:25 P.M.) the sea was 
 seen to retire, as if about to leave the shores wholly dry; but 
 presently its waters returned with tremendous force. A mighty 
 wave, whose length seemed immeasurable, was seen advancing 
 like a dark wall upon the unfortunate town, a large part of which 
 was overwhelmed by it. Two ships, the Peruvian corvette ' Amer- 
 ica' and the United States 'double-ender' * Wateree,' were carried 
 nearly half a mile to the north of Arica, beyond the railroad which 
 runs to Tacna, and there left stranded high and dry. This enor- 
 mous wave was considered by the English vice-consul at Arica to 
 have been fully fifty feet in height. 
 
 "At Chala, three such waves swept in after the first shocks of 
 earthquake. They overflowed nearly the whole of the town, the 
 sea passing more than half a mile beyond its usual limits. 
 
 "At Islay and Iquique similar phenomena were manifested. 
 At the former town the sea flowed in no less than five times, and 
 each time with greater force. Afterwards the motion gradually 
 diminished, but even an hour and a half after the commencement 
 of this strange disturbance, the waves still ran forty feet above 
 the ordinary level. At Iquique, the people beheld the inrushing 
 wave whilst it was still a great way off. A dark blue mass of water, 
 some fifty feet in height, was seen sweeping in upon the town with 
 inconceivable rapidity. An island lying before the harbour was 
 completely submerged by the great wave, which still came rushing 
 on, black with the mud and slime it had swept from the sea bot- 
 tom. Those who witnessed its progress from the upper balconies 
 of their houses, and presently saw its black mass rushing close 
 
148 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 beneath their feet, looked on their safety as a miracle. Many 
 buildings were indeed washed away, and in the low lying parts of 
 town there was a terrible loss of life. After passing far inland the 
 wave slowly returned seawards, and strangely enough, the sea, 
 which elsewhere heaved and tossed for hours after the first great 
 wave had swept over it, here came soon to rest. 
 
 "At Callao a yet more singular instance was afforded of the 
 effect which circumstances may have upon the motion of the sea 
 after a great earthquake has disturbed it. In former earthquakes 
 Callao has suffered terribly from the effects of the great sea wave. 
 In fact, on two occasions the whole town has been destroyed, and 
 nearly all its inhabitants have been drowned, through the inrush 
 of precisely such waves as flowed into the ports of Arica and Chala. 
 But upon this occasion the center of subterranean disturbance 
 must have been so situated that either the wave was diverted from 
 Callao, or more probably two waves reached Callao from different 
 sources and at different times, so that the two undulations partly 
 counteracted each other. Certain it is that although the water 
 retreated strangely from the coast near Callao, insomuch that a 
 wide tract of the sea-bottom was uncovered, there was no inrush- 
 ing wave comparable with those described above. The sea after- 
 wards rose and fell in an irregular manner, a circumstance con- 
 firming the supposition that the disturbance was caused by two 
 distinct oscillations. Six hours after the occurrence of the earth- 
 shock, the double oscillations seem for awhile to have worked 
 themselves into unison, for at this time three considerable waves 
 rolled in upon the town. But clearly these waves must not be 
 compared with those which in other instances had made their 
 appearance within half an hour of the earth- throes. There is 
 little reason to doubt that if the separate oscillations had rein- 
 forced each other earlier, Callao would have been completely de- 
 stroyed. As it was, a considerable amount of mischief was effected ; 
 but the motion of the sea presently became irregular again, and so 
 continued until the morning of August 14, when it began to ebb 
 with some regularity. But during the 14th there were occasional 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 149 
 
 renewals of the irregular motion, and several days elapsed before 
 the regular ebb and flow of the sea were resumed." 
 
 In this excellent account of the great sea wave at Arica, 
 August 13, 1868, Proctor makes no allusion to the U.S.S. Fredonia, 
 which was lying at anchor with the Water ee; and we add therefore 
 that the Fredonia is reported to have been capsized as the wave 
 advanced, and nothing was ever again heard of her, all the officers 
 and crew having been lost with the wreck of the vessel. 
 
 The Water ee was but little injured, and afterwards served as a 
 hotel. The picture of the stranded Water ee here reproduced was 
 made by an officer who visited the scene sometime after the dis- 
 aster. This valuable historic photograph has been preserved by 
 Mrs. E. V. Cutts of Mare Island, to whom the author is indebted 
 for this impressive illustration of the effects of this great sea wave. 
 The previous illustrations show the city of Arica before this earth- 
 quake, and the mere wreckage which remained after the inunda- 
 tion of the sea. 
 
 In an earlier passage than that above cited, Proctor quotes 
 the description of an eye-witness, which tells of the movements 
 of the ships: 
 
 "The agent of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, whose 
 house had been destroyed by the earth-shock, saw the great sea 
 wave while he was flying towards the hills. He writes: * While 
 passing towards the hills, with the earth shaking, a great cry went 
 up to heaven. The sea had retired. On clearing the town, I 
 looked back and saw that the vessels were being carried irresistibly 
 seawards. In a few minutes the sea stopped, and then arose a 
 mighty wave fifty feet high, and came in with a fearful rush, 
 carrying everything before it in terrible majesty. The whole of 
 the shipping came back, speeding towards inevitable doom. In 
 a few minutes all was completed every vessel was either on 
 shore or bottom upwards/ " 
 
150 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 6. Pratt' s reasoning on the density of the matter under the 
 ocean, plains and mountains, and its application to India and the 
 Himalayas. 
 
 Pratt's reasoning in regard to the density of the matter in 
 and beneath the crust of the earth, and its bearing on the new 
 theory of earthquakes is described in my paper on "The Cause 
 of Earthquakes, Mountain Formation and Kindred Phenomena 
 Connected with the Physics of the Earth," published in the Pro- 
 ceedings of this Society for 1906, pp. 344-346. His main con- 
 clusion is stated thus: 
 
 "This (deflection of the plumb line) shows that the effect of 
 variations of density in the crust must be very great in order to 
 bring about this near compensation. In fact the density of the 
 crust beneath the mountains must be less than that below the 
 plains, and still less than that below the ocean-bed." (Pratt, 
 Figure of the Earth, 3d edition, Art. 137, pp. 134-135). 
 
 Again: 
 
 "The conclusion at which we have arrived in Article 137, that 
 the parts of the crust below the more elevated regions are of less 
 density, and the parts beneath the depressed regions in the ocean 
 are of greater density than the average portions of the surface, 
 seems to bear additional testimony to the fluid theory. For it 
 shows, that notwithstanding the varied surface, seen at present 
 in mountains and oceans, the amount of matter in a vertical prism 
 drawn down at various places to any given spheroidal stratum is 
 the same, although its length varies from place to place as the 
 earth's contour varies/' (idem, p. 162). 
 
 This subject of the density of the matter hidden from our 
 view beneath the crust of the earth has also been discussed by the 
 late Professor Henri Poincare, in an address on French Geodesy, 
 translated by Professor George Bruce Halstead, and published in 
 the Popular Science Monthly for February, 1913. The eminent 
 French geometer reasons as follows: 
 
 "But these deep-lying rocks we cannot reach exercise from 
 afar their attraction which operates upon the pendulum and 
 
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 w x 
 
 fa .22 % *0 
 
 03^- 
 
 II 
 
 
 
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UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 151 
 
 deforms the terrestrial spheroid. Geodesy can therefore weigh 
 them from afar, so to speak, and tell us of their distribution. Thus 
 will it make us really see those regions which Jules Verne only 
 showed us in imagination. 
 
 "This is not an empty illusion. M. Faye, comparing all the 
 measurements, has reached a result well calculated to surprise us. 
 Under the oceans, in the depths, are rocks of very great density; 
 under the continents, on the contrary, are empty spaces. 
 
 "New observations will modify perhaps the details of these 
 conclusions. 
 
 "In any case, our venerated dean has shown us where to 
 search and what the geodesist may teach the geologist, desirous 
 of knowing the interior constitution of the earth, and even the 
 thinker wishing to speculate upon the past and the origin of this 
 planet." 
 
 From this extract it will be seen that the most eminent French 
 authorities recognize the conclusions first formulated by Pratt 
 over half a century ago. It only remains to consider the applica- 
 tion of Pratt 's theorem to the Himalayas and the plateau of Tibet. 
 
 If, as Pratt says, "the density of the crust beneath the moun- 
 tains must be less than that below the plains, and still less than 
 that below the ocean bed," it is very difficult to see how this could 
 have come about except by the greater uplift of the mountains, 
 by the injection of more light material beneath, while a less amount 
 of such material has been injected under the plains, and scarcely 
 any has remained under the ocean bed, because it tends to work 
 out by the path of least resistance. This is the only explanation 
 which satisfies the observed phenomena, and conforms to the 
 known fact that the mountains and plateaus are uplifted by the 
 expulsion of matter from beneath the sea, in world-shaking earth- 
 quakes. Thus the known facts of geodesy as respects the Hima- 
 layas are fully explained. And the explanation rests on principles 
 established by a variety of mutually confirmatory observations. 
 
152 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 7. Defects in the Doctrine of Isostacy as commonly stated. 
 
 The doctrine of Isostacy as commonly stated is vitiated by a 
 serious if not fatal error; and it is necessary to overcome this 
 defect if the doctrine is to hold its place in modern thought. In 
 Science of February 10, 1911, Professor J. F. Hay ford presents a 
 paper based on the valuable data he obtained in the work of the 
 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey deduced from seven hundred and 
 sixty-five series of astronomical observations at eighty-nine sta- 
 tions in the United States. The causes assigned, however, are so 
 inadequate that it seems worth while to point out the defects in 
 his reasoning, which is as follows: 
 
 "Columns A and B have been assumed to contain equal masses. 
 There is complete isostatic compensation. The pressures at the 
 bases of the two columns are equal, and at any less depth, X, the 
 pressure is greater in A than in B. Now assume that in the nor- 
 mal course of events a large amount of material is being eroded 
 from the high surface of column A and deposited on the low sur- 
 face of column B. After this erosion has been in progress for some 
 time the isostatic compensation will no longer be perfect. The 
 pressure at the base of B will be greater than at the base of A. The 
 pressure very near the top of B will still be less than at the same 
 level in A so long as the top of A remains higher than the top of B. 
 There will be some intermediate level at which the pressure in 
 the two columns is the same. Call this level of temporary equality 
 of pressure in the two columns the neutral level. As the process 
 of erosion and deposition progresses the neutral level will gradu- 
 ally progress upward from its original position at the base of the 
 columns. Eventually if no interchange of mass took place between 
 the columns except at the surface, and no vertical displacement 
 occurred in either column, the neutral level would reach the sur- 
 face when the process of erosion and deposition became complete 
 and the upper surfaces of the two columns were at the same level. 
 During the process of erosion and deposition the excess of pressure 
 in A at any level above the neutral level will continually decrease. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 153 
 
 Similarly, at any level below the neutral level the excess of pres- 
 sure in B will continually increase as the erosion progresses and 
 the neutral level will rise. Thus there will be established a con- 
 tinually increasing tendency for the material below the neutral 
 level in B to be squeezed over into A. If the stresses tending to 
 produce this undertow from the lower part of B to A become 
 greater than the material can stand, the flow will take place as 
 indicated by the arrow in the figure. If the material flows with- 
 out change of volume, as if it were incompressible, the upper part 
 of A and its surface will be raised, the upper part of B and its sur- 
 face will be lowered, the neutral level will sink and an approxi- 
 mation to the original conditions with complete isostatic com- 
 pensation will be re-established. 
 
 "This is the general case of isostatic readjustment by the 
 action of gravitation alone. Gravitation tends to produce a deep 
 undertow from the regions where deposition is taking place to the 
 regions where erosion is in progress, in the direction opposite to 
 that of the surface transfer of material. 
 
 "Let us suppose that the isostatic compensation at a given 
 stage in the earth's history is practically complete for a 
 continent, that the process of erosion from the greater part of 
 the continent and deposition around its margins is in progress, 
 and that the process of readjustment by a deep undertow is in 
 progress." 
 
 The fatal defect in this reasoning consists in the fact that it 
 begs the question, and does not in any way explain the elevation 
 of the margin of a continent, but only how it may maintain its 
 present form by a process of readjustment. This is like a river 
 rising higher than its source, a man trying to lift himself by pull- 
 ing on his boot-straps, or the logician reasoning in a circle. For in 
 order to explain the development of the inequalities of the earth's 
 crust, we must not only explain the adjustment and balancing 
 between adjacent parts, but also how the original uplift came about, 
 to give the observed contrast in surface levels. 
 
154 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Now on the premises used by Hayford, it is possible to explain 
 how a given inequality of surface levels, when once existing, can 
 be maintained; but it is not possible to account for the origin of 
 the inequalities of level. Isostacy as thus depicted is not an active 
 creative agency, but simply a negative process for maintaining existing 
 inequalities. Under the doctrine as above stated, the height of a 
 mountain or plateau could never increase, for that would require 
 the exertion of positive elevating forces, not mere balancing for 
 maintaining inequalities of levels already existing. 
 
 Accordingly, this formulation of the doctrines of Isostacy is 
 defective, and inadequate to account for the phenomena of the 
 earth's crust. 
 
 The true doctrine should include not only the balancing pro- 
 cess described by Hayford, but also those elevating forces directed 
 from the sea, by which the mountains are elevated as narrow walls 
 about the borders of continents, on the great plateaus which spread 
 out as wider embankments beneath them. Without these posi- 
 tive uplifting forces, no continent could ever have a mountainous 
 border thrown up about it. 
 
 No doubt the elevation is produced under approximately 
 isostatic conditions. Mountains can be forced up only to a cer- 
 tain height, the transfer of lighter material under the higher parts 
 thus giving nearly equal mass in all equal prisms drawn to the 
 center of the earth. The path of least resistance is towards regions 
 of elevation, and the underlying material expands as the surface 
 level is forced up. If this were not so the greater weight under 
 the elevated region would cause it to subside to the common level. 
 In this way, and in this way only, can progressive elevation be 
 produced. 
 
 The weakness of the old method of reasoning is further illus- 
 trated by Hay ford's remarks: 
 
 "Under a region of deposition two effects of opposite sign 
 tend to occur. The effect of increased pressure tends to produce 
 chemical changes accompanied by decrease of volume and so to 
 produce a sinking of the surface. The blanket of deposited mate- 
 
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 Hi 
 
 SS 
 
 
 
 1 2 
 
 
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 3 ss 
 
 w "s M 
 
 S 
 
 h 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 155 
 
 rial tends to raise the temperature in each part of the material 
 covered, to increase the volume of this material, and thereby to 
 raise the surface. The temperature effect may serve in time to 
 arrest the subsidence caused by increased pressure or even to raise 
 the surface and change the region of deposition into one of erosion. 
 
 "The changes of temperature just described are due directly 
 to erosion and deposition. If as an effect of erosion and deposi- 
 tion an undertow is started tending to re-establish the isostatic 
 condition, this undertow, a flow of material presumably solid, 
 necessarily develops considerable heat by internal friction. The 
 increase of temperature so produced tends to cause an increase of 
 volume. It may favor new chemical changes, including changes 
 from the solid to the liquid state, which may be accompanied by 
 a change of volume. The undertow tends to be strongest not 
 under the region of rapid deposition, but under the comparatively 
 neutral region between the two in which neither erosion nor deposi- 
 tion is much in excess of the other, see Figure 2. Hence the under- 
 tow by increasing the temperature and causing a change of density 
 may be directly effective in changing the elevation of the neutral 
 region between two regions of deposition and erosion. 
 
 "Horizontal compressive stresses in the material near the 
 surface above the undertow are necessarily caused by the under- 
 tow. For the undertow necessarily tends to carry the surface 
 along with it and so pushes this surface material against that in 
 the region of erosion, see Figure 2. These stresses tend to pro- 
 duce a crumpling, crushing and bending of the surface strata 
 accompanied by increase of elevation of the surface. The increase 
 of elevation of the surface so produced will tend to be greatest 
 in the neutral region or near the edge of the region of erosion, not 
 under the region of rapid erosion nor under the region of rapid 
 deposition." 
 
 The criticism against this reasoning is the same as that used 
 above namely, it will explain only balancing, but not the up- 
 lifting of great mountain walls along the sea coast. Nothing but 
 the transfer of lava from beneath the sea, and the expansion of it 
 
156 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 under the mountains will explain the observed mountain walls 
 along the borders of continents; and this requires positive forces of 
 elevation, not mere negative processes. The advocates of Isostacy, 
 as heretofore taught, have left that doctrine with such a serious 
 defect that this correction is necessary to give it a rational basis. 
 
 8. The uplifting of the Himalayas, Arrakan and Afghanistan 
 Ranges explains the great Asiastic earthquake belt. Confirmation of 
 Colonel Burrard's impressions that the Himalayas have been pushed 
 northward, but not by a change in the rotation period of the earth. 
 
 We have seen that the region now occupied by the rivers 
 Indus and Ganges was formerly a sea valley; and that after the 
 Himalayas were elevated to a great height, the valley itself was 
 slowly raised above the ocean. 
 
 If proof is asked that the valleys of the Indus and Ganges 
 were formerly below the sea, it is furnished by the well established 
 fact that such valleys as the San Joaquin and Sacramento in 
 California were below the sea when the Sierras were being elevated. 
 What has happened in California has also happened in India; and 
 the same process of elevation will eventually give a fertile habitable 
 valley in the belt just south of the Aleutian Islands now covered 
 by a sea nearly five miles deep. 
 
 This proof that the valleys of the Indus and Ganges once were 
 several miles beneath the sea level is absolute. For it is definitely 
 known how the mountain ranges and adjacent valleys are crum- 
 pled, and finally raised above the sea. And what has happened 
 for mountain ranges in general, has happened also for the Hima- 
 layas and the valleys adjacent thereto. 
 
 In order to round out the view here traced, it only remains 
 to add that the Arrakan coast of farther India contains two chief 
 mountain chains, one of which is the backbone of the Malay Penin- 
 sula; and the other is the range terminating at Cape Negrais, but 
 continuing under the sea in a string of islands, and reappearing 
 further south as Sumatra and Java. The Andaman Islands and 
 several volcanoes in the sea appear between Cape Negrais and 
 
g I 
 
 H ^ 
 
 I! 
 
 W > 
 W -^ 
 
 HH W 
 
 ffi -o 
 
MX. EVEREST, THE HIGHEST PEAK OF THE HIMALAYAS AND OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Altitude 29,002 feet above sea level. Photograph by Vittorio Sella, from Chunjerma Pass (Nepal), 
 80 miles distant, National Geographical Magazine for June, 1909. 
 
THE RUWENZORI. 
 
 In Equatorial East Africa, rising to an altitude of 18,600 feet. This snow capped range in the hottest part of Africa 
 was explored by the Duke of the Abbruzzi in 1906. Photograph by Vittorio Sella, from the South, National 
 Geographical Magazine, for June, 1909. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 157 
 
 Sumatra. And both Java and Sumatra are noted for their 
 terrific volcanic violence. This volcanic chain is analogous to that 
 of the Aleutian Islands, except that the middle part is submerged, 
 and the two ends raised above the waves. 
 
 The line of thought here developed enables us to understand 
 the volcanic activities of farther India, and also the terrible belt 
 of earthquakes in Assam and the adjacent regions south of the 
 Himalayas. Part of the ancient sea valley is above the water as 
 low land, and part still in the ocean, and covered by the sea to a 
 considerable depth. 
 
 West of India, we have the complicated mountain ranges and 
 earthquake belts of Afghanistan and Persia. It would be difficult 
 if not impossible to understand the phenomena they present if 
 studied alone; but if studied in connection with the developments 
 of India and farther India above discussed, it is easy to see that 
 Afghanistan and Persia were built up in like manner, and at no 
 very distant epoch were beneath the sea. 
 
 In his article on the Himalayas, Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th 
 edition, the late General Strachey has strongly emphasized the 
 view that the mountains and table lands of Afghanistan and 
 Persia are intelligible only in connection with those of India. " It 
 is after the middle tertiary epoch that the principal elevation of 
 these mountains took place, and about the same time also took 
 place the movements which raised the tablelands of Afghanistan 
 and Persia, and gave southern Asia its existing outlines." 
 
 He also points out the fact that at no very distant geological 
 epoch the ocean extended from the Arabian Sea through the Per- 
 sian Gulf to the Caspian and Mediterranean. The continuation 
 of the earthquake belt through this region of western Asia is there- 
 fore quite intelligible, and the existence of active volcanoes near 
 the Caspian a survival of present and former relations to the ocean. 
 
 The annual rainfall south of the Himalayas amounts to about 
 thirty-six feet, and this is so enormous as to be almost as effective 
 as a shallow sea in keeping alive earthquake processes. 
 
158 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 It is established by observation, for example, that the very 
 active volcano Sangai, in the terrible rain belt at the head of the 
 Amazon, in Ecuador, has its activity about doubled during the 
 worst period of the rainy season, owing to the effects of surface 
 water. If in South America the volcanic forces can be visibly 
 augumented by copious surface water, it is easy to understand 
 that the terrible rains of India may also operate to keep alive the 
 earthquake processes almost as well as an overlying sea. 
 
 The earthquake belt south of the Himalayas is thus perfectly 
 explained. And the extension of this line of disturbance through 
 to the Caspian presents no difficulty, when account is taken of the 
 recent situation of the sea over a large part of this region of 
 western Asia. 
 
 In conclusion it only remains to add that Colonel Burrard's 
 argument, cited in section 1 above, that the Himalayas resulted 
 from the pushing of a great mass of matter northward, undoubted- 
 ly is correct. This fact appears to be as well established as the 
 rising and setting of the sun, and further discussion of the subject 
 is superfluous. 
 
 The cause of this northward movement is also fully estab- 
 lished, but it is not that imagined by Colonel Burrard. In the 
 Observatory for May and June, 1912, will be found a discussion 
 by Colonel Burrard of considerable interest, but founded on the 
 premise that the earth's speed of rotation is variable and has 
 undergone considerable changes within the period covered by 
 geological history. 
 
 The writer's Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems, 
 Volume II, 1910, show that the views formerly held by Lord Kel- 
 vin and Sir George Darwin are now quite inadmissible; and that 
 the earth's rotation has not changed sensibly since the earliest 
 geological time. Thus Colonel Burrard's premise that the retarda- 
 tion of the earth's rotation might cause a flow of matter towards 
 the poles is wholly inadmissible. 
 
 Besides, there are other means of showing that such was not 
 the origin of the Himalayas. These great mountains of India, 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 159 
 
 for example, should no more be due to a change in the earths* 
 rotation, than should the Andes, which run almost exactly north 
 and south, and by their course along the meridian, exclude an 
 explanation founded on a change in the speed of the earth's rota- 
 tion. 
 
 And as the Andes are well known to have been formed by the 
 sea in the way we have described, it is certain that the same cause 
 uplifted the Himalayas and the plateau of Tibet. 
 
 From these considerations it will be seen that the modern 
 sciences of Geogony and Cosomogony are closely related, and that 
 neither can be perfectly developed without the aid of the other. 
 Just as it is impossible to develop a satisfactory theory of the 
 formation of the earth without data drawn from the modern 
 Science of Cosmogony; so also Cosmogony itself has been much 
 improved by a Science of Geogony which gives a correct theory of 
 terrestrial mountain formation. For that has aided in establish- 
 ing the origin of the lunar craters, and the early growth of the earth 
 itself by impact the existing ranges of mountains having been 
 subsequently formed by the sea and thus made parallel to the 
 coasts. 
 
 On the other hand, without the theory that the mountains 
 generally are formed by the ocean, which is so clearly established 
 for the typical range of the Andes, running exactly north and south, 
 our ideas of the origin of the Himalayas might have remained ob- 
 scure for ages. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to point out that these results illus- 
 trate somewhat impressively the value of a comprehensive vision 
 in the study of the Sciences. Without this power for comparing 
 together the most remote objects there can be no progress in dis- 
 covery of the highest order. 
 
 Starlight on Loutre, Montgomery City, Missouri, 
 March 27, 1913. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1911. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE STARRY HEAVENS.* 
 By T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 'E are assembled to consider the great Law of Nature which 
 governs the Evolution of Worlds, and to celebrate the Found- 
 ing of a New Science of the Starry Heavens. Prior to the 
 establishment of the Science of Cosmogony, from researches made 
 here in California during the past few years, the most recent 
 Astronomical Science developed by a modern investigator was 
 Astrophysics, which was founded by the late Sir William Huggins 
 half a century ago. From this circumstance it is not without 
 inspiration to recall the lively interest taken by this illustrious 
 pioneer in the development of the New Science of Cosmogony. 
 For just as in early manhood he foresaw with prophetic vision the 
 great possibilities of Astrophysics, so also in the last years of a long 
 life consecrated to the advancement of truth, this venerable philos- 
 opher was one of the first to welcome the founding of a New Science 
 of Cosmical Evolution. We may pause to recall the early words 
 of Sir William Huggins, which were the more appreciated because 
 they were uttered before the New Science had become established 
 in the scientific world. 
 
 Writing from London, under date of August 11, 1908, he 
 says: "I hasten to thank you for your letter giving me early 
 information of your bold and startling new theory of spiral nebulae. 
 It takes one's breath away to endeavor to realize the going round 
 of these long drawn out wisps, I suppose, billions of billions of 
 
 * Address to the California Academy of Sciences, delivered August 7, 1911. 
 Reprinted from Popular Astronomy for November- December, 1911. 
 
0. !. I.I H H , 
 
 E fl M E T P H I 
 
 E k THI 81BA100HKHI 
 
 E O I A E I F-EftMETPEI 
 
 A BOOK-PLATE REPRESENTING ONE OF THE GREATEST LAWS OF NATURE. 
 
 Presented to Professor See by Citizens of California, 1911, with the appropriate inscription: 
 
 "THE DEITY ALWAYS GEOMETRIZES," which naturally is dear to the Mathematician. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 161 
 
 miles long! At the first blush one would hardly expect them to 
 make headway in any resisting medium. But your theory gets 
 out of the astonishing difficulty of how they exist, if at rest, in any 
 state approaching equilibrium. If, as you say it does, the thing 
 works out, we seem to have reached something like certainty in 
 a subject which hitherto has been in more senses than one a nebu- 
 lous one. I am greatly interested and shall look forward to the 
 fuller working out of your ideas. Laplace's theory is no doubt 
 vulnerable." 
 
 In a note of June 6, 1909, Sir William added: "It is indeed 
 an exciting time when one's old notions are disappearing under 
 the light of new knowledge. One almost regrets the time when 
 one could sleep comfortably in Laplace's bosom." 
 
 On September 12, 1909, Sir William wrote : "I have received, 
 and desire now to thank you for, separate copies of your important 
 papers on the Capture of Satellites, and of the Moon, which ap- 
 peared in the Astronomische Nachrichten. From the point of 
 sentiment it is, perhaps, disappointing to learn that our old 
 Moon is not an earth-son, but some gypsy body, and that 
 all the planets and satellites of our system are not children 
 and grand-children of the sun, but 'undesirable aliens' from 
 nobody knows where! But fact and truth come before senti- 
 ment, and your views claim the earnest consideration of all 
 astronomers." 
 
 Another celebrated philosopher who early welcomed these 
 new advances and therefore is not to be forgotten by us to-night, 
 is the lamented Schiaparelli, the most illustrious Italian astrono- 
 mer since the days of Galileo. He heartily rejoiced to be able to 
 recognize in the recent discoveries the aurora which heralds the 
 coming day of a New Science of Cosmogony, and pointed out that 
 heretofore astronomers had been occupied mainly with ascertain- 
 ing the present state of the heavens. 
 
 On the occasion of this anniversary, three years after the first 
 private announcements were made to Sir William Huggins, ex- 
 president of the Royal Society, and acknowledged by him in the 
 
162 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 letters above quoted, we find the New Science of Cosmogony already 
 widely recognized by the most eminent astronomers and geom- 
 eters. To all who have extended this generous welcome to new 
 truth struggling for a foothold in the world, it is needless to say 
 that we return most humble and hearty thanks, but to none more 
 appropriately than the illustrious Poincare, the foremost natural 
 philosopher and geometer of our age. 
 
 Writing to me from Paris under date of July 6, 1911, this 
 incomparable mathematician says: "I have made use of your 
 book (Researches , Vol. II) in my course this year, although I had 
 not expected to do so, since I did not receive the volume till near 
 the close of the last lesson; I then insisted, with profit, on the 
 capture of planets by a resisting medium. 
 
 "My course is being published and I shall send it to you as 
 soon as it appears, that is to say, in the month of November. You 
 will see there the remarks and the difficulties which your theories 
 have suggested to me. 
 
 Your very devoted colleague, 
 
 POINCARE." 
 
 Among the other investigators who have joined in this not- 
 able advance, special mention should be made of the work of our 
 eminent colleague Professor E. W. Brown, of Yale University, 
 for an important extension of our knowledge of the Capture of 
 Satellites (Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society, March, 
 1911); and of the recent researches of Professor Elis Stromgren, 
 of the Royal Observatory of Copenhagen, demonstrating the 
 elliptical character of the orbits of all comets, thus showing that 
 they are attached to the solar system, and do not move in parabolic 
 or hyperbolic orbits, as was long believed. This work of Strom- 
 gren has removed the last important difficulty in establishing the 
 Science of Cosmogony. Indeed his researches on comets seem 
 likely to constitute the most notable advance in our theory of 
 these mysterious objects since the days of Tycho, Kepler and 
 Newton. 
 

 **- 
 
 
 POINCARE. 
 
 The eminent French mathematician and natural philosopher, and one of the greatest of 
 modern astronomers. 
 
HIPPARCHUS. 
 
 The founder of the Science of Astronomy, and the most famous of the 
 Greek astronomers. This genuine portrait of Hipparchus is based on an antique 
 cameo found by Admiral Smyth, the British amateur astronomer, during a cruise 
 in the Mediterranean about the year 1813, most likely at Athens or Alexandria. 
 An outline of it is given in Chambers' Astronomy, Vol. III. As here presented 
 it has been carefully enlarged by Mr. A. E. Axlund, and the deficient parts filled 
 out by Professor See, who added the base, with inscription from Ptolemy, who 
 praises Hipparchus as a "labor-loving and truth-loving man." 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 163 
 
 I. CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 NEW SCIENCE OF COSMOGONY. 
 
 From these considerations it is evident that we have recently 
 witnessed the development of a new science of the starry heavens. 
 As will be seen hereafter it throws a clear light upon the astrono- 
 my of the invisible,* and illuminates the remotest regions of 
 space almost as brightly as those well-lighted portions in the 
 neighborhood of the sun, where the planets move. In fact it has 
 been justly remarked that our new science lights up the firmament 
 not unlike a new star which suddenly appears in the sky; and its 
 development seems to have been almost as unexpected. We are 
 still dazzled by the splendor of the light which has been suddenly 
 thrown on the invisible processes of creation. For the processes 
 of cosmical evolution are so slow that they extend over vast 
 ages, and in general cannot be directly observed, but must 
 be inferred, from the order now found to pervade the sidereal 
 universe. 
 
 Like Astronomy itself, Cosmogony in a primitive way dates 
 back to the age of the Greeks, having been allegorically treated 
 by the poets and afterwards more adequately developed by such 
 natural philosophers as Anaximander, Democritus and Anaxagoras; 
 so that it is at once the oldest and the newest of the sciences. But 
 it is only within the last twelve years that we have secured the 
 necessary data of observation, on the nebulae, chiefly by Keeler 
 and Perrine at Lick Observatory, and introduced rigorous mathe- 
 matical criteria which give us the permanent basis of a true phy- 
 sical science. Accordingly whilst Astronomy proper was placed 
 on a secure foundation by the researches of such ancient geom- 
 eters as Apollonius, Aristarchus and Archimedes, combined with 
 the observational data of Timocharis, Hipparchus and Ptolemy, 
 Cosmogony proved to be much more difficult to reduce to a 
 satisfactory basis of observation and demonstration, and has 
 
 * Systems of planets, asteroids, satellites and comets are wholly invisible at 
 the distance of the fixed stars, yet they are now proved to exist about all these suns. 
 
164 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 become a Science only since the beginning of the twentieth 
 century. 
 
 It is justly remarked that a high order of knowledge of the 
 stars and their systems and of the chaotic nebulae from which 
 they arose was necessary before it was possible to attempt to 
 develop a real science of world formation. Thus for upwards of 
 2,000 years Cosmogony remained little more than an unsatisfactory 
 collection of opinions; and even quite recently one eminent mathe- 
 matician, who still adheres to the old way of thinking, has likened 
 Cosmogony to Astrology, holding that the secrets of the origin of 
 the universe are forever beyond the powers of the human mind. 
 These views, of course, are erroneous, and yet they give us some 
 idea of the difficulties which have been overcome. It is a remark- 
 able fact that our philosophical difficulties have consisted chiefly 
 in false premises. These obstacles ought to have been forseen and 
 avoided, but there were peculiar circumstances which long de- 
 ceived the most eminent mathematicians including Laplace, 
 Sir John Herschel, Lord Kelvin, Newcomb, Darwin, Tisserand, 
 and Poincare. We shall presently trace the development of the 
 New Science of Cosmogony with enough detail to render the results 
 intelligible, but we shall first consider the conditions requisite for 
 the creation of a new mathematical science. 
 
 II. CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR THE FOUNDING OF EXACT 
 
 SCIENCES. 
 
 As already pointed out, Cosmogony deals with the laws of 
 the formation of the heavenly bodies; and the perfection of this 
 new physical science must be regarded as the ultimate object of 
 all astronomical research. However special our individual in- 
 vestigations may be, this is the one ultimate purpose which they 
 may be supposed to serve. And until the laws of cosmical evolu- 
 tion can be at least roughly outlined all our astronomical efforts 
 are as aimless for the discovery of the highest laws of Nature as 
 are the unguided steps of the blind leading the blind. No wonder 
 that astronomers should value researches which will give us light 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 165 
 
 on the laws of Cosmogony, heretofore veiled in the darkness of 
 perpetual night. Such discoveries are like the heavenly manna 
 for feeding the famished wanderer in the wilderness searching for 
 the way to the promised land. 
 
 The pioneer in Science must always be both an explorer and 
 an apostle. His path must necessarily be lonely and desolate, 
 and beset by the most unexpected difficulties. It takes as coura- 
 geous a soul to lead the way to new fields of knowledge as it does 
 to blaze the way to a new civilization, such as the pioneers of our 
 country founded in early days of this Republic. No wonder that 
 those who came after the hard and rough work is done have always 
 said "Blessed be the memory of the pioneers." 
 
 Let me justify this opinion of the difficulties of the highest 
 mathematical science by the great authority of Plato, who has 
 been justly regarded as the most luminous intellect of the ancient 
 times. This greatest of the Greek sages declared that "an astron- 
 omer must be the wisest of men; his mind must be duly disci- 
 plined in youth; especially is mathematical study necessary; both 
 an acquiantance with the doctrine of number, and also with the 
 other branch of mathematics, which, closely connected as it is 
 with the heavens, we very absurdly call Geometry, the measure- 
 ment of the earth." (Epinomis, p. 988-900). 
 
 With Plato's estimate of the intellectual qualification of an 
 astronomer before us, will anyone believe that a modern astrono- 
 mer can have any real standing who is not a mathematician? If 
 sound mathematical knowledge was necessary in the simple age 
 of the Greeks, how much more necessary is it now, with problems 
 vastly more complex and difficult than any treated by the ancients? 
 Obviously Astronomy is not possible without the exact methods 
 of mathematics, and this criterion is a safe one in fixing the standard 
 of any physical science. 
 
 Not only must the astronomer be the wisest and intellectu- 
 ally the most penetrating of men, but in order to be a discoverer of 
 the first order, he must be just in his habits of mind and wholly 
 devoted to truth. In a celebrated saying preserved by Plutarch, 
 (Quest. Conv., VIII, 2) Plato declares that "the Deity always 
 
166 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 geometrizes" o 0os V ycw/AeVpei.* Since the astronomer there- 
 fore labors to discover the laws and processes established by the 
 Deity from the foundation of the world, it is evident that this 
 highest order of truth can be perceived only by those who are 
 philosophically equable and altogether devoted to the search for 
 the correct principles of science. The kingdom of ideas thus dis- 
 closed to the faithful philosopher passeth not away, but endureth 
 from generation to generation, as ageless as the heavens! 
 
 III. Six PRINCIPAL EPOCHS IN THE SCIENCE OF THE HEAVENS. 
 
 The importance of any development in astronomical science 
 depends on the light it throws on the physical causes which under- 
 lie the phenomena of the universe. Laplace justly says that 
 Tycho Brahe, great observer though he was, had little intuition 
 into causes, and history therefore does not rate Tycho in the same 
 class with Kepler and Newton, who established the laws of the 
 heavenly motions. By this criterion that the importance of a 
 discovery depends on the light it throws on causes, we find that 
 there have been six principal epochs in the history of Astronomy. 
 
 1. The Epoch of the Greeks, who studied the apparent mo- 
 tions of the planets, and deduced the fact that their paths are 
 nearly exact circles; whence it was supposed that the orbits are 
 circular, because the Deity had chosen this perfect geometrical 
 figure for the paths of the heavenly bodies. This comprised the 
 work of Plato and Aristotle, Eudoxus and Apollonius, Aristarchus 
 and Archimedes, Hipparachus and Ptolemy. 
 
 2. The Epoch of Copernicus, who established the heliocentric 
 theory of the world in 1543, and showed that Aristarchus of Samos 
 was right in holding that the stars are at a nearly infinite distance 
 from our sun, and thus should suffer no sensible displacement from 
 the annual motion of the earth in its orbit. 
 
 * The plate with this inscription, used as a frontispiece to this address, is really 
 a book-plate kindly presented to me by California friends who take great interest 
 in the recent discoveries in Cosmogony. The portrait is one of Plato, and, above, 
 Kaulbach's painting of Homer and the Greeks, representing the atmosphere in 
 which Plato lived. The other figures represent the spiral nebula 74 Piscium and 
 the finished solar system. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 167 
 
 3. The Epoch of Kepler and Galileo, the one the discoverer 
 of the laws of the planetary motions, the other the inventor of the 
 telescope and discoverer of the laws of falling bodies, by which 
 terrestrial and celestial motions could be compared and critically 
 investigated. These great discoveries paved the way for the 
 science of the heavenly motions as developed by Newton. 
 
 4. The Epoch of Newton, who established the law of universal 
 gravitation and reduced all observed phenomena to approximate 
 conformity with this great law of nature. 
 
 5. The Epoch of Lag-range and Laplace and Herschel. The 
 first two great geometers verified and extended the Newtonian 
 law, and also established the essential stability of the solar system; 
 while Herschel explored the sidereal universe and thus afforded an 
 observational basis for an imperfect beginning of Cosmogony in 
 the old nebular hypothesis. The problem of the stability of the 
 solar system now appears in a new light, for we find that only 
 planets with stable motions have survived, while a vast number 
 of small bodies moving in unstable orbits have been swallowed up 
 and destroyed to lay the foundations of the larger masses of our 
 system. The orbits which survive are thus free from mutual 
 entanglement, and arranged as if to endure almost forever. 
 
 6. The Epoch now growing out of the Development of a Science 
 of Cosmogony. This was made possible partly by the application 
 of the spectroscope to the heavenly bodies, which was begun 
 by Sir Wm. Huggins in 1864, and afterwards perfected by the 
 development of Astronomical Photography, and partly by the 
 solution of the restricted problem of three bodies. This two- 
 fold advance led to a great increase in our knowledge of the 
 nebulae and of their mode of development into Cosmical Systems, 
 under laws which are demonstrated to be consistent with the 
 established principles of the mechanics of the heavens. 
 
 The present epoch is the one towards which all the previous 
 epochs have pointed, and for which the great discoveries of the 
 past have laid the foundations. The epoch of Cosmogony has 
 been especially advanced by the researches and discoveries of 
 American astronomers, beginning with the photographic work 
 
168 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of Keeler in 1899; so that this science of the centuries seems likely 
 to be peculiarly an American science. It has been considerably 
 advanced also by eminent European investigators, among whom 
 Darwin, Poincare, Arrhenius and Stromgren seem to have taken 
 the leading part. 
 
 In order to bring out the most significant facts, we shall con- 
 sider in succession a number of topics. It is not necessary to dwell 
 on Laplace's old nebular hypothesis, because it is now universally 
 abandoned by astronomers, but we may recall very briefly the line 
 of argument developed in Babinet's criterion, by which the detach- 
 ment theory was finally overthrown, and the new theory of capture, 
 or of addition from without, was introduced to take its place. 
 
 Such a complete transformation of this great subject neces- 
 sarily involves new causes heretofore quite overlooked; among 
 which we should mention the resisting medium and the operation 
 of repulsive forces in nature. The resisting medium has exercised 
 vast influence in building up central masses and reducing the size 
 and eccentricity of orbits, producing incidentally the capture of 
 satellites; while the repulsive forces have operated to disperse 
 matter in the form of fine dust from the stars, to produce nebulae, 
 which finally condense into all manner of planetary and stellar 
 systems. Even the comets as well as variable and temporary stars, 
 thus find a simple explanation in accordance with the general laws 
 of the heavens. 
 
