382 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Mr. A. Poey, of Havana. The examination of these phenomena extends 

 over a period of 362 years from 1493 to 1855 and the monthly distribution 

 of 365 hurricanes was as follows : January, 5; February, 7; March, 11; April, 

 6; May, 5; June, 10; July, 42; August, 96; September, 80;. October, 69; 

 November, 17; December, 7. Mr. Poey observes, that although nothing is 

 known of the causes which produce hurricanes or gales in any part of the 

 world, yet it has now been proved by the examination and careful analysis of 

 perhaps more than a thousand logs, and of some hundreds of storms, that wind 

 in hurricanes and common gales on both sides of the equator, has two motions; 

 and that it turns or blows round a focus or centre in a more or less circular 

 form, and at the same time has a straight or curved motion forward. 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS IN THE 



SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 



At the annual meeting of the Eoyal Society, Nov. 1856, Lord Wrottesley, 

 the president, in his address, strongly advocated the construction and erection 

 of a large reflecting telescope in some desirable locality of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, for the purpose of observing the nebulae. The scheme is not new, 

 having been brought forward by Lord Rosse, the late distinguished president 

 of the Royal Society, but although strongly advocated by the council, the 

 government felt at the time unwilling to advance the necessarily large sum 

 required for the construction of a large reflecting telescope. 



"It is not difficult," says Lord Wrottesley, "to demonstrate the importance 

 of this object. The great command of light possessed by the magnificent 

 telescope of Lord Rosse has enabled him to detect certain configurations in 

 the nebulae visible in this country, which had escaped the notice of prior 

 observers. I allude to the discovery of the spiral form of several of these 

 curious objects. Now this is a fact of very peculiar interest, as bearing upon 

 important questions of physical astronomy. 



" Do certain laws prevailing hi our own system, and even in many stellar 

 groups comparatively near to us, extend to the very remote regions of space 

 tenanted by the nebulae? Many ages must probably elapse before these 

 questions can be solved, but it is a duty we owe to posterity to hand down 

 to them the data required for solving them, and it is necessary for that pur- 

 pose that accurate drawings should be now made of the present appearances 

 of these objects, and preserved, that they may be compared with the observa- 

 tions of after times. Now, Lord Rosse is at present engaged in making 

 detailed observations and drawings of the appearances presented by nebulae 

 visible in these latitudes, and it is most desirable that a telescope, not much, 

 if any, inferior in power to his, should be set up somewhere in the southern 

 hemisphere, to perform for the nebulae there visible the like office as that per- 

 formed by Lord Rosse for our own." 



Lord Wrottesley then suggests that, as such a scientific labor would pro- 

 duce results in which the whole civilized world would be interested, it would 

 be very desirable if many nations could be associated in carrying out so great 

 an undertaking. 



