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It was Schroeter, in 1789, who called the attention of scientists to them for the first time. He had only 11 to show, but Lohrmann soon recorded 75 more. Pastorff, Gruithuysen, and particularly Beer and Maedler were still more successful, but Julius Schmidt, the famous astronomer of Athens, has raised their number up to 425, and has even published their names in a catalogue.
But Herschel's calculations were in their turn corrected by the observations of Halley, Nasmyth, Bianchini, Gruithuysen, and others; but it was reserved for the labors of Boeer and Maedler finally to solve the question. They succeeded in measuring 1,905 different elevations, of which six exceed 15,000 feet, and twenty-two exceed 14,400 feet.
This opinion of Schmidt's, shared by Beer and Maedler, Barbican's observations now convinced him to be far better founded than that of certain astronomers who admit of no color at all being visible on the Moon's surface but gray. In certain spots the greenish tint was quite decided, particularly in Mare Serenitatis and Mare Humorum, the very localities where Schmidt had most noticed it.
Herschel was the first to come pretty close to the truth, but Beer and Maedler, whose Mappa Selenographica now lies before us, have left really nothing more to be done for lunar astronomy except, of course, to pay a personal visit to the Moon which we have tried to do, but I fear with a very poor prospect of success." "Cheer up! cheer up!" cried Ardan. "It's not all over yet by long odds.
Now, as under the same circumstances a certain height can cast only a certain shadow, of course a knowledge of the one must give you that of the other, and vice versa. This method, stated roughly, was that followed by Galileo, and, in our own day, by Beer and Maedler, with extraordinary success."
Maps of the Moon therefore, being drawn from the image formed by the telescope, show the north in the lower part, and vice versa. Of this kind was the Mappa Selenographica, by Beer and Maedler, so often previously alluded to and now carefully consulted by Barbican. At midnight the Moon was full.
No longer ago than the middle of the nineteenth century a German astronomer, Maedler, believed that he had actually found the location of the center about which the stellar universe revolved.
"Meer and Baedler I mean Beer and Maedler," he went on, "must have measured at least forty or fifty mountains to their satisfaction." "Forty or fifty!" exclaimed Barbican. "They measured no fewer than a thousand and ninety-five lunar mountains and crater summits with a perfect success. Six of these reach an altitude of upwards of 18,000 feet, and twenty-two are more than 15,000 feet high."
Schroeter and Maedler minutely examined the moon and planets; Struve, the fixed stars. Fraunhofer improved the telescope. Chladni first investigated the nature of fiery meteors and brought the study of acoustics to perfection. Alexander von Humboldt immensely promoted the observation of the changes of the atmosphere and the general knowledge of the nature of the earth.
And I may add that Baeer and Maedler, the two great authorities upon the moon, are quite agreed as to the entire absence of air on its surface." A movement was here manifest among the assemblage, who appeared to be growing excited by the arguments of this singular personage. "Let us proceed," replied Ardan, with perfect coolness, "and come to one important fact.
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