 IV. BABINET'S CRITERION SHOWS THAT LAPLACE'S COSMOGONY 
 RESTS ON A FALSE PREMISE. 
 
 In the Comptes Rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences for 
 March 18, 1861, Babinet introduced an important criterion show- 
 ing that Laplace's cosmogony was erroneous, by proving from the 
 mechanical principle of the conservation of areas, that when the 
 sun is expanded to fill the orbits of the planets, as imagined by 
 Laplace, the rotation is much too slow to develop a centrifugal 
 force adequate to detach the planets. The following table gives 
 the principal data from Babinet's criterion as now applied to the 
 planets and satellites of the solar system: 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 
 
 169 
 
 I. TABLE SHOWING THE APPLICATION OF BABINET'S CRITERION TO THE PLANETS 
 
 AND SATELLITES WHEN THE SUN AND PLANETS ARE EXPANDED TO FILL 
 
 THE ORBITS OF THE BODIES REVOLVING ABOUT THEM. 
 
 Solar System. 
 
 Planet. 
 
 #0 
 
 The Sun's Observed 
 Time of Rotation. 
 
 Po 
 
 Observed Period 
 of Planet. 
 
 
 
 Time of Sun's Rotation 
 Calculated by Babinet's 
 Criterion. 
 
 Mercury 
 
 25.3 days 
 =0.069267 yrs. 
 
 
 "479'yi 
 1673 
 3192 
 7424 
 24487 
 86560 
 290962 
 1176765 
 2888533 
 
 s. 
 
 0.24085 yr 
 0.61237 
 1.00000 
 1.88085 
 4.60345 
 11.86 
 29.46 
 84.02 
 164.78 
 
 s. 
 
 Venus 
 The Earth 
 Mars 
 Ceres 
 Jupiter 
 Saturn 
 Uranus 
 Neptune 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sub-systems. 
 
 Planet. 
 
 Satellite. 
 
 R c 
 
 Adopted Rotation 
 of Planet. 
 
 PC 
 
 Observed Period 
 of Satellite. 
 
 Ro 
 Time of Planet's 
 Rotation Calcu- 
 lated by Babinet's 
 Criterion. 
 
 The Earth 
 Mars . . . 
 
 The moon 
 
 Phobos 
 Deimos 
 
 V 
 I 
 II 
 III 
 IV 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 
 Inner edge of ring 
 Outer edge of ring 
 Mimas 
 Enceladus 
 Tethys 
 Dione 
 Rhea 
 Titan 
 Hyperion 
 lapetus 
 Phoebe 
 
 Ariel 
 
 Umbriel 
 Titania 
 Oberon 
 
 Satellite 
 
 Iday 
 24.62297 hrs. 
 
 27.32166 days 
 
 7.6542 hours 
 30.2983 " 
 
 11.9563 hours 
 1.7698605days 
 3.5540942 " 
 7.1663872 " 
 16.7535524 " 
 250.618 
 265.0 
 930.73 
 
 0.236 days 
 0.6456 
 0.94242 " 
 1.37022 " 
 1.887796 " 
 2.736913 " 
 4.517500 " 
 15.945417 " 
 21.277396 " 
 79.329375 " 
 546.5 
 
 2.520383 days 
 
 4.144181 days 
 8.705897 " 
 13.463269 " 
 
 5.87690 days 
 
 3632.45 days 
 
 190.62 hours 
 1193.53 
 
 64.456 hours 
 14.60 days 
 35.900 ' 
 93.933 
 290.63 
 10768.8 
 11602.4 
 61997.2 
 
 0.6228days 
 2.383 ' 
 4.2902 
 7.0615 
 10.822 
 17.751 
 34.620 
 186.05 
 273.06 
 1580.1 
 20712. 
 
 33.714 days 
 
 65.435 days 
 176.05 
 314.83 
 
 141.8 days 
 
 Jupiter . 
 
 9.928 hrs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10.641 hrs. 
 
 Saturn . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Uranus. 
 
 10.1112 hrs. 
 (Cf. A.N., 3992) 
 
 
 
 
 Neptune 
 
 12.84817 hrs. 
 (Cf. A.N., 3992) 
 
170 
 
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 II. TABLE OF DATA RELATING TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Planet. 
 
 Centrifugal Force, calculated from 
 data of Babinet's criterion, pres- 
 ent orbital centrifugal force being 
 unity. 
 
 Density of Central Body, when 
 expanded to fill orbit, that of at- 
 mospheric air at sea level being 
 unity. 
 
 Mercury 
 
 0.000000253 
 
 0.001776 
 
 Venus 
 
 0.000000134 
 
 0.0002723 
 
 The Earth 
 
 0.000000098 
 
 00001029 
 
 Mars 
 
 0.000000064 
 
 0.00002913 
 
 Ceres 
 
 0.000000035 
 
 
 TuDiter 
 
 0.000000019 
 
 0000000732 
 
 Saturn 
 
 0.000000010 
 
 0.000000118 
 
 Uranus 
 
 0.0000000051 
 
 0.0000000146 
 
 Neptune 
 
 0.0000000032 
 
 0.0000000038 
 
 III. TABLE OF DATA RELATING TO THE SATELLITE SYSTEMS. 
 
 Planet. 
 
 Satellite. 
 
 Centrifugal Force, calculated 
 from data of Babinet's criterion, 
 present orbital centrifugal force 
 being unity. 
 
 Density of Central Body, 
 when expanded to fill or- 
 bit, that of atmospheric 
 air at sea level being 
 unity. 
 
 The Earth .... 
 Mars 
 
 The Moon 
 Phobos 
 
 0.00005657 
 0001612 
 
 0.01965 
 1151. 
 
 
 Deimos 
 
 0000644 
 
 7305 
 
 Tuoiter . 
 
 V 
 
 0034408 
 
 58.93 
 
 
 I 
 
 014694 
 
 4.66 
 
 
 II 
 
 0009277 
 
 1.15 
 
 
 III 
 
 0.005820 
 
 0.285 
 
 
 IV 
 
 0003323 
 
 0.0523 
 
 
 VI 
 
 0005416 
 
 0.000232 
 
 
 VII 
 
 00005217 
 
 0.000208 
 
 
 VIII 
 
 0002254 
 
 0.0000169 
 
 Saturn 
 
 Inner Ring 
 
 0.1435 
 
 
 
 Mimas 
 
 048254 
 
 16.45 
 
 
 Enceladus 
 
 037651 
 
 7.61 
 
 
 Tethys 
 
 030436 
 
 4.11 
 
 
 Dione 
 
 023772 
 
 1.96 
 
 
 Rhea 
 
 017017 
 
 0.717 
 
 
 Titan 
 
 0.0073449 
 
 0.0576 
 
 
 Hyperion 
 
 0060716 
 
 0.0324 
 
 
 lapetus 
 
 0.0025205 
 
 0.00232 
 
 
 Phoebe 
 
 0.0006962 
 
 0.000049 
 
 Uranus 
 
 Ariel 
 
 0.0055888 
 
 2.40 
 
 
 Umbriel 
 
 00040111 
 
 0.88 
 
 
 Titania 
 
 0024454 
 
 0.200 
 
 
 Oberon 
 
 0018287 
 
 0.082 
 
 Neptune 
 
 Satellite 
 
 0.0017177 
 
 0.43 
 
 It should be noticed that the centrifugal force varies as the 
 square of the velocity divided by the radius. Thus in the case of 
 the earth, actual revolution in the orbit occupies one year, whereas 
 the hypothetical nebulous sun expanded to fill the earth's orbit 
 requires 3,192 years for a rotation; and the rotational centrifugal 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 171 
 
 force therefore is only 1 : (3,192) 2 of what is required to detach the 
 earth, or less than a ten millionth part. In the case of Neptune, 
 the calculated time of rotation for the expanded central nebula 
 by Babinet's criterion, is 2,888,000 years, whereas Neptune actu- 
 ally revolves in 165 years. The calculated time of rotation is thus 
 17,500 longer than the observed time of revolution; and the 
 rotational centrifugal force is therefore only 1: (17,500) 2 or 1:306,- 
 250,000 of the centrifugal force required to detach Neptune. 
 
 In view of these facts we know that the planets never were 
 detached from the sun by acceleration of rotation as held by 
 Laplace and long believed by astronomers; but on the contrary 
 that they were formed independently, at a great distance, and 
 have since approached the sun as their orbits have been made 
 smaller and rounder and rounder under the secular action of a 
 resisting medium. 
 
 In regard to the satellites, the case most favorable to the 
 detachment theory is offered by the inner ring of Saturn, but even 
 here the rotating planet, when expanded to fill the ring, gives only 
 one-seventh of the centrifugal force required for detachment. So 
 that the theory of detachment is wholly given up, not only for the 
 planets, but also for all the satellites of the solar system. More- 
 over, the retrograde satellites of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are 
 easily explained by the modern capture theory, while they cannot 
 be harmonized with the old nebular hypothesis of Laplace, which 
 is therefore quite abandoned by all recent investigators.* 
 
 * These statements are positive, because Babinet's criterion, based on the 
 conservation of areas, is incontestable, having in the rotation of bodies the same 
 dynamical rigor that the law of gravitation has for the orbital motions of the 
 planets. Curiously enough prominent astronomers occasionally overlook the 
 decisive import of these elementary mechanical principles. Thus in POPULAR 
 ASTRONOMY, for October, 1911, p. 467, Professor E. B. Frost, Director of the Yerkes 
 Observatory, is led to the sad conclusion that "no adequate substitute has been 
 proposed" for the abandoned theory of Laplace. He adds that these views are 
 shared by friends whose opinions he values, showing that they are quite unaware of 
 the notable progress recently made, and that obscurity regarding the significance 
 of this dynamical principle still is widespread, although carefully treated by me 
 three years ago when I first called attention to Babinet's neglected work of 1861, 
 and more fully developed in my Researches, Vol. II, a copy of which was presented 
 to Professor Frost in October, 1910. 
 
172 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 There are at least three good reasons why the capture of 
 satellites is inevitable: (1) The planetary rotations are not 
 rapid enough to throw the bodies off, even if none of them revolved 
 in the contrary direction, as observed in the case of the outer 
 satellites of the systems of Jupiter and Saturn. (2) The density 
 of the expanded central globes would in all cases be too small to 
 exert any sensible hydrostatic pressure outward, so that unless 
 the angular rotation gave adequate centrifugal force, the deficiency 
 could not be supplied by hydrostatic pressure from the center. 
 (3) It is found that if set in revolution with the velocity assigned 
 by Babinet's criterion the satellite in every case would fall into 
 the planet before half a revolution was accomplished, (cf. Proc. 
 Am. Phil. Soc., Vol. XLIX, No. 197, Nov., 1910, p. 356) . It there- 
 fore follows incontestably that the satellites can have been set 
 revolving in their orbits only by capture, or addition from with- 
 out, which is clearly indicated also by the retrograde motion of 
 the outer satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. 
 
 V. How THE SATELLITES WERE CAPTURED. 
 
 In 1836 the celebrated German mathematician Jacobi com- 
 municated to the Paris Academy of Sciences an integral of the 
 problem of three bodies in the restricted case where the system is 
 made up of a sun attended by a planet revolving in a circular 
 orbit; and the third body a particle of insensible mass. This is 
 the case which is of special interest in Cosmogony, and here it has 
 found its widest application. In 1877 the work of Jacobi was 
 much extended by Dr. G. W. Hill in his researches on the Lunar 
 Theory, which have been the starting point of the profound re- 
 searches of Poincare, Darwin and others on periodic orbits, and 
 related topics in celestial mechanics. 
 
 Dr. Hill showed that in the restricted problem of three bodies, 
 implied in Jacobi' s integral, there is a partition of the whole space 
 into three parts, one about each of the large bodies, the sun and 
 planet, and a larger domain enclosing both bodies within which 
 the power of control over the particle is vested in the two bodies 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 173 
 
 individually and collectively, respectively. The closed surface 
 about the earth includes the orbit of the moon, and the orbits of 
 the other satellites in like manner are within the closed surfaces 
 about their several planets; and Dr. Hill remarks that this ar- 
 rangement is necessary to secure stability. (Hill's Collected 
 Mathematical Works, Vol. I, p. 330). If a satellite is once within 
 this region, with the surface of zero velocity closed about it, it 
 cannot escape, but will always remain attached to the planet, and 
 its radius vector will have a superior limit. How the moon and 
 other satellites came within these closed regions Dr. Hill did not 
 inquire; and subsequent investigators appear to have supposed 
 that as these bodies cannot now escape from their planets, so also 
 they cannot have come in from a remote distance, but must have 
 originated where they now are. This is the view put forth by 
 Moulton in his discussion of Professor W. H. Pickering's sug- 
 gestion that Phoebe had been captured by Saturn (Astrophysical 
 Journal, October, 1905, p. 178) ; but such reasoning is easily shown 
 to be erroneous by the following considerations: 
 
 Jacobi's integral, as originally given by him, is based on the 
 differential equations for unrestricted motion in empty space, 
 and no account is taken of the additional terms which must be 
 added to the differential equations of the motion of the sun, planet, 
 and particle, when the motion is very slightly conditioned by the 
 introduction of a nebular resisting medium, such as existed in the 
 early history of our system, and is now observed to be widely dif- 
 fused throughout Nature. Jacobi's original integral, therefore, 
 requires the addition of a secular term to represent the actual 
 movement of a sun, planet, and particle; and the complete ex- 
 pression for any particle whose coordinates are x-, y { z if becomes: 
 
 The secular term a, t-, makes the constant d increase with 
 the time. 
 
174 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Now the surfaces of zero relative velocity, which define the 
 closed spaces about the planets, have larger values of d the nearer 
 we approach to the sun or planet. This is easily seen in the ac- 
 companying plate from Darwin's celebrated memoir on Periodic 
 Orbits (Acta Mathematica, Vol. XXI). When the particle or 
 satellite revolves against resistance, therefore, the second member 
 
 CURVES OF ZERO VELOCITY (DARWIN) 
 
 This diagram illustrates the hour-glass shaped space through which the 
 
 particle may move and drop down nearer the sun or planet, 
 
 till it becomes captured by one of the larger bodies. 
 
 of (1) increases, and there is a secular shrinkage of the surface of 
 zero relative velocity. Accordingly the particle drops down nearer 
 and nearer these centers, and the surface finally becomes closed, 
 leaving it no longer free to move about both bodies in the hour- 
 glass shaped space, as formerly, but restricted to the sphere of 
 influence controlled by the sun or planet individually, as the case 
 may be. The particle which once revolved about both the sun 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 175 
 
 and planet can no longer do so, but becomes an inferior planet 
 (satellite of the sun) or a satellite of the planet. 
 
 This is how the satellites of the solar system were captured. 
 At first they moved principally under the attraction of the sun, 
 and could pass from the sun's to the planet's domain, through the 
 neck of the hour-glass shaped space connecting the two spheres of 
 influence. When the neck is narrow, Darwin says that a particle 
 which passes from the sun's to the planet's control may revolve 
 about it hundreds of times before quitting the planet's sphere to 
 return again to the sun's control. And if resistance is meanwhile 
 encountered, so that the neck of the surface of zero velocity be- 
 comes closed, it is clear that the particle never will quit the sphere 
 of the planet's control, but will abide there permanently as a 
 satellite. 
 
 Thus it incontestably follows that the satellites of Jupiter, 
 Saturn, and other planets formerly moved about the sun, and 
 since they were captured have had their orbits reduced in size and 
 rounded up under the secular action of the resisting medium for- 
 merly pervading our solar system. Satellites may cross over 
 the line SJ before coming completely under the planet's control, 
 in which case they will move retrograde. In such cases the neck 
 connecting the two spaces is extremely narrow. But as the neck 
 usually is not so narrow as to produce crossing satellites, most of 
 them naturally move direct, in accordance with observation. This 
 is the reason also why the planets have direct rotations on their 
 axes. The planets have in no case been inverted, as some have 
 recently supposed, in order to account for the retrograde motion 
 of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. 
 
 VI. CAPTURE THEORY OF SATELLITES INDEPENDENTLY CON- 
 FIRMED BY BROWN AND POINCARE. 
 
 The above discussion is substantially that given by the writer 
 in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for 
 August, 1909. The subject has since been treated more in detail 
 and from a slightly different point of view by Professor E. W. 
 
176 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Brown, in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 
 for March, 1911, p. 453. Brown considers the oscillations of an 
 asteroid about the triangular points, where Lagrange showed that 
 there are particular solutions of the problem of three bodies, and 
 a small body may revolve in stability when the asteroid is sub- 
 jected to small disturbances, as under the action of a resisting 
 medium. Brown shows that it will revolve in periodic orbits 
 about the triangular point, but the constant C of the Jacobian 
 integral will steadily increase and the periodic orbits increase in 
 size; and finally it will reach a critical stage corresponding to the 
 equilibrium point in opposition to Jupiter, where Lagrange showed 
 that another particular solution of the problem of three bodies 
 exists. Under disturbances all these solutions are unstable, and 
 for values of C well beyond this critical value, Brown adds that 
 the orbits "consist (1) of an inner planetary orbit making com- 
 plete revolutions round the sun in the positive sense; (2) of an 
 outer planetary orbit making complete revolutions round the sun 
 in the negative sense relative to the moving axes; (3) of a satellite 
 revolving round Jupiter in the positive sense." In other words, 
 an asteroid passing through these equilibrium points with suitable 
 velocity corresponding to the critical value of C, may pass under 
 the control of Jupiter and become a satellite of that planet, as I 
 demonstrated in 1909 (A.N. 4341-42). 
 
 Finally it remains to add, as already pointed out, that the 
 capture of satellites has been treated also by Poincare in his course 
 at the Sorbonne during the present year, which is being published 
 and will appear in November. Astronomers and mathematicians 
 naturally will be interested in the forthcoming work of this great 
 master of celestial mechanics. In a recent letter he tells me that 
 he insists on the capture of planets as satellites under the action 
 of a resisting medium. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that as far back as 1906 Professor Elis 
 Stromgren, now of Copenhagen, while occupied with the motion of 
 three bodies made a very similar investigation of the problem of 
 cusps and loops, and obtained some remarkable results (Astron. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 177 
 
 Nachr. No. 4155) which are now found to confirm the capture of 
 satellites. 
 
 From this brief outline it will be seen that the capture theory of 
 satellites is now established and very generally accepted by the lead- 
 ing authorities in this difficult branch of mathematical astronomy. 
 
 VII. THE ORIGIN OF THE RETROGRADE REVOLUTIONS OF THE 
 
 SATELLITES AND OF THE DIRECT ROTATIONS OF 
 
 THE PLANETS ON THEIR AXES. 
 
 In my work of 1909, quoted above, it was shown how the 
 retrograde motion of the satellite could arise, by the body crossing 
 over the line S / in passing through the neck of the hour-glass 
 space before it came under the control of the planet. It may arise 
 also in other ways. We have seen above that in passing through 
 the equilibrium point, in opposition to Jupiter, the satellite usually 
 will move direct, because there is a space of finite extent in this 
 region corresponding to the critical value of the Jacobian integral, 
 and unless the disturbance is considerable, the gradual transition 
 will give a direct revolution; but if the disturbance be larger, at 
 this critical stage, the satellite may be driven beyond the center 
 of the equilibrium point and set revolving in a retrograde direction. 
 This result is very similar to the case (2) above quoted from 
 Brown's paper, where he concludes that the asteroid may make 
 complete revolutions around the sun in the negative sense relative 
 to the moving axes. 
 
 We need not dwell at greater length on the motions of satel- 
 lites. It is obvious that they may move either direct or retro- 
 grade, as first pointed out by me in 1909. But if most of the satel- 
 lites have direct motion, those which are retrograde will be likely 
 to be destroyed, unless they are so situated as to escape serious 
 collision. It is remarkable that the retrograde satellites of Jupiter 
 and Saturn are on the outside of their systems, where they could 
 easily survive; and this no doubt is the secret of their escape from 
 destruction. Probably they were captured quite late in the history 
 of the solar system, when the resisting medium was relatively 
 
178 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ineffective, as shown by the rather large surviving eccentricities 
 of their orbits. 
 
 And now just as the satellites usually have direct orbital 
 revolutions, so also do the meteorites and other small masses of 
 cosmical dust circulating in the vortices about the planets, of 
 which the satellites alone are large enough and bright enough to 
 be visible in our telescopes. When swarms of this dust collide 
 with the planet, therefore, the tendency is to give the globe a 
 direct rotation on its axis, because the number of particles having 
 direct revolutions greatly predominates over those having retro- 
 grade revolution. This is the secret of the direct rotations of the 
 planets on their axes; and whenever the down-pour of dust is 
 appreciable the axial rotations are being accelerated. It is not 
 strange therefore that the sun, Jupiter and Saturn have equatorial 
 accelerations, which long proved bewildering to astronomers. 
 
 VIII. THE OBLIQUITIES OF THE PLANETS. 
 
 The problem of the obliquities of the planets long presented 
 great difficulty to the astronomer, and was not solved till 1908, 
 when it was shown by the present writer that it is determined by 
 the capture and absorption of small bodies revolving about the 
 sun in planes nearly coinciding with the orbits of the planets. The 
 countless collisions of these small bodies with a planet like the 
 earth are illustrated by the meteors vaporized in our atmosphere 
 to the number of over a billion daily. In a century this dust would 
 make a layer a millimeter thick all over the globe. The same 
 down-pour of cosmical dust occurs on the other planets, and often 
 times the masses are larger than those now swept up by the earth, 
 as we see by the embedded satellites which produced the lunar 
 craters. 
 
 As they revolve about the sun in orbits, which on the average 
 are not much inclined to the orbit of the earth, the tendency is to 
 tilt the earth's axis into a position at right angles to the plane of 
 the ecliptic. The obliquity thus tends to vanish, as illustrated 
 by Jupiter, the greatest of the planets, which has thus acquired a 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 179 
 
 very small obliquity of some 3, from the capture and absorption 
 of comets, asteroids and satellites. The almost zero obliquity of 
 Jupiter shows the normal development of the process. As a test 
 of the theory it was shown by actual calculation that Saturn would 
 have the present obliquity of some 28 nearly destroyed if the mass 
 of that planet were trebled, to become equal to that of Jupiter, 
 by the same process of the capture and absorption of small bodies 
 moving near the plane of the planet's orbit. The increase of the 
 obliquities from Jupiter to Saturn and Uranus therefore is natural, 
 and in accordance with established theory. Within Jupiter's 
 orbit the obliquities decrease from Mars (24.5) to the earth (23.5) 
 and Venus (12 or 15); and the rotation periods also decrease 
 from 24 h 37 m 22 s in the case of Mars, to 23 h 56 m 4 s (sidereal day) 
 for the earth, and 23 h 21 m for Venus. The order thus exist- 
 ing among the terrestrial planets shows that they have been 
 formed by a very regular cause which has produced harmonious 
 effects. 
 
 When the nuclei of the planets were first formed far from the 
 sun, they may have rotated in almost any planes, determined 
 by the collisions previously experienced; but as they drew nearer 
 the sun the rotations became direct and more and more harmon- 
 ious, as now observed. Beyond a doubt this is the true explana- 
 tion of the obliquities of the planets of our solar system; and 
 similar laws operate to establish corresponding obliquities for the 
 planets revolving about the fixed stars generally. Accordingly 
 it follows that the planets attending the fixed stars have seasons 
 and alternation of day and night, such as we are familiar with, and 
 therefore they are habitable by living beings like those observed 
 on the earth. 
 
 IX. THE CAPTURE OF THE MOON BY THE EARTH. 
 
 The case of the terrestrial moon is of special interest, because 
 it is relatively by far the largest of all our satellites, and was for- 
 merly supposed by Lord Kelvin and Sir George Darwin to have 
 had an exceptional origin. But it was shown by me in 1909 (A.N., 
 
180 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 4343) that the moon was formed like the other satellites, and is in 
 fact a planet which the earth captured from space, just as the other 
 satellites were captured by their several planets. We shall not 
 here go into the details of the moon's origin, beyond pointing out 
 the reasons why a terrestrial origin for the moon is impossible. 
 (1) The rupture of the earth's figure of equilibrium, which Dar- 
 win assumed to account for the origin of the moon, postulates a 
 primitive rotation in less than three hours, or nine times faster 
 than at present. From the causes which produce planetary rota- 
 tions, as set forth above, we know that no such rapid rotation 
 could have existed in the case of the earth. (2) Even if such rapid 
 rotation had existed, the matter detached from the earth would 
 have taken the form of a swarm of small bodies, and these meteor- 
 ites never could have united into one mass, as now observed in 
 our actual moon. (3) The satellites of the other planets are 
 recognized to be captured bodies, and the same process naturally 
 will have operated in giving the earth a satellite, even if it is of 
 exceptionally large mass. It should be especially noted that the 
 large mass presents no difficulty to the capture theory. The anom- 
 aly lies rather in the small size of the earth, since several of the 
 satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are fully as large as the moon, while 
 those of Uranus and Neptune are not enormously smaller. (4) 
 In Darwin's celebrated graphical method for tracing the moon 
 back to the earth, it is found to be impossible to bring the two 
 globes close together, because at nearest approach a space of over 
 4,000 miles intervenes between the surfaces, which cannot be 
 bridged over. This contradiction to the terrestrial theory indi- 
 cates that it is vitiated by an error, and must be unconditionally 
 given up. 
 
 For these four weighty reasons we conclude that our moon 
 can be nothing else than a planet which came to us from the heaven- 
 ly spaces. It follows also that the earth always did rotate in about 
 the same time as at present, and has never suffered retardation 
 from about three hours as Darwin inferred. This simplifies very 
 considerably many problems of Geology, and brings the Cosmogony 
 
THE MOON, TEN DAYS OLD. PHOTOGRAPHED BY LOEWRY AND PUISEUX AT 
 
 THE PARIS OBSERVATORY, FEBRUARY 23, 1896. 
 Naked Eye View. (From See's Researches, Vol. II, 1910, Plate XI.) 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 181 
 
 of the earth and moon into harmony with that found in the rest 
 of the solar system, and in the sidereal universe. 
 
 X. THE ORIGIN OF THE LUNAR CRATERS AND MARIA. 
 
 Ever since Galileo's discovery of the mountains on the moon, 
 it has been a problem for astronomers to explain the craters and 
 other phenomena on the lunar surface. Notwithstanding the fact 
 that the lunar craters are totally different from those on the earth, 
 it has been believed until very recently that they had a volcanic 
 origin. It turns out, however, that the lunar craters are due to 
 impact of smaller bodies against the lunar surface; and this ex- 
 plains the sunken character of the craters, which are all below the 
 normal level of the lunar surface; the small volume of the walls 
 in comparison with that of the crater basins; the steepness of the 
 inner wall, while the outer one has a more gradual slope; the cen- 
 tral peaks which are residues of the satellites that produced the 
 craters; the superposition of one crater over another, and many 
 other phenomena which show that impact, and not volcanic action, 
 has produced the mountains on the surface of the moon. In the 
 same way it is shown that the Maria are due to conflagrations which 
 have melted down to a dead level considerable areas of the lunar 
 surface, only the more prominent walls here and there surviving 
 as "ghost craters." 
 
 It is a very remarkable fact that can scarcely escape the notice 
 of the sagacious historian of the future that prior to my work on 
 Earthquakes and Mountain Formation (Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 
 Philadelphia, 1906-8), terrestrial mountains were erroneously 
 explained by the secular cooling and contraction of the earth, 
 whereas they are really formed by the leakage of the oceans and the 
 expulsion of lava under the land, and the mountain ridges therefore 
 run as great walls along the border of the ocean, as in the typical 
 case of the Andes in South America. The current explanation of 
 terrestrial mountain formation was thus entirely erroneous. The 
 new theory that our mountains are formed by the sea has, however, 
 already been very generally accepted. On the other hand, the 
 
182 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 lunar craters were supposed to be of volcanic origin, whereas they 
 really are due to impact. Thus, wonderful as it may seem, the 
 causes assigned in both cases were erroneous. 
 
 Besides the evidence of general character above cited the 
 theory as to the origin of the lunar craters by impact now rests on 
 an absolute proof of mathematical kind as follows. It is shown 
 by the researches of Lehman-Filhe's (A.N. 3479-80) and Strom- 
 gren (A.N. 3897) that increase of the central mass of the planet 
 by the downfall of cosmical dust will decrease the mean distance 
 of the satellite, but not the eccentricity of its orbit. It is shown 
 in my Researches, Vol. II, 1910, that the eccentricity can be dimin- 
 ished only by the action of a resisting medium such as operated 
 in the capture of the satellites. As the eccentricities of the satel- 
 lite orbits usually are evanescent, showing that they have been 
 destroyed by the action of a resisting medium, we should expect 
 the moon's surface to bear witness to this process of cosmical bom- 
 bardment, by which the orbits of the satellites have been rounded 
 up. Thus indentations analogous to the lunar craters ought to 
 exist, and as they are all of one type, their origin must be assigned 
 to the impact of smaller satellites against the lunar surface. Our 
 proof of the origin of the lunar craters is therefore essentially an 
 absolute proof which admits of no dispute. 
 
 If it be asked why indentations similar to the lunar craters 
 were not produced on the earth, our answer is that such terrestrial 
 craters due to impact did exist before Geological History began, 
 but they have since been quite obliterated by the effects of the 
 oceans and atmosphere, while modern terrestrial mountains of a 
 totally different type have since been developed along the borders 
 of our seas by the leakage of the oceans. These manifold errors 
 afford us an impressive warning as to the worthlessness of tradi- 
 tional opinion, because so much of our reasoning in physical science 
 heretofore has been based on false premises. 
 
 Finally it may be remarked that the satellites of Jupiter and 
 Saturn are variable, as if covered by maria like our own moon, so 
 that the conflagrations which melted areas and produced maria 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 183 
 
 on our satellite have also occured elsewhere, in accordance with 
 the requirements of this simple theory. 
 
 XL ORIGINAL EXTENT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE EX- 
 ISTENCE OF PLANETS BEYOND NEPTUNE. 
 
 Babinet's criterion shows beyond doubt that the nuclei of 
 the planets were formed at a great distance from the sun and have 
 since had their orbits decreased in size, largely by the increase of 
 the sun's mass, and rounded up into almost perfect circles, by the 
 action of a resisting medium. As the planets were not thrown off 
 from the sun, this is the only possible way in which they can have 
 been set revolving in such singularly circular orbits. Moreover 
 since it is proved in my Researches, Vol. II. and confirmed by the 
 investigations of Stromgren, that the comets are surviving wisps 
 of nebulosity coming to us from the outer shell of our ancient 
 nebula, there is thus developed an independent line of argument 
 showing that the solar nebula was originally of vast extent with a 
 radius of from 10,000 to 50,000 radii of the earth's orbit. 
 
 The proof found in Babinet's criterion that the nuclei of the 
 planets originated at a great distance from the sun and have since 
 approached the center is thus confirmed by the elliptical theory 
 of comet orbits; and thus a connection is established between the 
 planets now near the sun and the comets still receding to great 
 distances. In fact the planets were built up in the nebula by the 
 gathering in of cosmical dust, such as we observe in meteor showers 
 raining down on us from disintegrated comets; and thus all the 
 matter now in the planets once was in the solar nebula in the form 
 of comets. By the destruction of countless comets, the planets 
 have been built up to their present dimensions, while at the same 
 time they have neared the sun and been made to revolve in orbits 
 which are so nearly circular, that the Greek philosophers believed 
 that the Deity had chosen the circle for the paths of the planets, 
 because the ancient geometers regarded the circle as a perfect 
 figure. 
 
184 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 From these considerations it is evident that our planetary 
 system extends much beyond Neptune, and several of the unseen 
 planets revolving in this remote region of space may yet be dis- 
 covered by observation. The orbital motion, however, will be 
 very slow, and if the search is attempted by photography the ex- 
 posures will have to be long and perhaps extended to successive 
 days. Neptune's orbit is so round that we can no more think of 
 our system terminating at this limit than we can imagine the 
 satellites of Jupiter confined within the narrow limits of the old 
 satellites discovered by Galileo. 
 
 XII. NATURE OF OUR SYSTEM OF COMETS ELLIPTICAL ORBITS 
 PREDICTED BY NEWTON RESEARCHES OF STROMGREN. 
 
 We have already alluded to the conclusion reached by the 
 writer in 1909 that the orbits of all comets are elliptical, because 
 they are the residue of the ancient nebula which formed our sys- 
 tem and thus continue to come to us from the vast outer shell 
 which still survives after the interior of the nebula has been de- 
 stroyed in forming the central sun and planetary system. By the 
 researches of Stromgren this is now definitely proved to be the 
 true origin of our system of comets. 
 
 Historically the problem of the significance of the comets 
 presented great difficulty. In 1687 Newton remarked in the 
 Prindpia that the comets revolve in very elongated orbits, which 
 are really ellipses, but so eccentric as to resemble parabolas in the 
 region near the sun; and are diffused indifferently over the celestial 
 sphere, so that they are not confined to the Zodiac, like the planets. 
 He adds that while the law of gravitation will account for the 
 motions of these bodies, it will not explain how they came to be 
 started in such widely dispersed orbits. The formation of our 
 system from a nebula made up of elements expelled from the stars 
 of the Milky Way and thus gathered together from all directions 
 in space is the only possible explanation of the system of comets. 
 It thus points to the general operation of repulsive forces in Nature, 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NEW THEORY OF COMETS DEVELOPED BY 
 T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 The lower figure illustrates the vast system of small bodies circulating about the Sun 
 and constituting the outer shell of the primordial nebula. The upper figure from Lowell's 
 "Solar System," shows the orbits of a few actual comets which have appeared in the short 
 interval since Newton's famous comet of 1680. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 185 
 
 and constitutes an impressive illustration of the formation of 
 nebulae gathered from a system right at hand. 
 
 This theory of the origin of our system of comets has been 
 confirmed by the researches of Leuschner (1906) and Fayet (1906) 
 and more especially of Stromgren (Vierteljahrsschrift, October, 
 1910), who subjected the supposed hyperbolic comets to a critical 
 test, and found every one of them to be elliptic; so that we have 
 to abandon the view long held that some of these bodies move in 
 parabolas and hyperbolas. After two centuries of wandering in 
 the wilderness we thus return to Newton's view of 1687. And the 
 reason for the elliptical orbits of comets is to be found in the nature 
 of the system of comets, wisps of nebulosity coming from the outer 
 shell, as the surviving residue of the ancient nebula which formed 
 our solar system. 
 
 XIII. UNIVERSALITY OF REPULSIVE FORCES IN NATURE ESTAB- 
 LISHED BY HERSCHEL'S ARGUMENT REGARDING THE 
 OPERATION OF CENTRAL POWERS IN THE 
 CLUSTERS AND NEBULA. 
 
 In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 
 1789, 1811, and 1814 Sir William Herschel has developed a power- 
 ful and celebrated argument for the operation of central powers 
 in the formation of star clusters and nebulae. The star clusters 
 tend to globular figures and increase in density toward their 
 centers; and the same tendency is shown to operate in the nebulae, 
 many of which seem to be made up of concentric spherical shells 
 of uniform brightness, but accumulating towards the center in 
 such a way as to show a gradual increase of density with maximum 
 in the nucleus, which often is occupied by a nebulous star. There 
 are thousands of these objects, all following the same law, and on 
 the uniformity of the tendency Herschel founds his irresistible 
 argument for the operation of central powers in shaping and mould- 
 ing the figures of sidereal systems. 
 
 Herschel's discussion is so convincing that we need not dwell 
 on it beyond adding that if now we exactly reverse his argument 
 
186 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 we obtain at once a most comprehensive proof of the universal 
 operation of repulsive forces in Nature. For if central powers 
 produce the observed symmetrical condensations, it is obvious 
 that the matter now condensed was formerly diffused somewhat 
 equably about these centers, and could have acquired this arrange- 
 ment in space only by accumulation from all directions: and there- 
 fore at an earlier period the matter was expelled from stars lying 
 in all directions in the general stratum of the Milky Way. Ac- 
 cordingly we thus obtain a most satisfactory proof of the opera- 
 tions of repulsive forces throughout Nature. The familiar proofs 
 of repulsive forces supplied by the solar corona and by the tails 
 of comets pointing from the sun, are thus supported by others 
 drawn from the system of comets about our sun and from the star 
 clusters and nebulae in every part of the sidereal heavens. 
 
 XIV. ARRANGEMENT OF THE NEBULA IN CANOPIES ON EITHER 
 
 SIDE OF THE MILKY WAY DUE TO THE ACTION 
 
 OF REPULSIVE FORCES. 
 
 If repulsive forces are everywhere at work expelling dust 
 from the stars for the formation of nebulae, it is evident that as 
 it is repelled by the stars it will tend to gather especially in vacant 
 regions or spaces remote from the stars, and should accumulate 
 with maximum density near the poles of the Milky Way. Thus 
 have arisen the great canopies of nebulae on either side of the 
 Galaxy. As the dust now forming into nebulae slowly develops 
 into stars, they drift back into the central starry stratum of the 
 Milky Way, while other new nebulae take their places; so that 
 the arrangement of contrariety, with nebulae on either side of the 
 starry stratum, is maintained by a process of slow circulation. 
 The observed arrangement of the nebulae and stars in the sidereal 
 universe is thus the outcome of the grouping of the stars in one 
 great stratum, which may itself be the effect of the mutual attrac- 
 tions of the whole mass and of repulsive forces operating over 
 vast time. 
 
ISOGRAPHIC PROJECTION OF THE NORTHERN CELESTIAL HEMISPHERE. 
 
 The nebulae are represented by dots, the clusters by crosses. 
 (From See's Researches, Vol. II, 1910.) 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 187 
 
 For over two centuries after the establishment of the law of 
 universal gravitation by Newton in 1687, philosophers took account 
 of attraction only, and ignored the effects of repulsive forces, so 
 that the natural philosophy of the heavens was essentially incom- 
 plete, being but half developed. In more recent times account 
 has been taken of repulsive forces and their paramount part in 
 dispersing matter for the formation of sidereal systems, and the 
 result is the full treatment of the two great tendencies in nature, 
 with a more symmetrical development of the grand science of 
 natural philisophy. 
 
 XV. THE UNIFORMITY IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CHEM- 
 ICAL ELEMENTS DISCOVERED BY HUGGINS IN 1864 ALSO 
 IMPLIES THE OPERATION OF REPULSIVE 
 FORCES IN NATURE. 
 
 The beautiful discovery of Sir William Huggins, in 1864, that 
 the chemical elements are essentially the same wherever a star 
 twinkles, may be said also to point to repulsive forces in Nature. 
 For if these were not incessantly at work, to keep the elements 
 well stirred, by a process of mixing, it is probable that transmu- 
 tations going on in certain places might develop at length great 
 inequalities in the distribution of the elements, and the universe 
 would not present the aspect of essential uniformity so clearly 
 disclosed by observation. These results reveal to us some of the 
 greatest laws of Nature, and give us the true cause for the wonder- 
 ful order found to pervade the starry heavens, 
 
 When we consider the hazy, dust-like aspect of the nebulae 
 it is strange that we should not earlier have read the riddle of these 
 remarkable objects as produced by the gathering together of dis- 
 persed dust; for the existence of these cosmical clouds in the uni- 
 verse is as clear an indication that matter is dispersed from the 
 stars by the action of repulsive forces as the aqueous clouds in 
 our atmosphere are of the renewal of terrestrial evaporation. Any 
 philosophic observer studying the nebulae through the telescope 
 ought to have been able to recognize that these hazy cloud-like 
 
188 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 masses are essentially the evaporation-products of the stars, and 
 that they must be incessantly renewed by the repulsive forces at 
 work from these centers of condensation and radiation. 
 
 But false ideas of Cosmogony were everywhere prevalent, 
 and instead of looking upon the nebulae as renewed by the ex- 
 pulsion of dust from the stars, the current view was that the 
 nebulae represented world stuff not yet used up since the creation. 
 Now in the arguments of the great Herschel, before cited, he 
 shows that some of the sidereal systems have been millions of ages 
 in forming, and as others have been of very different duration, it 
 is possible to prove mathematically that the formation of all parts 
 of the universe did not begin at any one epoch, however remote, 
 but is a process of constant renewal, under the cyclic process here 
 described, the condensation of the nebulae forming stars and plane- 
 tary systems and the expulsion of dust from the stars forming the 
 nebulae. 
 
 The philosophical difficulty now overcome by the introduc- 
 tion of repulsive forces for scattering the dust from the stars and 
 thus producing nebulae, and finally setting the bodies, into which 
 the nebulae condense, in orbital motion, as if by the action of pro- 
 jectile forces, is one which has been recognized since the time of 
 Anaxagoras (500-427 B.C.) He taught that the sun, moon, and 
 stars had been torn away from the (supposed) common center of 
 the earth by the violence of the cosmic revolution, just as Kant 
 and Laplace long afterwards supposed the planets to have been 
 thrown off by the rotation of the solar nebula. Anaxagoras' 
 difficulty of accounting for the tangential or projectile forces which 
 set the heavenly bodies in motion is stated in the notable work on 
 Greek Thinkers, by Professor Theodore Gomperz of the University 
 of Vienna as follows: 
 
 "There was only a single point in his theory of the formation 
 of the firmament and the universe in which he deserted his me- 
 chanical and physical principles to assume an outside intervention. 
 That first shock which set in motion the process of the universe 
 that had hitherto been in repose reminds us in a most striking 
 
Plate E 
 
 SPIRAL NEBULAE PHOTOGRAPHED AT LICK OBSERVATORY: 
 
 M 51, GANUM VENATICORUM; 
 H. IV 13, GYGNI; 
 
 M 101, URSAE MAJORIS; 
 H. IV 76, CEPHEI; 
 
 H. 153, PEGASI; H. I 55, PEGASI. 
 
 (From See's Researches, Vol. II, 1910). 
 
