The Royal Astronomical Society of England awards an annual
medal to the English or foreign astronomer deemed most worthy of
it. The number of these medals awarded to Americans within twenty-
five years is about equal to the number awarded to the astronomers
of all other nations foreign to the English. That this
preponderance is not growing less is shown by the award of medals
to Americans in three consecutive years--1904, 1905, and 1906.
The recipients were Hale, Boss, and Campbell. Of the fifty foreign
associates chosen by this society for their eminence in
astronomical research, no less than eighteen--more than one-third
--are Americans.
VII
LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
So far as we can judge from what we see on our globe, the
production of life is one of the greatest and most incessant
purposes of nature. Life is absent only in regions of perpetual
frost, where it never has an opportunity to begin; in places where
the temperature is near the boiling-point, which is found to be
destructive to it; and beneath the earth's surface, where none of
the changes essential to it can come about. Within the limits
imposed by these prohibitory conditions--that is to say, within
the range of temperature at which water retains its liquid state,
and in regions where the sun's rays can penetrate and where wind
can blow and water exist in a liquid form--life is the universal
rule.
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