The herald., 1896-07-19

the National Conservatory Of Music at
New York, has a class and is teaching
the SSolfeggio method ~ sight-reading
in music. This Is study that has been
very much neglecl the west. A few
lessons by this nit! ID will enable any
person musically t. clined to get com
prehensiye idea of music reading. 1t is
equally helpful and Of importance to all
students in music whether il be from a
vocal or instrumental standpoint. Miss
lie Fetra has classes for both old and
young. and all of the students are<ery
enthusiastic over the work accomplish
ed. Occasionally during the course OF
lessons, lectures are given intended to
be supplementary to the class exercise
All of these classes are well patron
iZed.
LECTURE ON ASTRONOMY
The usual preliminary exercises oc-
Cured at the afternoon session, at the
conclusion of which Mr. r. r. Baum
gardt was introduced and spoke on
Epochs in the Evolution of Astronomy
The orderly movement of the heaven
ly bodies, the clocklike precision with
which their appointed orbits are accom-
plished, the intrinsic beauty and the
solemn silence, as well as the incompre-
hensible distance which separates them
from our earth. have since the dawn of
civilization attracted the attention of
all who were capable of rising mentally
above the everyday theater of life. To
ancient Egypt we are indebted for the
earliest researches in astronomy. The
Dog Star Sirius Is the brightest of all
the stars in the heavens. and when this
star rose at the same time as the sun
the banks of the Nile began to give way
ana an inundation of the surroundinS
country took place which gave rise q
abundant crops with encouraging reeu-
larity. Hence it was no wonder that the
old Egyptians should have mistaken the
coincidence for the cause, and that they
should worship the Sirius as a deity
10 whom they were indebted for all the
blessings that followed the overflow of
the river Nile. Somewhat earlier than
the establishment of astronomical re-
search we find the old Babylonians as
sidlously cultivating the sciences They
mad discovered a cycle of 223 lunations
which brought back the eclipses in
prescribed order. BY the aid of the
cycle called Zaros, eclipses were pre-
dicted with more or less certainty They
also had fixed the length of the tropical
year within twenty seconds of the truth
and made a star catalogue which has
been found of great value for comnari-
son with our own catalogues When
Alexander the Great conquered the
country all the astronomical knowl-
edge was brought to Alexandria and fur
nished the base upon which such men as
Ptoemy and Hipparchus based their
world renowned Investigations in as
tronomy and mathematics. Hpparchus
great discovery was the procession of
the equinox. The Alexandran astron-
omy reached the ascendancy at the time
OF Ptolemy. and during the Roman pos
session of the city no further advance
ment was made. After the Saracens
had conquered the country the further
development of the science of astron-
omy continued and was represented by
such men as Ibrigunis. Mohammed Ben
Musa. Ashazea, Alba gadabdi and Oma
Ben Thrahim. who have left work on
mathematics and astronomy which our
own great Laplas has not refrained
from using and considering them trust
worthy in comparative studies. 1t is
interesting to know that while Europe
was doing absolutely nothing during
these centuries for the advancement of
astronomy that the Arabians were leav-
ing their imprint in the very heavens,
and any one who will today take up a
star catalogue cannot but be surprised
to find how many Of the most important
stars in the heavens have names that
indicate Arabian extraction, as for in
stance Algol, Rigel, Atari Saiph, Beth
elgeuse. Aldabaran, Debhe, Merak Be
metnash. Mora. Mozar md Artares They
also claim the glory of establishing the
first astronomical observatory on Euro
pean soil; viz, at the Giraldo at Seville
in Spain.
The brilliant era of modern astronomy