 This plate shows impressively that the attendant bodies are not thrown off, as was long 
 imagined, but necessarily added on from without, because in several cases there are no central 
 bodies at all, or scarcely any; but the matter is plainly gathering in from without, and working 
 down towards the center. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 189 
 
 fashion of the first impulse which the Deity is supposed by some 
 modern astronomers to have given to the stars. Or rather it would 
 be more correct to say that both ideas are practically identical. 
 They were intended to fill up the same lacuna in our knowledge: 
 they spring from the same desire to introduce in the mechanism 
 of heaven a second force of unknown origin to take its place by the 
 side of gravity." (Greek Thinkers, p. 217, translated by Magnus, 
 1901). 
 
 The explanation of projectile forces (such as those which set 
 the planets revolving) now adopted, rests on the original dispersion 
 of dust by the stars, and its inevitable collection into a nebula of 
 unsymmetrical figure, which gradually settles and coils up, thus 
 producing a whirling vortex about the center of the nebula, which 
 becomes the sun, while the surviving planets circulating about it 
 have their orbits reduced in size and rounded up into almost per- 
 fect circles by the action of the resisting medium. This is a vast 
 improvement in our theories of the mechanics of the heavens, and 
 as it follows directly from well established laws of motion, the 
 traditional difficulty in the mechanical theory of the universe com- 
 pletely disappears, and we see that the revolutions of the stars is 
 a necessary consequence and a proof of the interaction of attractive 
 and repulsive forces in nature. 
 
 XVI. SPIRAL, ANNULAR, ELLIPTICAL, PLANETARY AND 
 IRREGULAR NEBULA. 
 
 As nebulae arise from the collection together of particles of 
 dust expelled from the stars, it naturally follows that the clouds 
 thus developed will seldom be of perfectly regular figure, but will 
 often consist of two or more streams settling down and coiling up 
 under the effects of their mutual gravitation. The settling of a 
 stream of unsymmetrical figure towards its center of gravity thus 
 produces a spiral nebula. In rare cases the streams may coil 
 about in such a way as to produce an annular or ring nebula like 
 that in Lyra. Ring nebulae are therefore special cases of the more 
 
190 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 general type of spiral nebulas. If the whirlpool is of somewhat 
 even density, and viewed obliquely, it appears to be an elliptical 
 nebula. When the elements come together somewhat symmetri- 
 cally from all directions, and the density is somewhat uniform, we 
 have a planetary nebula a type which seems to be quite numer- 
 ous. Most of the nebulae, however, are of irregular figure, as 
 ought naturally to happen from the way they are formed. In 
 time they tend to settle down and assume more symmetrical form, 
 but the process is excessively slow, owing to the feebleness of 
 the attractive forces, and the rarity of the mass of cosmical 
 dust, which usually allows the light of stars to pass through 
 it, even when thousands of times the diameter of the solar 
 system. 
 
 For a long time after the age of Herschel and Laplace it was 
 usually assumed that the nebulae are figures of equilibrium main- 
 tained by high temperature and hydrostatic pressure, but of late 
 years these views have been quite abandoned. The nebula are 
 much too rare for the exertion of any hydrostatic pressure. This 
 is proved from actual calculation in the solar system, by the fact 
 that if the sun be expanded to Neptune's orbit, as held in the 
 abandoned theory of Laplace, the density of the resulting nebula 
 is two hundred and sixty million times less than that of atmos- 
 pheric air at sea level, or thousands of times less than that of the 
 most perfect vacuum attainable. 
 
 A planetary nebula is therefore analogous to the infinite sys- 
 tem of comets revolving in all directions about the sun, except that 
 the comets are dense enough to render the whole nebula faintly 
 visible, which probably is not true of our system of comets as seen 
 from the other fixed stars. The vast extent and incredible rarity 
 of our system of comets and meteoric trains make them the 
 best known illustrations of what the average nebula really is. 
 
 Some nebulae contain certain self luminous gases, probably 
 shining at very low temperature by luminescence or electric excita- 
 tion, but most of the elements are non-luminous and give no 
 spectral indications of their presence. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 191 
 
 XVII. THE PRINCIPAL CAUSE OF VARIABLE STARS TO BE 
 SOUGHT IN THE ACTION OF A RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 It is shown in my Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar 
 Systems, Vol. II, 1910, that, although quite unseen, planetary 
 systems really exist about the fixed stars which appear to be single 
 under the most refined observations of our greatest telescopes. 
 Our instruments reveal to us chiefly the bright companions at some 
 distance (visual double stars), or massive companions revolving 
 rapidly and in such close proximity as to become visible only by 
 the periodic shift of the spectral lines (spectroscopic binary stars). 
 In both classes of these objects the masses must be considerable, 
 while the planets attending the fixed stars revolve quite unseen 
 and forever beyond the reach of our most powerful instruments. 
 
 We know that planets attend the fixed stars for two reasons: 
 (1) They attend our sun, which is definitely known to have devel- 
 oped from a nebula. (2) The mode of formation which was opera- 
 tive when the planets began as small nuclei in the distance and 
 neared the center of the system under the attraction of gravitation 
 will necessarily have operated in the same way about the other 
 stars, which arose from nebulae under the very same laws. There- 
 fore the fixed stars generally have systems of planets, asteroids, 
 satellites, and comets; and the double stars are simply those 
 systems in which the smaller bodies have been so united as to pro- 
 duce large companions. 
 
 Now as all the stars have companions, and the resisting 
 medium exists everywhere, though with varying density, it follows 
 that those companions which plunge through considerable resist- 
 ance at perihelion will experience a variation in brightness. The 
 blazing up of the light will be comparatively rapid, the fall in bright- 
 ness more gradual, depending on the slower process of cooling. 
 These are the variable stars, of which more than a thousand are 
 known. 
 
 Some clusters are quite filled with variable stars, and it is 
 observed that their periods are very constant. This shows that 
 
192 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 these clusters are still supplied with ample nebulosity, and that 
 variation of such great regularity can depend on nothing but or- 
 bital motion for its regulating cause. Where the variation is irregu- 
 lar, one should suspect the presence of several disturbing bodies 
 the compound effects of which do not give regular periodicity. In 
 other cases there are phenomena of eclipses to be dwelt with, as in 
 the Algol and Beta Lyrse variables, but we need not dwell on these 
 details. 
 
 The important thing for us to observe is that the great cause 
 which has rounded up the orbits of our planets, enabled the planets 
 to capture their satellites, and given rise to the lunar craters, by 
 the destruction of millions of small bodies, is operative throughout 
 the universe; and it is therefore no wonder that many of the stars 
 are variable. 
 
 XVIII. NEW STARS DUE TO COLLISIONS WITH ATTENDANT 
 
 BODIES. 
 
 As all the fixed stars are attended by systems of planets and 
 comets, it will inevitably happen that collisions of disastrous 
 character between some of these bodies and their central suns will 
 occasionally occur.* My investigation of this question proves 
 that the Novae follow the Milky Way in just the proportion that 
 should occur if the outbursts depend simply on the thickness of 
 the stars on the back ground of the sky, so that wherever the stars 
 are numerous there the Novae will appear. 
 
 It was formerly supposed by some that the stars actually 
 come into collision with one another; but it is now realized that 
 such disasters are too rare to become noticeable, whereas collisions 
 with attendant planets or comets within the system must be infi- 
 nitely more frequent. Above all, as the Novae are of short dura- 
 tion, this fact points to conflagrations such as might follow from 
 
 * In this way probably arise the so-called stellar nebula*, which are correctly 
 distinguished from the planetary nebute. The former follow the Milky Way like 
 the Novx, and undoubtedly these two classes of objects are connected, though 
 this apparently has not been suspected heretofore. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 193 
 
 the collision of a small mass, but not of one sun with another. 
 Accordingly it has come to be accepted that the new stars are due 
 to collisions with minor masses of the type of planets or very large 
 comets. 
 
 The theory that a comet might fall into a star which had 
 wasted in splendor was held by Newton, and thus our modern 
 view is merely an extension of that put forth by the immortal 
 author of the Principle in 1687. 
 
 XIX. CONNECTON ESTABLISHED BETWEEN ALL CLASSES OF 
 
 HEAVENLY BODIES. 
 
 i 
 
 The most significant result of the New Science of Cosmogony 
 as now developed is that these laws unite all the different classes 
 of the heavenly bodies into one continuous and unbroken whole. 
 Every star is a sun, attended by an infinite system of comets, and 
 by companions, whether the system has the form of a double star 
 or the more general type of a planetary system made up of nu- 
 merous small bodies. Whenever a system has a dominant body 
 like Jupiter, it has also a system of asteroids gathered within its 
 orbit, and a group of short period comets, such as our own Jupiter 
 has captured. The comets are destroyed, and the dust of their 
 disintegration serves to build up the masses of the planets. 
 
 In the transition of the asteroids over Jupiter's orbit, some 
 are captured and become satellites, which usually have a direct 
 revolution, but a lesser number may move retrograde, as actually 
 observed in the solar system. The collisions of captured particles 
 with the planets give these globes a direct rotation on their axes, 
 and establish obliquities like those observed in the planets revolv- 
 ing about our sun. The meteors, comets, asteroids, satellites and 
 smaller planets are consumed in building up the larger bodies of 
 the system. If a large companion revolves in an eccentric orbit, 
 most of the planetary bodies may be swallowed up in one of the 
 two large masses and thus lead to the development of a double 
 star. Should the stars be far apart there may arise a closer com- 
 
194 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 panion giving a triple or quadruple star, or one of the components 
 of a double star may become a spectroscopic binary. When a 
 nebula of vast extent is formed and develops by condensation at 
 many centers we have a cluster, with companions attending the 
 individual stars, and by revolving in the nebular resisting medium 
 giving us cluster variables, often with wonderful regularity of 
 period. 
 
 Collisions of large comets or planets with suns which have 
 wasted in splendor supply new or temporary stars, which blaze 
 forth wherever the stars are crowded on the background of the 
 sky, and therefore principally along the course of the Milky Way. 
 The dust expelled from the stars to form nebulae may take any of 
 the observed forms, and thus we have spiral, annular, elliptical, 
 planetary and irregular nebulae. Astronomers now recognize the 
 following classes of cosmical bodies: 1, single stars: 2, double 
 stars, including both visual and spectroscopic binaries; 3, multi- 
 ple stars; 4, clusters of stars; 5, star-clouds in the Milky Way; 
 6, the Milky Way itself, as a clustering stream of smaller systems 
 traversing the circuit of the heavens and here and there culminat- 
 ing in a perfect blaze from the intensity of the accumulated star- 
 light; 7, variable stars; 8, temporary stars; 9, planetary sys- 
 tems; 10, systems of satellites; 11, systems of asteroids; 12, 
 systems of comets; 13, spiral nebulae; 14, annular nebulae; 15, 
 elliptical nebulae; 16, planetary nebulae; 17, irregular nebulae; 
 18, diffuse nebulosity, often covering whole constellations; 19, 
 canopies of nebulae accumulating with maximum density near the 
 poles of the Milky Way; 20, two or more streams among the stars, 
 indicating that the observed order of the universe is slowly chang- 
 ing with the flight of ages. 
 
 It is obvious that a Science of Cosmogony which is founded 
 on a true basis should connect these different classes of bodies one 
 with another, and thus establish an unbroken continuity in the 
 observed order of Nature. 
 
 In the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, under the 
 article Stars, it is pointed out by Mr. A. S. Eddington of the Royal 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 195 
 
 Observatory, Greenwich, that a fundamental contradiction arises 
 in our conceptions of cosmical evolution when, on the one hand, 
 we try to pass from systems of binary stars and planets, supposed 
 to be thrown off from the central nebula by the fluid fission pro- 
 cess of Poincare and Darwin to the star clusters, on the other, 
 which are supposed to be due to the aggregation of matter towards 
 centers, as imagined by Herschel. If Mr. Eddington had read 
 my papers of 1909 carefully, and above all the second volume of 
 my Researches, 1910, he would have seen that this long-standing 
 contradiction is now permanently removed, because I have proved 
 that the uniform Law of Nature is one of aggregation of matter 
 towards the large centers of attraction, while the only throwing 
 off that ever takes place is that of small particles expelled by the 
 action of repulsive forces. Mr. Eddington' s article doubtless 
 was prepared several years ago, but the failure to bring it up to 
 date in this and many other cases shows that the Britannica is 
 antiquated before it leaves the press, and it is not remarkable 
 therefore that it has so largely disappointed the scientific world. 
 
 From the foregoing theory it thus appears that we have a 
 simple and consistent explanation of all classes of the heavenly 
 bodies in their mutual relationship and distribution in space. The 
 harmony and order thus introduced into apparently confused and 
 extremely varied phenomena is the best proof that the laws now 
 recognized are the true Laws of Nature. 
 
 XX. PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PLATO'S CELEBRATE 
 SAYING THAT THE DEITY ALWAYS GEOMETRIZES. 
 
 One of the most beautiful of these laws, as disclosed by the 
 New Science of Cosmogony, appeals especially to the geometer. 
 And as it has left a profound impress upon the geometry of the 
 heavens, we may conclude these remarks by a brief explanation 
 of it. We have seen that the nebulae are formed by the gathering 
 together of fine dust expelled from the stars, and that it eventu- 
 ally condenses into larger bodies. This unsymmetrical figure of 
 
196 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 a nebula often causes it to settle, under its own gravitation, and 
 develop into a spiral resembling the spiral of Archimedes. The 
 sun of the system develops at the center, while planets are formed 
 in the distance and made to approach the sun in orbits becoming 
 smaller and smaller and rounder and rounder, owing to the secular 
 effects of the nebular resisting medium. And the final outcome 
 is a planetary system of the beauty and order found about our 
 sun, the planets being attended by captured satellites and endowed 
 with axial rotation and small obliquity, often surrounded by atmos- 
 pheres and oceans, with all the conditions favorable for habitability. 
 
 This development represents one of the greatest and most 
 general laws of nature. Now if drawing ellipses and slowly trans- 
 forming them into circles for the orbits of planets, and thus estab- 
 lishing orderly systems out of the chaos of a spiral nebula may 
 be considered geometrizing, then Plato certainly was right when 
 he declared that the Deity always geometrizes o 0eos dct yew/AeVpct. 
 
 A sublimer truth than this probably never will be disclosed 
 to mortals. When we behold the starry heavens on a cloudless 
 night we may well recall the geometrizing of the Deity which is 
 always going! on for establishing the beauty and order of the 
 Cosmos. 
 
 U.S. Naval Observatory, 
 
 Mare Island, California, 
 
 August 7, 1911. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1911. 
 
 DETERMINATION OF THE DEPTH OF THE MILKY WAY.* 
 
 By T. J. J. SEE. 
 (Read January 5, 1912.) 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 problem of determining the depth of the Milky Way, as 
 accurately as possible, is one which has now engaged my 
 attention for over twenty years, and I will therefore take 
 this occasion to bring together the results at which I have arrived, 
 partly because they are of high general interest, and partly because 
 the progress thus made will prove instructive as to the methods 
 which must be adopted for the measurement of the distances of 
 the most remote objects of the sidereal universe. Here we have 
 to deal with distances so immense that the method of annual 
 parallaxes, commonly used for the stars comparatively near the 
 sun, utterly fails; and recourse must be had to other methods 
 which will serve for the greatest distances to which our modern 
 giant telescopes can penetrate. 
 
 Alpha Centauri, the nearest of the fixed stars, was also the 
 first to be sucessfully measured for parallax, by Thomas Hender- 
 son, of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1831; but the work was not 
 reduced till January, 1839, and meanwhile Bessel had measured 
 the parallax of 61 Cygni in 1838 and promptly published the result 
 of his triumph. Of late years astronomers have given greatly 
 increased attention to the question of the distances of the stars 
 and systematic campaigns of the most laborious kind have been 
 carried on by Gill; Elkin and Chase, of Yale; Kapteyn, of Gronin- 
 gen; and Schlesinger, at the Yerkes Observatory, Chicago. Some 
 
 *Reprinted from Proceedings American Philosophical Society, Vol. li., 1912. 
 
198 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 three hundred and fifty stars have now been studied by the stand- 
 ard method of parallaxes, and for most of these objects, perhaps 
 about two hundred in number, fairly satisfactory data have been 
 deduced; but the method can be extended only to stars within 
 less than one hundred light-years of our sun, and is therefore very 
 limited in its applicability, owing to the small diameter of the earth's 
 orbit, and the insensible effects of the annual displacements result- 
 ing from the orbital motion of our planet. As nature herself has 
 fixed the limits of this method, astronomers have naturally cast 
 about for other methods of greater generality and have finally 
 developed processes of surprising power, of which an account will 
 be given in the present paper. 
 
 1. OUTLINE OF THE METHODS ADOPTED. 
 
 Among previous investigators who have occupied themselves 
 with the difficult problem of the profundity of the Milky Way the 
 first place will be universally assigned to the incomparable Sir 
 William Herschel, who extended his researches over many years, 
 and reached results which were for a time accepted, but have been 
 rejected for three quarters of a century, and yet are now proved to 
 be essentially correct. It is very remarkable and exceedingly 
 unfortunate that Herschel' s conclusions have been generally re- 
 jected by his son, Sir John Herschel, and other astronomers dur- 
 ing the past seventy-five years. But before discussing the circum- 
 stances which led to this outcome I shall recall the modern attempts 
 at the solution of the problem of determining distances in the 
 Milky Way. 
 
 After the spectroscope came into use, and Huggins had applied 
 Doeppler's principle to the motion in the line of sight (1868) it 
 was pointed out by Fox Talbot in 1871 (Brit. Assoc. Report, 1871, 
 p. 34, Pt. II.) that the possibility existed of determining the abso- 
 lute dimensions of the orbit of a pair of binary stars which had a 
 known angular dimension in the sky, and thus parallaxes might 
 be found of systems very remote from the earth. In 1890, while 
 a post-graduate student at the University of Berlin, I developed 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 199 
 
 this method still further, and showed how it could be used also to 
 test the accuracy of the law of universal gravitation in the stellar 
 systems. The spectroscopic method then outlined was brought 
 to more general form in 1895, and it at once occurred to me to point 
 out its use for measuring the distance of clusters in the Milky Way 
 (A.N. 3,323), as more certain than Herschel's method of star 
 gauges. 
 
 Our age is one of rapid improvement in all scientific processes 
 and during the past sixteen years naturally much progress has 
 been made in double-star astronomy, as well as in our knowledge 
 of nebulae and clusters. On looking more closely into the spectro- 
 scopic method, which in 1895 had been shown to be applicable to 
 objects 1,000 light-years from the sun, and might thus include all 
 suitable double-stars within this sphere, I became convinced that 
 while it is a great theoretical advance over the old method of par- 
 allaxes, it still is quite inadequate for finding the distances of the 
 most remote objects in the sidereal universe. Accordingly in 1909 
 I returned to the improvement of Herschel's method as the most 
 promising, for the determination of the distances of the most remote 
 objects. Here are the grounds for this decision: 
 
 1. It was noticed, as remarked by Burnham, that revolving 
 double stars are rare, if not unknown, in clusters, and among the 
 star-clouds of the Milky Way not because such systems are not 
 present in these masses of stars, but because they cannot be sepa- 
 rated, owing to the great distances at which these masses of stars 
 are removed from us. 
 
 2. When double stars cannot be clearly separated in the tele- 
 scope they cannot be used for parallax by the spectroscopic method; 
 and thus the spectroscopic method, while having a wider range of 
 application than the method of parallaxes, in something like the 
 ratio of the size of the double star orbit to that of the orbit of the 
 earth, is yet applicable only to stars within about 1,000 light-years 
 of our sun. 
 
 3. It will be shown below that the most remote stars are 
 separated from us by a distance of at least 1,000,000 light-years, 
 
200 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and as this space is a thousand times that to which the spectro- 
 scopic method may be applied, it follows that there is no way of 
 fathoming these immense distances except by the improvement of 
 the method of Herschel. 
 
 And just as in my " Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar 
 Systems," Vol. II, 1910, p. 638, I had been able to adduce sub- 
 stantial grounds for returning to the vast distances calculated by 
 Herschel, so also during the past year I have been able to add to 
 the proof there brought forward, and will proceed to develop it 
 in the present paper. 
 
 2. HERSCHEL'S METHOD DEPENDING ON THE SPACE PENETRA- 
 TING POWER OF TELESCOPES. 
 
 In his celebrated star gauges Herschel employed a twenty- 
 foot reflector of eighteen inches aperture, and calculated the space- 
 penetrating power of such an instrument from the ratio of the 
 aperture of the telescope to that of the pupil of the eye. The com- 
 parative distance to which a star would have to be removed in order 
 that it may appear of the same brightness through the telescope 
 as it did before to the naked eye may thus be calculated. Herschel 
 found the power of this twenty- foot reflector to be seventy-five; 
 so that a star of sixth magnitude removed to seventy-five times its 
 present distance would therefore still be visible, as a star, in the 
 instrument. 
 
 Admitting such a sixth magnitude star to give only a hundredth 
 part of the light of the standard first magnitude star, it will follow 
 that the standard star could be seen as a sixth magnitude star at 
 ten times its present distance; and if we then multiply by the 
 space penetrating power, we get 750 as the distance to which the 
 standard star could be removed and still excite in the eye, when 
 viewed through the telescope, the same impression as a star of sixth 
 magnitude does to the naked eye. Thus if Alpha Centauri be 
 distant 4.5 light-years, it would be visible in Herschel's telescope 
 at a distance of 3,375 light-years. This is about the distance 
 ascribed to the remoter stars of the Milky Way by Newcomb and 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 201 
 
 many other modern writers; but of course it is much too small, 
 for the following reasons: 
 
 (a) Newcomb and other astronomers cite the possibility of 
 some of the stars being as much as 1,000,000 times brighter than 
 the average solar star, and in that case the star might be seen at 
 ^1,000,000=1,000 times that distance, or 3,375,000 light-years, 
 with an instrument having a space penetrating power no greater 
 than that employed by Herschel, provided that no light is extin- 
 guished in its passage through space. 
 
 (b) If the telescope be more powerful than Herschel's 20- 
 foot reflector, the light gathered will be increased in the ratio of 
 x 2 /(18) 2 , where x = diameter of mirror; and for the 60-inch re- 
 flector at Pasadena, x = 60, over nine times as much light could 
 be gathered, or stars seen over three times as far away. Thus if 
 the stars have only about 10,000 times the luminosity of the sun, 
 they could still be seen with the Pasadena reflector at a distance 
 of over a million light-years. For 3,375 l.-y . X 3 X 100 = 1,012,500 
 light-years. 
 
 (c) The sensitiveness and accumulative effects of the photo- 
 graphic plate, will enable us to extend our sounding line still 
 further out into space by some three magnitudes, or four times the 
 distance; and thus with a modern 60-inch reflector we could photo- 
 graph stars at a distance of about four million light-years, if they 
 have 10,000 times the standard solar luminosity, and no light is 
 lost in space. How much light is really lost in space will be con- 
 sidered later, but it may be stated here that it probably is decidedly 
 less than was concluded by Struve. 
 
 3. INDEPENDENT CALCULATION OF THE DISTANCE OF THE 
 REMOTEST STARS OF THE HELIUM TYPE. 
 
 From the data given in Lick Observatory Bulletin No. 195, 
 we find that 225 helium stars employed by Campbell in his 
 line of sight work have an average visual magnitude of 4.14. Of 
 the four variables given in this Bulletin, we have used the 
 maximum brightness in three cases, because they are of the 
 algol type. In the case of u Herculis, we have used the mean 
 
202 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 magnitude, because the type of variable does not appear to be as 
 yet well established. 
 
 Here then we have 225 helium stars at an average distance of 
 about 540 light-years. For in Lick Observatory Bulletin No. 195, 
 p. 121, Campbell finds the 180 class B, or helium, stars to have an 
 average distance of 543 light-years, while in Publications of the 
 Astronomical Society of the Pacific for June- August, 1911, p. 159, 
 Professor Curtis gives 534 light-years as the average distance of 
 312 helium stars. The former distance for 180 stars being greater 
 than the latter distance for 312 stars, we may take 540 light-years 
 as the distance of the 225 helium stars here under discussion, the 
 average magnitude of which is 4.14. 
 
 If the average magnitude were decreased to 21.14, by removal 
 to 2,512 times their present distance, which would reduce the aver- 
 age brightness by 17 magnitudes, the distance of the stars would 
 be multiplied by 2,512, and become 1,356,480 light-years. This 
 is for the helium stars as they are, without any hypothesis as to 
 brightness, or as to the extinction of light in space, which will be 
 considered later. 
 
 The question will naturally be asked whether helium stars 
 really exist at these great distances. We may unhesitatingly 
 affirm that they do, because of the well-known whiteness of the 
 small stars of the Milky Way. It is true that Pickering has in- 
 vestigated the distribution of the helium stars in the Harvard 
 Annals, Vol. 56, No. II., and Campbell quotes these data in Lick 
 Observatory Bulletin No. 195 as showing that the helium stars are 
 all bright objects. Pickering believed his tabulations to indicate 
 "that of the bright stars, one out of four belongs to this class (B), 
 while of the stars of the sixth magnitude there is only one out of 
 twenty; and that few if any would be found fainter than the 
 seventh or eighth magnitude." The implication here is that no 
 helium stars exist at very great distances corrresponding to small 
 magnitudes; but of course such a view is untenable. 
 
 It probably is true that the group of helium stars at a distance 
 of some 540 light-years from our sun, and thus comparatively near 
 us, does cease after a certain faintness and distance has been 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 203 
 
 reached; but is equally certain that other clusters or clouds of 
 helium stars recur at greater distances, among the millions of small 
 white stars constituting the Milky Way. For as Herschel long ago 
 noticed the Galaxy is everywhere observed to traverse the circuit 
 of the heavens in a clustering stream; and our view of it from the 
 region of the sun is not essentially different from the view that 
 could be obtained from other points in this starry stratum. Add 
 to this consideration the fact of the well-known whiteness of the 
 small stars in the Milky Way, and we are authorized to conclude 
 that an indefinite number of clusters or groups of helium stars will 
 be found in the Milky Way, and thus such stars will certainly 
 exist at the greatest depths to which our giant telescopes can 
 penetrate. 
 
 We must therefore be on our guard against the superficial 
 view, that because the helium stars near the sun fade away as the 
 sixth magnitude is approached, other groups of stars of this type 
 do not occur at greater distances. The typical whiteness of the 
 millions of small stars which make up the Milky Way, and the 
 clustering character of that magnificent collection of stars, alike 
 forbid any such inference. 
 
 Herschel had the correct view of the constitution of the 
 Galaxy a century ago. Unfortunately his works have been very 
 inaccessible, and are so little used that many erroneous conceptions 
 have been given currency by more superficial investigators. It is 
 impossible to commend too highly the movement now on foot in 
 England to reissue the collected works of Sir William Herschel. 
 In all that pertains to the sidereal universe as a whole he is easily 
 the greatest of all modern astronomers, and will always remain 
 unrivaled. 
 
 4. EXPLANATION OF THE METHODS EMPLOYED BY CAMPBELL 
 
 FOR FINDING THE AVERAGE DISTANCE OF THE GROUP OF 
 
 NAKED EYE HELIUM STARS. 
 
 This is essentially a combination of the line of sight motion 
 as found at Lick Observatory, with the proper motions resulting 
 from observations with the meridian circle, by many observers, as 
 
204 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 worked up by Boss of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, New York. 
 By the recent study of several thousand of the brighter stars 
 included in his Prelimimary General Catalogue, Professor Boss 
 has deduced their proper motions with a high degree of accuracy. 
 Campbell found from 180 of these stars resembling our sun in 
 spectral type that their average cross proper motion in the sky, 
 from the values derived by Boss, was about 0.11 second of arc per 
 annum, while at the same time their average speed in the line of 
 sight shown by the spectrograph at Lick Observatory was 8.9 
 miles per second, or two hundred and eighty million miles a year. 
 Having the average motion in the line of sight, in absolute units, 
 and the average cross proper motion in seconds of arc, it is easy 
 to find how far away a base line of 280 million miles would have to 
 be to subtend an angle of 0.11 of a second of arc. It turns out to 
 be ninety-two light-years. 
 
 In this way it is possible to get the average distances of large 
 groups of stars. Here are some of the results found by Campbell. 
 
 Type 
 
 No. 
 
 Average Yearly 
 Cross-motion 
 
 Average Radial 
 Velocity in Miles 
 per Second 
 
 Average Rela- 
 tive Parallax 
 
 Average Dis- 
 tance in Light- 
 years 
 
 B-B 6 
 Bs-B 9 
 A 
 F 
 G 
 K 
 M 
 
 312 
 90 
 172' 
 180 
 118 
 346 
 71 
 
 0.0078 
 
 0.0182 
 0.0368 
 0.1075 
 0.0748 
 0.0516 
 0.0384 
 
 3.9 
 4.2 
 6.5 
 8.9 
 9.9 
 10.4 
 10.6 
 
 0.0061 
 0.0129 
 0.0166 
 0.0354 
 0.0223 
 0.0146 
 0.0106 
 
 534 
 253 
 196 
 92 
 146 
 223 
 308 
 
 This table contains the most important results of the Camp- 
 bell-Boss method of obtaining average distances for large groups 
 of stars. It need scarcely be remarked that its significance can 
 hardly be overrated. But whilst the average values given are quite 
 trustworthy, the method is of course inapplicable to the individual 
 stars] and if their distances are to be found, recourse would have 
 to be had to the standard method of parallaxes, or to the spectro- 
 scopic method in the case of visual binaries. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 205 
 
 5. SOME OF THE DISTANCES OF THE REMOTEST STARS AS 
 HERETOFORE CALCULATED BY ASTRONOMERS. 
 
 1. Sir William Herschel, Phil. Trans., 1802, p. 498, "almost 2,000,000 light- 
 
 years." 
 
 2. Sir John Herschel, "Outlines," edition of 1869, p. 583, "upwards of 
 
 2,000 light-years." 
 
 3. Guillemin, "The Heavens," trans, by Lockyer, 1867, p. 433, "upwards of 
 
 20,000 light-years." 
 
 4. Bartlett, "Spherical Astronomy," 1874, p. 149, "upwards of 2,437.5 light- 
 
 years." 
 
 5. Newcomb, "Popular Astronomy," edition of 1878, p. 481, "about 14,000 
 
 light-years" (for the Herschel stars). 
 
 6. Clerke, " System of the Stars," 1890, p. 314, "less than 36,000 light-years." 
 
 7. Ranyard, " Old and New Astronomy," 1892, p. 748, " less than 70,000 light- 
 
 years." 
 
 8. Young, " General Astronomy," edition of 1904, p. 563, " 10,000 to 20,000 
 
 light-years." 
 
 9. Newcomb, " The Stars," 1908, p. 319, " at least 3,000 light-years." 
 10. See, "Researches," Vol. II, 1910, p. 638, "4,500,000 light-years." 
 
 From this table it will be seen that there was a great falling 
 off in the distances following the epoch of Sir William Herschel; 
 and that the present writer was the first to recognize the fallacy of 
 the recent estimates of distance, and to restore the large values 
 used by that unrivaled astronomer one hundred and ten years 
 ago. Here we have a good illustration of the retrogradation of 
 opinion in astronomy, under the cultivation of inferior genius. 
 Sir John Herschel's preference for such small distances over the 
 large values used by his father is indeed remarkable and very 
 regrettable . Evidently the small value used by Newcomb is simply 
 an echo of the reduction in distance made by Sir John Herschel. 
 The absurdity of these small values not over five times that of 
 the helium stars of 4.14 magnitude investigated at Lick Observa- 
 tory ought to impress us with the small importance to be attach- 
 ed to any opinion merely because it is currently accepted. Thus 
 we have a clear case of misleading tradition transmitted from the 
 second Herschel, and the amazing spectacle of the whole world 
 using values about a thousand times too small, for the greater part 
 of a century, in times which were supposed to be very enlightened. 
 Strange indeed that the correct work of the great Sir William 
 
206 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Herschel should have been neglected all this time! Will it seem 
 credible to future ages that such a remarkable retrogradation of 
 opinion could have occurred and persisted during the nineteenth 
 and twentieth centuries? If so, it must be attributed to the nar- 
 rowing effects of extreme specialization, which, with the advance 
 of science, has been difficult to avoid in our time, and yet is utterly 
 disastrous to the growth of true natural philosophy as the study 
 of nature in the widest sense. 
 
 6. OTHER METHODS FOR CONFIRMING THE GREAT DEPTH OF 
 
 THE MILKY WAY. 
 
 (a) The girdle of helium stars about our sun, according to the 
 Lick determination, has a mean distance of 540 light-years, or a 
 mean diameter of 1,080 light-years. If this be one- twentieth of 
 the average thickness of the Milky Way stratum, as one may infer 
 from the appearance of certain clusters in the constellation Sagit- 
 tarius, which are near enough to be studied intelligently, then we 
 have 21,600 light-years for the average thickness of the Milky 
 Way. 
 
 Now when we traverse the Milky Way from Centaurus to 
 Cepheus, over an arc of 180 in length, the central band appears 
 to the naked eye to have a width of 3 or 4, as was long ago re- 
 marked also by Herschel and Struve. This is an extension along 
 the circle of the Galaxy of about 60 times its thickness. If then 
 the thickness be 2 1,600 light-years, the double depth of the stratum 
 in both directions becomes about two- thirds of 21,600X60= 
 864,000 light-years. And if only the faint or distant telescopic 
 stars be considered, the width of their belt of distribution is nar- 
 rower, and the depth would be found several times greater yet. 
 Wherefore it seems certain that the profundity of the Milky Way, 
 considerably exceeds a million light-years, and may be several 
 times that depth. 
 
 (b) Accordingly if we make the very moderate hypothesis 
 that the width of 3 or 4, which was also noticed by Herschel and 
 Struve, represents chiefly the nearer portion of the Galaxy; and 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 207 
 
 that the remoter portion has a width not exceeding 1, we should 
 conclude that the depth may be found by multiplying the thick- 
 ness or apparent angular width of 21,600 light-years by the num- 
 ber of degrees in the radius, 57.3. This gives for the depth 1,237,- 
 680 light-years, and this value might be considerably increased by 
 adjustments in the data which are not improbable. 
 
 (c) In addition to these general arguments, founded on the 
 principles of geometry, we might introduce another based on actual 
 measurement. The Lick helium stars, of average brightness 4.14 
 mag., were found to have an average distance of 540 light-years. 
 If they were brought near enough to us to appear of 1st magni- 
 tude, this distance would have to be divided by 4 = \/(2.512) 3 , 
 and thus we find for the first magnitude helium stars a distance of 
 135 light-years. 
 
 Now in calculating the plan of the construction of the heavens 
 from the apparent breadth of the Milky Way, Herschel arrived at 
 the conclusion that the thickness of the stratum is about 80 times 
 greater than the diameter of the sphere including the first magni- 
 tude stars represented by Sirius (Phil. Trans., 1785, p. 254). And 
 if the average distance of these stars be taken as 135 light-years, 
 the mean diameter of the shell in which they are included will be 
 270 light-years. This would give exactly 21,600 light-years for 
 the thickness of the stratum of the Milky Way, as before. 
 
 It is true that Herschel classed all first magnitude stars in one 
 group, and took no account of the fact that the helium stars are 
 the more remote and the more brilliant; yet regarding the Galaxy 
 as a stratum of stars chiefly of the helium type, which certainly 
 is true of all the more distant portions of that magnificent col- 
 lection of stars, we may consider the reasoning of this great astron- 
 omer as still valid. And the argument in regard to the depth of the 
 Milky Way is thus the same as that given above under (a) and (b). 
 
 7. THE EFFECTS OF THE EXTINCTION OF LIGHT IN SPACE. 
 
 This problem has been treated with some detail in the 23d 
 chapter of my "Researches," Vol. II., 1910, but we shall here 
 
208 
 
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 examine the subject with greater care, especially as to the most 
 probable average value of the coefficient of extinction. The light 
 was shown by Struve to be defined by the equation 
 
 -, (0.990651) x - 
 x 
 
 (1) 
 
 where x is the distance of the star, in units of A = \/ (2.512) n and 
 n is the difference in magnitude. At very great distances nearly 
 all the light is cut off, and it therefore becomes a question of high 
 importance to determine as accurately as possible the proper value 
 for the coefficient of extinction. 
 
 Struve's value, used in the above formula, seems to be too 
 small, and I have therefore calculated a new table, to show the 
 effect of increasing the coefficient. In justification of this course 
 it should be recalled that Sir William Herschel ignored extinction 
 entirely; but while this procedure obviously is defective, it is 
 pretty clear, from the aspects of the Milky Way as now made 
 known by modern research, that Struve's coefficient is decidedly 
 too small. The following table shows the effects of varying the 
 coefficient, upon stars 17 magnitudes fainter, corresponding to a 
 distance 2,512 times larger, where x 1 = 2,511. 
 
 TABLE FOR VARYING COEFFICIENT OF EXTINCTION. 
 
 ;i=Ceoff. of 
 Extinction. 
 
 fr-i. 
 
 Fractional Part of Light Transmitted, in Spite 
 of Extinction, 
 
 0.990651 
 0.995 
 
 0.996 
 0.997 
 0.998 
 0.999 
 
 0.9995 
 1.00000 
 
 0.000,000,000,05709 
 0.000,003,4072 
 
 0.000,042,571 
 0.000,52923 
 0.006,5567 
 0.081,091 
 
 0.284,846 
 1.000,00 
 
 1 
 
 17514000000 (Struve's value) 
 1 
 
 293 490 
 1 
 
 23490 
 1 
 
 1889.5 
 1 
 
 152.51 
 
 12332 (Sees value) 
 1 
 
 3.5107 
 1.00000 (Herschel's value) 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 209 
 
 From the study of this table, we perceive that at the distance 
 % = 2, 5 12, corresponding to an enfeeblement of 17 magnitudes, 
 from mere increase of distance alone, the extinction of light varies 
 from almost total loss, with Struve's co-efficient, to no loss what- 
 ever, on Herschel's tacit hypothesis of zero extinction. This latter 
 view, however, certainly is extreme, and probably all modern 
 astronomers agree that there is extinction of light due to cosmical 
 dust in space. A hazy background of dust is shown on the 
 photographs of the Milky Way and other portions of the sky, and 
 proved to pervade the solar system by the universal prevalence 
 of meteors. 
 
 Since, however, both comets and nebulae are found to be 
 extremely tenuous bodies, and observed to transmit the light of 
 stars with but excessively slight enfeeblement, it is obvious that 
 the general extinction will be much smaller still, but yet appreci- 
 able. I have therefore adopted a co-efficient of 0.999, about one- 
 hundredth larger than Struve's, as best harmonizing all known 
 phenomena. This value, it is true, is much nearer to Herschel's 
 than to Struve's co-efficient, yet it admits an extinction of light 
 which becomes appreciable at great distances, while for moderate 
 distances it is nearly insensible; and I believe this to correspond 
 closely with all the known facts of the sidereal universe. 
 
 An enfeeblement to one-twelfth at a distance appropriate to 
 stars 17 magnitudes fainter, could easily be compensated for by a 
 corresponding abnormal brilliancy of the remotest stars, which on 
 several grounds seems to be highly probable. Thus our procedure 
 involves no extravagant assumptions as to the great brightness of 
 the most distant stars, or as to large extinction of light, while on 
 the other hand it avoids Herschel's tacit hypothesis of zero extinc- 
 tion, which certainly is unjustifiable.* 
 
 * In an important paper read to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, June 10, 
 1911, p. 459, Professor H. von Seeliger likewise reaches the conclusion that the 
 absorption is very small, amounting to 0.34 of a magnitude at 780 times the dis- 
 tance of Sirius, which Seeliger takes for the border of the sidereal system. 
 
210 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 8. A GRAPHICAL METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE DEPTH OF 
 THE GALAXY, BASED ON THE STUDY OF CLUSTERS. 
 
 1. Make a diagram of ten or twenty concentric circles, sepa- 
 rated by equal intervals, each corresponding to one hundred thou- 
 sand light-years. In this scheme no clusters will be included 
 within the central circle, because the actual measurements for 
 parallax have excluded this possibility. But the various clusters 
 of the N.G.C. may be plotted within the outer circles, or beyond 
 them all, according to the results given by Herschel's rule of bright- 
 ness. 
 
