I
THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS
Ancestry.--Squire Thomas Prince.--Parentage.--Early Education.--
Books read.
II
DR. FOSHAY
A Long Journey on Foot.--A Wonderful Doctor.--The Botanic System of
Medicine.--Phrenology.--A Launch into the World.--A Disillusion.--
Life in Maryland.--Acquaintance with Professor Henry.--Removal
to Cambridge.
III
THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT
The American Astronomical Ephemeris.--The Men who made it.--
Harvard in the Middle of the Century.--A Librarian of the Time.--
Professor Peirce.--Dr. Gould, the "Astronomical Journal," and the
Dudley Observatory.--W. P. G. Bartlett.--John D. Runkle and the
"Mathematical Monthly."--A Mathematical Politician.--A Trip to
Manitoba and a Voyage up the Saskatchewan.--A Wonderful Star.
IV
LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY
A Professor, United States Navy.--The Naval Observatory in 1861.--
Captain Gilliss and his Plans.--Admiral Davis.--A New Instrument
and a New Departure.--Astronomical Activity.--The Question of
Observatory Administration.--Visit from the Emperor of Brazil.--
Admiral John Rodgers.--Efforts to improve the Work of the
Observatory.
V
GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK
Curious Origin of the Great Washington Telescope.--Congress
is induced to act.--A Case of Astronomical Fallibility.--
The Discovery of the Satellites of Mars.--The Great Telescope
of the Pulkova Observatory.--Alvan Clark and his Sons.--A Sad
Astronomical Accident.
VI
THE TRANSITS OF VENUS
Old Transits of Venus.--An Astronomical Expedition in the 18th
Century.--Father Hell and his Observations.--A Suspected Forger
vindicated.--The American Commission on the Transit of Venus.--
The Photographic Method to be applied.--Garfield and the
Appropriation Committee.--Weather Uncertainties.--Voyage to
the Cape of Good Hope.--The Transit of 1882.--Our Failure to
publish our Observations.
VII
THE LICK OBSERVATORY
James Lick and his Ideas.--Mr. D. O. Mills.--Plans for the Lick
Observatory.--Edward E. Barnard.--Professor Holden.--Wonderful
Success of the Observatory.
VIII
THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK
The Orbits of the Asteroids.--The Problems of Mathematical
Astronomy.--The Motion of the Moon and its Perplexing
Inequalities.--A Visit to the Paris Observatory to search for
Forgotten Observations.--Wonderful Success in finding Them.--
The Paris Commune.--The History of the Moon's Motion carried back
a Century.--The Harvard Observatory.--The "Nautical Almanac" Office
and its Work.--Mr. George W. Hill and his Work.--A Wonderful
Algebraist.--The Meridian Conference of 1884, and the Question
of Universal Time.--Tables of the Planets completed.--
The Astronomical Constants.--Work unfinished.
IX
SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON
Professor Henry and the Smithsonian Institution.--
Alumni Associations.--The Scientific Club.--General Sherman.--
Mr. Hugh McCulloch.--A Forgotten Scientist.--The National Academy of
Sciences.--The Geological Survey of the Territories.--The Government
Forestry System.--Professor O. C. Marsh.--Scientific Humbugs.--
Life on the Plains.
X
SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND
My First Trip to Europe.--Mr. Thomas Hughes.--Mr. John Stuart Mill.
--Mr. Gladstone and the Royal Society Dinner.--Other Eminent
Englishmen.--Professors Cayley and Adams.--Professor Airy and
the Greenwich Observatory.--A Visit to Edinburgh.
XI
MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE
A Voyage to Gibraltar with Professor Tyndall.--The Great Fortress.
--"Whispering Boanerges."--A Winter Voyage in the Mediterranean.--
Malta and Messina.--Advantage of not understanding a Language.--
German Astronomers.--The Pulkova Observatory.--A Meeting which
might have been Embarrassing.--From Germany to Paris at the Close
of the War.--Experiences at Paris during the Commune.--The Greatest
Astronomer of France.--The Paris Observatory.
XII
THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON
Washington during the Civil War.--Secretary Stanton.--
The Raid of General Early.--A Presidential Levee in 1864.--
The Fall of Richmond.--The Assassination of President Lincoln.--
Negro Traits and Education.--Senator Sumner.--An Ambitious Academy.
--President Garfield and his Assassination.--Cooling the White House
during his Illness.--The Shepherd Regime in Washington.
XIII
MISCELLANEA
The Great Star-Catalogue Case.--Professor Peters and the
Almagest of Ptolemy.--Scientific Cranks.--The Degrees of the
French Universities.--A Virginia Country School.--Political Economy
and Education.--Exact Science in America before the Johns Hopkins
University.--Professor Ely and Economics.--Spiritualism and
Psychic Research.--The Georgia Magnetic Girl.