HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



growth and development of the organism in closest 

 accordance with its perfect type or ideal. They un- 

 questionably co-operate with and support the working 

 of the internal forces ; but that they are not the sole 

 agencies (as Darwin and the materialists would have 

 it) in the production of this consummate beauty is 

 manifest by a study of our own species. We may 

 aver with great confidence, that no amount of external 

 or material comforls and advantages will alone suffice 

 to render a race or tribe of human beings beautiful 

 or fine-looking. The elements or fundamental 

 principles of animal beauty are seated within the 

 organism, and work from within outwards, not vice 

 versA. This was the doctrine of the ancient Greeks, 

 a people more versed in aesthetic science than any 

 other people before or since. Plato, believing that 

 everything in nature was a copy or embodiment of 

 ideal types or exemplars existing in or before the 

 Divine Mind, expressly maintained that "the type 

 or exemplar of the beautiful shines through its sensible 

 copies more than any other idea does, and that it 

 imparts thereto the highest brilliancy." What causes 

 this brilliant shining through the animal figure is 

 simply the special individual exaltation of the vital 

 forces. These are hereditary, but their energy 

 seems to be immensely stimulated by the lungs. It is 

 in races or individuals who foster humanity and whose 

 lung power is eminently developed that we find the 

 noblest and rarest examples of human beauty. ^ 



(To be continued.) 



ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 

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



DURING March Mercury will be an evening star, 

 setting on the 5th at 6 hr. 27 min., on the 12th 

 at 7.20, on the 19th at 7.58, and on the 28th at 

 8.10 P.M. 



Venus will be a morning star. 



Jupiter will rise on the 5th at 7. 15 P.M. and set at 

 7.27 a.m., will rise on the 12th at 6.42 r.M. and set 

 at 6.49 a.m., will rise on the 19th at 6.14 P.M. and 

 set at 6.26 a.m., and on the 26th he will rise at 5.38 

 p.m. and set at 6 a.m. 



Saturn will be due south on the 5th at 7.13 p.m., 

 on the 12th at 6.45 p.m., on the 19th at 6.19 p.m., 

 and on the 26th at 5-52 p.m. 



Venus will be at her greatest brilliancy on March 

 25 th. 



Mr. Janssen has been writing on the evidence of 

 photographs as to the constitution of sun-spots. His 

 remarks refer to some exquisite photographs which 

 he has taken in 1885. These show the continuation 

 of the granulation of the general solar surface into the 

 spots. He particularly directs attention to a photo- 



graph of the great spot of June 22, 1885, in which 

 the bright region which surrounds the penumbra has 

 apparently the same constitution as that of the 

 photosphere in general, being made up of granular 

 elements mostly spherical in shape. The photographs 

 show that the greatly increased brightness in such 

 regions is due to the granules being more numerous, 

 brighter, and arranged on a brighter background. 

 In the penumbra the granulations were less luminous 

 and more scattered, and have dark gaps between the 

 ranks and lines of the granulations which appear like 

 beads on a thread. The bridges across the spots 

 and the masses of luminous matter were also formed 

 of granules, so that it is highly probable that the 

 luminous matter which forms the solar surface has 

 everywhere the same constitution. 



In No. 2707 of Astronomische Nachrichten there is 

 an article by Dr. Weiss, Director of the Observatory 

 of Vienna, from which it appears that two telescopic 

 comets now visible, namely that of Fabry and that of 

 Barnard, will be seen as very conspicuous objects 

 during the latter half of April and the first half of 

 May. Fabry's comet, when nearest to us — that is to 

 say, about the first half of May — will, it is calculated, 

 attain a brightness 666 times greater than at the date 

 of its discovery on December 1st, 1SS5. Barnard's 

 comet, about the middle of May, will be 265 times 

 as bright as when it was discovered on December 

 5th last year. Both _ these comets will be seen 

 simultaneously, and at the beginning of May they 

 will not be far apart. Their brightness will not 

 increase materially until the beginning of March, 

 after which time their increase of brightness will be 

 both marked and rapid. 



The splendour of these two comets will be favoured 

 by the absence of moonlight at the time of their 

 greatest brightness. In the southern hemisphere 

 Fabry's comet will be observed without difficulty up 

 till the end of July, and Barnard's comet up till even 

 a later date. 



On March 20th the sun will enter Aries : spring 

 commences at 4 P.M. 



The mean temperature of the week ending on 

 January 9th was 3 degrees below the average, and in 

 the week ending the 16th, 2 degrees below the 

 average ; while in the week ending the 23rd it fell to 

 6 degrees below the average ; and in the week ending 

 the 30th it was still three and a-half degrees below 

 the average, so that it was the coldest January 

 experienced for many years. 



Rain fell on eleven days in January, to the aggre- 

 gate amount of rather more than one and a-half 

 inches — that is, to nearly 160 tons to the acre. 



The average mean temperature of London in 

 March is 42 Fahr. The average rainfall for London 

 in March is only between one inch and two inches, 

 but it averages full two inches at Brighton and some 

 other places to the west of Brighton along the south 

 coast. 