 2. It is required therefore to locate the clusters, and to indi- 
 cate their apparent angular diameters by dots of appropriate size. 
 Some allowance must of course be made for the varying stages of 
 development of the different clusters, but if there is a decreasing 
 angular diameter with distance it may be held that the method of 
 estimating distance devised by Herschel is essentially valid, and 
 in fact our only method of fathoming these immense distances, 
 and thus determining the depth or profundity of the Milky Way. 
 
 3. A careful attempt has been made to apply this method 
 using the data of the N.G.C., and the results of the Crossley photo- 
 graphs recently obtained at Lick Observatory. The results of 
 this investigation are shown to confirm the present theory. 
 
 9. FINAL TEST OF THE INDEFINITE EXTENSION OF THE MILKY 
 
 WAY DESIRABLE. 
 
 This should be made by the graphical method just outlined, 
 but by means of more powerful instruments than any yet systemat- 
 ically employed in this work. To feel satisfied that the universe 
 extends on indefinitely, we must have proof of additional clusters 
 of stars of smaller magnitude, and more compressed constitution, 
 as from the narrowing effect of perspective, at great distances. 
 Probably we shall not know what the sidereal heavens contain in 
 the way of vanishing clusters till the Milky Way is systematically 
 photographed for just such objects, and this very likely will require 
 a long campaign of photographic research with a large instrument. 
 
THE HERSCHEL-SEE THEORY OF THE GALAXY. 
 
 The Sun and all the Stars visible to the naked eye are included within the small white speck, 
 below the center. The vacant lane extending to the right from this speck may produce the dark 
 areas of the Coal Sacks near the Southern Cross. When we look outward from our eccentric situation 
 the Milky Way appears brighest and broadest towards Sagittarius, and faintest and narrowest towards 
 Monoceros. The diameter of the whole Sidereal -Universe as here shown is so great that light could 
 not traverse it in less than five million years. This Herschel-See Theory of the Galaxy gives the 
 reader a good idea of the real nature of the magnificent collection of millions of stars which appears 
 to us as the clustering stream of the Milky Way. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 211 
 
 But as many large reflectors are now coming into use, we may hope 
 for it before many years elapse. This would be completing on a 
 modern scale the sidereal soundings left somewhat incomplete by 
 the systematic explorations of the Herschels. 
 
 In a private letter, written in response to my recent inquiry 
 regarding the power of the 60-inch reflector of the Solar Observa- 
 tory at Mt. Wilson, Professor W. S. Adams, the acting director, 
 informs me that this fine instrument probably will show visually 
 stars as faint as 18th magnitude. He points out, however, that 
 the magnitude scale is not well defined for such faint objects, and 
 that very few astronomers have enough experience to fix it at the 
 present time. 
 
 Adams also informs me that from a photograph of the region 
 of the northern celestial pole of four hours' duration, Professor 
 E. C. Pickering has derived a value of 21.0 magnitude for the 
 faintest stars, by the system of photographic magnitudes in use at 
 the Harvard College Observatory. Obviously there is some un- 
 certainity in this value, but it probably is not extreme. 
 
 In answer to an inquiry as to the possibility of getting still 
 fainter stars by prolonging the exposure, Professor Adams assures 
 me that it can be easily done, the only limit being the brightness of 
 the background of the sky; but that with the clear air of Mt. Wil- 
 son this would not be reached till the exposure had extended over 
 many hours. He adds that it takes about three times the expos- 
 ure to obtain a star one magnitude fainter. From the data here 
 supplied it seems certain that stars as faint as 21.0 magnitude may 
 be photographed at Mt. Wilson, with the 60-inch reflector, and 
 that by prolonging the exposure several additional hours or through 
 whole nights, stars of 22.0 magnitude probably could be obtained. 
 
 It is therefore well established that stars 17 magnitudes fainter 
 than the 225 helium stars, with average magnitude of 4.14, recently 
 investigated at Lick Observatory, may now be photographed with 
 more than one instrument; and the value of A = 2,512 used in our 
 calculations is amply justified. In fact it seems probable that 
 instead of 2,512 as our distance multiplier for stars 17 magnitudes 
 
212 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 fainter, we might have used the larger value 3,981, corresponding 
 to stars 18 magnitudes fainter than our 225 helium stars with 
 average magnitude of 4.14. This would almost have doubled the 
 calculated depths of the Milky Way throughout the foregoing 
 discussion, and given us over two million light-years, exceeding 
 the profundity originally concluded by Herschel in 1802. In the 
 Phil. Trans, for 1800, pp. 83-4, Herschel finds by a different pro- 
 cess that a cluster of 5,000 stars visible in his 40-foot telescope is 
 distant 11,765,475,948,678,678,769 miles, "a number which ex- 
 ceeds the distance of the nearest fixed star at least three hundred 
 thousand times." With modern data this proves to be 460,355 
 times the distance of Alpha Centauri, or 2,001,120 light-years. 
 
 10. SUMMARY OF THE CHIEF RESULTS OF THE DETERMINATION 
 OF THE DEPTH OF THE MILKY WAY. 
 
 From the several independent and mutually confirmatory 
 arguments here adduced it follows that the depth of the Milky 
 Way decidedly exceeds a million light-years, and substantially 
 accords with the profundity concluded by the illustrious Herschel 
 one hundred and ten years ago. 
 
 1. Herschel concluded that with his forty-foot reflector he 
 perceived stars whose light had occupied two million years in 
 reaching the earth; and he justly remarked that he had seen fur- 
 ther into space than any human being before him. The visual 
 power or light grasp of Herschel's telescope is somewhat surpassed 
 by modern instruments; and much additional power is given to 
 the modern instrument by the use of photography. 
 
 2. But if, on the one hand, the modern instruments surpass 
 Herschel' s in power, there is on the other some increased need for 
 this in that we now attempt to take account of the extinction of 
 light by cosmical dust in space. Neglecting this loss of light, 
 Herschel may have slightly overestimated the distances to which 
 his telescope could penetrate, but the error was scarcely of sensible 
 importance. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 213 
 
 3. With our greatest modern instruments and the use of 
 photography it is certain that we can observe stars* at a distance 
 of over two million light-years, and it is very probable that we can 
 penetrate to a depth of about five million light-years. A modern 
 silver-on-glass reflector of twelve feet aperture would give about 
 six times as much light as the 60-inch reflector at Pasadena, and 
 with this gain of two magnitudes in light power it is probable that 
 we could penetrate into space at least twice this distance (theoret- 
 ically 2.512 is the factor) or to a depth from which the light would 
 take ten million years to reach the earth. 
 
 At the present time a 12-foot reflector is possible, and the 
 depth to which we can penetrate is simply a question of telescopic 
 power, which can be vastly but not indefinitely increased. And 
 this is true in spite of the extinction of light by cosmical dust in 
 space. There is a limit to the distance to which any given tele- 
 scope can penetrate, but it increases steadily with the aperture, 
 since the only question involved is one of enormous light grasp. 
 
 It is to be hoped that a telescope of not less than 12 feet aper- 
 ture may be built for use on the Milky Way. With such a giant 
 instrument discoveries of the highest order might confidently be 
 anticipated. A modern expansion of our views of the sidereal 
 universe analogous to that which marked the great epoch of Her- 
 schel would follow, with the most beneficial effects upon every 
 branch of astronomical science. Recent developments in many 
 lines show that the epoch of great discoveries has not passed, but 
 is in fact just beginning: and the estimates here laid down, as to 
 the depth and magnificent extent of the Milky Way, convey to us 
 but a dim outline of the discoveries which await the builders of the 
 giant telescopes of the future. In this great advance America 
 may naturally be expected to take the leading part. 
 
 Starlight on Loutre, 
 
 Montgomery City, Missouri, November 4, 1911. 
 
 * In Astron. Nachr., No. 4,536 Nov. 13 1911, Professor F. W. Very concludes 
 that the White Nebulae may be galaxies at a distance of a million light-years. The 
 view adopted in my "Researches," Vol. II., 1910, however, is much more probable, 
 since it gives continuity to the various types of bodies observed to constitute the 
 sidereal universe. Note added Dec. 16, 1911. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 1912. 
 
 THE HERSCHEL-SEE RESEARCHES ON THE ORIGIN OF CLUSTERS AND 
 ON THE BREAKING UP OF THE MILKY WAY, UNDER THE CLUSTER- 
 ING POWER OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION.* 
 By T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 N entering upon a popular address, in commemoration of the 
 174th anniversary of the birth of the illustrious Sir William 
 Herschel, on the general subject of the origin of clusters and 
 the breaking up of the Milky Way, I must offer a slight apology 
 for the coupling of my name with that of Herschel. It has arisen 
 not so much from any preference of my own, as from a faithful 
 effort to discriminate between the original somewhat undeveloped 
 views of that unrivaled astronomer, and the extension and verifica- 
 tion of his theories recently made by me, upon the basis of modern 
 observational data, and the use of mathematical methods un- 
 known in Herschel' s time. According to modern standards, Her- 
 schel's views were not developed to a highly finished state; and yet 
 they contain the germs of some of the most remarkable advances 
 recently made in Astronomy. 
 
 Immediately after recovery from a very critical illness early 
 in 1909, 1 was fortunate enough to become intimately acquainted 
 with Herschel's neglected but priceless researches on the con- 
 struction of the heavens and on the development of the various 
 types of celestial bodies. And somewhat later, in co-operation 
 with the late Sir William Huggins, ex-President of the Royal 
 Society, I was able to start the successful movement for the re- 
 publication of Herschel's Collected Scientific Papers by the Royal 
 Society and Royal Astronomical Society of London, 1912. More- 
 over, I have been enabled very recently to verify the wonderful 
 
 * Address delivered at Mare Island, California, Nov. 15, 1912, in commemora- 
 tion of the 174th anniversary of the birth of Sir William Herschel. 
 
SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822). 
 (From a pastel by J. Russell, R. A., 1794 Herschel's Collected Works; Vol. I, 1912.) 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 215 
 
 conclusions of Herschel regarding the depth of the Galaxy, and the 
 origin of the Globular Clusters, as well as the breaking up of the 
 Milky Way, under the clustering power of universal gravitation. 
 Under these circumstances probably it was natural that astrono- 
 mers should unite my name with that of Herschel, in describing 
 these modern developments, to distinguish them from the original 
 views of a century ago, which have now been established on a firm 
 basis of observation and mathematical demonstration. One can 
 scarcely depart from this discriminating usage without introducing 
 into Science a confusion which would be quite inadmissible. 
 
 The researches on the depth of the Milky Way were finished 
 in 1911, and published in the Proceedings of the American Philo- 
 sophical Society at Philadelphia; and the same illustrious society 
 has also done me the honor to include in its Proceedings for April 
 and June, 1912, the "Dynamical Theory of the Globular Clusters 
 and of the Clustering Power inferred by Herschel from the Observed 
 Figures of Sidereal Systems of High Order," which was read on 
 April 19, 1912. 
 
 In entering upon the topic of the depth of the Milky Way and 
 the observed distribution of clusters it may naturally be asked 
 why the distribution of clusters is associated with the depth of 
 the Milky Way. To this question we reply that it was found by 
 Sir William Herschel that the clusters congregate along the path 
 of the Milky Way, which thus appears to traverse the heavens as 
 a clustering stream. Moreover, it was found by Herschel that the 
 sidereal universe is enormously extended in the direction of the 
 plane of this starry stratum, and is relatively of but very small 
 thickness. 
 
 In the Philosophical Transactions for 1800, pp. 83-4, Herschel 
 calculates that a cluster of 50,000 stars visible in his 40-foot tele- 
 scope is distant 11,765,475,948,678,678,679 miles, "a number 
 which exceeds the distance of the nearest fixed star at least three 
 hundred thousand times." With modern data this proves to be 
 460,355 times the distance of Alpha Centauri, or 2,001,120 light- 
 years. In the Philosophical Transactions for 1802, p. 498, Her- 
 schel again resumes the problem of the distance of the most remote 
 
216 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 objects visible in his 40-foot telescope, and concludes that certain 
 clusters having a nebulous aspect from the effect of distance alone 
 are so remote that their rays of light have been on their way 
 "almost two millions of years." He adds that his great telescope 
 has enabled him to penetrate not only into the profound depths 
 of space, but also has the power of penetrating into time past; so 
 that Humboldt remarks in his Cosmos, Vol. I, p. 145, Bohn Trans- 
 lation, "the light of remote heavenly bodies present us with the 
 most ancient perceptible evidence of the existence of matter/' 
 
 Now the point of this whole matter of the great depth of the 
 Milky Way is that the clusters, being scattered somewhat at ran- 
 dom in this starry stratum, are by the effects of the perspective, 
 incident to the vast depth of the stratum, made to appear to lie 
 in or near the Milky Way. Hence the Milky Way appears to 
 traverse the heavens as a clustering stream, as was long ago re- 
 marked by Herschel. Accordingly, on the one hand, it is the vast 
 distances of the clusters more than usually condensed masses 
 of stars which causes such swarms of stars to appear drawn to 
 small dimensions in the face of the sky; and, on the other, it is the 
 great depth of the Milky Way, in contrast with the small thick- 
 ness of this starry stratum, which causes the clusters, by the effect 
 of perspective, to be projected along the path of the Milky Way, 
 which thus assumes the aspect of a clustering stream. 
 
 If we did not know the great depth of the Milky Way, we 
 might underrate the absolute magnitude of the clusters observed 
 along its path; and moreover the projection of these masses in 
 that direction would be unaccountable. Herein lies the great 
 significance of Herschel's researches a century ago; for that unri- 
 valed man solved this problem with such amazing accuracy that 
 we are just now enabled for the first time to appreciate the sub- 
 lime truths at which he arrived, by the sure instinct of genius, 
 when there was little positive data to guide the judgment of an early 
 explorer of the heavens. 
 
 Having thus obtained some insight into the reasons why the 
 clusters appear to follow the course of the Milky Way, owing to 
 
Plate 1 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GREAT STAR CLUSTER OMEGA GENTAURI, 
 
 TAKEN AT THE D. O. MlLLS BRANCH OF LlGK OBSERVATORY, SANTIAGO DE CHILE, 
 
 BY H. D. CURTIS, EXPOSURE 2^ 30? 
 
 (From See's Researches, Vol. II, 1910), 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 217 
 
 the depth of that starry stratum, the profundity in places being 
 not less than two million light-years, it remains to consider the 
 origin of the globular clusters of stars, which are justly considered 
 among the most wonderful objects of the sidereal universe. 
 
 When Sir William Herschel surveyed the starry heavens with 
 his mighty telescopes he found great numbers of clusters each 
 tending to the globular figure, like a drop of dew, or a planet of 
 the solar system; and he inferred that by their mutual gravitation 
 the stars were being collected into swarms and globular masses. 
 Herschel's conjecture, however, was not tested by rigorous mathe- 
 matical research, and it was only in January of the present year 
 that a method of attacking the problem occurred to me. The 
 paper developed in February and recently published in the Pro- 
 ceedings of the American Philosophical Society deals with the 
 mathematical theory of the origin and development of clusters, 
 by the capture and condensation of stars gradually collecting in 
 a given region of space. It confirms and establishes forever the 
 Capture Theory of Cosmical Evolution as the general Law of Nature, 
 because it is easy to show that the clusters can have originated in 
 no other way whatsoever. 
 
 By a fortunate train of thought it occurred to me to make use 
 of what is known to geometers as Green's theorem, involving sex- 
 tuple and even nonuple integrals the very highest order of 
 mathematics. By an ingenious use of the principles of the Cal- 
 culus as applied to the expressions for the mutual potential energy 
 of the system, which must decrease with the time, owing to inevi- 
 table exhaustion, it was possible to prove how a cluster slowly 
 captures the stars entering the region of its development, and at 
 the same time condenses into a smaller space and becomes more 
 and more compressed, until it finally passes into a perfect blaze of 
 starlight at the center. The unrivaled Sir William Herschel 
 declared that the globular clusters, with this growth of central 
 accumulation, are the most magnificent objects in the heavens, 
 and they never ceased to fill him with wonder. Well may their 
 formation engage our attention now! 
 
218 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 It is needless to say that the successful treatment of this great 
 question requires that the highest order of mathematical knowl- 
 edge and intuition, be combined with the deepest physical insight 
 into the order of Nature, such as few have possessed since Herschel. 
 And it is not probable that anyone among living philosophers 
 could have solved this titanic problem, which, it has been said, 
 calls for the united intuition of Herschel and Newton in one individ- 
 ual, had it not been for the notable outline of a method of attack 
 sketched by Herschel himself. 
 
 But with the guidance of Herschel's thought and modern 
 mathematical methods, based on the transformations of Green's 
 theorem, I somehow obtained results which must be rated among 
 the notable achievements of Modern Astronomy. For it was 
 proved that these masses of stars arise from the clustering power 
 of universal gravitation. 
 
 This clustering power was imagined by Herschel to operate 
 like gravitation in rounding up the figure of a planet. He also 
 compared it to the action of the molecular forces which give a drop 
 of dew such globular aspect. We see the same influence at work 
 in producing spherical globules of mercury, and in fact of all 
 liquids which do not wet the support on which they rest. The 
 effect of surface tension in decreasing the volume and rounding 
 up the figure of a soap bubble is almost exactly analogous to the 
 clustering power of universal gravitation as it operates to mould 
 the figures of clusters of stars. With these several illustrations 
 before us, we shall be able to understand the Clustering Power 
 noticed by Herschel to be at work throughout the sidereal universe. 
 Accordingly when the astronomer of the future surveys the 
 clusters along the starry path of the Galaxy, he will indeed behold 
 traces of the Clustering Power surmised by Herschel, but first 
 established by modern mathematical methods at Mare Island, 
 in 1912. Mathematicians may be excused for holding that such 
 sublime researches on the origin of clusters, as the most wonder- 
 ful systems in the universe, are among the noblest achievements 
 of the human intellect, for until very recently we would scarcely 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 219 
 
 have believed such developments possible; and yet it appears 
 that the mathematical proof of the general theory outlined by 
 Herschel has been heartily welcomed by the scientific world. Thus 
 Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer, the learned editor of Herschel's Collected 
 Scientific Papers, recently wrote as follows: 
 
 OBSERVATORY, ARMAGH, 12 July, 1912. 
 MY DEAR PROFESSOR SEE: 
 
 I have read your remarkable paper on globular clusters 
 with great pleasure, and it seems to me that your theory of their 
 origin and progress accounts perfectly for all the phenomena which 
 have hitherto been so obscure, particularly for the strange fact 
 of nearly all the stars being of the same brightness. You have of 
 course gone very much further than William Herschel did, but 
 all the same, he was wonderfully clear-sighted, and it is a pleasure 
 to an admirer of him to see his views so well corroborated and 
 developed. "Back to Herschel," must indeed be the guiding 
 principle in most researches in sidereal astronomy. 
 
 Thanking you again for the pleasure your paper has given 
 me, I am with kind regards, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 J. L. E. DREYER. 
 
 Now it seems to me that if we have learned to go back to 
 Herschel in most researches in sidereal astronomy, and this princi- 
 ple came to be introduced through my studies of Herschel, and 
 the extraordinary good fortune in securing the republication of 
 his Collected Scientific Papers through the generous and disinterest- 
 ed efforts of my revered friend, Sir William Huggins, it may not 
 be altogether inappropriate for me to celebrate the anniversary 
 of the birth of Herschel. Indeed, the revival of Herschel's ideas 
 in astronomy is the celebration most needed in the scientific world; 
 and as this has taken place already, we may rejoice that we have 
 lived to witness this notable promotion of truth, in work which 
 has been generally lost sight of for ninety years, since Herschel's 
 death in the year 1822. 
 
220 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Even during his lifetime Herschel worked alone on the great 
 problems which engaged his attention. He was the only astrono- 
 mer of his age with a penetrating vision into the spacial depths 
 of immensity, and into the millions of ages of time required in 
 the building of the universe. Proctor likewise has noticed this 
 isolation of the great Herschel; for in Our Place Among Infinities, 
 p. 258, he says: 
 
 "It may be that the difficulty and complexity of the problem 
 he had taken in hand, or perchance the quiet and unobtrusive 
 manner in which he presented it as it then appeared to him, or 
 some other cause may have been in operation, but certain it is 
 that very little notice was taken of Herschel's special work then, 
 or during the remainder of his life. None helped him, though 
 his researches were manifestly far beyond the strength of a single 
 worker. No comments on his stellar observations, so far as they 
 related to the great problem he was attacking, were made by con- 
 temporary astronomers." 
 
 The contrast between the manly independence of the great 
 Herschel in pursuing single-handed really important researches, 
 and the feeble policy of dependency adopted by many weak astron- 
 omers of our time, under the euphonious name of co-operation, is 
 striking and worthy of attention. One policy represents real 
 power of leadership, strength and capacity for achievement; the 
 other, such weakness and incapacity that it requires to be propped 
 up. 
 
 To consider Herschel's impressions of the origin of clusters 
 and nebulae, we need only recall his argument for a Clustering 
 Power drawing the stars together into clusters; and in the case 
 of nebulae the corresponding argument on central powers, based 
 on the increase of brightness towards their centers. Herschel 
 noticed that all the globular clusters have a central accumulation 
 of brightness rapidly increasing towards the center; and in the 
 thousands of nebulae he found that a similar central accumula- 
 tion of brightness was observable. He reasoned that the clusters 
 were formed by stars being drawn together from the surrounding 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 221 
 
 space, under the clustering power of universal gravitation. The 
 central accumulation of brightness in the nebulae was to his mind 
 an equally clear indication of the operation of central powers 
 arranging the nebulosity in concentric shells of uniform bright- 
 ness, but with the brightness rapidly increasing towards the center, 
 so that the nuclei of the nebulae frequently are occupied by stars. 
 
 One must admit that the force of Herschel's argument is 
 unanswerable. Anyone who studies it will be convinced that it 
 rests on a firm foundation. And as gravitation draws bodies 
 together, it was natural that Herschel should explain this cluster- 
 ing tendency by the continued operation of this central power 
 throughout millions of ages. For in 1802 Herschel was able to 
 adduce proof that some of the double stars he had observed twenty 
 years before were in orbital motion; and the force causing this 
 orbital motion could be nothing else than universal gravitation. 
 If therefore double and multiple stars are governed by Newtonian 
 gravitation, the same force must be assumed to operate in clusters 
 and nebulae throughout the sidereal universe. 
 
 This argument of Herschel is very fine, and cannot be im- 
 proved upon to-day; but we had to subject it to an observational 
 test, to see if gravitation really governs the motions of double and 
 multiple stars, and will account for the law of star-distribution 
 in clusters. This test I was able to make for the double and multi- 
 ple stars some seventeen years ago; and during the present year I 
 was so fortunate as to develop a mathematical proof that the 
 clustering power operating in globular clusters is nothing else than 
 Newtonian gravitation. 
 
 This proof is not only one of great generality, from the mathe- 
 matical point of view, but also accords with the theory of the 
 mutual potential energy of a cluster of stars, and its inevitable 
 exhaustion under the mutual approach of these bodies. Thus as 
 the stars by mutual gravitation tend to be drawn together, the 
 cluster is gradually more and more compressed, with density 
 accumulating towards the center according to certain laws ad- 
 mitting of accurate mathematical expression. 
 
222 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Moreover, I was able to show that a star falling into such a 
 cluster will have a tendency to be entrapped, so that it cannot 
 again escape, but works down towards the interior of the mass. 
 This explains the central accumulation of density in both clusters 
 and nebulae; for the nebulae are now known to be discontinuous 
 masses of solid particles, with luminous elements interspersed, 
 not really fluid masses with figures of equilibrium sustained by 
 hydrostatic pressure, as was long believed by Laplace and his 
 successors. 
 
 The law of gathering in, which is applicable to the globular 
 clusters, is therefore applicable also to the nebulae, and the central 
 condensation observed in all these bodies may be directly referred 
 to the clustering power of universal gravitation, and to no other 
 force whatsoever. It is a great satisfaction to have proof that 
 there is only one central power in the universe namely New- 
 tonian gravitation, which is shown to govern the motions of the 
 bodies of the solar system with such wonderful accuracy. 
 
 The Herschel-See researches on clusters and nebulae thus 
 clearly established their mode of formation. And the same argu- 
 ment applies to the breaking up of the Milky Way. The grandeur 
 of the latter conception is worthy of the genius of Herschel, who 
 studied the effects of forces now at work as they will accumulate 
 in the course of millions of ages. 
 
 My own proof that dust is expelled from the stars to form 
 nebulae in the desert regions of starless space, and thus tend to 
 preserve the Milky Way from the indefinite effects of the ravages 
 of time, completes the argument outlined by Herschel on the break- 
 ing up of the Milky Way, and shows that there is a Cyclical Pro- 
 cess at work in Nature for the preservation of the entire sidereal 
 system. 
 
 This question, as well as that of the depth of the Milky Way, 
 was discussed by Herschel, Laplace, and Napoleon at Paris, Aug. 
 8, 1802, as we learn by the account of this interview noted down by 
 Herschel at the time and recently brought to light by the publi- 
 cations of Herschel's Collected Scientific Papers. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 223 
 
 On page LXII of Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer's introduction to Her- 
 schel's works we read from the notes made by Herschel at the 
 timer 
 
 "The First Consul then asked a few questions relating to 
 astronomy and the construction of the heavens, to which I made 
 such answers as seemed to give him great satisfaction. He also 
 addressed himself to M. LaPlace on the same subject and held a 
 considerable argument with him, in which he differed from that 
 eminent mathematician. The difference was occasioned by an 
 exclamation of the First Consul's, who asked in a tone of exclama- 
 tion or admiration (when we were speaking of the extent of the 
 sidereal heavens) 'and who is the author of all this?' M. de La 
 Place wished to show that a chain of natural causes would account 
 for the construction and preservation of the wonderful system; 
 this the First Consul rather opposed. Much may be said on the 
 subject; by joining the arguments of both we shall be led to 
 
 'Nature and Nature's God.' "As M. La Place and I 
 
 went and returned in a carriage by ourselves, I led the conversa- 
 tion upon the subject of my last papers, of which I gave him some 
 of the outlines. I mentioned the various possible combinations 
 of revolving stars united in double or triple systems. When I 
 mentioned three stars at an equal distance revolving round a cen- 
 ter, he remarked that he had shown in, I believe, his Mecanique 
 Celeste, that six stars could turn round in a ring about their common 
 center of gravity." 
 
 It is now evident that the great questions considered most 
 wonderful by Herschel, Laplace and Napoleon have recently been 
 revived and their solutions verified mathematically. Accord- 
 ingly it only remains to illustrate by means of the lantern the 
 wonders of the starry heavens, and to point out the visible break- 
 ing up of the Milky Way so clearly foreseen by the great Herschel 
 a century ago. He was so far in advance of his age that we are 
 just now beginning to appreciate his genius, after an unaccount- 
 able neglect of ninety years. It is one of the proudest recollect- 
 tions of my life that I was able to start, and, with the co-operation 
 
224 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of the late Sir William Huggins, make effective the movement for 
 the republication of the Collected Works of Herschel, by which 
 this great man may again speak to the world and teach us some 
 of the sublime truths he discovered in the course of his profound 
 explorations of the sidereal universe. 
 
 Mare Island, California. 
 November 15, 1912. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 1912 
 
 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE NEW SCIENCE OF COSMOGONY.* 
 
 By T. J. J. SEE. 
 
 T may be found convenient, as an aid to the memory, in 
 making a rapid review of the problems of Celestial Evolu- 
 tion, to collect in one place a summary of the principal con- 
 clusions at which we have arrived as a result of the development 
 of the New Science of Cosmogony. The following paragraphs are 
 based chiefly on those given in the "Dynamical Theory of the 
 Globular Clusters "f and in a longer article entitled "Outlines of a 
 New Science of the Stars, "t and thus very complete; but we leave 
 it essentially unaltered, as it seems better to suffer the inconveni- 
 ence of slight repetition than to fail to give the general reader a 
 sufficiently succinct and impressive view of this vast subject of 
 sidereal evolution. 
 
 1. The most remarkable result of the New Science of Cos- 
 mogony is the intimate and necessary connection shown to exist 
 between the most diverse celestial phenomena; so that they are 
 woven into an unbroken and continuous whole, thus assuring the 
 perfect order and harmony to be expected from the discovery of 
 true Laws of Nature. 
 
 2. The time-honored theories of Kant and Laplace and 
 their followers are permanently abandoned, as being definitely 
 overthrown, and therefore of no validity in the present state of 
 science. In the future the interest in these theories will be purely 
 
 * A work on "Popular Cosmogony " embodying the substance of these con- 
 clusions is shortly to be published by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. 
 
 t Proceedings American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, April-June, 1912. 
 
 t Communicated to Crelle's Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics, 
 Berlin, November, 1912 
 
226 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 historic, like that, for example, in the abandoned Ptolemaic system 
 of Astronomy. 
 
 3. In the place of these abandoned hypotheses there is 
 developed the Capture Theory of Cosmical Evolution, based on the 
 general principle of the independent formation of the nuclei of all 
 bodies at a great distance and their gradual aggregation into sys- 
 tems, under the clustering power of universal gravitation, by 
 which the attendant bodies are added to the central masses about 
 which they now revolve as satellites, planets, components of 
 double and multiple stars and clusters. 
 
 4. This New Foundation for Cosmogony is proved to be a 
 Fundamental Law of Nature, operating uniformly throughout the 
 sidereal universe. Under repulsive forces cosmical dust is ex- 
 pelled from the stars and diffused throughout space for the forma- 
 tion of new nebulae, as it gradually collects into clouds under the 
 influence of universal gravitation; and the condensation of the 
 nebulae produces sidereal systems of every description, from the 
 very lowest to the very highest order. This dual process of repul- 
 sion and attraction, involving the mutual interaction of Nature's 
 chief forces, makes possible the development of a New Science of 
 the Stars. 
 
 5. From the tabular data* calculated by Babinet's criterion 
 it is clear that no such phenomena as the detachment of Laplacean 
 rings or zones of vapor in the solar nebula ever took place; but 
 on the contrary, the planets were added on to the sun and 
 the satellites added on to their several planets, the nuclei in 
 every case having originated in the distance, and subsequently 
 approached the centers about which they now revolve. 
 
 6. And when it was discovered that the roundness of the 
 planetary orbits had arisen from the secular action of a nebular 
 resisting medium, a new ground became available for concluding 
 that the nuclei of the planets were formed by accretion at a great 
 distance from the sun; and as they neared that center, by the 
 growth of the sun's mass and by the tangential resistance to their 
 
 * The table is given on p. 168. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 227 
 
 orbital motion, their orbits were made rounder and rounder, till 
 they so much resembled circles as to lead the Greek philosophers 
 to infer that the Deity had chosen this supposed perfect geometri- 
 cal figure for the paths of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 7. Now the drawing in of the planets from a great distance 
 towards the sun requires the building up of the central mass, to 
 accomplish this narrowing up of the system; and such growth of 
 the sun's mass would naturally follow from the destruction of 
 millions of myriads of comets passing very near the sun in perihe- 
 lion and by their disintegration giving a resisting medium of cosmi- 
 cal dust for building up the planets, and decreasing the major 
 axes and eccentricities of their orbits. 
 
 8. What therefore can the comets be but survivals of the 
 ancient nebula out of which the solar system has been built up? 
 Fortunately this logical inference is confirmed by Stromgren's 
 celebrated investigations showing that all the cometary orbits 
 are elliptical; and thus they come to us from a distant "home", 
 which was also the birthplace of the nuclei of the planets. 
 
 9. It will be observed that the process of development here 
 outlined is always from the outside towards the center diamet- 
 rically opposite to the abandoned doctrine of the throwing off of 
 rings and zones of vapor, which has in fact no existence in Nature. 
 
 10. And this principle of formation in the distance and 
 building up towards the center by the transfer of matter from the 
 periphery towards the interior regions is fully verified in all types 
 of systems, from the satellites and planets, to the double and 
 multiple stars and clusters and star-clouds of the Milky Way. 
 
 11. Upon this secure basis of observation and known cen- 
 tripetal tendency of universal gravitation, the Capture Theory is 
 seen to be a logical development of the Clustering Power of gravita- 
 tion noticed by Herschel to be moulding the figures of nebulae and 
 clusters throughout the sidereal universe. 
 
 12. As intimated in the first section of the paper on the 
 "Dynamical Theory of the Globular Clusters," the problem of n 
 bodies, under ideal dynamical conditions, remains forever beyond 
 
228 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the power of the most general methods of analysis; but the dynam- 
 ical theory of clusters gives us the one secular solution of this prob- 
 lem found under actual conditions -in nature. For when n is 
 of the order of 1,000, so as to give rise to a cluster, the Clustering 
 Power observed by Herschel operates to exhaust the mutual poten- 
 tial energy of the system, and bring about increasing accumulation 
 in the center, so that the cluster finally unites into a single mass 
 of enormous magnitude. Probably the giant stars of the type of 
 Canopus and Arcturus have arisen in this way. 
 
 13. And since attendant bodies of every class as satel- 
 lites, planets, comets, double and multiple stars tend every- 
 where to approach the centers about which they revolve, as an 
 inevitable effect of the growth of the central masses and of the 
 action of the resisting medium over long ages, it follows that the 
 secular solution of the problem of clusters is more or less valid for 
 all cosmical systems. They finally end by the absorption of the 
 attendant bodies in the central masses which now govern their 
 motions. 
 
 14. The dynamical theory of globular clusters shows that 
 the Clustering Power inferred by Herschel is nothing else than the 
 action of universal gravitation; and that it operates on all sidereal 
 systems, but does not produce the cumulative effect which Her- 
 schel ascribed to the ravages of time inside of millions of ages. 
 
 15. The globular clusters are formed by the gathering to- 
 gether of stars and elements of nebulosity from all directions in 
 space; and this points to the expulsion of dust from the stars of 
 the Milky Way, and its collection about the region of the forma- 
 tion in such manner as to give essential symmetry in the final 
 arrangement of the cluster, which doubtless has some motion of 
 rotation, and originally a tendency to spiral movement. 
 
 16. The stars and smaller masses are captured by the mutual 
 action of the other members of the cluster, and worked down 
 towards the center of the mass. This gives a central density in 
 excess of that appropriate to a sphere of monatomic gas in con- 
 vective equilibrium (A.N., 4053, and A.N., 4104). 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 229 
 
 17. The density of the clusters is greater on the outer border 
 than in a globe of monatomic gas, which shows that stars are still 
 collecting from the surrounding regions of space. The starless 
 aspect of the remoter regions about clusters is an effect of the 
 ravages of time, as correctly inferred by Herschel in the course of 
 his penetrating sweeps of the starry heavens. 
 
 18. And just as clusters under the mutual gravitation of 
 the component stars contract their dimensions, with time, chiefly 
 owing to the growth of the central masses, so also do other systems, 
 whether the mass-distribution be single, giving a system made up 
 of a sun and planets, or double, triple and multiple, giving binary, 
 triple or multiple stars, or sidereal systems of still higher order. 
 The tendency everywhere is from a wider to a narrower distribu- 
 tion of the large bodies; while the only throwing off that ever 
 occurs is of particles driven away from the stars by the action of 
 repulsive forces. 
 
 19. The orbits of the stellar and planetary systems are 
 decreased by the growth of the central masses and rounded up 
 by the action of the nebular resisting medium. And in like man- 
 ner all clusters tend to assume spherical or globular figures, so as 
 to justify the expression of Plato, that the Deity always geom- 
 etrizes; or Newton's remark that the agency operating in the 
 construction of the solar system was "very skilled in mechanics 
 and geometry. " 
 
 20. Newton required the intervention of the Deity to give 
 the planets revolving motion in their orbits, because in the absence 
 of repulsive forces he could not account for the dispersion of the 
 matter, so as to produce the tangential motions actually observed. 
 By means of the theory of repulsive forces, however, it is now 
 possible to explain these projectile motions, which Herschel like- 
 wise pointed to as the chief agency for the preservation of sidereal 
 systems. The only assumption necessary is an unsymmetrical 
 figure of the primordial nebula, giving a whirling motion about 
 the center as the system develops; and since the dust gathers 
 from all directions it is certain that this lack of perfect sym- 
 
230 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 inetry will nearly always develop, as we see also by the spiral 
 nebulae. 
 
 21. It is this unsymmetrical form of the spiral nebulae pro- 
 duced by the gathering of the dust from the stars, or the slight 
 relative tangential motion of stars formed separately but finally 
 made to revolve together as a binary system, that gives the binary 
 stars the projectile forces, with which they are set revolving in 
 their orbits. In no case have they resulted from the rupture 
 of a rotating mass of fluid under conditions of hydrostatic pressure, 
 as formerly believed by Darwin, Poincare and See. 
 
 22. Even if the rotation could become rapid enough to pro- 
 duce a separation, under conditions of hydrostatic pressure, by 
 rupture of a figure of equilibrium, there would still be the equal 
 or greater difficulty of explaining the origin of the primitive rapid 
 rotation. This last difficulty escaped our notice till we came to 
 assign the cause of rotations, and found that mechanical throwing 
 off was impossible under actual conditions in nature. It is there- 
 fore recognized, from the definite proof furnished by Babinet's 
 criterion in the solar system, that such a thing as a throwing off 
 never takes place; but that all planetary and stellar bodies are 
 formed in the distance, and afterwards near the centers about 
 which they subsequently revolve. 
 
 23. This gives us a Fundamental Law of the Firmament the 
 planets being added on the sun, the satellites added on to their planets, 
 the moon added on to the earth, and the companions added on to the 
 double and multiple stars which is now found to be beautifully 
 confirmed by the dynamical theory of the globular clusters. It is not 
 often that such a great Law of Nature can be brought to light, and it is 
 worthy of the more consideration from the circumstance that it ex- 
 plains all classes of stellar systems by a single general principle. 
 
 24. And just as the clustering power of gravitation follows 
 from the Newtonian law of attraction, so on the other hand are 
 repulsive forces required throughout Nature to produce the pri- 
 mordial dispersion of dust for the subsequent condensation of this 
 nebulosity into stars and systems. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 231 
 
 25. Returning now to the solar system, and noticing this 
 building up of the central masses from without, we find that of 
 the many small bodies crossing the orbits of the planets, some 
 have been captured and made satellites, most of them revolving 
 direct, but a few revolving retrograde. 
 
 26. By the preponderance of direct revolving satellites, and 
 the collision of such masses with the planets, their globes are given 
 direct rotations on their axes; and their obliquities thus tend to 
 disappear, as in the typical case of Jupiter, with an obliquity of 
 only three degrees. 
 
 27. The satellites therefore were originally independent 
 planets revolving in regular elliptical orbits about the sun; and 
 what is true of the satellites generally is true necessarily of the 
 satellite of our earth. The moon therefore is a captured planet. 
 
 28. All these satellites are now much nearer their centers 
 of motion than when first captured; for the planetary masses have 
 grown as their satellites revolved in the nebular resisting medium 
 which so beautifully rounded up their orbits. 
 
 29. The resisting medium implies collisions of the larger 
 bodies with smaller ones, and thus the craters and maria on the 
 moon bear witness to the terrible impacts involved in the creative 
 processes by which the present beautiful order of the solar system 
 was developed. 
 
 30. Similar impacts once indented the terrestrial globe, and 
 the depressions now occupied by our oceans arose from the larger 
 of these catastrophes. But since the atmosphere and oceans 
 developed, geological changes have modified the earth by destroy- 
 ing the original craters and building up mountains formed by the 
 sea and therefore running as great walls along the margin of the 
 oceans, as in the typical case of the Andes in South America. 
 
 31. The mass of the sun still is growing, and thus there is a 
 small secular acceleration of the sun, as first inferred by Euler in 
 1749, which was recently confirmed by Dr. Cowell's researches 
 on the records of ancient eclipses, handed down by the Greeks and 
 Babylonians. 
 
232 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 32. In the same way the ancient eclipses show an outstand- 
 ing secular acceleration of the mean motion of the moon amount- 
 ing to 2".0 per century. This is observational proof that the 
 moon still is nearing the earth, and it points directly to the capture 
 of our satellite at an epoch some 400 million years ago. 
 
 33. The mass of the excessively brilliant helium stars may 
 be decreasing, because more matter is carried away by repulsive 
 forces than is gathered in by universal gravitation; but eventu- 
 ally a balance will be attained, and when the solar stage is reached, 
 and the mass increases, the attendant planets will have their mean 
 motions accelerated as in the solar system. 
 
 34. The increase of the central mass alone may draw the 
 planets nearer, but nothing can decrease the eccentricities of their 
 orbits except motion in a resisting medium, as has been shown by 
 the researches of Lehmann-Filhes and Stromgren, (A.N., 3,479-80; 
 A.N., 3,897). 
 
 35. The resisting medium is proved to pervade all space 
 by the nebulosity shown on the background of Barnard's magnifi- 
 cent photographs of the Milky Way, and by the phenomena of 
 variable stars, which are thus fully explained. In the related 
 phenomena of temporary stars the collisions are intense enough 
 to produce violent conflagrations, and therefore are with attendant 
 bodies of the order of planets or very large Comets. 
 
 36. As the moon is a captured planet, it is evident that the 
 earth never did rotate much, if any, faster than at present; and 
 the theories ascribing to the moon a terrestrial origin advanced 
 by Lord Kelvin and Sir George Darwin in 1879 must therefore be 
 unconditionally given up. Their reasoning was justifiable at the 
 time, but is now recognized to be vitiated by a false premise, and 
 thus is one of the most singular deceptions in the history of 
 Science. 
 
