xxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AM) 



Among tlie expeditions to be sent out from Great Britain, 

 one is quite remarkable in being carried out entirely at the 

 expense of a private gentleman. Lord Lindsay, a young 

 Scotch nobleman of astronomical tastes, is making the most 

 extensive preparations to send out a party to the Mauritius, 

 completely ecpiipped with every appliance for making obser- 

 vations by all three methods. 



Our own country is preparing to make the necessary ob- 

 servations on a scale second to no other. It is proposed to 

 equip eight stations, of which three will be in the northern, 

 and five in the southern hemisphere. The northern stations 

 will be Wladiwostock, in Siberia, Yokohama or Nagasaki, in 

 Japan, and I*ekin. In the South Pacific, parties will occiJ])y 

 Kerguelen's Land, IIobart-Town, some point in New Zealand, 

 and one in one of the neiuhborins; islands. The fifth station 

 is not yet selected. In order to facilitate the organization, 

 equipment, and training of the parties, a uniform system of 

 observations will be made at all the stations, which will com- 

 ]>rise observations of contacts at the beginning and end of 

 the transit, and the taking of photographs duriiig its entire 

 continuance. 



In relation to the observatories and astronomers of the 

 world, we note the complete reorganization of French observ- 

 atories under the general directorship of Le Verrier. 



The lamented cessation of the piivate observatory of Mr. 

 Warren de la Rue, and the donation of its entire equipment 

 to Oxford Ujniversity, is announced. The new observatory 

 at Oxford will be devoted to physical astronomy. 



In our own country, Mr. Lick, of San Francisco, offers one 

 million dollars as an endowmient for a very superior astronom- 

 ical institution at the most proper point in the Western Terri- 

 tories. But for the American public, the first event in the 

 order of interest is perhaps the successful erection at tlie 

 National Observatory of the most powerful refracting tel- 

 escope ever made. Not the least interesting circumstance 

 connected with this instrument is the fact that it is almost 

 wholly tlie product of American genius, and of genius devel- 

 oped under most unfavorable circumstances. Most of the 

 great o])tical houses of Europe have existed for genei'atioTis, 

 and the successful establishment of a new one is compara- 

 tively rare. But the founder of the American house of Alvan 



