52 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ison, it becomes more important to diminisli the effect of 

 accidental errors by a large increase in the number of ob- 

 servations. It is interesting to add that the preliminary 

 results of the observations of the recent transit of Venus, as 

 presented to the Paris Academy of Science, agreed complete- 

 ly with the figures deduced by Dr. Galle. Astr. JSfach.^ 

 LXXXV., 270. 



PRIZES PROPOSED FOR ASTRONOMICAL WORKS IN 1876. 



The French Academy of Sciences announces that in 1876 

 it will give, besides the Lalande medal, a prize (the Daraoi- 

 seau prize) for the best memoir on tlie following subject : 

 "Revise the theory of the satellites of Jupiter: discuss the 

 observations, and deduce the constants which depend upon 

 them; especially determine the velocity of light; finally, con- 

 struct special tables for each satellite." 6 B^Dec. 22,1875, 

 1376. 



THE LALANDE PRIZE. 



The Lalande prize of the French Academy is given yearly 

 to the astronomer who shall publish the most useful memoir 

 or make the most important observation. This has been 

 awarded for 1875 to M. Perrotin, of the Observatory of Tou- 

 louse, for his astronomical observations, and particularly for 

 his discovery of asteroids. The brothers Henry, of Paris, and 

 MM. Borelly and Coggia, of Marseilles, have received this 

 medal in previous years for the same kind of labors, as has 

 also Professor Watson, of Michigan University. 6 B^ Dec. 

 22,1875,1311. 



THE INNER SATELLITES OF URANUS. 



These objects, which were discovered by Lassell with his 

 two-foot reflector, have lately been the subject of some dis- 

 cussion. In Mon. Not. R. A. S. (vol. xxxv., p. 16), Professor 

 Holden, of the Naval Observatory, advanced the opinion, af- 

 ter a comparison of William Herschel's observations of small 

 objects near Uranus in 1789-1815 with tables of the motion 

 of these bodies (published by Professor Newcomb of the same 

 observatory, in the " Washington Astronomical Observations 

 for 1873," Appendix L), that William Herschel had really 

 seen both Ariel and Umbriel, and that he had observed them. 