 37. When the great Euler in 1749 inferred that the planets 
 had originated far from the sun, he anticipated to some slight 
 extent the theory held today. But the appearance of the rings 
 of Saturn, and the roundness of the orbits of the planets and satel- 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 233 
 
 lites caused Laplace to develop the theory of detachment by rota- 
 tion, from very oblate figures of equilibrium as first calculated by 
 Newton. This unjustifiable inference long proved deceptive, and 
 made it impossible to develop a Science of Cosmogony based on the 
 actual processes of Nature. 
 
 38. From the original extent of the solar system it is now 
 evident that other planets exist beyond Neptune; and that the 
 present planetary system is of vast extent, otherwise Neptune's 
 orbit would not be so perfectly round as it is observed to be. 
 
 39. And just as the light of our moon is variable, owing to 
 the craters and maria by which the surface is covered, so also the 
 variability of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn must be ascribed 
 to the same cause. The roundness of the orbits of the satellites 
 shows that they have suffered innumerable collisions with smaller 
 masses; and naturally they too are covered with craters and maria 
 which produce the variability in their light established by the 
 photometric researches of Guthnick. 
 
 40. The observed smaller eccentricity for spectroscopic than 
 for visual binary stars is in accord with the modern Capture Theory ; 
 for as the bodies near the center so as to become spectroscopic 
 binaries their orbits are more and more rounded up, and thus in 
 contracting they acquire small eccentricity. 
 
 41. The arrangement observed in triple stars, with the 
 close companion well within the orbit of the remote companion, 
 is the outgrowth of stable movements surviving, while unstable 
 ones have been destroyed, as in the solar system, and generally 
 throughout the sidereal universe. 
 
 42. The central accumulation of stars in clusters is the out- 
 growth of the Capture Process, slowly gathering in masses from 
 without, just as Jupiter gathers the passing comets within his 
 own orbit. 
 
 43. As sidereal systems of lower order are conserved by pro- 
 jectile forces, it is probable that the clusters likewise have a spiral 
 motion of rotation, with similar projectile forces tending to coun- 
 teract simple progressive collapse. The period of the orbital 
 
234 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 revolution of the stars of a cluster is found to be common to all, 
 without regard to the dimensions of the elliptical orbits described, 
 and thus the whole system may have a common period of oscilla- 
 tion, after which the initial condition is perfectly restored. This 
 possibility in the dynamics of a cluster is exceedingly wonderful, 
 and results from the central attraction depending directly on the 
 distance. 
 
 44. The equality of brightness in star clusters shows that 
 some process of compensation between the attractive and repul- 
 sive forces has produced stars of wonderful uniformity of luster. 
 Thus the present investigation confirms the previous researches 
 on the evolution of the stellar systems, which have laid the founda- 
 tions for a new science of the starry heavens. 
 
 45. Accordingly, the Capture Theory of Cosmical Evolution 
 being now firmly established for the clusters, where the nature of 
 the process is entirely clear, it becomes at once a guide to us in 
 dealing with systems of lower order; and we see that the Law of 
 Nature is uniform and everywhere the same the large bodies work- 
 ing in towards the centers of attraction, while the only throwing 
 off that ever takes place is of small particles driven out of the stars 
 by the action of repulsive forces. All planetary bodies are formed 
 in the distance, and have their orbits reduced in size by increase 
 of the central masses, and rounded up by moving in a resisting 
 medium. This is a perfectly general law of the sidereal universe. It 
 verifies the early conjectures of Plato and Newton as to the stability 
 of the order of the world, and shows that these illustrious philosophers 
 were quite justified in concluding that the Deity always geometrizes. 
 
 The spiral nebulae tend to develop systems with rounder and 
 rounder orbits, and the clusters made up of thousands of stars 
 assume globular figures with minimal surfaces and internal density 
 so arranged as to give maximum exhaustion of the potential energy . 
 
 46. This is geometry of the most marvelous kind, as we 
 find it impressed on the systems of the sidereal universe; and the 
 perfection of this most beautiful science of celestial geometry may 
 be considered the ultimate object of the labors of the astronomer. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 235 
 
 The philosophic observer is not and never can be content with 
 mere observations of details which do not disclose the living, all- 
 pervading spirit of Nature. 
 
 47. If, then, the mystery of the gathering of stars into 
 clusters is now penetrated and traced to the clustering power of 
 universal gravitation, so also is the mystery of the converse prob- 
 lem of starless space, which was a subject of such profound medi- 
 tation by the great Herschel. 
 
 48. This incomparable astronomer likewise correctly con- 
 cluded that the breaking up of the Milky Way into a clustering 
 stream is an inevitable effect of the ravages of time; but we are 
 now enabled to foresee the restorative process, under the repulsive 
 forces of Nature, by which new nebulae, clusters and sidereal sys- 
 tems of high order eventually will develop in the present depopu- 
 lated regions of starless space. 
 
 49. If there be an incessant expulsion of dust from the stars 
 to form nebulae, with the condensation of the nebulae into stars 
 and stellar systems, while the gathering of stars drawn together 
 by a clustering power operating over millions of ages gives at 
 length a globular mass of thousands of stars accumulating to a 
 perfect blaze of starlight in the center, but surrounded externally 
 by a desert of starless space resulting from the ravages of time, 
 certainly the building of these magnificient sidereal systems may 
 well engage the attention of the natural philosopher. 
 
 50. As remarked by Newton in his second letter to Bentley 
 (Horsely's edition of Newton's Opera Omnia, Vol. IV, p. 436), it 
 was pointed out by Blondel in his work on Bombs, (Paris, 1685, 
 p. 199) that Plato affirms that the motions of the planets is such 
 as if they had all been created by the Deity in some region very 
 remote from our system, and let fall from thence towards the sun, 
 and so soon as they arrived at their several orbs, their motion of 
 falling turned aside into a transverse one. 
 
 51. Newton adds that "this is true, supposing the gravi- 
 tating power of the sun was double, at that moment of time in 
 which they arrive at their several orbs; but then the Divine power 
 
236 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 is here required in a double respect, namely, to turn the descending 
 motions of the falling planets to a side motion, and at the same 
 time to double the attractive power of the sun. So then gravity 
 may put the planets into motion, but without the Divine power 
 it could never put them into such a circulating motion, as they 
 have about the sun; and therefore for this, as well as other reasons, 
 I am compelled to ascribe the frame of this system to an intelligent 
 agent." 
 
 52. This great historical problem of how the planets acquired 
 their transverse motions has now been solved in a satisfactory 
 manner; and it is remarkable that Plato's idea of formation in 
 the distance, with subsequent approach to the sun, is verified by 
 the most rigorous researches of modern science. 
 
 53. The transverse motion is now shown to have developed 
 from the unsymmetrical figure of our primordial nebula, which 
 finally gave the system a whirling motion about an axis, with most 
 of the bodies near the plane of maximum areas, and thus the orbits 
 are but little inclined to the Invariable Plane discovered by Laplace 
 in 1784. 
 
 54. The turning of the planets from descending motions in 
 very elongated orbits, to orbits of small eccentricity, thus giving 
 the lateral motions discussed by Newton, is now satisfactorily 
 explained by the secular action of the nebular resisting medium; 
 but while the mystery is solved, we must admire the perfection of 
 this wonderful process established by the Deity for rendering the 
 planets habitable for living beings requiring uniform conditions 
 of temperature. And this process exists for developing habitable 
 planets wherever a star twinkles. 
 
 55. Having established how the planets were formed about 
 our sun, we are enabled to affirm that as all stars developed from 
 nebulae, they also have developed about them corresponding 
 planetary systems, or become spectroscopic or visual binary stars. 
 At least one-fifth of the stars are spectroscopically double and the 
 other four-fifths have attendant bodies too minute to be detected 
 by our most delicate instruments. All the stars therefore are 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 237 
 
 centers of systems of some kind, but most of them forever beyond 
 our powers of observation. 
 
 56. The orbits of these remote planets in other systems are 
 rounded up like our own, by motion in the nebular resisting me- 
 dium; and their moons are covered by craters due to collision, as 
 in the case of our moon. These planets thus acquire small obli- 
 quities, and axial rotation giving day and night, as in the solar 
 system. 
 
 57. As these distant planets have the same chemical ele- 
 ments which we are familiar with, and in many cases are habitable, 
 it follows that they also are inhabited by intelligent beings; other- 
 wise it is necessary to hold that life upon the planet Earth in the 
 solar system is contrary to the general order of the universe and 
 therefore an accident and a mistake, existing in violation of the 
 Laws of Nature. No philosopher could admit this latter possi- 
 bility, for it leads to a reductio ad absurdum as convincing as any 
 in geometry. 
 
 58. As the Earth always rotated about as at present, and 
 never had a day of a few hours length, as formerly concluded by 
 Kelvin and Darwin, it follows also that her twin sister planet Venus 
 rotates about as the earth does, and has a day of about the same 
 length, or slightly shorter, 23 h 21 m . With its abundance of air 
 and water vapor, as shown by the brilliant surface of clouds, the 
 planet Venus therefore is habitable, and inhabited like the 
 Earth. 
 
 59. When we behold the Milky Way in the region of Sagit- 
 tarius, the naked eye easily perceives the star-clouds into which 
 the millions of stars have become collected by the clustering power 
 of universal gravitation. This is a convenient witness to the 
 effects produced by the ravages of time under the operation of the 
 central powers observed by Herschel to be gradually breaking up 
 the Milky Way. 
 
 60. And just as the majestic arch of the Milky Way visibly 
 exhibits the effects of the clustering power of universal gravita- 
 tion, so also the reversal of these centripetal tendencies leads at 
 
238 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 once to a more primordial state of wide diffusion under repulsive 
 forces in nature, which made possible the observed clustering 
 stream of the Galaxy. The operation of repulsive forces is thus 
 as evident to the mind as the clustering which is visibly breaking 
 up the Milky Way. 
 
 61. With the flight of immeasurable ages the clustering now 
 observed may become more pronounced, but the restorative pro- 
 cess, under repulsive forces, for developing sidereal systems in the 
 vacant regions of starless space is also at work. 
 
 62. The depths of the Milky May into which our telescopes 
 can penetrate is shown to be several million light-years, as held 
 byHerschel in 1802, and thus about a thousand times greater than 
 astronomers have recently believed. 
 
 63. The Milky Way being of very great profundity, and the 
 clusters being aggregations of stars in this starry stratum, they 
 are by the effects of perspective made to appear projected along 
 the path of the Galaxy. 
 
 64. The same process of capture which is gathering the stars 
 into clusters operates on a larger scale in the star-clouds of the 
 Milky Way, and thus the process is everywhere uniform from the 
 very lowest to the very highest order of sidereal systems. 
 
 65. If there is any truth in Herschel's theory that a cluster- 
 ing power has moulded the figures and internal arrangement of 
 density in clusters and nebulae of which we are assured by 
 the central accumulations noticed in many thousands of these 
 objects throughout the sidereal universe then it necessarily 
 follows that the Capture Theory corresponds to the true Law of 
 Nature. 
 
 66. For it is essentially a theory of the Clustering Power of 
 universal gravitation, supplemented by the theory of repulsive 
 forces, and of the modifications produced by such agencies as the 
 resisting medium. 
 
 67. It should be remarked that in the time of Herschel, New- 
 tonian gravitation was not yet established as the central force 
 governing the motions of double and multiple stars; but subse- 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 239 
 
 quent investigations, especially those included in the first volume 
 of the writer's Researches, have established this fact beyond doubt, 
 and thus enabled us to affirm, without further observations, that 
 gravitation holds also for the nebulae, clusters and star-clouds of 
 the Galaxy. 
 
 68. It is upon the basis of the Great Cyclic Law of Nature 
 involving the mutual interaction of attractive and repulsive forces 
 operating throughout the sidereal universe and illustrated by the 
 grandest of celestial phenomena, that Cosmogony now takes rank 
 as a New Science of the Stars. 
 
 69. It is justly remarked that an astronomer of the philo- 
 sophic intuition of Herschel, but with modern mathematical 
 insight into the exhaustion of the potential energy of a cloud of 
 stars, under the central power of gravitation, by merely directing 
 his vision along the clustering stream of the Galaxy, over the region 
 of the bifurcation, from the Southern Cross through Centaurus, 
 Sagittarius and Cygnus to Cepheus, would be able to deduce not 
 only the breaking up of the Milky Way, but also the origin of our 
 planets at a great distance from the sun, and thus the principal 
 laws of the formation of the solar and sidereal system. As an 
 obvious deduction from the accumulative effects of universal 
 gravitation visible in the sky, surely this is no small gain. For 
 it places the new science of Cosmogony easily within the grasp of 
 the mathematician and the natural philosopher, who contemplate 
 the starry heavens with no instruments or applicances beyond the 
 simple naked eye. 
 
 70. The fundamental cosmogonic law of the firmament, that 
 all bodies are formed in the distance and subsequently drawn to 
 the centers about which they now revolve, is confirmed by the 
 Herschel-See theory of the depth of the Galaxy and of the Cluster- 
 ing Power found to be gathering the stars into groups, swarms 
 and immense star-clouds, and thus breaking up the Milky Way. 
 Accordingly it is now obvious why this stupendous arch of light 
 appears to span the heavens as a clustering stream exhibiting to the 
 naked eye the most unmistakable effects of the ravages of time. 
 
240 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 71. Among all the sublime discoveries which have crowned 
 the labors of philosophers throughout the centuries, wonders are 
 many, but none is more wonderful than this amazing triumph of 
 human ingenuity, by which mysteries are fathomed that the entire 
 life of our race would scarcely enable us to deduce from changes 
 such as might be observed in the star-clouds of the Milky Way; 
 and yet from established laws of Nature may be concluded with 
 even more certainty than if they rested on the evidence of 
 actual observations authentically transmitted from the remotest 
 ages. 
 
 72. The foremost geometers of the eighteenth century, in- 
 cluding Lagrange, Laplace and Poisson, were greatly occupied 
 with the problem of the stability of the solar system; and in his 
 historical eulogy on Laplace the penetrating Fourier justly remarks 
 that the researches of geometers prove that the law of gravitation 
 itself operates as a preservative power, and renders all disorder 
 impossible, so that no object is more worthy of the meditation of 
 philosophers than the problem of the stability of these great celes- 
 tial phenomena. 
 
 73. But if the question of the stability of our single planetary 
 system may so largely absorb the talents of the most illustrious geom- 
 eters of the age of Herschel, how much more justly may the problem 
 of the stability of clusters, involving many thousands of such systems, 
 claim the attention of the modern geometer, who has witnessed the per- 
 fect unfolding of the grand phenomena first discovered by that unri- 
 valed explorer of the heavens? 
 
 74. The grandeur of the study of the origin of the greatest 
 of sidereal systems is worthy of the philosophic penetration of a 
 Herschel! The solution of the dynamical problem presented sur- 
 passes the powers of the most titanic geometers, and would demand 
 the inventive genius of a Newton or an Archimedes! 
 
 75. Yet notwithstanding the transcendent character of the 
 problem, and the hopelessness of a rigorous solution in our time, 
 even an imperfect outline of Nature's laws may aid the thoughtful 
 astronomer, in penetrating the underlying workings of the sidereal 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 241 
 
 universe, and thus enable him to perceive the great end subserved 
 by the development of the Cosmos. If so, he may well rejoice, 
 and exclaim with Ptolemy: 
 
 "Though but the being of a day, 
 When I the planet-paths survey, 
 
 My feet the dust despise; 
 Up to the throne of God I mount 
 And quaff from an immortal fount 
 The nectar of the skies." 
 
 (Translated by Professor W. B. SMITH.) 
 
 Starlight on Loutre, 
 
 Montgomery City, Missouri, December 10, 1912. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY CHARACTER OF THE RECENT DISCOVERIES IN 
 COSMOGONY AND THEIR TRIUMPHANT VERIFICATION BY EMI- 
 NENT ASTRONOMERS. 
 
 what has now been shown it is apparent that See's 
 work in Astronomy and Cosmogony can only be described 
 as revolutionary. That is to say, he has torn down mental 
 processes and structures long used by men of science and grown 
 venerable and hoary with age. Yet not content with being a mere 
 iconoclast, he has substituted new structures for the rubbish and 
 cobwebs which have been swept away. Evidently such a revolu- 
 tionary movement is of great importance to the scientific world. 
 
 When the Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace was proposed in 
 1796, it did not pretend to be more than a plausible hypothesis. 
 Laplace considered it highly probable, but not demonstrated. It 
 came into use little by little, and has now found a place in every 
 important work on Astronomy, most books on Geology, and nearly 
 all treatises on Philosophy. It has therefore become deeply 
 intrenched, from mere usage, and in default of a better explana- 
 tion. But it is now recognized that See's discoveries have shaken 
 it to the very foundations, and all who keep abreast of progress 
 realize that Laplace's hypothesis involving the detachment of 
 planets and satellites is permanently overthrown. The use of 
 that antiquated and abandoned theory hereafter will be nothing 
 less than a sign of fossilization and of mental incapacity. 
 
 See's proof that the planets have been formed in the distance 
 and have since neared the sun, as their orbits were reduced in size 
 by growth of the central mass and rounded up into almost perfect 
 circles by the action of a resisting medium, is of a mathematical 
 character, and admits of no dispute. The theory that the planets 
 have been added on to the sun from without and the satellites 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 243 
 
 likewise added on to the planets therefore is generally accepted 
 by progressive investigators throughout the scientific world. For 
 example, in his Lectures on Cosmogony at the University of Paris, 
 1911, the late celebrated mathematician Poincare devotes two 
 chapters to See's work, in spite of the fact that the Lectures were 
 nearly finished when the Researches, Vol. II, reached Paris, and 
 thus Poincare could not treat adequately of See's discoveries. In 
 the same way the interest in this great advance has been profound 
 in every civilized country. 
 
 At the Monist Congress in Hamburg, September, 1911, the 
 celebrated Professor Suante Arrhenius of Stockholm delivered 
 the principal address. Naturally it related to progress in the 
 physical sciences, and was largely about the discoveries of Pro- 
 fessor See, as the most significant recent development in physical 
 philosophy. 
 
 In October, 1911, these discoveries were the subject of lively 
 discussion at the meetings of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 
 Professor Charles Andre, late director of the observatory of Lyons, 
 tried to reply to See's argument overthrowing the Cosmogony of 
 Laplace. It seemed to be a matter of national pride for the 
 French. They were shocked at the sacrilegious thought of giving 
 up the venerable views of the great French geometer of the days 
 of Napoleon, which they had accepted from childhood. Andre's 
 argument, however, is no match for that of See, and the latter has 
 therefore paid no attention to the late director of the observatory 
 of Lyons. 
 
 The late M. Poincare, the greatest and most sagacious of the 
 French men of science, was too wise and just to attempt to defend 
 the indefensible; and promptly abandoned Laplace's theory and 
 adopted the new theory of the American astronomer. Naturally 
 France will recognize the views of Poincare and See as correct, and 
 the only ones entitled to serious consideration in the future. 
 
 In England a curious movement occurred, but there, too, most 
 men of science were disinclined to contest the ground with the 
 American astronomer. It happened that Professor See's work 
 
244 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 overthrew the thirty-years-old theory of Lord Kelvin and Sir 
 George Darwin that the moon was thrown off from the earth, and 
 thus had a terrestrial origin. There are no greater names in 
 British Science than those of Kelvin and Darwin; and naturally 
 British pride was somwehat hurt by this outcome. The modern 
 successors of Newton at Cambridge were accustomed to think 
 that in Science their authority was supreme, and found it a little 
 hard to realize that they would have to learn from an American. 
 
 It is a matter of deep regret to record the somewhat unex- 
 pected death of Sir George Darwin, Dec. 7, 1912, in the 68th year 
 of his age. 
 
 In announcing the death of this eminent mathematician to 
 the Royal Astronomical Society, Dec. 13, 1912, Professor F. W. 
 Dyson, Astronomer Royal for Great Britain, remarked that it had 
 been a cherished thought with Sir George Darwin that as his 
 father, the celebrated Charles Darwin, had outlined the laws of 
 terrestrial evolution, so too, he in turn had added to our knowl- 
 edge of celestial evolution. Darwin's last paper to the Royal 
 Astronomical Society, read in June, 1912, was submitted with the 
 remark by Sir George himself that he had labored for the develop- 
 ment of Cosmogony. 
 
 There can be no difference of opinion on this point. Pro- 
 fessor See recognized Darwin as master in all his earlier work, and 
 departed from his teachings in later years only when he found the 
 Darwinian premises insecure. 
 
 Perhaps the occasion of a memorial resolution, such as was 
 passed at the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dec. 13, 
 1912, would not have permitted anything to be said in behalf of 
 another still living; but it has been remarked that the Astrono- 
 mer Royal might with strict regard for truth better have said 
 that one of Sir George Darwin's greatest services to Science had 
 consisted in his early support of Professor See, who finally estab- 
 lished correct premises and laid the Foundations of Cosmogony, 
 by reviving and greatly extending the theories of Sir William 
 Herschel. 
 
SIR GEORGE H. DARWIN, F.R.S. (1845-1912). AT THE AGE OF 47. 
 
 One of the most eminent of recent British mathematicians, and the author 
 of many profound investigations in Dynamical Astronomy and on the Figures 
 of Equilibrium of Rotating Masses of Fluid. Unfortunately the premises under- 
 lying his work in Cosmogony were insecure, and the results are therefore largely 
 inapplicable to the actual universe. One of Professor See's earliest British friends. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 245 
 
 Competent men of science are now agreed on the truth of 
 Herschel's theory that throughout the sidereal universe New- 
 tonian gravitation acts as a clustering power; and on the truth 
 of See's supplementary but equally important theory of the resto- 
 rative process going on under repulsive forces in nature. These 
 two fundamental conceptions form the Foundations of Cosmogony; 
 but the subject could hardly be called a Science till it had a mathe- 
 matical basis like that outlined in See's Researches on the Evolution 
 of the Stellar Systems, Vol. II, 1910, and in the Dynamical Theory 
 of the Globular Clusters, 1912. 
 
 Darwin's last public utterance, in his address as president of 
 the International Congress of Mathematicians at Cambridge, 
 August 22, 1912, contained a distinct note of despair in regard to 
 the applications of mathematics to the physical universe. He 
 cited the correctness of the mathematics in Lord Kelvin's researches 
 on the secular cooling of the earth, but added that his reasoning 
 was invalidated by conditions not taken account of, such as the 
 effects of radio-activity. In other words, Lord Kelvin reasoned 
 from false or unsatisfactory premises. 
 
 Sir George Darwin obviously could not be expected to allude 
 to the failure of much of his own work in Cosmogony, but it is im- 
 possible to doubt that it was the similar flaws found by See in the 
 premises underlying these investigations that so deeply impressed 
 on Darwin's mind the difficulty of applying mathematics to the 
 physical universe. His last public expression is thus a tacit ad- 
 mission of the truth of See's discoveries, and a concession to his 
 triumphant overthrow of the old ideas in Cosmogony. For on 
 the appearance of the Researches, Vol. II, 1910, Darwin had written 
 Professor See to the effect that it would not be right to leave the 
 impression that he had "as yet adopted the theory," but that he 
 would study it attentively, and no doubt he did so. Moreover, 
 Darwin had received the "Determination of the Depth of the 
 Milky Way" in May, and the "Dynamical Theory of the Globular 
 Clusters" early in July, 1912; and he was thus aware of the com- 
 plete verification of the results first outlined in See's Researches, 
 Volume II, 1910. 
 
246 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The following extracts from a circular issued by the Thos. P. 
 Nichols & Son Co., of Lynn, Mass., publishers of See's famous 
 Researches, will more fully explain some points relating to the 
 triumph of the Capture Theory: 
 
 1. Professor W. S. Adams, Solar Observatory, Mt. Wilson, 
 California: "A beautiful book which will prove of the greatest 
 service in connection with my future work." 
 
 2. Professor Suante Arrhenius, Stockholm: "A great and 
 splendid treatise to which I shall give months of study." 
 
 3. Professor Benjamin Baillaud, Director of the Paris Ob- 
 servatory: "A magnificent and important work." 
 
 4. Professor E. E. Barnard, of Yerkes Observatory: "A 
 great work of deep interest, with every subject splendidly treated." 
 
 5. Professor A. Belopolski, of Poulkowa Observatory: "This 
 book contains much food for human thought." 
 
 6. Professor K. Bohlin, Director of Observatory, Stockholm: 
 "A very beautiful and splendid work." 
 
 7. Professor E. W. Brown, Yale University: "The beauti- 
 ful printing and magnificent illustrations are a very unusual feat- 
 ure, and make the book a welcome addition to any library, quite 
 apart from the contents." 
 
 8. Professor Chas. Burkhalter, Chabot Observatory, Oak- 
 land, California: "It is a superb volume, a monumental work 
 and its effect on astronomy will be profound." 
 
 9. Professor S. W. Burnham, Yerkes Observatory: "It is 
 a great work in every sense, and will constitute a most enduring 
 monument." 
 
 10. Professor H. S. Carslaw, University of Sydney: "It is 
 a most important work." 
 
 11. Professor R. T. Crawford, University of California : 
 "Admirably prepared and full of most interesting and important 
 matter." 
 
 12. Professor Sir G. H. Darwin, University of Cambridge, 
 England: "In passing final proof of 'Tides' for Encyclopedia 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 247 
 
 Britannica yesterday, I gave a reference to this work by erasing 
 several sentences in existing type, but was unable to enter into any 
 discussion." 
 
 13. Professor H. Delandres, Director of Observatory, Meu- 
 don, France: "A work of vast extent and profound interest." 
 
 14. Professor F. W. Dyson, Astronomer Royal for Great 
 Britain: "A magnificent work, which will be greatly appreciated 
 by astronomers." 
 
 15. Sir David Gill, President Royal Astronomical Society: 
 "A wonderful and beautiful book of Researches, and I look for- 
 ward with great interest to the study of its pages." 
 
 16. Professor R. T. A. Innes, Director of Transvaal Observ- 
 atory: "It is indeed a remarkable production for one man." 
 
 17. Dr. Otto Klotz, Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, Canada : 
 "It will give food for thought for many a moon." 
 
 18. Professor H. Ludendorff, Astrophysical Observatory, 
 Potsdam: "It will mark an epoch in Cosmogony." 
 
 19. Professor H. Poincare, University of Paris: "I have 
 made use of your book (Researches, Vol. II) in my course this year, 
 although I had not expected to do so, since I did not receive the 
 volume till near the close of the last lesson: I then insisted, with 
 profit, on the capture of planets by a resisting medium." 
 
 20. Professor C. L. Poor, Columbia University, New York: 
 "A very valuable work in which the problems are ably presented." 
 
 21. Professor H. von Seeliger, Director of Observatory, 
 Munich: "A work of vast extent and deep interest." 
 
 22. Professor W. B. Smith, Tulane University: "A majestic, 
 magnificent volume, a monument more lasting than brass, more 
 lofty than the kingly form of pyramids." 
 
 23. Professor Elis Stromgren, Director of Observatory, Cop- 
 enhagen: " It revolutionizes our thought in many lines." 
 
 24. Dr. Alexander Roberts, Lovedale, South Africa: "A 
 monumental work which will be the standard for all issues in 
 astronomy for many and many a year." 
 
 25. Professor Max Wolf, Director of Observatory, Heidel- 
 berg; "A splendid work of deepest interest." 
 
248 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 26. Professor A. Wolfer, Director of Observatory, Zurich, 
 Switzerland: "A beautiful work treating of discoveries of tran- 
 scendent importance." 
 
 Considering the extremely revolutionary character of See's 
 discoveries, it must be held that they have had a very favorable 
 reception from the scientific world. Those whose work is over- 
 thrown by the new advance naturally have been unable to take a 
 calm and disinterested view of recent progress. But as more time 
 has elapsed it is noticed that acceptance of the results is general, 
 and that acquiescence in See's conclusions becomes more and more 
 universal. 
 
 It is a deplorable fact that as the newer processes of Astron- 
 omy have developed, such as the various branches of spectro- 
 scopic and photographic research, the number of astronomers who 
 can understand difficult mathematical arguments like those built 
 up by See, has decreased rather than increased. This is the un- 
 fortunate outcome of the narrow specialization of our age. It 
 makes solid progress in the deeper problems of Astronomy very 
 slow, and dependent on the few rather than on the many. Yet 
 the final results, as given in a work such as the Researches, may be 
 followed by any fairly well trained student at college, who has a 
 clear grasp of the elements of mathematics. The need of such a 
 comprehensive work was very great. Prior to its appearance it 
 looked as if progress on a large scale had been disintegrated by 
 specialization, and that the threads of the argument could never 
 again be woven into a substantial and durable fabric. But for 
 the unusual grasp of See's mind it is doubtful if it could have been 
 done; for no one else had even made a beginning in the develop- 
 ment of the New Science of Cosmogony. 
 
 If we look back at the great revolutions of thought in the past, 
 we find that most of them involved severe struggles, which ex- 
 tended over considerable periods of time. This was true, for 
 example, of the heliocentric theory of the solar system which was 
 published by Copernicus in 1543, but not generally accepted till 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 249 
 
 after Galileo's invention of the telescope in 1610. It was much 
 the same way with the discoveries of the laws of planetary motion 
 by Kepler (1619). They were not fully adopted and universally 
 recognized till the age of Newton (1686) . And in the case of New- 
 ton himself, the law of gravitation was not universally adopted 
 till the next generation, when Clairault and Euler greatly extended 
 the theory. So also for physical discoveries, like that made by 
 Roemer of the velocity of light (1675), which was at once accepted 
 by a few eminent men like Huyghens and Newton, but not gener- 
 ally adopted by physicists till after Bradley 's discovery of the 
 Aberration of light in 1727. For long after Roemer 's discovery, 
 Fontenelle, perpetual secretary of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 
 went so far as to publicly congratulate himself that he had not 
 believed in so great a heresy as the gradual propagation of light. 
 
 In our time the progress of the world is much more rapid than 
 in former centuries; and consequently it is probable that See's 
 discoveries will find more immediate adoption than could be ex- 
 pected of similar theories in the past. This is in fact indicated by 
 the progress already made towards a general adoption of these 
 discoveries in different countries. New theories, however, not 
 only have to triumph over the old, by virtue of inherent superi- 
 ority, but also have to displace them from current thought, by the 
 gradual teaching of the correct principles, before the new discov- 
 eries can be said to be fully effective. As the modern world is 
 organized, this ought to be possible within ten years, possibly in 
 less time. But this clarification of the public mind and its accept- 
 ance of new truth is always a somewhat gradual process. 
 
 As for the final effects of progress, much improvement is 
 possible but not perfection. There are persons who still believe 
 in the flat theory of the earth, even at the present time; just as 
 there are some individuals of obscure mind who believe in astrol- 
 ogy. But these aberrations will always exist, in spite of the 
 great modern development of the sciences. As the Roman his- 
 torian Tacitus remarks of astrologers : ' ' It is a class of men which, 
 in our city, will always be prohibited (by decrees of the senate) 
 
250 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and will always exist." The wisdom of this penetrating observa- 
 tion is as apparent now as it was 2,000 years ago. Yet when we 
 speak of progress, we mean among those both capable of learning 
 and willing to accept the truth. It is for these that the sciences 
 are developed, in order that some beneficial influence may be ex- 
 tended by the capable over the less fortunate portion of mankind. 
 
 It may be thought by some that discoveries in pure science, 
 like those made by See, appeal less to the multitude than inventions 
 in the useful arts, or discoveries in medicine and surgery. This 
 may be largely, but it is not wholly, true; for it was the original 
 discoveries in pure science by Copernicus, Kepler and Newton 
 which made possible all the later developments in the useful arts 
 and in medicine. And here again history will repeat itself in the 
 future. Pure truth is a perennial spring which flows through all 
 generations, and as the stream descends it nourishes not only all 
 sorts and conditions of men famishing with thirst, but even the 
 dumb cattle in the vale below. 
 
 If See has proved, for example, that there are inhabited 
 planets revolving about all the fixed stars, and that life is a general 
 phenomenon of nature, as universal as the stars in space, will it 
 not give us a better and nobler philosophy of life on this earth? 
 As we behold the starry heavens on a cloudless night are we not 
 inspired by his proof that life exists wherever a star twinkles? And 
 are we not comforted by the thought that we are not alone on this 
 dark planet, but a part of the great order established by the Deity 
 from the creation of the world? Will not these discoveries give 
 us a nobler philosophy, more reverent views of our mission in the 
 world? And if so, will it not benefit even the humblest of mortals 
 who may be unable to make discoveries, but can yet understand 
 them when presented by others who have caught this Divine Mes- 
 sage from the Stars? See believes that his new philosophy will 
 be eminently useful, and it is this hope of adding something to 
 the nobility of our view of life that has so largely sustained and 
 inspired him in his great labors extending over a quarter of a 
 century. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 251 
 
 If See's efforts eventually accomplish this improvement in 
 our philosophy and religious thought, it will bring about a revolu- 
 tion not only in science, but also in philosophy and ethics, and 
 thus ennoble and benefit the life of the humblest citizen. Surely 
 this improvement of mankind must be one of the ultimate objects 
 of all discovery. Professor See is known to be a man of very 
 reverent thoughts, and ever thankful that he has been able to bring 
 this inspiring message to the world, even at the cost of so much 
 labor and sacrifice. 
 
 As a philosopher of wide experience he believes that a purely 
 materialistic view of the universe is not and never will be sufficient 
 to explain all known phenomena. There is a world of mind, largely 
 independent of the material universe. In his celebrated Researches 
 Vol. II, pp. 712-14, See has treated of the problem of Life in rela- 
 tion to the order of nature. Those pages are justly famous and 
 we quote them here in full: 
 
 4 '324. Life a General Phenomenon of Nature, and Almost 
 as Universal in Its Distribution as Matter Itself. 
 
 "If therefore the laws of nature are such as to form planetary 
 systems of the cosmical dust expelled from the stars, through pre- 
 cipitation, condensation and falling together under the attraction 
 of gravitation; while on the other hand the dust itself in a finer 
 condition is originally expelled from the stars, by the action of the 
 repulsive forces arising from high temperature, intense radiation- 
 pressure and powerful electric charges, it follows that there is a 
 cyclic process by which stars and systems arise from nebulae, 
 while nebulae in turn are formed from the stars. On this point 
 there does not seem to be the slightest doubt; and we may regard 
 this cyclic process as perhaps the greatest of all the laws of nature. 
 Indeed, it seems to operate on a stupendous scale throughout the 
 sidereal universe. 
 
 "Since therefore the starry heavens are shown to be filled 
 with many millions of planetary systems, and an indefinite num- 
 ber of habitable worlds, is it not obvious that these worlds as a 
 
252 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 rule are also inhabited* From the uniformity of the laws of nature, 
 it would seem that this must be so, and, so far as one may now judge, 
 this is the most inspiring message yet delivered to mankind by mod- 
 ern science. 
 
 "Let us see on what foundation this conclusion rests: (1) 
 Gravitation operates according to the same laws in other parts 
 of the sidereal universe as upon the earth; (2) The velocity of 
 light, and electricity, and no doubt of other physical agencies, is 
 the same in all parts of space; (3) The chemical elements are the 
 same everywhere, whether the light involved comes from a flame 
 in our laboratory or from one of the stars; (4) Mechanical laws 
 are the same in the solar system, and among the nebulae and fixed 
 stars, and this makes possible the development of cosmical sys- 
 tems of the same general type throughout nature; (5) Elec- 
 tronic, atomic, molecular, gravitational and electric and other re- 
 pulsive forces are the same everywhere; (6) Life depends in some 
 way for its physical basis on electronic, atomic and molecular 
 forces, and as these forces and elements on which they act are the 
 same everywhere, and the universe is shown to be full of habitable 
 worlds made up of the same elements subjected to the same forces 
 as in the case of our own planets revolving around the sun, it fol- 
 lows incontestably that life is a general phenomenon of the physi- 
 cal universe, and almost as universal as matter itself. 
 
 "It is true that the psychical and spiritual element of life is 
 not yet fully understood, but whatever be its character, it can 
 flourish elsewhere in nature quite as well as on the planet called 
 
 * In his thoughtful address at the dedication of the Flower Observatory, 
 Philadelphia, Mar. 12, 1897, Professor Newcomb discusses the plurality of worlds 
 as follows: 
 
 "There is one question connected with these studies on which I have not 
 touched, and which is, nevertheless, of transcendent interest. What sort of life, 
 spiritual and intellectual, exists in distant worlds? We cannot for a moment sup- 
 pose that our own little planet is the only one throughout the whole universe on 
 which may be found the fruits of civilization, warm firesides, friendship, the desire 
 to penetrate the mysteries of creation." Again, in the article "Stars," Encyclo- 
 pedia Americana, he remarks that the stars in clusters may have planets revolving 
 around them. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 253 
 
 the Earth in the solar system. Our sun is simply a fixed star of 
 very ordinary magnitude, and the Milky Way includes hundreds 
 of millions of such centers of planetary systems. Accordingly, 
 in view of the established uniformity of nature's processes through- 
 out the immensity of space, who can doubt that life is a general 
 phenomenon ordained by the Deity from the creation of the world, 
 and destined to develop wherever planets are forming and the 
 stars are shining? Whatever be the nature of life, it has as much 
 right to develop as planetary systems or combinations of atoms; 
 it is indeed the bloom of nature, the culmination of the highest 
 creative forces. To hold any other views than those here announced 
 would be to violate the doctrine of uniformity, which lies at the basis 
 of natural philosophy as formulated by Newton in the Principia (Lib. 
 Ill}; and moreover lead to the conclusion that life upon the earth was 
 an accident and a mistake in violation of the usual order of Nature,* 
 which is infinitely improbable and, in fact, impossible for a philos- 
 opher to admit. 
 
 "If therefore life is as universal as the stars in space, it is 
 evident that when we behold the starry heavens and contemplate 
 the glorious arch of the Milky Way on a cloudless night, we receive 
 from distant suns and worlds ethereal vibrations which tell us at 
 the same time of living beings throughout immensity. Let us, 
 therefore, quietly rejoice, when we survey the starry heavens in 
 
 * If life on the earth exists by a mere accident and in violation of natural laws, 
 is it likely that it would have shown such power of propagation and of resistance 
 to adverse conditions as it is known to have possessed throughout geological history? 
 It seems to have been a veritable spark which simply could not be extinguished, 
 and must therefore have been burning on and nourishing, not in violation of, but 
 in accordance with, natural laws. Those who believe that life is an accident and 
 a mistake, a noxious development flourishing in violation of the laws of nature, 
 may with consistency deny the existence of life throughout the universe. But 
 having shown that habitable planets revolve everywhere about the fixed stars, in 
 orbits which are nearly circular, and rotate so as to give alternation of day and 
 night, as on the earth, it seems to me more philosophical to follow the example of 
 Sir William Huggins, in regard to the chemical elements, and declare that life 
 exists wherever there is a sun to warm and light its attendant planets, and there- 
 fore wherever a star twinkles in the depths of space. The other view, that life is 
 an accident, leads to a reductio ad absurdum as conclusive as those employed in 
 geometry. 
 
254 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 all their splendor, and remember this sublime message telling us 
 that we are not mere dust confined to this dark planet, but a part 
 of the flower of the visible creation, which blooms everywhere with 
 the cosmic order, and is as universal as the stars which illuminate 
 the depths of immensity. 
 
 " Without the sublime researches of Sir William Herschel, we 
 should have a very inadequate conception of the profundity to 
 which our telescopes can penterate into the blackness of unillum- 
 inated space, and thus could poorly interpret the message of the 
 universe. But this great astronomer showed that the stars extend 
 principally in the direction of the Milky Way, and light up that 
 region so brilliantly that we can extend our explorations to a dis- 
 tance which it would take the light millions of years to traverse. 
 Thus the Milky Way is like a great but somewhat narrow corridor 
 lighted up by the stars to the remotest regions to which our tele- 
 scopes can penetrate, with no indication of an end to the starry 
 stratum. To realize on good, substantial and indisputable scienti- 
 fic grounds that life accompanies the stars to the remotest depths 
 of space, and that we can look out upon such countless worlds from 
 our tiny abode near the sun, and thus connect the feeble life of our 
 globe with the universal life in the endless order of inhabited 
 spheres, is not the least inspiring message in the Epic Poem of 
 Science. It is indeed a Message from the Stars. And it seems to 
 me that if astronomy had achieved no other result than this, it 
 would more than justifly all the labors which have been bestowed 
 upon it from the earliest ages. 
 
 "This Message from the Stars passeth not away, but endureth 
 unto all generations. As ageless as the heavens from which it 
 comes, it will continue to travel downward with the starlight,* 
 and thus awaken new life and hope in the hearts of mankind. For 
 it is absolutely impossible for this order of mind, life and intelli- 
 
 * "Were a star quenched on high 
 
 For ages would its light. 
 Still traveling downward from the sky, 
 Shine on our mortal sight." Longfellow. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 255 
 
 gence as widespread as the stars in space, to have been established 
 throughout Nature without design and abiding great and good 
 purpose; and therein lies the proof of the existence of the Deity. 
 The teachings of true science are therefore among the most sacred 
 which have ever been delivered, and they deserve the veneration 
 which is always due to Ultimate Truth." 
 
