HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



27: 



measures of Northumberland have yielded a most 

 extensive and instructive series, now in the Newcastle 

 Museum. 



The spines included under the name of Oracanthus 

 (Agassi/.) are of a very curious and problematical 

 nature ; they are more or less triangular in shape 

 (fig. 188), sometimes twelve or fourteen inches in 

 length, and ornamented externally with transverse 

 rows of blunt tubercles or irregular ridges, but 

 exhibiting no broad smooth surface for insertion in 

 the soft tissues of the body. All possess a large 

 internal cavity, opening at the base, and seem to 

 have been originally arranged in pairs, for (like 

 Gyracant/nts) they are invariably "lefts" and 

 " rights," and some show traces of terminal abrasion. 

 O. Milleri (fig. 188) is the species to which the 

 majority of the British fossils are referred, and with it 

 Mr. J. W. Davis has recently* associated a number of 

 dermal plates of various forms, on account of the 

 close resemblance of their ornamentation ; if the 

 latter are correctly so placed, Oracanthus must have 

 possessed a strong covering of armour — at least, in 

 the region of the head, but any satisfactory evidence 

 as to the facts is at present wanting. The genus 

 appears to be exclusively confined to the Lower 

 Carboniferous, the most abundant remains being 

 those of O. Milleri just mentioned, from the Car- 

 boniferous Limestone of Bristol and Armagh, while 

 others named O. pustuloses are sometimes met with 

 in the equivalent beds of Oreton, Shropshire. 

 (To be continued.) 



ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY FOR 

 THE MONTH. 



By John Browning, F.R.A.S. 



VENUS will be an evening star throughout the 

 month in Capricornus. She rises about 

 eleven in the morning, souths about three in the 

 afternoon, and sets at times varying between "J. 12 

 and 8 . 3. Mercury will be an evening star until the 

 20th, and a morning star after that date, rising at 

 times varying between 9.42 A.M. on the 3rd, and 

 6.21 on the 31st, and setting at 5 P.M. on the 3rd 

 and 2.49 on the 31st. Mars will be in Leo, and 

 will be in conjunction with the moon on the 27th at 

 9 o'clock in the morning, rising at 10.50 p.m. on the 

 17th, southing at 5.33 A.M., and setting at o hr. 

 13 mins. 



Jupiter will be in Virgo, and will be in conjunction 

 with the moon on the 2Sth at 9 o'clock in the 

 morning. He will rise on the 3rd at 1 hr. 18 min. 

 morning, south at 7 hr. 22 min. in the morning, and 

 set at 1 hr. 26 min. in the afternoon. 



Saturn will be almost stationary in Gemini, and 

 will be in opposition on Dec. 26th at 10 in the 



* Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc. [2], I. pp. 525-531, pis. lxii-lxv. 



morning. He will rise at 5.27 in the morning on 

 the 3rd, and about thirty minutes earlier each suc- 

 ceeding week. 



There will be an occultation of Uranus on Dec. 

 1st. The planet will disappear at 5 o'clock in the 

 morning and reappear at 6 hrs. 9 mins. There will 

 also be occultations of « Virginis, /x Piscium, t Leonis, 

 and 9 Virginis, but these stars being all about the 

 5th magnitude their occultations will possess little 

 interest. 



It is a highly interesting question how quickly the 

 new star in Andromeda appeared, that is whether it 

 was first visible to any observer faintly and then 

 became brighter and brighter until it attained its 

 fullest magnitude, which was probably about the 7th 

 or 8th of October. For my own part I should think 

 it must have almost flashed into existence at once, 

 because the great nebula are constantly watched 1 y 

 so many observers that I do not think it couid have 

 been present for more than two or three evening a 

 without being seen. Mr. Benjamin Kidd, of Bramley, 

 Surrey, appears to have seen it at least two days 

 before any other observer, as he noticed it on the 

 1st of September, though he did not write to Green- 

 wich Observatory until the 3rd of September, because 

 he waited to see it again. 



Mr. Frank McClean, of Rusthall House, Tunbridge 

 Wells, informs me that, seen with his 10-inch 

 achromatic, the star on the 10th of November was 

 scarcely brighter than many of the surrounding 

 small stars, that is, it had waned probably to about 

 the 12th or 13th magnitude. 



I shall be glad of any further information on this 

 subject. 



In No. 2690 of " Astronomische Nachrichten," the 

 attenrion of observers is called to the Searching- 







Ephemeris for the periodic comet of Olbers of 181 5, 

 contained in Nos. 2613 and 2614 of that periodical. 

 Its perihelion passage is calculated to occur on the 

 17th of December, 18S6, with an uncertainty, one 

 way or another, of I "6 year. During its apparition 

 in 1S15 this comet remained a telescopic object. 

 Its orbit was calculated by Dr. Olbers. 



The sun will enter Capricornus at 3 o'clock in the 

 afternoon on the 21st of December, when winter will 

 commence. 



The month of November was unseasonably cold, 

 being about 5 degrees Fahrenheit below the average, 

 and there were several night frosts. 



The average temperature for London in December, 

 taken from observations of a period of fifty years, 

 is 40 , while at the Land's End it is 46 , the difference 

 being due to the action of the ocean. The average 

 rainfall for the month in London is between two and 

 three inches. 



M. Robin, the celebrated French histologist, author 

 of '• The Natural History of Vegetable Parasites in 

 Man and Animals," has just died at the age of 64. 



