Resources and development of Mexico Author:Hubert Howe Bancroft Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SCIENCE AND ART 53 Music has always found favor with the Mexicans, among whom musical talent is general. The Con- servatorio in the federal district provides ... more »musical instruction to about 1200 pupils who yearly register therein, two-thirds of them being females, and in Merida, Yucatdn, there are two conservatories, both of which are liberally patronized. All institutes, lyceums, normal schools, and colleges in state capitals and other important towns have classes of music, painting and sculpture ; but students whose ambition it is to become professional artists repair usually to the national capital, where the best facilities are afforded. Astronomy and meteorology have also engaged the attention of the federal government, as well as of Mexican scientists; and the national observatories provided with powerful instruments of approved and recent pattern, have been placed in charge of men noted for their scientific attainments,whose labors prove of great utility to the cause of science. For the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, originally founded at Chapultepec, but now located on the summit of a hill overlooking the picturesque city of Tacubaya, a commodious building has been erected, wherein will be placed the five large telescopes procured at great expense from a famous manufacturing firm in Dublin. The observatory ranks among the foremost in the world, and is in direct communication with others of the same class in Europe and America. Each year is published a detailed account of its observations, with discussions of astronomical problems and photographic illustrations fashioned within the establishment. The Observatorio Astrondmico Central, situated as is the Meteorol6gico Central, in the national palace at the city of Mexico, has been engaged for many years in determ...« less