 AN INSPIRATION FROM ARISTOTLE, AND ITS MODERN EXTENSION.* 
 
 In concluding this interesting subject it seems well to quote 
 the following remarkable passage from Aristotle, which is lost in 
 the Greek original, but has been preserved to us in Cicero's book 
 on the Nature of the Gods: 
 
 "If there were men whose habitations had been always under 
 ground, in great and commodious houses, adorned with statues 
 and pictures, furnished with everything which they who are re- 
 puted happy abound with; and if, without stirring from thence, 
 they should be informed of a certain divine power and majesty, and 
 after some time the earth should open and they should quit their 
 dark abode to come to us, where they should immediately behold 
 the earth, the seas, the heavens; should consider the vast extent 
 of the clouds and force of the winds; should see the sun and observe 
 his grandeur and beauty, and perceive that day is occasioned by 
 the diffusion of his light through the sky; and when night has 
 obscured the earth they should contemplate the heavens, bespang- 
 led and adorned with stars, the surprising variety of the moon in 
 her increase and wane, the rising and setting of all the stars and 
 the inviolable regularity of their courses, when, says he, 'they 
 should see these things, they would undoubtedly conclude that 
 there are gods, and that these are their mighty works/ ' 
 
 The fascination of this marvelous train of thought is such 
 that we add another based on our knowledge in the twentieth 
 century, which maybe said to afford a sublime vision of the prog- 
 ress of science in the twenty-two centuries since the age of Aris- 
 
 * The substance of this closing inspiration is drawn by permission, from 
 Professor See's "Popular Cosmogony" referred to on page 224. 
 
256 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 totle. It naturally fills us with wonder at the triumphs of the 
 human intellect, but the evidence that the soul is divine and inde- 
 pendent of what we call time, so as to be immortal, is not less 
 inspiring: 
 
 If there be men of miscroscopic minuteness dwelling on the 
 planet earth, as it revolves close to the star of the Milky Way 
 which is the center of the solar system, and while in the narrow 
 limits of this so-called mortal life they are told of the unspeakable 
 glories of the sidereal heavens as made known by the more talented 
 of their race in the form of natural laws that would enable them 
 to think the thoughts of the Deity after Him, as Kepler said thus 
 giving us a science of the creation of the stars, revealing both the 
 wonders of the Deity as they now appear in a glorious Galaxy of 
 sidereal systems and nebulae spread over a space which light itself 
 requires millions of years to traverse, and as they will appear under 
 creative processes, which include the effects of the ravages of time, 
 throughout the millions of ages to come; and they then learn also 
 that systems of worlds habitable and inhabited by living beings 
 revolve in the depths of the firmament wherever a star twinkles, 
 so that life appears to be as general a phenomenon in nature as the 
 very stars and the elements of which they are composed when 
 one of our so-called mortal race reflects on these marvelous things, 
 and finally realizes likewise that our thoughts triumph over both 
 space and time, so that, as Kant said, neither of these appearances 
 really exist, or the soul exists anywhere and forever, and hence we 
 are now living in the time of Socrates and Plato or with Christ and 
 the Apostles, or as the poet Holmes truly says: 
 
 "The souls that voyaged the azure depths before thee 
 
 Watch with thy tireless vigils all unseen 
 Tycho and Kepler bend benignant o'er thee 
 And with his toy-like tube the Florentine " 
 
 does he not perceive that this whole arrangement of the universe 
 is beyond mortals wonderful, and the soul divine and imperish- 
 able, because it constantly imitates the Deity in penetrating through 
 and contemplating the Creation over which He hath presided since 
 the origin of time? 
 
HONORABLE CHAMP CLARK. 
 
 Speaker of the National House of Representatives, and for twenty years Member of 
 Congress from Professor See's home district in Missouri. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 'THIS MOST INDEFATIGABLE AND INTREPID OF EXPLORERS' 'THE 
 
 AMERICAN HERSCHEL' AND 'THE NEWTON OF COSMOGONY/ 
 
 IN CO-OPERATION WITH SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS SECURES THE 
 REPUBLICATION OF HERSCHEL'S COLLECTED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, 
 THUS RESTORING SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL TO HIS RIGHTFUL 
 PLACE IN MODERN ASTRONOMY. 
 
 World's Work for December, 1912, and January, 1913, 
 contains an account of "Exploring Other Worlds" by Mr. 
 William Bayard Hale, the well known author and recent 
 biographer of Woodrow Wilson, now President of the United 
 States. In the first account of these discoveries among the stars 
 Mr. Hale places Professor See "among the foremost leaders in the 
 development of the New Astronomy," and in the second refers to 
 him as "this most indefatigable and intrepid of explorers/' 
 
 At a much earlier date, in a public address delivered in the 
 West, the Honorable Champ Clark, Speaker of the National House 
 of Representatives, discussed the scientific discoveries of Professor 
 See, as a friend and citizen of his congressional district; and after 
 recalling the great significance of these researches for the advance- 
 ment of Astronomy in our time, predicted that Professor See would 
 take rank with Sir William Herschel for the unrivaled eminence 
 of his discoveries in the starry heavens. And quite recently 
 Speaker Clark has said that See is "The American Herschel, the 
 greatest astronomer now living." 
 
 The suggested parallel between Herschel and See is much 
 more appropriate than might be imagined by a superficial reader 
 who does not yet appreciate the significance of contemporary prog- 
 ress for the future exploration of the sidereal universe. This is 
 already realized by the people of his own State, who have known 
 him from childhood, and watched his triumphant progress for a 
 
258 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 quarter of a century. His neighbors know the discoveries he has 
 made and they can find no parallel to them on the part of anyone 
 since the memorable explorations of Sir William Herschel. 
 
 It therefore is no wonder that on the occasion of a public 
 address to an immense audience in the Court House at Montgomery 
 City, Mo., in a spontaneous welcome home, May 4, 1911, the 
 people came from all over the surrounding country and literally 
 overflowed the largest auditorium in the county. Nor is it sur- 
 prising that after the address (which was subsequently printed in 
 Scientia, Milan, Italy, Jan. 1, 1912), as the people gathered around 
 him, some friend recalled Oliver Wendell Holmes' welcome to Dr- 
 Benjamin Apthorp Gould, on the latter's return from South Amer- 
 ica, May 6, 1885, as even more appropriate to the founder of a new 
 science than to the great cataloguer of the southern stars: 
 
 "A WELCOME TO DR. BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD." 
 
 "Once more Orion and the sister Seven 
 
 Look on thee from the skies that hailed thy birth 
 How shall we welcome thee, whose home was Heaven, 
 From thy celestial wanderings back to earth? 
 
 "Science has kept her midnight taper burning 
 To greet thy coming with its vestal flame: 
 Friendship has murmured, 'When art thou returning?' 
 'Not yet! Not yet!' the answering message came. 
 
 "Thine was unstinted zeal, unchilled devotion, 
 
 While the blue realm had kingdoms to explore 
 Patience, like his who ploughed the unfurrowed ocean, 
 Till o'er its margin loomed San Salvador. 
 
 "Through the long nights I see thee ever waking, 
 Thy footstool, earth, thy roof, the hemisphere, 
 While with thy griefs our weaker hearts are aching, 
 Firm as thine equatorial's rock-based pier. 
 
 "The souls that voyaged the azure depths before thee 
 
 Watch with thy tireless vigils, all unseen 
 Tycho and Kepler bend benignant o'er thee, 
 And with his toy-like tube the Florentine 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 259 
 
 "He at whose work the orb that bore him shivered 
 
 To find her central sovereignty disowned, 
 While the wan lips of priest and pontiff quivered, 
 Their jargon stilled, their Baal disenthroned. 
 
 "Flamsteed and Newton look with brows unclouded, 
 
 Their strife forgotten with its faded scars - 
 (Titans, who found the world of space too crowded, 
 To walk in peace among its myriad stars). 
 
 "All cluster round thee seers of earliest ages, 
 
 Persians, lonians, Mizraim's learned kings, 
 From the dim days of Shinar's hoary sages 
 To his who weighed the planet's fluid rings. 
 
 "And we, for whom the northern heavens are lighted, 
 
 For whom the storm has passed, the sun has smiled, 
 Our clouds all scattered, all our stars united, 
 We claim thee, clasp thee, like a long-lost child. 
 
 "Fresh from the spangled vault's o'er-arching splendor, 
 
 Thy lonely pillar, thy revolving dome, 
 In heart-felt accents, proud, rejoicing, tender, 
 We bid thee welcome to thine earthly home." 
 
 When the Kansas City Star, shortly after this visit home, 
 nominated Professor See for the hall of fame, it faithfully inter- 
 preted the sentiments and opinions of the people of the State of 
 Missouri. 
 
 Let us now very briefly examine into the suggested parallel 
 between Herschel and See, and find out how far it is justified. Sir 
 William Herschel was gifted with great enthusiasm, and tireless 
 energy and boundless ambition for the exploration of the heavens. 
 He spent his whole life in these profound researches, and loved 
 his work so dearly that no effort was too great for him to make in 
 the hope of extending our knowledge of the sidereal universe. It 
 is not necessary nor desirable to recall here the long list of his 
 brilliant discoveries. It is more to the point to say that he was 
 most true and just in all the relations of life. For after his dis- 
 coveries proved to be so revolutionary that it was appropriately 
 
260 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 inscribed on his tomb at Upton that "he broke through the bar- 
 riers of the heavens" (coelorum perrupit claustra), Arago could 
 still pronounce upon him the incomparable eulogy: "Good for- 
 tune and glory never altered in him the fund of infantine candour, 
 inexhaustible benevolence, and sweetness of character, with which 
 nature had endowed him." (Biographies of Distinguished Scien- 
 tific Men, by Francois Arago, translated by Smyth, Powell and 
 Grant, 1859.) 
 
 In all his labors Herschel showed true scientific independence, 
 unfaltering devotion to truth, and unfailing sympathy with those 
 less fortunately situated in the world. During his lifetime he had 
 helped his brothers Alexander and Diedrich, and his sister Caro- 
 line; and when the latter outlived him he provided generously, 
 by an annuity, for the old age of the one human being who had 
 done most to sustain him in the labors of his great career. Those 
 who have studied the life of Herschel most intimately find him 
 the very prince of philosophers; amid many embarrassments and 
 difficulties he never once failed to reflect in his life the very glory 
 of the heavens. 
 
 As See is still living, and a comparatively young man, the 
 time has not come to make any final estimate of his career, but 
 those who know him best recognize unmistakably the same per- 
 sonal and philosophic qualities which so eminently distinguished 
 Sir William Herschel. See is especially noted for being indepen- 
 dent, and remaining untrammeled in his freedom of action.* In 
 some cases it is said that offers of financial assistance have been 
 made under conditions which might place him under obligations 
 expressed or implied, but they have always been courteously de- 
 clined, and the work done at his own expense or left undone. With 
 George Washington, he believes in the cardinal principle of 
 "friendly relations with all, entangling alliances with none;" and 
 practices in his relations with other scientific men the rule laid 
 down for us, a nation, by the Father of his Country. Without this 
 
 * The reader should compare the similar independent course of Herschel, as 
 described by Proctor in Chapter XV p. 219 above. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 261 
 
 wise rule of conduct it is not too much to say that a true philoso- 
 pher cannot exist; for however advantageous the formation of 
 alliances may be in ordinary commerce, the interests of truth will 
 seldom permit such combinations in science, and never except 
 with individuals of exalted merit. 
 
 Funds indeed may aid struggling genius, but they will not pro- 
 duce genius; and even the aid will be in vain unless extended in 
 such a way as not to compromise the independence of the investi- 
 gator. It is well known that as now managed our most heavily 
 endowed institutions have proved to be almost a total failure. 
 Probably nine-tenths of the vast sums expended ostensibly for 
 science on observatories and other similar institutions have been 
 utterly wasted. Naturally any self-respecting man of science is 
 better off without entanglements with such institutions, but this 
 recognized state of affairs is a grave reflection on the conditions 
 of scientific life in our country. 
 
 Those who are connected with these wasteful and inefficient 
 institutions are not really eminent and great philosophers, but 
 small and narrow specialists, quite devoid of real independence 
 and creative power; in fact they have neither the ability nor free- 
 dom to attack the greater problems of the age, and thus after all 
 their labors come to little.* 
 
 It was the ability to search for Truth, not worldly ends, which 
 so greatly distinguished Newton and Herschel. No amount of 
 questionable patronage would have aided the genius of these great 
 men, though a few grants were allowed Herschel, without con- 
 dition, and thus aided him in building his great telescopes. 
 
 As another point of similarity between the careers of Her- 
 
 * Routine Astronomy was also cultivated by the majority of workers in the 
 time of Sir John Herschel, and the breadth of mind of that eminent philosopher 
 was appreciated by few. In 1847 Herschel had to be selected as President of the 
 Royal Astronomical Society, to save it from dissolution; but Captain Smyth 
 records that Herschel's name was the main thing desired, for in the judgment of 
 the members, "The President must be a man of brass (practical astronomer) 
 a micrometer-monger, a telescope-twiddler, a star-stringer, a planet-poker, and a 
 nebula-nabber. If we give bail that we won't allow him to do anything if he 
 would we shall be able to have him, I hope." 
 
262 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 schel and See, it may be noted that their discoveries have been 
 equally revolutionary. Many persons could have built great re- 
 flectors before Herschel, but nobody actually did it. So also many 
 mathematicians now living could have carried out the work done by 
 See, if they had been guided by his sense for physical truth in nature; 
 but no one really had this deep intuition. Herschel's opportunity 
 lay in building telescopes and exploring the heavens; See's oppor- 
 tunity, on the other hand, consisted in reducing to law and order 
 the vast mass of observations on clusters, double stars and nebulae 
 accumulated by Herschel and his successors. See did not dupli- 
 cate, but rather extended the unfinished labors of Herschel; just 
 as Herschel did not duplicate, but rather extended and verified 
 in the heavens the theoretical conclusions of Newton. 
 
 In no age can the work of a great scientific discoverer be exactly 
 repeated. It must rather be extended along a new line. Thus 
 Kepler's discoveries were observational, but Newton's largely 
 mathematical, while Herschel's again were chiefly observational. 
 And when a great mass of data had been thus accumulated by the 
 exploration of the heavens, See's mathematical work became possible 
 in the effort to give us a theory of the development of the clusters, 
 double stars, nebulae and other types of the heavenly bodies. By 
 establishing the mutual interaction of attractive and repulsive 
 forces, with the resulting cyclical order of cosmical development, 
 where only confusion and chaos had reigned before, See thus gained 
 the highest rank of Creator of a New Science "The Newton of 
 Cosmogony." This has been recognized by the most eminent 
 contemporary astronomers, but more especially by such sage 
 philosophers as Huggins, Schiaparelli and Poincare. 
 
 As is well known Sir William Herschel was born in Hanover 
 in 1738, and his family of Germanic origin. His earliest known 
 ancestor, Hans Herschel, had two brothers. They were Protes- 
 tants, and, to escape from religious persecution, fled from Moravia 
 early in the seventeenth century, and settled near Dresden. Here 
 two sons were born to Hans Herschel, the one named Abraham in 
 1651. One of Abraham Herschel's sons, Isaac Herschel, born in 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 263 
 
 1707, was the father of Sir William Herschel. After being left an 
 orphan at the age of eleven, he studied music in Berlin and Pots- 
 dam and finally settled in Hanover, whence the migration to Eng- 
 land, and the rise to fame of the son, Sir William Herschel. 
 
 A singular parallel between the ancestry of Herschel and of 
 See is remarkable enough to be worthy of record. It will be re- 
 called that two brothers, Adam See, and Michael Frederick See, 
 were natives of Prussian Silesia, which joins Moravia, from which 
 the Herschel brothers had fled about a century before. The Sees 
 too were Protestants and fled likewise to escape from religious 
 persecution. But instead of stopping in northern Germany, like 
 the Herschels, they came direct to America, with the colony of 
 Schwenkfelders, in 1734, and settled first in Pennsylvania, and 
 afterwards moved to Virginia, and Missouri, where the great 
 astronomer was born and rose to fame as the "American Herschel." 
 Thus it will be seen that there is striking similarity of ancestry in 
 these two great men who have so profoundly revolutionized the 
 Science of Astronomy. 
 
 It is needless to say that See is a member of many learned 
 societies throughout the world. The following list is incomplete, 
 but sufficient for our present purposes: 
 
 Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; Mitglied der 
 Astronomischen Gesellschaft; member of the London Mathe- 
 matical Society; American Mathematical Society; Deutsche 
 Mathematiker Vereinigung; Societe Mathematique de France; 
 Circolo Mathematico di Palermo; Calcutta Mathematical Society; 
 American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia; Washington 
 Academy of Sciences; Philosophical Society of Washington; 
 Academy of Sciences of St. Louis; American Physical Society; 
 Societe Francaise de Physique; Fellow of the American and 
 British Associations for the Advancement of Science; member of 
 the British Astronomical Association; Societe Astronomique de 
 France; Astronomical Society of the Pacific; California Academy 
 of Sciences; Seismological Society of America; National Geo- 
 
264 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 graphical Society; Honorary Member of the Sociedad Astro- 
 nomica de Mexico; etc. 
 
 In this connection the question may properly be asked whether 
 the standard of Science is higher in Europe than in America. Per- 
 haps it will be no surprise to learn that some elderly gentlemen 
 who live in the past, and still think as they did a generation ago, 
 hold that it is; and that the great European learned societies are 
 the best judges of contemporary progress and discovery. 
 
 The opposite view is taken by Professor See, who has shown 
 that America is now first in purely scientific discovery as well as 
 in inventions. In fact the rapid progress of the past twenty years 
 has given America the first place in every line of human activity. 
 This appears to be realized by the younger workers in Science, 
 who keep pace with recent progress, but it is not yet appreciated 
 by the American public. 
 
 A kindred problem to that just considered relates to the nature 
 of genius. In what does genius consist? And how are discoveries 
 made? These questions are not easy to answer, and yet one may 
 say immediately that discoveries are not made by following popu- 
 lar habits of thought. So far from originating discoveries the great 
 majority of people require careful instruction before they can grasp 
 the results reached by individuals of clearer intuition. Besides, 
 the most incompetent often are in authority, and it is difficult for 
 the people to recognize the few grains of truth from among the 
 mass of error set before them by blunderers. 
 
 As Napoleon once said: "France possesses clever practical 
 men; the only thing necessary is to find them, and to give them 
 the means of reaching the proper station; such a one is at the 
 plough, who ought to be in the council; and such another is minis- 
 ter, who ought to be at the plough" (Montholon, Vol. Ill, p. 187). 
 
 After recalling the ingenious labors of the celebrated Fourier 
 for discovering the laws of heat, Arago exclaims in his eulogy of 
 that extraordinary man: 
 
 "Such is the privilege of genius; it perceives, it seizes rela- 
 tions where vulgar eyes see only isolated facts." 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 265 
 
 Admirably said! This seeing of mere isolated facts, without 
 ability to seize relations is the bane of our age, and brings about stagna- 
 tion in Science. Such a condition may arise from narrowness of 
 view, when one's knowledge is not sufficiently extensive to bring 
 into the vision a wide range of apparently unrelated facts; or from 
 mental inability to weave the threads of thought into a continuous 
 fabric even when the connection is noticed. 
 
 The power to do this higher constructive work in Science is that 
 of genius and given to very few. To judge why this is let us recall 
 the sketch of the Character of Newton, given by Whewell in his 
 History of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. II, p. 183-5: 
 
 " It is not easy to anatomise the constitution and the opera- 
 tions of the mind which makes such an advance in knowledge. 
 Yet we may observe that there must exist in it, in an eminent 
 degree, the elements which compose the mathematical talent. It 
 must possess distinctness of intuition, tenacity and facility in 
 tracing logical connexion, fertility of invention, and a strong ten- 
 dency to generalisation. It is easy to discover indications of these 
 characteristics in Newton. The distinctness of his intuitions of 
 space, and we may add of force also, was seen in the amusements 
 of his youth; in his constructing clocks and mills, carts and dials, 
 as well as the facility with which he mastered geometry. This 
 fondness for handicraft employments, and for making models and 
 machines, appears to be a common prelude of excellence in phy- 
 sical science;* probably on this very account, that it arises from the 
 distinctness of intuitive power with which the child conceives the 
 shapes and the working of such material combinations. Newton's 
 inventive power appears in the number and variety of the mathe- 
 matical artifices and combinations which he devised, and of which 
 his books are full. If we conceive the operation of the inventive 
 faculty in the only way in which it appears possible to conceive 
 it; that while some hidden source supplies a rapid stream of 
 possible suggestions, the mind is on watch to seize and detain any 
 one of these which will suit the case in hand, allowing the rest to 
 pass by and be forgotten; we shall see what extraordinary fertility 
 *As in Galileo, Hooke, Huyghens, and others. 
 
266 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of mind is implied by so many successful efforts; what an innu- 
 merable host of thoughts must have been produced, to supply so 
 many that deserved to be selected. And since the selection is 
 performed by tracing the consequences of each suggestion, so as 
 to compare them with the requisite conditions, we see also what 
 rapidity and certainty in drawing conclusions the mind must 
 possess as a talent, and what watchfulness and patience as a habit. 
 
 "The hidden fountain of our unbidden thoughts is for us a 
 mystery; and we have, in our consciousness, no standard by which 
 we can measure our own talents; but our acts and habits are some- 
 thing of which we are conscious; and we can understand, there- 
 fore, how it was that Newton could not admit that there was any 
 difference between himself and other men, except in his possession 
 of such habits as we have mentioned, perseverance and vigilance. 
 When he was asked how he made his discoveries, he answered, 
 4 by always thinking about them;' and at another time, he declared 
 that if he had done anything, it was due to nothing but industry 
 and patient thought: ' I keep the subject of my inquiry constant- 
 ly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by 
 little and little, into a full and clear light/ No better account 
 can be given of the nature of the mental effort which gives to the 
 philosopher the full benefit of his powers; but the natural powers 
 of men's minds are not on that account the less different. There 
 are many who might wait through ages of darkness without being 
 visited by any dawn." 
 
 These sagacious remarks on Newton apply of course equally 
 well to a modern philosopher. Like the illustrious Poincare, See 
 is a student not of single, isolated facts, but of the principles which 
 connect the most intricate of things into one continuous whole. 
 In the introduction to the Researches, Vol. II, he justly exclaims: 
 "One true principle gives unity and mental connection to millions 
 of isolated facts, and it is only by means of such principles that 
 the observed facts can be interpreted. Why not therefore give a 
 little more attention to the discovery of principles? All the im- 
 portant epochs in the past history of science have been made in 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 267 
 
 this way; yet this very tendency, to the development of new con- 
 ceptions and the introduction of new physical laws, is the one which 
 to-day is least encouraged. Few are supported or upheld in break- 
 ing away from the leading strings of tradition. Journals and 
 Learned Societies are nearly all ultra conservative, and very timid 
 about entertaining new thought. It is only daring individuals, 
 not aggregations of men, who have the courage to lead the way. 
 Under the circumstances can any one be surprised that years, 
 decades, and even centuries pass by without giving birth to one 
 grand principle, one new physical law?" 
 
 See's powers of mathematical and physical intuition have 
 thus enabled him to establish two new physical sciences Cos- 
 mogony, treating of the Origin of the Heavens; and Geogony, deal- 
 ing with the Origin of the Earth. The sublime Vision of the Crea- 
 tion, according to Nature's Laws, thus unfolded to the imagination, 
 never before dawned on the human mind; and as Halley said of 
 the discoveries in Newton's Principia, such revelations are "almost 
 Divine." 
 
 It is by reason of men of See's type that early in the 20th 
 century the center of gravity of discovery was finally transferred 
 from Europe to America, where it is likely to remain for a long 
 time to come. It is well known that European science has gone 
 to seed in narrow specialization. Besides, the old countries of 
 Europe can no longer compete with the lusty vigor of this mighty 
 Republic, with its uniformly high type of citizenship. 
 
 It is needless to say that the discoveries of See alone have 
 given America the first place in the sciences of Astronomy and 
 Cosmogony, and the Physics of the Earth, which embraces the 
 sciences of Geology, Seismology and Geodesy. The opening sentence 
 of the address reprinted in Chapter XIII : " We are assembled to 
 consider the great Law of Nature which governs the Evolution of 
 Worlds, and to celebrate the Founding of a New Science of the Starry 
 Heavens," grand and comprehensive as it is, recalls but a part of 
 his most significant discoveries. 
 
268 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The general Law of Nature established by See to the effect that all 
 planetary bodies are formed in the distance and afterwards near the 
 centers about which they revolve is indeed magnificient. This Capture 
 Theory, or theory of addition from without, in contrast to Laplace's 
 abandoned theory of throwing off, is shown to apply to the entire 
 sidereal universe. It is illustrated by phenomena observed in the 
 spiral nebulae, the planetary system, the double and multiple 
 stars and clusters and the star-clouds of the Milky Way. Beyond 
 a doubt this theory of cosmical evolution, under the mutual inter- 
 action of both attractive and repulsive forces, and the resisting 
 medium resulting from the dispersion of dust from the stars, is 
 the most comprehensive scientific generalization since the estab- 
 lishment of the law of universal gravitation by Newton in 1687. 
 
 Accordingly, the daring young American astronomer who had 
 the mathematical ability and the physical and philosophic intui- 
 tion to reduce to law and order the hopeless chaos of the nebulae, 
 and thus found a new science of the starry heavens which won him 
 the title of the Newton of cosmogony (1910), by his latest feat in 
 fathoming the depth of the Milky Way and developing mathe- 
 matically the Herschel-See theory of the globular clusters, and 
 thus restoring the grand ideas, after securing the republication of 
 the Collected Works of Sir William Herschel, has amply fulfilled 
 the earlier prophesy that he would become the Herschel of 
 America. 
 
 After an unaccountable neglect of ninety years the works of 
 Sir William Herschel have just been reprinted under the auspices 
 of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society of London. 
 The movement was started by Professor See and ably seconded 
 by the illustrious Sir William Huggins, ex-president of the Royal 
 Society and founder of Astrophysics. As many persons may not 
 know that this whole matter of republishing Herschel's Scientific 
 Papers was planned by Professor See in his quiet study at Mare 
 Island, California, we give an account of this important move- 
 ment. Soon after his recovery from the critical illness early in 
 1909, Professor See sought access to Herschel's papers in the Philo- 
 
SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS, (1824-1910). 
 
 Ex-President of the Royal Society, Founder of the New Science of Astrophysics, and one 
 
 of the greatest philosophers of all time. He was a steadfast friend of Professor 
 
 See, and among the first to adopt his discoveries in Cosmogony and Geogony. 
 
POST CARD $JI,y, CARTE POS 
 UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION J&S^ UNION POSTAL: 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN & ] ;D 
 
 THIS SIDE FOR THE ADDRESS 
 
 AUTOGRAPH POSTAL CARD FROM SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS. 
 
 It notifies Professor See that his request had been granted, and action taken by the Royal Society and Royal Astro- 
 nomical Society looking to the republication of the Collected Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel. 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 269 
 
 sophical Transactions, at the library of the University of California. 
 By courtesy of Mr. J. C. Rowell, librarian, he was enabled to 
 carry home with him such arm-loads of these rare volumes as his 
 bodily strength then permitted, and abstract the parts that would 
 serve immediate needs. Upon application to other prominent 
 astronomers, who would presumably have these papers, he found 
 that no one had a copy, or had ever studied Herschel's works with 
 care and attention. Professor See was much surprised at this 
 neglect of Herschel's priceless papers, and it set him thinking 
 about a method of restoring the great Herschel to his rightful 
 place in modern astronomy. 
 
 Accordingly it occurred to him to write letters to the Observa- 
 tory, Nature, and the British Astronomical Association, urging a 
 movement for the republication of Herschel's Collected Works. 
 In a formal letter to the council of the Royal Astronomical Society 
 he not only urged the republication of Herschel's Collected Works, 
 but himself started the movement by formally offering a sub- 
 scription of $100 as the first step. 
 
 A little later it occurred to him to appeal directly to Sir Wil- 
 liam Huggins, ex-president of the Royal Society, to move for the 
 appointment of the needed joint committee of the Royal Society 
 and Royal Astronomical Society, to consider this great under- 
 taking, which would bring such high honor to these illustrious 
 societies. Professor See concluded his appeal to Sir William Hug- 
 gins by saying that if he could see his way to take the initiative in 
 this movement, it would be one more noble service to Science, and 
 a long delayed tribute to the memory of so great and good a man as 
 Herschel. 
 
 The appeal had the desired effect since Herschel's memory 
 is justly revered in England and on January 20, 1910, Sir Wil- 
 liam Huggins wrote to notify Professor See that the step he recom- 
 mended had been taken, as shown by the accompanying autograph 
 of Sir William Huggins. This was the last communication ad- 
 dressed to Professor See by Sir William before his lamented death, 
 in the eighty-seventh year of his age, May 12, 1910. 
 
270 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 This remarkable chain of events, causes one to reflect on 
 what small matters, at the right time, great events depend; and 
 if they are not done then the opportunity passes by, and the enter- 
 prise may be defeated forever. The recovery of Professor See 
 early in 1909, after his life had been despaired of, was considered 
 by his physicians almost miraculous. The completion of his 
 Researches, Vol. II, was the immediate incentive to an examina- 
 tion of the neglected and forgotten works of Herschel. This led 
 to the movement for republishing Herschel's Collected Works, 
 which took shape just in time to be well started under the revered 
 leadership of Sir William Huggins, who was able to attend but two 
 meetings of the Joint Committee before he was himself called to 
 join Herschel of blessed and everlasting memory. 
 
 Every student of scientific truth may well be grateful that 
 the chain of events was fortunate enough to make possible the 
 re-issue of the priceless papers of Herschel. This movement could 
 not well have been inaugurated by anyone except the illustrious 
 Sir William Huggins, whose whole life was unselfishly devoted to 
 the advancement of truth. It is fitting that such a noble monu- 
 ment to Herschel will always be associated in the minds of men 
 with the justly revered memory of Sir William Huggins, "the 
 Herschel of the spectroscope." 
 
 In concluding now the work of this biography it remains to 
 note that eminent philosophers agree that four of See's most 
 brilliant achievements constitute a series of discoveries without 
 a parallel since the age of Newton: 
 
 1. The Establishment of the Cause of Earthquakes, Moun- 
 tain Formation and kindred phenomena connected with the physics 
 of the earth, and thus a Science of Geogony, May 21, 1906. 
 
 2. The Founding of Cosmogony as a New Science of the 
 Starry Heavens, thus giving us the laws of the formation of the 
 solar system and of cosmical systems generally. July 14, 1908. 
 
 3. The fathoming of the Milky Way to the depth of several 
 million light-years thereby proving that the extent of the 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 271 
 
 sidereal universe is about a thousand times greater than astrono- 
 mers have recently believed. November 4, 1911. 
 
 4. The development of the dynamical theory of clusters and 
 of the clustering power inferred by Herschel from the observed 
 figures of sidereal systems of high order. February 19, 1912. This 
 establishes forever that the Capture Theory is the great Law of 
 Nature, and is the latest and mathematically the profoundest of 
 the researches on sidereal evolution. 
 
 It is not too much to say that these unrivaled results of the 
 Herschel of America have shed imperishable luster upon his 
 country and upon his age! Posterity may well marvel over the 
 wonders of Nature which he alone was able to explain. This was 
 the attitude taken by the illustrious Poincare, himself the greatest 
 mathematician since Archimedes. 
 
 Our successors will witness the extension of the grand phenom- 
 ena whose laws he discovered, yet they will recognize in the 
 circularity of the paths of the planets and satellites the operation 
 of the nebular resisting medium which he first brought to light. 
 Throughout the long course of centuries the secular acceleration 
 of the moon will continue to bear witness to the capture of our 
 satellite by the earth, and astronomers of future time will look 
 back to this great triumph of human ingenuity. The system of 
 the comets will be more fully revealed to us by discoveries to be 
 made hereafter, but the elongated forms of their elliptic orbits 
 have already made it clear that these mysterious bodies are mere 
 survivals still coming to us from the outer shell of the ancient 
 nebula which formed the solar system. 
 
 Even in the remotest ages astronomers will still be gazing at 
 the starry heavens, and natural philosophers marveling at the 
 mysteries of the spiral nebulae, but their labors will be simplified 
 by the new theory of repulsive forces, and the sublime proof that 
 the Deity always geometrizes, and thus develops out of chaos the 
 exquisite order of the system of the world, that it may become a 
 fit abode for the children of men. These are a few of the recollec- 
 
272 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tions which always will be associated with the early life of the 
 Herschel of America, who was the first to interpret the lesson of 
 the geometry of the heavens. 
 
 In the unfolding of this majestic panorama of the creation, 
 the spectacle of the stars will change, and improved methods of 
 analysis will come for the treatment of the problems which he pro- 
 posed; but the wonders of the starry heavens, growing and decay- 
 ing under the mutual interaction of attractive and repulsive forces, 
 will always bear witness to the philosophic penetration of the 
 illustrious geometer, who alone was able to establish the laws of 
 their evolution. 
 
 Yet as the poet Thomson sang of Sir Isaac Newton: 
 
 "But who can number up his labors? Who 
 His high discoveries sing? When but a few 
 Of the deep-studying race can stretch their minds 
 To what he knew: in Fancy's lighter thought, 
 How shall the Muse, then, grasp the mighty theme?" 
 
 ******** "Ye mouldering stones, 
 That build the tow 'ring pyramid, the proud 
 Triumphal arch, the monument, effac'd 
 By ruthless ruin, and what'er supports 
 The worshipp'd name of hoar Antiquity, 
 Down to the dust! What grandeur can ye boast, 
 While Newton lifts his column to the skies, 
 Beyond the waste of Time?" 
 
 O'er thy dejected country chief preside, 
 
 And be her Genius call'd! her studies raise, 
 
 Correct her manners, and inspire her youth. 
 
 For, though deprav'd and sunk, she brought thee forth, 
 
 And glories in thy name; she points thee out 
 
 To all her sons, and bids them eye thy Star." 
 
 Owing to the intimate friendship of twenty years existing 
 between Sir William Huggins, the illustrious founder of Astro- 
 
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FARNESI GLOBE IN THE MUSEUM, NAPLES 
 
 A Greek marble globe of great beauty; ca. A.D. 300 
 J. C. Houseau, Bib. Gen. de PAstron., T. I., P. I., Int. Chap. IV., p. 138 
 
UNPARALLELED DISCOVERIES OF T. J. J. SEE 273 
 
 physics, and Professor See, the Founder of Cosmogony the only 
 two new sciences of the stars established within the memory of 
 living investigators it will be appropriate to close this biography 
 with the beautiful and impressive U envoy employed by Sir Wil- 
 liam and Lady Huggins to conclude their Atlas of Representative 
 Stellar Spectra: 
 
 "We conclude filled with a sense of wonder at the greatness 
 of the human intellect, which from the impact of waves of ether 
 upon one sense-organ, can learn so much of the universe outside 
 our earth; but the wonder passes into awe before the unimagi- 
 nable magnitudes of Time, of Space, and of Matter of this Universe, 
 as if a Voice were heard saying to man, "Thou art no Atlas for so 
 great a weight." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTES ON SOME EARLY PROPHECIES AND ON THE PUBLIC BANQUET 
 TENDERED DR. SEE BY THE SCIENCE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNI- 
 VERSITY OF MISSOURI, JANUARY 20, 1898. 
 
 It has been noticed by many sagacious observers that from 
 his earliest years young Mr. See was so fortunate as to inspire, by 
 his superior talents and steadfastness of purpose, the utmost 
 confidence in a career of the highest eminence in Science. At the 
 University he always lived up to high principles, and was frank 
 and open in his stand on all questions, without the least thought 
 of mere popularity, which he regarded as beneath contempt. He 
 was thus recognized as a rugged character, as steadfast as a moun- 
 tain peak towering calmly in the light of the Sun, high above the 
 clouds and tumult of the elements below. Though sometimes mis- 
 understood among his associates, his influence was well-nigh all- 
 powerful, and far exceeded that of any former student of the 
 University. 
 
 As illustrating this situation it is interesting to recall the fact 
 that when Mr. See graduated with such high honors, in June, 1889* 
 the Columbia Statesman, one of the oldest and most influential 
 newspapers in Missouri, dwelt editorially at some length on the 
 extraordinary power for breaking through the crust which young 
 Mr. See had shown by his University career a prophecy since 
 fulfilled also in the larger affairs of the world of Science. This 
 appraisement by the Statesman was for Mr. See's entire college 
 career of five years. 
 
 As intimated above, there were times when he had been 
 somewhat misunderstood, or misrepresented by envious individ- 
 uals of inferior genius; but these efforts at injuring him never 
 were successful with discerning persons. Thus, during a college 
 
 275 
 
276 APPENDIX 
 
 controversy of 1887, which had been incited by jealousy, the 
 thoughtful student, Mr. S. H. VanTrump, now of Gervais, Oregon, 
 made the well-known prophecy that "See had the scientific genius 
 of a Darwin, and that the day would come when the University 
 would be famous as his Alma Mater." 
 
 Likewise, near his home in Montgomery County, his name 
 was always a synonym for eminence and high achievement. Thus 
 in September, 1893, Hon. Emil Rosenberger, now President of 
 the Historical Society of Montgomery County, published an 
 article in the Montgomery Standard, describing the giant Yerkes 
 Telescope, then on exhibition at the Columbian World's Fair in 
 Chicago, and predicting that Dr. See would become the future 
 Alexander von Humboldt of America. 
 
 When Dr. See had been a year and a half with Lowell sur- 
 veying the Southern double stars in Arizona and at the City of 
 Mexico, and was in the East to publish his results, it occurred to 
 the University of Missouri Science Association to invite him to a 
 Public Banquet and celebration in honor of his discoveries. His 
 admirers at the University were very numerous and influential, 
 and the plans were made without acquainting Dr. See with the 
 details. It was the largest banquet of the kind ever held at the 
 University of Missouri, and included various toasts to Science 
 and to the honored guest. 
 
 Dr. See was so surprised at the enthusiasm of the celebration 
 as to be visibly embarrassed; and gently indicated to his friends 
 that he would have felt obliged to decline had he known that such 
 high encomiums were to be pronounced upon him. His class- 
 mate, Professor C. F. Marbut, for example, in response to the 
 toast to the Class of 1889, concluded by remarking that Dr. See's 
 leadership in Science was such that he could only say: 
 
 "It is superfluous to praise the gods." 
 
APPENDIX 277 
 
 REMARKS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DR. SEE'S RESEARCHES AND 
 
 DISCOVERIES. 
 
 (Embodied in a letter from his former teacher, Professor W. B. Smith, of 
 Tulane University, New Orleans, to Professor Milton Updegraff, for the 
 University Science Association, on the occasion of a banquet and celebration 
 in honor of Dr. See, held at the University of Missouri, January 20, 1898.) 
 
 Tulane University of Louisiana, 
 
 College of Arts and Sciences, 
 New Orleans, La., Jan. 17, 1898. 
 DEAR PROFESSOR: 
 
 Please accept the assurance of my sincere thanks for 
 the invitation to hear the address of Dr. See on the twentieth and 
 to attend the banquet to be given in his honor, along with my 
 unfeigned regret at not being able to accept. No one could sym- 
 pathize more heartily than I in any recognition of the distinguished 
 merits and achievements of Dr. See in the domain of exact astron- 
 omy. He has borne the name of Missouri in honor into eternal 
 regions where the fame of her extent, her industries, her commerce, 
 her products, her cities, her railroads, her newspapers, yea, even 
 of her statesmen and her warriors must remain forever silent. It 
 would be the merest commonplace to enlarge upon the fact that 
 researches like his in the most inaccessible provinces of the sub- 
 limest of applied sciences have enduring virtue, outlasting marble, 
 brass, or strength of steel, but it may be allowed to stress in a few 
 words their important bearing on the deeper problems and higher 
 hopes of our common humanity. For, unless I widely err, the 
 determinations of pure science are the stable elements of our 
 present civilization, they are the pillared trust of the generations 
 yet to come. It is an age of cynicism, realism, indifferentism, 
 moneyism. Unrest and unfaith in the true, beautiful and good 
 are widespread and daily becoming more insolent. No clear-eyed 
 patriot can look around upon our whole civil polity without grave 
 and just alarm. On all sides our high ideals are falling and the 
 walls of distinction are crumbling away. In art the contrast of 
 the beautiful and the ugly is openly rejected; in literature the 
 
278 APPENDIX 
 
 clean and the unclean walk side by side; in politics the cry waxes 
 louder that "Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair;" "Black spirits and 
 white, red spirits and gray" mingle and hobnob in the world's 
 congress of religions; in medicine the most advanced methods con- 
 tend with degrading superstitions, and splendid temples are 
 dedicated to the worship of humbug; right and wrong are con- 
 founded in morals, while worth and unworth are rated precisely 
 alike on the rolls of reward. Science alone, exact science, still 
 proclaims uncompromisingly the immutable antithesis of true and 
 false, still sinks deeper and deeper the foundations, raises higher 
 and higher the pinnacles of knowledge, a house not made with 
 hands, eternal as the heavens. 
 
