ASTRONOMY. 4! 



ject. If the public really value an accurate standard time, 

 they can now easily obtain it from the observatories of Har- 

 vard College, Albany, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, 

 Ann Arbor, etc., which are ready to furnish it at a moderate 

 expense. 



A very complete bibliography of books and memoirs on 

 the "Method of Least Squares" (81 pp.) has just been pub- 

 lished by Professor Merriman, of Yale College. 



The publication of the Bulletin of the Arcetri Observatory, 

 Florence, is to be renewed under the editorship of Herr Tem- 

 pel. 



In Vol. XIII. of the Proceedings of the American Academy, 

 the only astronomical paper printed is one on the longitude 

 of Waltham, Mass., by Mr. L. Waldo. 



The fifth volume of Andre, Rayet, and Angot's "Astronomic 

 Pratique" has reached this country. It treats of the observa- 

 tories of Italy, and is essentially a report made by M. Rayet 

 to the Minister of Public Instruction. 



About a year ago, the Academy of Sciences of Paris de- 

 cided to issue a complete edition of the works of Laplace. 

 The preceding editions, which have become very rare, con- 

 tained only seven volumes, but the new one will include six 

 other volumes, comprising all the works which Laplace pub- 

 lished in numerous academic and periodical collections, the 

 scattered form of which has rendered their study difficult. 

 Vols. I. and II. of the "Mecanique Celeste" are already out, 

 and Vol. III. will be published in 1878. To the first three hun- 

 dred subscribers the price of the five volumes which comprise 

 the "Mucanique Celeste" varies from eighty francs to one 

 hundred and twenty francs, according to paper and binding. 



A critical study of the question, "Was Galileo tortured?" 

 (1st Galileo gefoltert icorden ?) has been published by Dr. E. 

 Wohlwill. The conclusions he has reached indicate that the 

 Inquisition certainly went so far as to subject him to the ter- 

 ritio recdis, w r hich always involved the confronting of the 

 prisoner with the rack in the torture-chamber at the very 

 least. A very complete review of the case, by Sedley Tay- 

 lor, is found in JYcctwe for February 14, 1878. 



A very complete and valuable Catalogue of the Library 

 of the Leyden Observatory has been published by Dr. Van 

 der Sande Bakhuysen. 