 But while it is the glorious mission of all exact science thus 
 to establish and defend the objective verity of the universe against 
 prevalent skepticism, it is an especial virtue of the science of the 
 stars to quicken the saving sense of the dignity of man, a sense 
 dulled and endangered daily by the gigantic developments and 
 consolidations of modern industrialism. The ennobling worth 
 of such sublime studies has been felt and celebrated in every age. 
 It was Ptolemy that said: 
 
 "Though but the being of a day, 
 When I the planet-paths survey, 
 
 My feet the dust despise; 
 Up to the throne of God I mount 
 And quaff from an immortal fount 
 
 The nectar of the skies." 
 
 Both the State and the University, therefore, honor themselves 
 in honoring their eminent son, and they do well to point their 
 youth to such examples. With heartiest greetings to yourself and 
 family, Very sincerely yours, 
 
 W. B. SMITH. 
 To Prof. Milton Updegraff . 
 
 (Reprinted from the University Independent, of May 28, 1898.) 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 ADAMS, Professor W. S., estimates 60- 
 inch reflector at Pasadena, will show 
 visually 18th magnitude stars, 211; 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 11,246 
 
 Alexander the Great, the marching of 
 his army through the sea, 134 
 
 Anaxagoras, celebrated Greek philos- 
 opher, develops Cosmogony, 163; 
 and the theory of Cosmical Evolution, 
 188 
 
 Anaximander, Greek astronomer, de- 
 velops Cosmogony, 163 
 
 Andre, Professor Charles, late Director 
 of Observatory of Lyons, discusses 
 Professor See's discoveries, 243 
 
 Apollonius, celebrated Greek geometer, 
 163; on the apparent motions of the 
 planets, 166 
 
 Antoninus Pius, Emperor of Rome, the 
 Almagest composed during his reign, 
 
 Arago, Francois, French astronomer, his 
 eulogy of Herschel, 260; his eulogy 
 of Fourier and description of the 
 vision of genius, 264 
 
 Archimedes, of Syracuse, celebrated 
 Greek geometer, his independence 
 of common opinion, 95, 96; high 
 importance of his discoveries, 96; on 
 the foundations of Astronomy, 163; 
 on the apparent motions of the plan- 
 ets, 166; his inventive genius, 240 
 
 Aristarchus, famous Greek astronomer, 
 163; on the apparent motions of the 
 planets, 166 
 
 Aristotle, celebrated Greek philosopher, 
 his habits of independence and free 
 initiative, vi; durability of his work, 
 87; his theory of earthquakes trans- 
 lated by See, 98; treats of earth- 
 quakes in the book on Meteorology, 
 because he held they were due to 
 agitating vapors confined within the 
 crust and trying to escape into the 
 Earth's atmosphere, 99; remarks on 
 the prevalence of earthquakes in 
 maritime districts, 99; his penetrat- 
 ing intuition and the vast extent of his 
 knowledge, 101; 11 years old when 
 the earthquake destroyed Helike, 
 
 135; his work on the apparent mo- 
 tions of the planets, 166; his in- 
 spiring reasoning on the gods, 255 
 
 Arrhenius, Professor Suante, eminent 
 Swedish physicist, on repulsive forces 
 in Nature, 70; adopts theory that 
 volcanoes depend on the sea, 136; 
 advances Cosmogony, 168; his ad- 
 dress to Monist Congress in Hamburg 
 1911, 243; impression of See's Re- 
 searches, Vol. II, 246 
 
 Ayers, Dr. Howard, eminent biologist, 
 Mr. E. E. See instructed by, 7 
 
 BABINET, J., French physicist, his 
 criterion in Cosmogony, 168, 171, 
 172, 183, 226, 230 
 
 Baillaud, Benjamin, Director of the 
 Paris Observatory, impression of 
 See's Researches, Vol. II, 246 
 
 Barclay, Robert, statement as to con- 
 gregations of Schwenkfelders in Perm, 
 in 1875, 2 
 
 Barnard, Professor E. E., eminent 
 American astronomer, secured for 
 Yerkes Observatory, 56; many years 
 of his life usefully employed at Yerkes 
 Observatory, 57; his magnificent 
 photographs of the Milky Way, 70, 
 232; nebulosity shown on back- 
 ground of the sky, 232; impression 
 of See's Researches, Vol. II, 246 
 
 Bartholdi, instructor of A. von Hum- 
 boldt, 30 
 
 Bartlett, Professor W. H. C., of West 
 Point, calculates distance of stars, 
 205 
 
 Beaumont, Elie de, French geologist, 
 his theory of mountain formation 
 set forth in 1829, 129 
 
 Belpolski, Professor A., of Poulkowa, 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 II, 246 
 
 Bergstrand, Professor Osten, of Upsala, 
 Swedish astronomer, uses Dr. See's 
 observations, 74 
 
 Bessel, F. W., celebrated German as- 
 tronomer, 197; first determines the 
 distance of the fixed stars by actual 
 measurement, 1838, 197 
 
 281 
 
282 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Bismarck, Count Otto, German chancel- 
 lor, seen by Mr. See in parade with 
 Emperors of Germany and Russia, 
 48 
 
 Black, Mr., farmer near Wellsville, Mo. 
 friend of Noah See, 20 
 
 Blondel, M., French authority on pro- 
 jectiles, 1685, 235 
 
 Bohlin, Professor K., of Stockholm, 
 impression of See's Researches, vol. 
 II, 246 
 
 Bohme, Jacob, his religious followers 
 associated with Schenkfelders in 
 Prussian Silesia, 2 
 
 Boone, Daniel, pioneer, his conflicts 
 with the Indians, 9 
 
 Boss, Professor Lewis, deduces proper 
 motions of stars, 204 
 
 Bowditch, Dr. Nathaniel, his trans- 
 lation of Laplace's M/canique C&este 
 discovered by young Mr. See, 34 
 
 Bouguer, P., French academician, on 
 the attraction of Chimborazo, 107 
 
 Bradley, James, eminent English as- 
 tronomer, discovers the aberration 
 of light, 1727, 249 
 
 Brelsford, Lafayette, boyhood teacher 
 of Professor See, 24 
 
 Brendel, Dr. Martin, lectures on as- 
 tronomy at Berlin, 47 
 
 Brown, Professor E. W., eminent 
 mathematician of Yale University, 
 confirms capture of satellites, 162, 
 176; impression of See's Researches, 
 Vol. II, 246 
 
 Brown, Professor S. J., U.S.N., gives 
 up 26-inch telescope to become As- 
 tronomical Director of Naval Ob- 
 servatory, 72 
 
 Bruhns, C., Professor, his life of Hum- 
 boldt cited, 30 
 
 Bryan, Hon. Wm. J., American Secre- 
 tary of State, his father, Judge Silas 
 Bryan, induces Hon. Charles Michael 
 See to take up study of family history 
 of the Sees, 3 
 
 Bryan, Judge Silas, father of Hon. Wm. 
 J. Bryan, interests Hon. Charles 
 Michael See in study of the family 
 history, 1880, 3 
 
 Buckner, Hon. A. H., member of Con- 
 gress, would need a successor, 25 
 
 Burckhardt, J. C., German astronomer, 
 investigates motion of comets near 
 Jupiter, 74 
 
 Burkhalter, Professor Charles, Director 
 of Chabot Observatory, Oakland, 
 California, impression of See's Re- 
 searches, Vol. II, 246 
 
 Burnham, S. W., famous American 
 double star observer, quits Lick Ob- 
 servatory, 55; in private station 
 could not start the Yerkes Observa- 
 tory, 56; many years of his life use- 
 fully employed at Yerkes Observa- 
 tory, 57; works on double star orbits 
 with Dr. See in Chicago, 58; closely 
 associated with See almost daily, 58; 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 II, 246 
 
 Burrard, Colonel Sidney G., R. E., F. 
 R.S., Surveyor-general of India, con- 
 cludes that Himalayas were pushed 
 northward, 138 
 
 CESAR, Julius, his legions at Rome, 
 2,000 years ago, 50 
 
 Campbell, Professor W. W., Director of 
 Lick Observatory, uses motion in 
 line of sight on binaries, 59; finds 
 distance of 225 helium stars to be 540 
 light-years, 202; explanation of 
 method employed by, 203, 204 
 
 Carslaw, Professor H. S., University of 
 Sydney, impression of See's Re- 
 searches, Vol. II, 246 
 
 Cauthorn, Professor William, teaches 
 geometry to Mr. See, 32 
 
 Chase, Professor F. L., Director of Yale 
 Observatory, his researches on the 
 parallax of stars, 197 
 
 Christ and the Apostles, we still live in 
 the time of, 256 
 
 Cicero, Roman author, preserves Aris- 
 totle's argument on the existence of 
 gods, 255 
 
 Clairault, A., eminent French mathe- 
 matician, extends theory of gravita- 
 tion, 249 
 
 Clark, Alvan G., telescope-maker, at 
 Lowell Observatory, 1896, 63 
 
 Clark, Alvan & Sons, had unground discs 
 afterwards used for lenses of Yerkes 
 telescope, 54; progress in the grind- 
 ing of the lenses in 1894, 55 
 
 Clark, Hon. Champ, speaker of National 
 House of Representatives, his biog- 
 raphy by Webb, vii; George See, 
 friend and adviser of, 7; Noah See 
 hears his speeches, 16; preceded in 
 Congress by Buckner, 25; leader in 
 Legislature of 1889, 37; conducts 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 283 
 
 inquiry into University of Missouri, 
 38; wins title of "Founder of the 
 University," 38; designates Professor 
 See "the American Herschel," 257 
 
 Clerke, Miss A. M., historian of as- 
 tronomy during 19th century, enter- 
 tains Mr. See in London, 52; dis- 
 tance of remote stars "less than 
 36,000 light-years," 205 
 
 Cobb, Professor Collier, of University 
 ofN. C, 15 
 
 Cobb, Judge A. J., of Georgia, 15 
 Cobb, Howell, celebrated statesman, 
 
 15 
 
 Cobb, Phillip, one of the maternal 
 great grand-fathers of Professor See, 
 enters land on Loutre, now called 
 Starlight, 15; family from Kentucky, 
 but originally from Va., and of 
 English origin, 15; others of this 
 name, in N.C. and Ga.,15 
 
 Cobb, Samuel, brother of Phillip, 
 
 marries Sarah, sister of Emanuel 
 
 Sailor, 5 
 Cockrell, U. S. Senator Francis M., his 
 
 speeches heard by Noah See, 16; 
 
 would need a successor in Congress, 
 
 25 
 
 Cogshall, Professor W. A., assistant of 
 Dr. See at Lowell Observarory, 63; 
 works hard in sweeping for double 
 stars, 65, 66; aids in rebuilding 
 Lowell Observatory at Mexico, 69; 
 develops taste for astronomy, Di- 
 rector of Kirkwood Observatory, 69 
 
 Copernicus, Nicholas, founder of mod- 
 ern astronomy, Professor See born 
 on 393d birthday of, 10; marks an 
 epoch, 35; epoch of dates drom 1543, 
 166, 248, 249 
 
 Crawford, Professor R. T., University 
 of California, impression of See's 
 Researches, Vol. II, 246 
 
 Cowell, Dr. P. H., English astronomer, 
 his researches on ancient eclipses, 
 231 
 
 Crockett, Davy, American pioneer, 
 when sure he is right, dares to go 
 ahead, 85 
 
 Curtis, Professor H. D., Lick Observa- 
 tory, finds distance of 312 stars to be 
 534 light-years, 202 
 
 Curtius, Professor E., eminent German 
 historian of Greece, on the import- 
 ance of ancestry, 1 
 
 Cutts, Mrs. E. V., of Mare Island, 
 Calif., her historic photographs of 
 the earthquake effects at Arica, 1868, 
 149 
 
 DANA, Professor J. D., views on funda- 
 mental relations of the mountains 
 to the sea, 111, 113, 129; misleading 
 doctrine of the shrinkage of the Earth 
 114 
 
 Darwin, Charles, celebrated British 
 naturalist, his works much read by 
 M. F. See, 6; accepts doctrine of 
 elevation of land by earthquakes, 
 115, 126; notes recent elevation of 
 1,300 feet at Valparaiso, 126 
 
 Darwin, Sir George H., the late eminent 
 British mathematician, classic style 
 of writing, 31; modifies Laplace's 
 nebular hypothesis, 36; entertains 
 Mr. See in Cambridge, 52; rigidity 
 of the earth, 93; method lacks gener- 
 ality, 94; shows that the earth be- 
 haves as a solid, 115, 132; views 
 formerly held on the rotation of 
 earth now inadmissible, 158, 237; 
 deceived in Cosmogony, 164; Cos- 
 mogony advanced by, 168, 244; re- 
 searches on periodic orbits, 172; 
 curves of zero velocity, 174; sup- 
 posed exceptional origin of the Moon, 
 179-180, 232, 244; theory of fluid fis- 
 sion, 195, 230; notice of his death, 
 244, Dyson's remarks on his cherished 
 thought, 244; one of his greatest 
 services to science, his early support 
 of Professor See, 244; his last public 
 utterance to the international con- 
 gress of mathematicians, 1912, 245; 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 II, 246 
 
 Daubree, A., French geologist, experi- 
 ments on penetration of water through 
 rock, 115, 117 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, President of Southern 
 Confederacy, Professor See partially 
 named in honor of, 6 
 
 Defoe, Professor L. M., University of 
 Missouri, Mr. Webb indebted to, 
 introduction, vii; his career in 
 Science inspired by Smith, 32 
 
 Delandres, Professor H., of Meudon, 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 II, 247 
 
 Democritus, eminent Greek philoso- 
 pher, develops Cosmogony, 163 
 
 Diaz, Porfirio, President of Mexico, 
 visits Lowell Observatory, 68 
 
284 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Diehl, Professor of Art, at University of 
 Missouri, his remarks on the artistic 
 talent of young Mr. See, 27 
 
 Dinwiddie, Mr. W. W., assistant at 
 Naval Observatory, verifies existence 
 of belts on Neptune discovered by 
 Professor See, 72 
 
 Doeppler, Christian, his principle in 
 Wave Theory of light, 198 
 
 Doolittle, Professor Eric, of University 
 of Penn., student with Dr. See at 
 Chicago, 58, 59 
 
 Doubleday, Page & Co., publishers, 
 New York, to publish Professor See's 
 "Popular Cosmogony," 225 
 
 Douglass, Mr. A. E., Assistant at Lowell 
 Observatory, 63; aids in rebuilding 
 the observatory at Mexico, 69 
 
 Drew, Mr. D. A., assistant at Lowel 
 Observatory, 63; aids in rebuilding 
 the observatory at Mexico, 69 
 
 Dreyer, Dr. J. L. E., editor of Herschel's 
 Collected Works, letter to Professor 
 See, 219; interview of Herschel with 
 Napoleon and Laplace preserved by, 
 223 
 
 Dutton, Major C. E., notices prevalence 
 of great earthquakes near Aleutian 
 Islands, 123 
 
 Dyson, Professor F. W., Astronomer 
 Royal of Great Britain, uses Dr. See's 
 observations, 74; his remarks on a 
 cherished thought of Sir George 
 Darwin, 244; impression of See's 
 Researches, Vol. II, 247 
 
 EDDINGTON, Professor A. S., formerly 
 of Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 
 now of the University of Cambridge, 
 neglect in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 nica, 195 
 
 Elliott, Benjamin, Professor See's first 
 teacher, 12; letter describing first 
 day in school, 12; a good mathema- 
 tician, 17, 24; teaches Mr. See phy- 
 sical geography, 29 
 
 Elkin, Professor W. L., of Yale, on the 
 parallax of stars, 197 
 
 Eudoxus, Greek astronomer, his work 
 on the apparent motions of the 
 planets, 166 
 
 Euler, Leonard, eminent Swiss mathe- 
 matician, infers that the planets 
 originated far from the Sun, 1749, 
 232; extends the theory of gravita- 
 tion, 249 
 
 FAYE, H., French astronomer, cited by 
 Poincar^, 150, 151 
 
 Ficklin, Professor Joseph, confirms Mr. 
 See in his enthusiasm for geometry 
 and mathematics, 32; kind and 
 gentle to students, 32; his death in 
 1887, 32, 35; a good teacher, 34; 
 gives young Mr. See the keys to the 
 Observatory, 36 
 
 Fisher, Rev. O., English geologist, 
 shows that the shrinkage of the globe 
 is totally inadequate to explain 
 mountains, 114 
 
 Fitzroy, Captain, R. N., observes 
 effects of earthquake of 1835 in Chile, 
 126 
 
 Fleet, Professor A. F., awakens Mr. 
 See's love of Greek, 30, 32; considers 
 him of Greek type of mind, 85 
 
 Folk, Governor J. W., appoints R. E. 
 See to office, 8 
 
 Foerster, Professor Wilhelm, Director 
 of Royal Observatory, Berlin, 47; 
 advises Mr. See in relation to his 
 studies, 47; prints his double star 
 work in a volume of the Royal Ob- 
 servatory publications, 47; tells 
 Emperor William of the high promise 
 of this American student, 48; sur- 
 prised by Mr. See's energy, 48 
 
 Fontenelle, perpetual Secretary of Paris 
 Academy of Sciences, rejects Roe- 
 mer's theory of velocity of light, 249 
 
 Forsyth, Professor A. R., eminent 
 English mathematician, entertains 
 Mr. See in Cambridge, 52 
 
 Fourier, Joseph, eminent French math- 
 ematician, notices that the law of 
 gravitation acts as preservative 
 power, 240 
 
 Francis, Gov. D. R., presides at Uni- 
 versity Commencement, 1889, 43; 
 gives Mr. See an official letter of 
 introduction for use in Europe, 43 
 
 Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, 
 protects Schwenkfelders in Prussian 
 Silesia, 2 
 
 Frisbie, Professor Edgar, U.S.N., gives 
 up 12-inch equatorial of naval ob- 
 servatory on retiring, 71 
 
 Frost, Professor E. B., Director of 
 Yerkes Observatory, opportunity for 
 opened by Dr. See's starting of the 
 Yerkes Observatory, 57; reaches sad 
 conclusion as to modern Cosmogony, 
 171 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 285 
 
 Fuchs, Professor L., eminent mathe- 
 matician at the University of Berlin, 
 47; advises Mr. See as to his studies, 
 47; fine lecturer in mathematics, 47 
 
 GALILEO, Galilei, observes swinging 
 lamp in cathedral at Pisa, 23; the 
 things associated with at Pisa and 
 Florence studied by Mr. See, 50; his 
 invention of the telescope, 73, 249; 
 his independence in pioneer work, 
 95, 96; his opponents wish to avoid 
 knowing the truth, 95, 96; his epoch 
 in astronomy, 167; discovery of 
 mountains on the Moon, 181 
 
 Galle, Dr. J. G., discoverer of Neptune, 
 uses 9-inch refractor at Berlin, 47 
 
 Geary, Dr. James, of Ohio, first hus- 
 band of Ann Hollett, who, after his 
 death, married Emanuel Sailor, 5 
 
 Geikie, Sir A., proportion of steam in 
 vapor escaping from volcanoes, 106, 
 133; estimates bulk of Andes, 140 
 
 Gibbon, Edward, historianof the Roman 
 Empire, recognizes that importance 
 of ancestry often is overrated, 1 
 
 Gill, Sir David, his estimate of Dr. 
 See's double star work, 67, 68; on 
 the parallax of stars, 197; impression 
 of See's Researches, Vol. II, 247 
 
 Goethe, the great German poet, his ex- 
 pression "Light, more light" recalled 
 by Mr. See, 49 
 
 Gomperz, Professor Theodore, cites 
 views of Anaxagoras, 188 
 
 Green, George, English mathematician, 
 his theorem cited, 217, 218 
 
 Grew, Edwin Sharpe, geophysicist, his 
 estimate of See's argument on earth- 
 quakes and mountain formation, 
 139 
 
 Grote, George, English historian of 
 Greece, recognizes that importance 
 of ancestry may be overrated, 1 
 
 Guilleman, A., French astronomer, 
 finds distance of remote stars "up- 
 wards of 20,000 light-years," 205 
 
 Guthnick, Dr. P., German astronomer, 
 his photometric researches on vari- 
 ability of satellites, 233 
 
 HADRIAN, Emperor of Rome, seeks safe- 
 ty from earthquakes at Antioch, 97; 
 the Almagest composed in his reign, 
 
 Haeckel, Professor Ernst, German 
 naturalist, his works much read by 
 M. F. See, 6 
 
 Hale, Professor G. E., had private 
 observatory in Chicago, 54; informs 
 Mr. Yerkes of the existence of un- 
 ground lenses, 54; with Dr. Harper 
 secures funds for lenses, 54, spends 
 winter of 1893-4 in Europe, no prog- 
 ress made with the Yerkes Observa- 
 tory, 55; establishes Astrophysicai, 
 Journal, 56; dubious outlook arising 
 from delay of observatory, 56; blames 
 Dr. See for reduction of Yerkes Ob- 
 servatory budget, 57; held rank of 
 associate professor, 58 
 
 Hale, Wm. Bayard, author, and biog- 
 rapher of President Woodrow Wil- 
 son, his account of "Exploring other 
 Worlds" in World's Work, 257; his 
 designation of Professor See, 257 
 
 Hall, Professor Asaph, held that it 
 would not be possible to test New- 
 tonian Law in stellar systems prior to 
 Dr. See's proof of a new method, 59 
 
 Halley, Dr. Edmund, friend of Newton, 
 describes the discoveries in the Prin- 
 cipia, as "almost divine," 267 
 
 Hance, Jas. R., merchant, book on 
 astronomy, purchased by young Mr. 
 See at his store in Montgomery City, 
 Mo., Oct. 1, 1883, 26 
 
 Hancock, Professor Harris, University 
 of Cincinnati, his intimate associa- 
 tion with Mr. See at the University 
 of Berlin, vii; Mr. Webb indebted to, 
 vii 
 
 Harper, President W. R., visits Berlin 
 and meets Mr. See, 54; plans to have 
 Mr. See aid him in establishing ob- 
 servatory at Chicago to cost $200,000 
 to $300,000, 54; unable to maintain 
 Yerkes Observatory, until shown 
 how it can be done by Dr. See, 56; 
 appreciates his services but lets him 
 leave, 57; defaults on agreement to 
 have Volume I of Dr. See's Researches 
 published by the University of 
 Chicago, 59, 60 
 
 Harris, Rollin A., map of ocean depths, 
 104 
 
 Hay ford, Professor J. F., defects in his 
 formulation of doctrine of Isostacy, 
 152-155 
 
 Helmholtz, Professor Hermann, emi- 
 nent German physicist, 45, 47, 136; 
 advises Dr. See in mathematical 
 physics, 47; difficult to converse 
 with, 47; Lord Rayleigh notes silent 
 disposition, 47 
 
 Henderson, Ex-Senator John B., his 
 speeches heard by Noah See, 16 
 
286 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Henderson, Thomas, astronomer at 
 Cape of Good Hope, first measures 
 distance of Alpha Centauri, 197 
 
 Henry Brothers, French astronomers, 
 discover belts on Uranus, 1884, 72 
 
 Herschel, Abraham, grandfather of Sir 
 
 Wm. Herschel, born in 1651, 262 
 Herschel, Alexander and Diedrich, 
 
 brothers of Sir Wm. Herschel, aided 
 
 by him, 260 
 Herschel, Caroline, sister of Sir W. 
 
 Herschel, provided for in old age by 
 
 him, 260 
 Herschel, Hans, father of Abraham 
 
 Herschel and great grandfather of 
 
 Sir William, 262 
 Herschel, Isaac, father of Sir William, 
 
 born in 1707, 263 
 
 Herschel, Sir John, elegant writer, 31; 
 memorable survey of Southern stars, 
 1834-8, 67; deceived in Cosmog- 
 ony, 164; errors on depth of Milky 
 Way, 198, 205; estimates distances 
 of remote stars "upwards of 2,000 
 light-years," 205; elected President 
 of Royal Astronomical Society, 261 
 
 Herschel, Sir Wm., makes first great 
 epoch in double star astronomy, 61 ; 
 his sacrifices to science, 86; his epoch 
 in astronomy, 167; papers on central 
 powers, 185, 188; nebulae observed 
 by, 190; notes aggregation of stars 
 towards centers, 195; depth of 
 Milky Way, calculated by, 198; star 
 guages, 199; invents method appli- 
 cable to the most distant objects, 
 199, 215; employs 20-foot telescope 
 of 18-inches aperture, 200, 201 ; space 
 penetrating power of telescopes 
 calculated by, 200, 201; notices that 
 the Galaxy is a clustering stream 
 203, 216; the greatest of all modem 
 astronomers, and reissue of his col- 
 lected works recommended, 203; 
 estimates distance of remotest stars 
 at 2,000,000 light-years, 205, 212, 215, 
 238; neglect of his correct estimate 
 of distance of the remotest stars, 206; 
 estimates width of the Milky Way, 
 206; calculates thickness of Milky 
 Way stratum, 207; ignores extinction 
 of light in space, 208, 209 ; his method 
 essentially valid, 210; expansion of 
 sidereal astronomy by, 213; notices 
 that clusters follow the Milky Way, 
 215; penetrates into time past, 216; 
 remarks on the effects of perspective, 
 owing to depth of Milky Way, 216; 
 
 notices the globular figures of clusters 
 217; speculates on causes of these 
 magnificent objects, 217; clustering 
 powers noticed by, 218, 220, 221, 227, 
 228, 238, 271 ; Letter from Dr. Dreyer 
 to See regarding Herschel's theories, 
 219; neglect of Herschel's work since 
 his death in 1822, 219; worked alone 
 on the great problems of the universe, 
 220; grandeur of his views on the 
 breaking of the Milky Way, 222, 237; 
 his interview with Napoleon, and 
 Laplace, 1802, 223; his inference 
 that starless space is the effect of the 
 ravages of time, 229, 235; sidereal 
 systems preserved by projectile 
 motions, 229; his philosophic intui- 
 tion into the order of nature, 239, 
 240 ; his theories revived and extended 
 by See, 244; his theories accepted by 
 men of science, 245; his sublime 
 researches on the star depths, 254, 
 257, 258; his boundless energy and 
 enthusiasm, 259, 260; his nobility 
 of character, 260; his ability to search 
 for truth, not worldly ends, 261; 
 revolutionizes making of telescopes, 
 262; his ancestry Protestant, and 
 traced to Moravia, 262, 263; move- 
 ment for publication of his collected 
 works started by See, and promoted 
 by Huggins, 268, 269, 270 
 
 Hill, Geo. A., assistant astronomer at 
 Naval Observatory, aids in removing 
 piers of 6-inch transit circle, 1901, 72 
 
 Hill, Dr. G. W., the eminent mathema- 
 tician, doubted wisdom of Dr. See 
 observing double stars, 62; researches 
 in the Lunar Theory, 172; stability of 
 satellites, 173 
 
 Hinks, Professor A. R., formerly of 
 Cambridge, now Gresham lecturer, 
 University College, London, uses 
 Professor See's measurements of 
 Eros for solar parallax, 76 
 
 Hipparchus, famous Greek astrono- 
 mer, Mr. See endeavors to locate site 
 of library and museum at Alexan- 
 dria, 51; apparent motions of 
 heavenly bodies, 163, 166 
 
 Hochstetter, Professor F. Von, report 
 on the earthquake and sea wave at 
 Arica, utilized by Proctor, 146, 147 
 
 Hollett, Miss Ann, of New York City, 
 maiden name of wife of Emanuel 
 Sailor, one of Professor See's maternal 
 great grand-mothers, 5 
 
 Holmes, O. W., poet, stanza cited, 256; 
 welcome to Dr. Gould, 1886, 258, 259 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 287 
 
 Hooke, Dr. {Robert, proved law of 
 gravity for special case, 94 
 
 Huddleston, Miss Helen, boyhood 
 teacher of Professor See, 24 
 
 Huggins, Lady, associated with Sir 
 William in the Atlas of Stellar Spectra, 
 273 
 
 Huggins, Sir William, founder of as- 
 trophysics, with Lady Huggins en- 
 tertains Mr. See in London, 52; de- 
 velops method for finding motion in 
 line of sight, 1868, 59, 198 ; his taste for 
 beautiful works of art, 85; an in- 
 spiration in his study, 85; adopts 
 theory of earthquakes developed by 
 See, 136; founds astrophysics and 
 welcomes founding of cosmogony, 
 160; letters to Professor See, 160, 
 161; discovers chemical elements to 
 be uniform everywhere, 187, 253; 
 in co-operation with Professor See 
 starts movement for the republica- 
 tion of Collected Scientific Papers of 
 Sir William Herschel, 214, 219; recog- 
 nition of See's epoch-making dis- 
 coveries, 262; promotes publication 
 of Herschel's collected works and 
 notifies Professor See, 268-270; his 
 lamented death soon after the re- 
 publication of the Herschel works 
 was started, 269-270; "the Herschel 
 of the Spectroscope," 270; his im- 
 pressive L'envoy to the Atlas of 
 Stellar Spectra quoted, 273 
 
 Hulbert, Professor E. B., meets Mr. 
 See in Egypt and induces him to 
 locate in Chicago, 53-54 
 
 Humboldt, A. von, his Cosmos pur- 
 chased by young Mr. See at age of 
 16, 29; learns Greek at age of 19, 30; 
 his opinion of the Greek language, 
 30; classic writing of, 31; awakens 
 enthusiasm of Mr. See, 35; error in 
 his views on disturbances at great 
 depths in the globe, 91, 92; accepts 
 doctrine of elevation of land by earth- 
 quakes, 115; his remark on "the 
 most ancient perceptible evidence 
 of the existence of matter," 216 
 
 Humboldt, Wilhelm von, founder of 
 the University of Berlin, studies 
 Greek, 30, 49; introduces classic 
 spirit into the University of Berlin, 
 50 
 
 Hussey, Professor W. J., his double- 
 star survey at La Plata, 68; 
 
 Huyghens, eminent Dutch astronomer, 
 adopts Roemer's discovery of the 
 velocity of light, 249 
 
 Huxley, Professor Thomas H., English 
 naturalist, his works much read by 
 M. F. See, 6 
 
 INNES, Mr. R. T. A., observes double 
 stars at Cape of Good Hope, 67, 68; 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. II, 
 
 247 
 
 JACKSON, Andrew, President of U.S., 
 1829-1837, his primitive times, 12 
 
 Jackson, Stonewall, Confederate Gen- 
 eral, Professor See named in honor of, 
 6 
 
 Jacobi, C. G. J., celebrated German 
 mathematician, solves restricted prob- 
 lem of three bodies, 1836, 172; his 
 integral, 173 
 
 Jefferson, Hon. Booker, Mrs. T. J. J. 
 See a grand-daughter of, 81 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, third President of 
 U.S., Professor See partially named 
 in honor of, 6 
 
 Jenness, Professor A. L., young Mr. 
 See's superior teacher, educated at 
 Amherst, 24; Principal of Mont- 
 gomery City High School, 24, 25 
 
 Jesuits, persecution by, led to immigra- 
 tion of Adam See to America, 2; 
 Schwenkfelders flee to Saxony, Hol- 
 land, England, Pennsylvania, 2 
 
 Jones, Professor J. C., teaches Mr. See 
 Latin and encourages him to take up 
 Greek, 30, 32 
 
 Jones, Miss Lillian, early teacher of 
 Professor See, 25 
 
 Johnson, Ex-Senator, Waldo P., his 
 speeches heard by Noah See, 16; 
 his remarks on Noah See's purchase 
 of land in Vernon County, Mo., 25 
 
 Jung, Dr. Franz A. R., eminent Wash- 
 ington physician, Professor See's 
 medical adviser, 79 
 
 KAHRN, Frau, keeper of Pension where 
 
 young Mr. See lived at Berlin, 46 
 Kant, Immanuel, celebrated German 
 
 philosopher, throwing off of planets, 
 
 188; his theories abandoned, 225; 
 
 on space and time, 256 
 Kapteyn, Professor, J. C., of Gron- 
 
 ingen, parallax of stars, 197 
 Kaulbach, German painter, Homer 
 
 and the Greeks, 166 
 Kay, Rev. Henry, his remarks on the 
 
 promise of young Mr. See, 26 
 
288 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Keeler, Professor J. E., photographs 
 of nebulae at Lick Observatory, 163, 
 168 
 
 Kelvin, Lord, elegant writer, 31; his 
 estimate of Dr. See's Researches, 
 Vol. I, 60, 61; rigidity of the earth, 
 93; method for determining rigidity 
 lacks generality, 94; shows that 
 earth behaves as a solid, 115, 
 132; adopts theory of earthquakes 
 developed by See, 136; his former 
 views on rotation of the earth now 
 inadmissible, 158, 237; deceived in 
 cosmogony, 164; supposed exception- 
 al origin of the Moon, 179, 232; his 
 reasoning on the age of the earth 
 vitiated by insecure premises, 245 
 
 Kepler, Johann, celebrated German 
 astronomer, marks epoch in astrono- 
 my, 35; notable advances since made 
 in theory of comets, 162; established 
 laws of planetary motions, 166, 249, 
 250; his epoch in astronomy, 167; 
 remarks on thinking of God's thoughts 
 after Him, 256; mentioned by 
 Holmes, 256, 258; his discoveries 
 mainly observational, 262 
 
 Klptz, Dr. Otto, of Ottawa, Canada, 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 II, 247 
 
 Knoblauch, Professor of Mathematics 
 at Berlin, 47 
 
 Knorre, Professor V., entrusts Mr. See 
 with 9-inch refractor of Royal Ob- 
 servatory at Berlin, 47 
 
 Kundt, Professor of Physics at Berlin, 
 teacher of Professor See, 47 
 
 LA CANDAMINE, French .academician, 
 on attraction of Chimborazo, 1738, 
 107 
 
 Lagrange, J. L., celebrated French 
 mathematician, 167; researches on 
 stability of solar system, 240 
 
 Laplace, P. S., famous French astrono- 
 mer, elegant writer, 31; his Mecani- 
 que Celeste inspires Mr. See, 34; 
 nebular hypothesis modified by Sir 
 G. H. Darwin, 1879, 36; his grave 
 visited by Dr. See on way to Berlin, 
 1889, 46; Bowditch-translation of 
 his Mtcanique Celeste saved from 
 fire by Dr. See, 1897, 64; investi- 
 gates motions of comets near Jupiter, 
 74; his premises assumed by pre- 
 vious investigators, 84; his law of 
 density for the earth, 91; his theory 
 of cosmogony vulnerable, 161; de- 
 
 ceived by peculiar circumstances, 
 164; remarks on Tycho's lack of 
 intuition into causes, 166; his epoch 
 in astronomy, 167; his nebular 
 hypothesis abandoned, 168, 171, 190, 
 225, 242; throwing off of planets, 
 188; believed nebulae to be figures 
 of equilibrium, 222; discussion on 
 preservation of sidereal system with 
 Herschel and Napoleon, 222, 223; 
 his time-honored theories abandoned, 
 225, 233; his researches on the 
 stability of the solar system, 240; 
 French pride hurt by overthrow of 
 his theories, 243 
 
 Lassell, the Misses, translators of the 
 Life of Humboldt, 30 
 
 Laves, Dr. Kurt, his advancement at 
 Chicago, 56; the work at Chicago 
 divided with Moulton, by Dr. See 
 when he joined the Lowell Observa- 
 tory, 63 
 
 Laws, Dr. S. S., President of University 
 of Missouri, meets young Mr. See, 
 but does not encourage him in the 
 idea of a scientific career, 28; com- 
 plaints of his management 9f the 
 University, 37; resigns the presidency 
 of the university, 43 
 
 Lawton, Mr. Geo. K., student of Dr. 
 See at Chicago, 58, 59 
 
 Lehmann-Filhes, Professor R., one of 
 Mr. See's teachers at Berlin, 47; 
 investigates increase of central mass, 
 182; shows that it can not decrease 
 eccentricity of orbit, 232 
 
 Lens, Miss Rhetta, boyhood teacher of 
 Professor See, 24 
 
 Leonard, Miss. W. L., Secretary to Pro- 
 fessor Lowell, 63 
 
 Leuschner, Professor A. O., University 
 of California, his researches on the 
 ellipticity of comet orbits, 185 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, President of the 
 United States, appoints Rev. Michael 
 See on Sanitary Commission, 3; be- 
 longs to the ages, 87 
 
 Logan, Mr. Hamp, a young man killed 
 near Noah See's home by drunken 
 soldiers during the War, 8 
 
 Long, Hon. Jphn D., Secretary of the 
 Navy, appoints Dr. See Professor of 
 Mathematics in the Navy, 70, 71 
 
 Longfellow, H. W., the poet, his Psalm 
 of Life, learned by Mr. See in boy- 
 hood, 18; extracts of a poem cited, 
 254 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 289 
 
 Lovelace, Mr. Wm., a former student 
 of the university, gives Mr. See a 
 letter to Professor Schweitzer, 28 
 
 Lowell, Professor Percival, founder and 
 Director of Lowell Observatory, 
 offers Dr. See an opportunity to sur- 
 vey Southern Double Stars, 58-60, 62; 
 joined by Dr. See at Flagstaff, 63; 
 site of Lowell Observatory described, 
 64; appreciation of by the people of 
 Arizona, 64; illness at Mexico inter- 
 rupts plans, 67, 69; employs Mr. 
 Sykes to remove observatory, 69 
 
 Ludendorff, Professor H., of the As- 
 trophysical Observatory, Potsdam, 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. II 
 247 
 
 Lyell, Sir Charles, English geologist, 
 accepts doctrine of elevation of land 
 by earthquakes, 115; volume in 
 elevation of land calculated for 
 Chilean earthquake of 1835, 126 
 
 MAGNUS, translator of Gomperz's 
 
 "Greek Thinkers" 189 
 Mariscal, Secretary of State of Mexico, 
 
 with President Diaz visits Lowell 
 
 Observatory, 68 
 McKinley, President William, appoints 
 
 Dr. See Professor of Mathematics in 
 
 the Navy, 70, 71 
 
 McLaughlin,Thomas,Esquire, Williams- 
 burg, Mo., observes solar eclipse of 
 1878 at Noah See's home, 21 
 
 Martin, Mr. Lawrence, investigates 
 earthquake at Yakutat Bay, Alaska, 
 1899, 105, 124 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, English philosopher, 
 his works much read by M. F. See, 6 
 
 Milne, Professor J9hn, his map of earth- 
 quake distribution, 123 
 
 Mommsen, Professor Theodore, Ger- 
 man historian, on ancestry, 1 
 
 Moravians, Evangelists, first came to 
 Pennsylvania, 1734, 2 
 
 Morton, Senator from Ray County, Mo. 
 1889, recommends changes at Uni- 
 versity of Missouri, 37 
 
 Moulton, Professor F. R., student of 
 Dr. See at Chicago, 58, 59; appointed 
 assistant at University of Chicago 
 on Dr. See's sole recommendation, 
 63; work at Chicago divided between 
 Laves and Moulton by Dr. See, 63; 
 his erroneous reasoning on the origin 
 of satellites, 173 
 
 Myres, Professor J. L., of University of 
 Oxford, travels with Mr. See in 
 Greece, 51 
 
 NAPOLEON, First Consul, afterwards 
 French emperor, his interview with 
 Herschel and Laplace, 222, 223; his 
 remarks on genius, 264 
 
 Newcomb, Professor Simon, eminent 
 American astronomer, remarks on 
 Professor See's name, 6; elegant 
 writer, 31; address at dedication of 
 Yerkes Observatory, 57; his vacant 
 professorship filled by Professor See, 
 71; explosive power of solar matter 
 compared to that of dynamite, 93: 
 deceived in Cosmogony, 164; esti- 
 mates that some stars are a million 
 times brighter than the sun, 201; 
 assumes the distance of remoter 
 stars "at least 3,000 light-years," 
 205; distance of Herschel stars 
 "about 14,000 light-years," 205; 
 on distances of stars follows Sir John 
 Herschel, 205; life on other worlds 
 held to exist, 252 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, celebrated English 
 philosopher, awakens Mr. See's 
 enthusiasm, 35; copy of Principia 
 purchased by Mr. See in 1886, 34; 
 his epoch in astronomy, 35; his 
 sacrifices to Science, 86; Thomson's 
 poem on, 87, 88, 272; his struggle 
 against injustice and the tyranny of 
 a king, 88; his rule of philosophy, 
 99; hints at contraction theory of 
 the earth, 129; notable advances 
 since made in theory of comets, 162; 
 establishes laws of the heavenly 
 motions, 166; his epoch in astrono- 
 my, 167; remarks elliptical character 
 of comet orbits, 184-5; establishes 
 law of gravitation, 1687, 187, 249, 
 250; his theory that comets fall into 
 stars, 193; his remarks that the 
 agency operative in the construction 
 of the solar system was "very skilled 
 in mechanics and geometry," 229, 
 234 ; his remarks on the Divine Power 
 indicated by the motions of the 
 planets, 235, 236; his inventive 
 genius, 240, 265; his ability to search 
 for truth, not wordly ends, 261 ; his 
 theoretical conclusions extended by 
 Herschel, 262; Whewell's description 
 of his intellectual character, 265; 
 made his discoveries "by always 
 thinking about them," 266; Halley's 
 description of his discoveries as 
 "almost divine," 267 
 
290 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Niebuhr, eminent German historian, 
 on the overrating of ancestry, 1 
 
 ODELL, H. E., surgeon, U. S. Navy, his 
 skillful treatment saves life of Pro- 
 fessor See, 82 
 
 PEIRCE, Professor Benjamin, his fam- 
 ous Lowell lectures of 1879, 70 
 
 Pelletrean, Wm. S., sells copy of Bow- 
 ditch's translation of Laplace's MJ- 
 canique Celeste to Mr. See in 1887, 35 
 
 Perrine, Professor Chas. D., photo- 
 graphs of nebulae at Lick Observa- 
 tory, 163 
 
 Phipp, Miss Mattie, boyhood teacher 
 of Professor See, 24 
 
 Pickering, Professor W. H., suggests 
 capture of Phoebe, 173 
 
 Pickering, Professor E. C., Director of 
 Harvard College Observatory, investi- 
 gates distribution of helium stars, 
 211; estimates fainter stars photo- 
 graphed with 60-inch reflector at 
 Pasadena at 21st magnitude, 211 
 
 Pindar, Greek poet, his eagle-soaring 
 flights, 88 
 
 Plato, celebrated Greek philosopher, 
 his habits of independence and free 
 initiative, vi; Zeller compared to, 
 48; olive groves where he taught 
 visited by Mr. See, 51; durability of 
 his work, 87; flourishing at time of 
 earthquake which destroyed Helike, 
 134-5; qualifications of an astrono- 
 mer, 165; The Deity always geome- 
 trizes, 166, 195, 196, 229, 234; his 
 portrait on Professor See's book- 
 plate, 166; his remarks on the origin 
 of the planets at a great distance, 
 235, 236; associated with Socrates, 
 256 
 
 Pliny, the Roman naturalist, adopts 
 Aristotle's theory of earthquakes, 
 99; destruction of cities by earth- 
 quakes, 100; eruptions in the sea, 
 121 
 
 Poincare, Professor H., the eminent 
 French mathematician,elegant writer, 
 31 ; reasoning on geodesy and density 
 of matter in the earth, 150, 151; 
 adopts the capture theory, 162; 
 letter to Professor See, 162; de- 
 ceived in Cosmogony, 164; advances 
 Cosmogony, 168; his profound re- 
 searches, 172; his theory of fluid 
 fission, 195, 230; his Lectures on 
 Cosmogony, 1911, 243; abandons 
 
 theory of Laplace and adopts that 
 of See, 243; impression of See's Re- 
 searches, Vol. II, 247; recognition of 
 See's epoch-making discoveries, 262; 
 student of principles, not of isolated 
 facts, 266; wonders at the discoveries 
 of See, 271 ; the greatest mathema- 
 tician since Archimedes, 271 
 
 Poisson, S. D., eminent French mathe- 
 matician, his researches on the 
 stability of the solar system, 240 
 
 Poor, Professor C. L., Columbia Uni- 
 versity, impression of See's Researches 
 Vol. II, 247 
 
 Poseidon, god of the sea, "the Earth- 
 shaker, " revered by the Greeks, 97, 98 
 
 Pratt, J. H., English mathematician, 
 and geodesist, his reasoning on the 
 density of the matter under the 
 ocean, plains and mountains, 150, 
 151 
 
 Praxitelles, celebrated Greek sculptor, 
 his statue of Hermes at Olympia, 
 visited by Mr. See, 1891, 51 
 
 Proctor, Professor R. A., his account 
 of the earthquake and sea wave at 
 Arica, 1868, 146, 149; remarks that 
 Herschel worked alone on great prob- 
 lems of the universe, 220 
 
 Ptolemy, famous Greek astronomer, site 
 of his labors at Alexandria examined 
 by Mr. See, 51; his system of as- 
 tronomy, 129; apparent motions of 
 the heavenly bodies, 166; his poem 
 on the sublimity of astronomy, 241 
 278 
 
 RANKE, eminent German historian, 
 
 on the overrating of ancestry, 1 
 Ranyard, Mr. A. C., astronomer in 
 
 London, entertains Mr. See, 52; 
 
 finds distance of remote stars "less 
 
 than 70,000 light-years," 205 
 Rayleigh, Lord, his remarks on the 
 
 silent disposition of Helmholtz, 47 
 Ritchey, Professor G. W., opportunity 
 
 for opened by starting of Yerkes 
 
 Observatory, 57 
 Roberts, Dr. A. W., Lovedale, South 
 
 Africa, impression of See's Researches 
 
 Vol. II, 247 
 Roemer, Olaus, Danish astronomer, 
 
 discovers the velocity of light, 1675, 
 
 249 
 Rollins, Major J. H., "Father of the 
 
 University," or rather "Father of 
 
 the College," 38 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 291 
 
 Rowell, librarian J. C, University of 
 California, promotes Professor See's 
 studies of the works of Herschel, 269 
 
 Rowland, Professor H. A., visited by 
 Mr. See at Baltimore on the way to 
 Europe, 45 
 
 SAGE, Dr. John, purchases copy of 
 Bowditch's Translation of Laplace's 
 M<!canique Celeste, 1839, secured by 
 Mr. See in 1887, 35 
 
 Sailor, Emanuel, second son of John 
 Sailor, with wife and three sons settle 
 in Mo., in 1824, 5; had married Ann 
 Hollett, widow of Dr. James Geary 
 of Ohio, 5 
 
 Sailor, James, son of Emanuel, and 
 grandfather of Professor See, came 
 to Mo. in 1824, 5; his brothers John 
 and Thomas, 5 
 
 Sailor, John, an Englishman, settles 
 in Va. before the Revolution and 
 fights in that war, 5 ; moved to Mont- 
 gomery Co., Ky., about 1790, 5; a 
 skilled machinist, names of his family 
 of six, 5 
 
 Sailor, John T., brother of Mrs. Noah 
 See, aids her during the War, 10 
 
 Sailor, Miss Mary A., marries Noah 
 See and raises a family of nine chil- 
 dren, 5; Professor See the sixth child 
 and third son, 6 
 (continued under See, Mrs. Mary A.) 
 
 Schiaparelli, Professor G. V., his pre- 
 diction that Dr. See's Researches 
 would mark the third great epoch in 
 Double Star Astronomy since those of 
 W. Herschel and W. Struye, 61; 
 welcomes founding of New Science of 
 Cosmogony, 161; recognition of See's 
 epoch-making discoveries, 262 
 
 Schlesinger, Professor, Frank, of Pitts- 
 burg, on the parallax of stars, 197 
 
 Schwartz, Dr. H. A., Professor of 
 Mathematics at Berlin, inspires Mr. 
 See in Mathematics, 47 
 
 Schweitzer, Professor Paul, first meets 
 Mr. See, 28; his fine Department of 
 Chemistry, 33; wished young Mr. 
 See to be a chemist, 33; formerly 
 assistant to Rose, friend of Hum- 
 boldt, 49 
 
 Schwenkfelders, immigrated in 1734 
 from Prussian Silesia, 2; persecuted 
 by Jesuits, 2; they resist conversion; 
 2; statement of Robert Barclay as to 
 congregations in Pa., 1875, 2 
 
 See, Adam, founder of family in Ameri- 
 ca, 2; a Protestant and Baptist, 2; 
 fled from Prussian Silesia, 1734, 2, 
 263; with the colony of Schwenk- 
 felders, 2; his wife named Barbara, 
 2; a younger brother of Michael 
 Frederick See, 2; persecuted in 
 Prussian Silesia, 2; used German 
 Bibles in family to third generation, 
 2; prominent planter in Hardy 
 County, Va., 3; ransoms his nephew 
 John See from the Indians, 3; his 
 son George See fights with John See 
 in War of the Revolution, 3 
 
 See, Adam, son of George See, and 
 grandson of the first Adam See, 
 eminent lawyer, and Senator at 
 Richmond during War of 1812, 4; 
 member of Virginia Constitutional 
 Convention of 1829, 4 
 
 See, Charles Michael, of Alma, 111., 
 takes up study of the family history 
 about 1880, at suggestion of Judge 
 Silas Bryan, father of Hon. W. J. 
 Bryan, 3 
 
 See, Edward E., youngest brother of 
 Professor See, was a promising stu- 
 dent under Dr. Ayers, and has taste 
 for art, 7 
 
 See, Mrs. Frances Graves, wife of Pro- 
 fessor See, her family, 81; grand- 
 daughter of Hon. Booker Jefferson, 
 81; her simple home life at Mare 
 Island, 81 ; her experience as teacher, 
 82; speaks Spanish fluently, 82; 
 her devotion to Professor See in his 
 critical illness of 1909, 82; Professor 
 See's acknowledgment to, 82, 83; 
 loss of infant son and illness follow- 
 ing, 83 
 
 See, George, son of first Adam See, 
 grew up with John See, fought in the 
 Revolution, 3; married Jemima 
 Harness and raised family of nine 
 children, 3; names of his children, 3; 
 killed by lightning with son Charles 
 while stacking hay in 1791 or 1794, 4 
 
 See, Hon. George W., brother of Pro- 
 fessor See, academic and law student 
 at University of Missouri, 7; active 
 in public affairs, 7; Representative 
 of Montgomery County in the State 
 Legislature, 7; friend and adviser of 
 Speaker Champ Clark, 7; designated 
 Presidential Elector at large by State 
 Central Committee, 1912, 7 
 
 See, Hon. Jacob, brother of Noah See, 
 a leading citizen, sheriff, and Repre- 
 
292 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 sentative of Montgomery County, 
 Mo., 7; raiser of fine stock, and of 
 celebrated ox "Stonewall Jackson," 
 weighing 4,300 pounds, 7 
 
 See, John, captured by the Indians at 
 age of 5, 3; ransomed by his uncle 
 Adam See, 3; grew up with his 
 cousin George See, 3; both fought 
 in the Revolution, John badly wound- 
 ed at Brandy wine, pensioned, 3; 
 gives account of early history of 
 family to his grandson, Rev. Michael 
 See, 3; died at Peoria, 111., at age of 
 90,3 
 
 See, John, a brother of Noah See, his 
 wife a first cousin of Jacob Stewart, 
 who was the tried friend of Noah 
 See's family during the war, 22 
 
 See, Lucy Elizabeth, talented child, 
 little sister of Professor See, died at 
 age of 2> years, 6 
 
 See, Mrs. Margaret (Stewart), wife of 
 John See, the brother of Noah See, 
 and a first cousin of Jacob Stewart, 
 22 
 
 See, Mrs. Mary A., mother of Professor 
 See, born Jan. 14, 1832, 12; her 
 ancestry, 5; noted for force of 
 character, 5; greatly beloved by 
 whole community, 5; universally 
 regarded as a noble and good woman, 
 10; managed farm as well as house- 
 hold during the war, 9-10; refuses 
 to allow ox to be killed and orders 
 the soldiers off the place, 10; depre- 
 dations of the soldiers, 10; her educa- 
 tion at Loutre school house, 12; very 
 
 fond of trees, 24 
 
 See, Rev. Michael, grandson of John 
 See, 3; obtains early history of 
 family from John See in his old age, 
 3; appointed by President Lincoln 
 on the Sanitary Commission, 3 
 
 See, Michael, son of George See, and 
 father of Noah See, served in War of 
 1812, 4; married Catherine Baker, 
 and raised a family of nine children, 
 record of their names, 4; moved to 
 Randolph County, Va., about 1795, 
 4; follows his son, Noah See, to 
 Missouri in 1838, 4; dies in 1857 
 very highly respected, 4 
 
 See, Michael Frederick, came to Amer- 
 ica, 1734, 2, 263; his wife named 
 Catherine, 2; first settled in Bucks 
 Co., Pa., but moved to Va., 1745, 3; 
 killed in Greenbrier Massacre, July 
 17, 1763, 3; his wife and family 
 captured by the Indians and carried 
 to Chillicothe, Ohio. 3 
 
 See, Millard Filmore, eldest brother of 
 Professor See, great reader of scien- 
 tific literature, 6; well read in law and 
 public administration, 6; father of 
 Russell See, civil engineer in U. S. 
 Reclamation Service, 6 
 
 See, Noah, father of Professor See, 
 obtains authentic data on early his- 
 tory of family from Hon. Charles 
 Michael See, 3; born Sept. 19, 1815, 
 in Randolph Co., Va., 4; youngest 
 of nine children and the most talented, 
 4; visits Missouri on horseback in 
 1837 and settles in Montgomery 
 County, 4; educated at Beverly, Va., 
 and trained as a cabinet-maker, 
 surveyor, civil engineer and archi- 
 tect, 4; serves faithfully as bridge 
 commissioner for 30 years, 4; by 
 natural abilities and legitimate in- 
 dustry becomes a wealthy and in- 
 fluential citizen, 5 ; marries Miss Mary 
 A. Sailor, Oct. 18, 1853, and raises a 
 family of nine children, record of 
 their names, 5-6; owned two or three 
 slaves before the war, 8; Southern 
 sympathizer and persecuted during 
 the war, losing property worth $1,600, 
 8-9; worked as carpenter on block 
 house when military prisoner in 
 Danville, 9; when in hiding, like 
 Daniel Boone in his conflicts with 
 the Indians, meditates on the Deity, 
 9; one of the largest land holders in 
 northeast Mo., 14; journeyed to 
 Palmyra, by the stars at night, 15; 
 settles on the prairie, in 1852, 14; 
 purchases land on Loutre from Philip 
 Cobb, in 1837, 15; names sons after 
 presidents, but dislikes politics, 15; 
 twice elected County Surveyor, 15; 
 bridge inspections, surveying, politi- 
 cal meetings, 16; a great admirer 
 of Henry Clay, 16; absent from home 
 on business, 16; only country schools 
 for his children, 16; T. J. J. See goes 
 to University, 16; "good in figures" 
 and teaches T. J. J. See arithmetic, 
 17; his description of the great me- 
 teor of Jan. 1, 1877, 20; observed 
 without alarm star shower of Nov. 
 12, 1833, 20; falls and injures foot, 
 moves to large place of 920 acres on 
 Elkhorn, his friend Jacob Stewart of 
 war times on visit, 22; his poor 
 opinion of the legal profession, 25; 
 buys land in Southwestern Missouri, 
 his family well provided for, 25; 
 gratified at scholastic record of his 
 son, T. J. J. See, 44-45; failing health 
 and death, Feb. 9, 1890, 44-45; 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 293 
 
 special provision in his will for the 
 education of T. J. J. See in Europe, 
 44 
 
 See, Randolph E., first cousin of Pro- 
 fessor See, Sheriff of Montgomery 
 County, Mo., 8; Marshall of State 
 Supreme Court, 8; Chief Assistant 
 Warden of Missouri Penitentiary 
 under Governor Folk, 8; heroic con- 
 duct in preventing escape of prisoners 
 8; his widow voted $2,000.00 by the 
 State Legislature, 8 
 
 See, Robert E. Lee, surveyor and fann- 
 er, 6 
 
 See, Russell, civil engineer, U. S. Recla- 
 mation Service, 6 
 
 See, S. C., prosperous farmer, 6 
 
 See, Professor T. J. J., descended from 
 Adam See, who was born in Prussian 
 Silesia, 2; his ancestry of sturdiest 
 kind, 2; named in honor of Stone- 
 wall Jackson, 6; Professor New- 
 comb's remarks on the name Thomas 
 Jefferson Jackson, 6; third son and 
 sixth child in family of nine, all 
 talented, 6; three of his brothers of 
 scientific turn of mind, 6; born at 
 the "Prairie Place," on 393d anni- 
 versary of birth of C9pernicus, Feb. 
 19, 1866, 8-10; a quiet child, early 
 displaying inquiring disposition, 11; 
 when not more than two years of 
 age counts the leaves on the trees, 
 the wild geese flying overhead, and 
 the stars at night, speculates on the 
 Moon; every inch a natural philoso- 
 pher, 11; observes and is frightened 
 by the darkness during total solar 
 eclipse of Aug. 7, 1869, 11; first at- 
 tended school at age of six, letter 
 from his earliest teacher, Professor 
 Benjamin Elliott, 12; had method- 
 ical habits, and a prodigious mem- 
 ory, and was accustomed to recite 
 poetry at school, 13; the studies in- 
 cluded in the country schools he at- 
 tended, 16; solves difficult problem 
 in Ray's Arithmetic, 17; early mem- 
 orizes Longfellow's Psalm of Life, 
 17; of shy but proud disposition as 
 a child, 19; took earnest view of life 
 and made firm resolutions, 19; ob- 
 serves the great meteor of Jan. 1, 
 1877, 20; observes the solar eclipse 
 of July 28, 1878, 20; fond of fishing 
 in Loutre Creek, after hard work on 
 farm, 21; nature of genius and dis- 
 covery, defined by Professor See, 21; 
 observes tornado on Loutre, Jan. 1, 
 1876, 22-23; from childhood fond of 
 
 trees, and devises means for increasing 
 their symmetry and beauty when at 
 church, 23-24; missed school in the 
 winter of 1882-3; plans for attending 
 Montgomery City School, 24; list of 
 his teachers from 1872 to 1882, 24; 
 instructed by Professor A. L. Jenness 
 and Miss Lillian Jones at Mont- 
 gomery City, 25; some jealousy due 
 to his advantages over the older 
 children, 25; always a most indus- 
 trious and efficient worker, gains his 
 father's support, 26; nearly six feet 
 in height at 17, but poorly trained in 
 comparison with town boys, 26; 
 purchases Steele's Fourteen Weeks in 
 Astronomy, and delivers original 
 composition on the Science, his high 
 promise remarked by Rev. Henry 
 Kay, 26; stands first in the Mont- 
 gomery City School, 27-28; original 
 talent for art remarked by Professor 
 Diehl, sketches great comet of 1882, 
 27; makes preliminary visit to Uni- 
 versity, 28; interest in physical 
 geography awakened by Benjamin 
 Elliott, 1877-8, and he acquires Hum- 
 boldt's Cosmos in 1882, at the age of 
 16, 29; meets Mr. Wardner, from 
 whom he purchased the Cosmos, 29; 
 early distinguishes himself in geom- 
 etry, and finally masters algebra, 
 29-30; believes that mathematics is 
 an easy subject when properly taught, 
 30; enters on the study of Latin and 
 Greek in the 19th year of his age, 30; 
 firm advocate of classics for men of 
 science, 31; called the "Humboldt 
 of the University," 31; acquires 
 elegant style of writing, 31; in spirit 
 a Hellenist, 31-32; breaks records of 
 University in chemistry, 33; espe- 
 cially inspired by Smith and Schweit- 
 zer, 33; finds copy of Bowditch's 
 translation of Laplace's Mecanique 
 Celeste, 34; purchases copy of New- 
 ton's Principia, 1886, and studies it 
 zealously, 34; purchases copy of 
 Bowditch's translation of Laplace's 
 Mecanique Celeste, 1887, 35; his 
 enthusiasm over Laplace's Mecani- 
 que Celeste leads him to become an 
 astronomer, 35; very active in Ath- 
 enaean Literary Society, 35; actu- 
 ally in charge of Observatory while 
 an undergraduate in 1887-9, 36; ob- 
 serves double stars, planets, comets, 
 prominences, sunspots, and finds 
 latitude, 36; writes undergraduate 
 thesis on "Origin of Binary Stars," 
 and wins Missouri Astronomical 
 
294 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Medal, 36; stands first in University, 
 but of positive character, and others 
 occasionally more popular with the 
 multitude, because See belonged to 
 Greek Fraternity, 37; takes leading 
 part in reform of university in 1889, 
 37-38 ; graduates at head of class, with 
 highest honors, 39-42; returns home, 
 and finds father in failing health, 44; 
 proceeds to Berlin, via Washington, 
 Baltimore, Princeton, New York, 
 London, Paris, 45-46; toneliness on 
 his arrival at Berlin, his residence 
 established, 46; interviews his 
 future teachers, Weierstrass, Fuchs, 
 Foerster, Helmholtz, 47; in charge 
 of 9-inch telescope of Royal Observa- 
 tory, observing till daylight, 47-48; 
 spread of his fame in the university 
 and to other countries, 48; his exam- 
 ination for Doctor's degree, 49; in- 
 spiration afforded by Zeller, and 
 visits to Humboldt's country place, 
 49-50; classic spirit of Berlin, visits to 
 museums to study art, 50; journeys 
 to Italy, Egypt, Greece, 50-52; experi- 
 ences earthquake at Pyrgos on the 
 visit to Olympia, 51 ; visits England, 
 friendships with eminent men of 
 Science, 52; obtains Doctor's degree, 
 and speaks German fluently in In- 
 augural Discourse, 52; immediately 
 returns to America, how he came to 
 locate at Chicago, 53-54; plans high- 
 class work in Astronomy at the new 
 University, 55; starts building of 
 Yerkes Observatory by cutting down 
 inflated budget, 56; the starting of 
 the Yerkes Observatory beneficial 
 to various persons, 57; Dr. See not 
 rewarded at Chicago, but by Presi- 
 dent McKinley at Washington, 57; 
 his work stood high at Chicago, but 
 he had only the rank of instructor, 
 declined offer of assistant professor- 
 ship, 58; works in co-operation with 
 Burnham on double stars for three 
 years, establishing method of testing 
 Newtonian Law, 1895, 58-59; 9b- 
 serves double stars at McCormick 
 and Washburn Observatories in 1895, 
 and finishes Volume I of the Re- 
 searches early in 1896, 59; University 
 of Chicago defaults on agreement to 
 print the Researches, Vol. I, and Dr. 
 See issues it himself, 59; Lord Kel- 
 vin's estimate of the Researches, Vol. 
 I, 60; Schiaparelli's prediction that 
 Dr. See's Researches would constitute 
 the third great epoch since those of 
 W. Herschel and W. Struve, 61; joins 
 
 Lowell Observatory to observe South- 
 ern double stars, 62; influenced in 
 his plans by example of the two Her- 
 schels, 62; suffers mild attack of 
 typhoid fever, June, 1896, 63; loses 
 valuable library and other property 
 by fire, Sept. 14, 1897, but saves 
 records and Bowditch's translation 
 of Laplace, 64; his method of sweep- 
 ing for double stars, 65; the work 
 extended throughout the night and 
 difficult, 65-66; some of the new 
 stars discovered, and the types of 
 double stars, 66; earlier work of Sir 
 John Herschel, 1834-1838, 67; works 
 in cordial relations with Mr. Innes at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, 67; his plans 
 interrupted by illness of Lowell, be- 
 comes Professor at the Naval Observ- 
 atory, Washintgon, 67; stimulating 
 effects of Dr. See's work, 67; Sir 
 David GillXappraisement of it, 67-68 ; 
 aids in rebuilding Lowell Observa- 
 tory at Mexico City, 69; ascends 
 Popocatepetl, 69; lectures on side- 
 real astronomy at Lowell Institute, 
 Bpston, 1899, 69; propounds doc- 
 trine of expulsion of dust from stars 
 under repulsive forces, 70; consider- 
 ed for and appointed to professorship 
 of mathematics in the navy by Presi- 
 dent McKinley, 70-71; surprised by 
 Secretary Long's announcement of 
 his appointment, 70; assigned duty 
 at Naval Observatory, Washington, 
 and occupied with meridian work, 71 ; 
 recommends removal of piers of 6- 
 inch transit circle, 72; observes 
 satellite of Neptune and discovers 
 belts on planet, 1899, 72; in charge 
 of 26-inch equatorial telescope of 
 Naval Observatory, 72; systematic 
 measurement of many satellites, 73, 
 74; investigates constants of irradi- 
 ation by new methods, 73; results 
 generally accepted by astronomers, 
 74; inquiry into the method by Lord 
 Kelvin, 1902, 74; his satellite meas- 
 ures used by Dyson, Bergstrand 
 and Struve, 74 ; his work commended 
 by Callandreau, Schiaparelli, Burn- 
 ham, Barnard and Struve, 75; aids 
 in improving personnel of Naval Ob- 
 servatory, 75; works very hard and 
 finally becomes ill, 75; his double 
 star observations and micrometer 
 researches, 76; observations of Eros 
 for parallax of Sun leads to good 
 result, 76; eminent success of his 
 work at Washington, 77; his illness 
 at the naval academy, 78; sympa- 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 295 
 
 thetic method in the teaching of mid- 
 shipmen, 78; invents new kind of 
 whole wheat bread which restores 
 his health, December, 1904, 79; en- 
 ters upon unparalleled career of dis- 
 covery at Mare Island, 80; by re- 
 searches just made on internal con- 
 stitution of planets is enabled to 
 recognize the fallacy in the old theory 
 of earthquakes, 1906, 80; lays new 
 foundations for Cosmogony, 1908, 
 80, 81 ; measures the depth of Milky 
 Way, 1911, 80, 81; confirms and 
 extends Herschel's theory of the 
 globular star clusters, 1912, 80, 81; 
 married to Miss Frances Graves, 
 June 18, 1907, 81; his simple home 
 life at Mare Island, 81; deep grief 
 over loss of infant son, July 28, 1909, 
 81; barely survives violent attack 
 of appendicitis, Jan., 1909, 82; re- 
 covery attributed to life-long habits 
 of total abstinence from liquors or 
 tobacco in any form, 82; works while 
 everyone else sleeps, 83; labor of 
 1909 in finishing the Researches, Vol. 
 II, compared to Newton's writing of 
 the Prindpia, 1685-6, 83; the great 
 difficulty in establishing the Science 
 of Cosmogony, 84 ; his outdoor habits 
 of life in California, 84; visits Yose- 
 mite Valley and the big trees, 84; 
 his enthusiasm for fine paintings, and 
 the inspiration they afford, 84, 85; 
 the new Sciences of Cosmogony and 
 Geogony developed at Mare Island, 
 84; Greek type of mind recognized 
 in college days by Professor Fleet, 
 85; like Sir William Huggins, he 
 derives inspiration from beautiful 
 works of art, 85; dares to break 
 away from beaten paths in scientific 
 work, 85; never disturbed by out- 
 breaks of jealousy, 86; durability 
 of his discoveries, 87; the "Newton 
 of Cosmogony," 88; never shrinks 
 hard work nor disagreeable duty, 88; 
 begins work at Mare Island before 
 recovering health, 89; as he had no 
 adequate instruments for observa- 
 tional work, he wisely begins mathe- 
 matical researches on internal con- 
 stitution of heavenly bodies, 90; how 
 he subdivided the problem into three 
 parts, 90; description of the pressure 
 at the centre of the Earth, 91; finds 
 errors in views of Humboldt respect- 
 ing disturbances deep down in the 
 globe, 92; physical conditions in the 
 interior of Sun, 93; the rigidity of 
 the Earth equal to that of nickel 
 
 steel, 94; triumph of his discoveries, 
 95; analogy of his discoveries with 
 those of Archimedes and Galileo, 96; 
 his "Outline of the New Theory of 
 Earthquakes," 97-119; his paper on 
 "How the Mountains are made in 
 the Depths of the Sea," 120-136; his 
 paper on the "Origin of the Hima- 
 laya Mountains and Plateau of Tibet, ' ' 
 137-159; his address on "The Evolu- 
 tion of the Starry Heavens," 160- 
 196; his paper entitled "Determina- 
 tion of the Depth of the Milky Way," 
 197, 213; his address on "The Her- 
 schel-See Researches on the origin 
 of Clusters and on the Breaking up 
 of the Milky Way, under the Cluster- 
 ing Power of Universal Gravitation," 
 214, 224; improves Herschel's meth- 
 od for measuring the depth of the 
 Milky Way, 1909-1911, 199; esti- 
 mates distance of the remotest stars 
 at 4,500,000 light-years, 205; first 
 to restore the great distances of re- 
 mote stars used by Herschel, 205; 
 calculates coefficient of extinction of 
 light in space, 208; tests and verifies 
 Herschel's method for finding depth 
 of Milky Way by the study of 
 clusters, 1911, 210; calculates that 
 12-foot reflector would show stars 
 at a distance of 5 or 10 million light- 
 years, 1911, 213; in co-operation 
 with Huggins, starts the successful 
 movement for republication of Her- 
 schel's collected works, 214-224; his 
 name coupled with that of Herschel 
 to indicate improved modern theory 
 of star depths, 214-215; his " Dynam- 
 ical Theory of Clusters," 215-218; 
 proves that the clustering power 
 noticed by Herschel is Newtonian 
 gravitation, 221; his "Conclusions 
 drawn from the New Science of Cos- 
 mogony," 225-241; abandons theory 
 of fluid fission, 230; statement of his 
 fundamental law of the firmament, 
 230; his researches verifying the law 
 of gravitation, 238; the Herschel- 
 See theory of the depth of the galaxy, 
 239; shakes Laplace's theory of 
 Cosmogony to its foundations, 242; 
 finds premises used by Darwin in- 
 secure, 244; favorable reception of 
 his revolutionary work, 248; holds 
 that life is general phenomenon in 
 nature, 251-255; his extension of the 
 inspiration of Aristotle, 256; desig- 
 nated the "American Herschel," by 
 Speaker Clark, 257-268; his address 
 at Montgomery City, Mo., May 4, 
 
296 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 1911, 258; nominated for the Hall of 
 Fame by the Kansas City" Star" 259; 
 parallel of his career with that of 
 Herschel, 257-260; his well known 
 independence and freedom from 
 rings and their influence, 260; his 
 deep intuition into physical truth, 
 262; the creator of a new science, 
 "the Newton of C9smogony," 262- 
 268; analogy of his ancestry with 
 that of Herschel, 263; shows that 
 America is now first in Science, 264; 
 not a student of isolated facts, but of 
 the underlying relations of all facts, 
 265; establishes two new sciences, 
 Cosmogony and Geogony, 267; his 
 discoveries give America the first 
 place in Astronomy, Cosmogony, and 
 Geogony, 267; details of the move- 
 ment for the publication of Herschel's 
 collected works, 268-270; his almost 
 miraculous recovery in 1909, 270; 
 four of his most brilliant achieve- 
 ments without a parallel since the age 
 of Newton, 270; sheds lustre on his 
 country and his age, 271; the im- 
 pressions made on observers during 
 his youth, 273; Mr. Van Trump's 
 prophecy of 1887; Rosenberger's 
 prophecy of 1893, 273; public ban- 
 quet at University of Missouri, Jan. 
 20, 1898, 274; estimate of his leader- 
 ship by Marbut, 274; remarks on 
 the significance of his discoveries by 
 Professor W. B. Smith, of Tulane 
 University, 276, 277 
 Seeliger, Professor H. von, of Munich, 
 concludes that the absorption of 
 light in space is small, 209 ; impression 
 of See's Researches, Vol. II, 247 
 
 Senate of Rome, sacrifices to marine 
 divinities, 98 
 
 Shea, Professor D. W., travels with Mr. 
 See in Italy, 50 
 
 Siculus, Diodorus, historian, his ac- 
 count of the Achaian earthquake of 
 373 B.C., 98 
 
 Smith, Dr. W. B., writes of Professor 
 See's enthusiasm for Greek things, 
 31; inspires See, Defoe and other 
 students, 32; holds chair of physics, 
 1885-87, also mathematics, 1887-89, 
 32; universality of his learning and 
 inspiration, 33; in charge of Mathe- 
 matics and Astronomy, 36; his trans- 
 lation of Ptolemy's poem, 241; his 
 impression of See's Researches, Vol. 
 II, 247 
 
 Smyth, Captain, R. N., mentions the 
 election of Sir J. Herschel as President 
 Royal Astron. Society, 1847, 261 
 
 Socrates, mentioned with Plato, 256 
 
 Spangenberg, endeavours to convert 
 
 Schwenkfelders, 2 
 Spencer, Herbert, English philosopher, 
 
 his works much read by M. F. See, 6 
 
 Steele, J. Dorman, writer on Science, 
 his Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy 
 purchased by Mr. See, Oct. 1, 1883, 
 
 Stewart, Jacob, old time Virginian, 
 cousin of wife of John See, recalls 
 stories of Civil War, and witnesses 
 tornado of Jan. 1, 1876, 22-23 
 
 Strabo, the Greek geographer, adopts 
 Aristotle's theory of earthquakes, 99 
 destruction of cities in Syria, 100; 
 eruptions in the Sea recorded, 121; 
 remarks on the depth of sea on the 
 Climax road in Pamphylia, 134 
 
 Strachey, Lieut. General Sir Richard, 
 his estimate of the width of the 
 Plateau of Tibet, 141; his remarks 
 on the relations of the mountains of 
 Afghanistan and Persia to those of 
 India, 157; the uplift and outlines 
 of Asia completed, 157 
 
 Stromgren, Professor Elis, eminent 
 Danish astronomer, demonstrates 
 elliptical character of the orbits of 
 all comets, 162, 183, 184, 185, 227; 
 advances Cosmogony, 168; on cusps 
 and loops, 176, 177; on the increase 
 of central mass, 182; finds that it 
 can not decrease the eccentricity, 
 232; his impression of See's Re- 
 searches, Vol. II, 247 
 
 Struve, Professor Hermann, Director 
 of Royal Observatory, Berlin, uses 
 Professor See's observations, 74, 75 
 
 Struve, William, his systematic observa- 
 tions of double stars, 61; estimates 
 width of Milky Way, 206 ; absorption 
 of light in space, 201, 208, 209 
 
 Stuckenberg, Dr. J. H. W., writer on 
 philosophy and pastor of American 
 Church in Berlin, voluntarily rec- 
 ommends Mr. See to Dr. Harper, 
 President of the University of 
 Chicago, 54 
 
 Suess, Professor Edward, eminent 
 Austrian geologist, adopts See's 
 theory of mountain formation, 136 
 
INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 297 
 
 Sykes, Mr. Godfrey, engineer, rebuilds 
 Lowell Observatory at Mexico, 68-69 
 
 TACITUS, Roman historian, recognizes 
 that importance of ancestry often is 
 overrated, 1 ; his remarks on astrolo- 
 gers, 249-50 
 
 Talbot, Fox, measurement of double 
 stars at great distances, 198 
 
 Tarr, Professor R. S., investigates 
 earthquake at Yakutat Bay, Alaska, 
 1899, 105, 124 
 
 Thomas, Professor B. F., quits Missouri 
 University in 1885, 32 
 
 Thomson, the poet, his description of 
 Newton, 87, 88, 272 
 
 Thucydides, Greek historian, recognizes 
 that importance of ancestry often is 
 overrated, 1 
 
 Tietjen, F., Professor of Astronomy at 
 Berlin, one of Mr. See's teachers, 47 
 
 Timocharis, Greek astronomer, 163 
 
 Tindall, Professor W. C., teaches mathe- 
 matics to Mr. See, 32 
 
 Tisserand, French astronomer, de- 
 ceived in Cosmogony, 164 
 
 Trajan, Emperor of Rome, seeks safety 
 from earthquakes at Antioch, 97 
 
 Tschudi, Von., quoted by Proctor, 146 
 
 Tycho, celebrated Danish astronomer, 
 notable advance since made in the 
 theory of comets, 162; had little in- 
 tuition into causes, 166; mentioned by 
 Holmes in his poem welcoming Dr. 
 Gould, 258-9 
 
 UPDEGRAFF, Professor Milton, U.S.N., 
 improves standard of meridian work 
 of Naval Observatory, 72; letter 
 from Professor W. B. Smith for 
 banquet in honor of Dr. See, 275, 276 
 
 VEST, U.S. Senator Geo. G., his speeches 
 heard by Noah See, 16; would need 
 a successor in Congress, 25 
 
 Very, Professor F. W., concludes that 
 White Nebulae may be galaxies, 213 
 
 WARDNER, A. E., secures a copy of 
 Humboldt's Cosmos for Mr. See, 29 
 
 Warner & Swasey, of Cleveland, build 
 the mounting of Yerkes telescope, 55 
 
 Washington, George, first President of 
 United States, his maxim of avoiding 
 entangling alliances with other na- 
 tions, 260 
 
 Webb, W. L., author of this work, has 
 known Professor See a quarter of a 
 century, Introduction, vii, -ix; ac- 
 knowledgments to Professor L. M. 
 Defoe, University of Missouri, ix; 
 his indebtedness t9 Professor Harris 
 Hancock, University of Cincinnati, 
 ix; his remarks on the philosophic 
 habits of Aristotle and Plato, viii; on 
 the death 9f Poincare and Darwin 
 in 1912, viii; on the preparation of 
 Champ Clark's biography, ix; the 
 more ambitious work on Professor 
 See and his discoveries, ix; his ac- 
 knowledgments to the American 
 Philosophical Society and to the 
 Historical Society of Montgomery 
 County, Missouri, ix; served on 
 Legislative Committee for the investi- 
 gation of the University of Missouri, 
 1889, 37 
 
 Weeks, Mrs. A. M., sister of Professor 
 See, and one of his early teachers, 6; 
 especially good in arithmetic, 17; 
 induces her father to send Tom See 
 to school in Montgomery City, 24-25; 
 boyhood teacher of Professor See in 
 winter of 1878-9, 24; manages Pro- 
 fessor See's household in Washington, 
 79 
 
 Weeks, Mrs. S. T., sister of Professor 
 See, of very domestic taste, 6 
 
 Weeks, Judge S. T., of Calloway Co., 
 prominent citizen, Professor See's 
 brother-in-law, State Senator, 7 
 
 Wegener, a friend of A. von Humboldt, 
 30 
 
 Weierstrass, Professor Karl, the emi- 
 nent Berlin mathematician, advises 
 Mr. See on his arrival at University 
 of Berlin, 47 
 
 Whewell, Dr. William, master of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, England, his 
 description of the intellectual charac- 
 ter of Newton and the nature of 
 genius, 265 
 
 Wilhelm, His Majesty, the German 
 Emperor, drives daily past the Uni- 
 versity, 48; is told of Mr. See's work 
 by Professor Foerster, 48; in mili- 
 tary parade with the Emperor of 
 Russia, 48 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow, President of United 
 States, his educational reform for 
 greater efficiency at Princeton Uni- 
 versity, 33; his biographer, Mr. 
 Wm. Bayard Hale, on the work of 
 Professor See, 257 
 
298 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 
 
 Wolf, Professor Max, of Heidelberg, 
 his impression of See's Researches, 
 Vol. II, 247 
 
 Wolfer, Professor A., of Zurich, im- 
 pression of See's Researches, Vol. II, 
 248 
 
 Wright, Professor W. H., of Lick Ob- 
 servatory, uses motion in line of sight 
 on binaries, 59 
 
 YERKES, C. T., founder of Yerkes Ob- 
 servatory, 54; agrees to buy glass 
 discs for lenses oT Yerkes telescope, 
 54; delay in building observatory 
 due to inflated budget, 56; building 
 
 of observatory started by Dr. See in 
 1894,56; death in 1905, 57 
 
 Young, Professor C. A., visited by Mr. 
 See on way to Europe, 1889, 45; 
 estimates distance of remoter stars 
 at from" 10,000 to 20,000 light-years, 
 205 
 
 ZELLER, Profess9r Edward, eminent 
 authority in philosophy of the Greeks 
 48; visited by Mr. See in his study, 
 49; one of Mr. See's examiners, 49 
 
 Zinzendorf, Count, of Herrnhut, Sax- 
 ony, founds Bethlehem, 1741, 2 
 
WORKS OF DR. T. J. J. SEE 
 
 Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar 
 
 Systems. Vol. I. 
 By T. J. J. SEE, A.M., Ph. D. 
 
 This work is the first volume of an extensive investigation 
 which Dr. SEE has undertaken on the evolution of our stellar 
 systems. The introduction begins with a sketch of the nebular 
 hypothesis of our solar system. In Chapter I the author gives 
 the common proof of the Newtonian law of force for our solar 
 system, and then proceeds to consider the proof for the orbits of 
 binary stars. Chapter II contains the orbits of forty binary stars 
 deducted from the best observations. Chapter III presents a 
 discussion of the results. Price, full cloth, $5.00. Postage pre- 
 paid, $5.35. 
 
 Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar 
 
 Systems. Vol. II. 
 By T. J. J. SEE, A.M., Ph. D. 
 
 This splendid work is indispensable to the astronomer, mathe- 
 matician, physicist and geologist; it will prove of decided interest 
 also to the chemist, biologist, engineer, and in fact to every pro- 
 gressive student, thinker, investigator, library, college, university, 
 observatory, society, or other institution of science or education. 
 
 In this magnificent work, illustrated throughout by views 
 and photographs of the highest beauty, Prof. SEE deals with the 
 conclusions he has arrived at as to the origin of our own and other 
 systems generally from his researches during the last twenty 
 years; and gives in a connected form the matter of numerous 
 papers contributed by him to the Astronomische Nachrichten, 
 Popular Astronomy, and other magazines. 
 
 Bound full cloth, 736 pp. with about 250 illustrations, in- 
 cluding many plates of wonderful photographs of the heavens. 
 Price, $10.00 per copy, express prepaid. 
 
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