HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



i. r 9 



contains cantharides, bees, silkworms, and locusts. 



Next comes the large folio Nat. Hist, of Ferrante 



Imperato,* and the same year we find that most 



important work on the same subject by Ulysses Aldro- 



vandus published in folio at Bologna. t Vol. iv. 



of this tremendous achievement, which appeared 



A.D. 1604, contains seven books on insects, which 



recapitulate all that had previously been written on 



the subject ; the letter-press is supplemented by very 



numerous illustrations, making it altogether a most 



important production — not, however, a separate 



publication like Muffet's, but merely a single volume 



of a more comprehensive work. In the year 1605 



Clusius (who as we gather from hints in Muffet's 



11 Theatrum," was no mean entomologist, and himself 



a personal friend of Muffet's) published a " History 



of Exotic Animals and Plants."f This author, 



whose descriptions are remarkable for exactness and 



elegance, is most generally known to the scientific 



world as the delineator, in the work mentioned 



above, of that curious and now extinct bird, the 



Dodo. In 1616 we find a large folio by Columna, 



called " Observations on certain Aquatic and 



Terrestrial Animals, "§ in which one 'chapter treats 



of the glow-worm, and two others of beetles, while 



the second part is devoted to caterpillars. (| The 



last work of this class we have to notice is Archibald 



Simson's quarto, published at Edinburgh A.D. 1622, 



purporting to be a " History of all the Animal 



Creation, including Insects, found in the Holy 



Scriptures."^ 



W. Gardner. 



ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 

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



AT the meeting of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, held on May 14, Colonel Tupman 

 exhibited an engraving showing the new nebulrc in 

 the Pleiades, made from photographs by the brothers 

 Henry, and also a number of exquisite photographs 

 of the planet Jupiter, showing the red spot, and the 

 details of the dark belts. 



Mr. H. Grubb described a working model of an 

 observatory and equatorial mounting which he had 

 contrived for the 36-inch achromatic telescope of the 

 Lick Observatory in California. 



On entering the Observatory the observer will pick 

 up a small instrument attached to a rope of insulated 



* Dell' Historia Naturale libri 28 ; in fol., Napoli, 1599, and 

 other editions. 



f Historia Naturalis, 13 vols, in fol. Bunoniae. 1599, and 

 following years (best edition) ; in fol. Bunon., 1602 ; in fol. 

 Franckfort, 1623 ; in fol. Bunon., 1638. 



% Exoticarium libri decern quibusanimalium, plantarum, etc., 

 historia? describuntur ; in fol. Antverpiae, 1605. _ 



<5 Aquatilium et terrestrium, aliquotj animalium ahorumque 

 naturalium rerum observationes (with figures), in 4to, Romas, 

 1686. . . 



|| Eruca rutacea ejusque Chrysalidis et Papihoms observa- 

 tiones. 



If Hierogliphica animalium atque insectorum qui scnptuns 

 sacris inveniuntir, in 4to. 



wires. It contains nine contact keys, and is made to 

 fold like a book, so that it can be put in the observer's 

 pocket. By touching the first key the observer lights 

 up the building with electric lights. By pressing the 

 second key he moves the dome, and at the same time 

 opens the shutter, which can, by a contrivance 

 under the control of the observer, be anchored to the 

 wall of the observatory, so that when the dome is 

 moved the sL u cter is pulled open. The motion is 

 produced by means of a water-engine, the valves of 

 which are opened and shut by a piece of mechanism 

 which must be wound up every day by an assistant, 

 and this apparatus can be set in motion or stopped 

 by means of electro-magnets. By pressing another 

 key the observer can move the telescope in R.A., 

 and a fourth enables him to move it in declination. 

 The observer then has to bring himself into a position 

 to observe. The dome of the Lick Observatory will 

 be 70 feet in internal diameter. Instead of making 

 the observer climb into an observing chair, which 

 would require to be 25 feet high, and would be very 

 heavy to move, he presses a key which causes the 

 whole floor to move up or down, so that the observer 

 can be brought up to within a few feet of the level of 

 the eye-piece, and can comfortably sit on a low chair 

 without fear of falling or accident. The machinery 

 which would raise the floor of the Lick Observatory 

 would be made strong enough to allow of a ton and 

 a-half of observers being carried up with it. Such a 

 force might do some damage if the wrong key were 

 touched, and the floor went up while the observer 

 had his eye at the eye-piece. Mr. Grubb proposes 

 to provide against such an accident by hanging a 

 weight near to the eye end of the telescope, which, 

 when it touches the floor, will instantly cut off the 

 water supply. 



Dr. Leonard Waldo, of Yale, described a new 

 escapement for astronomical clocks. 



The Astronomer Royal has issued his annual 

 report to the Board of Visitors, which gives an 

 account of the work done in the Observatory during 

 the year terminating on the 20th of May. In this 

 report, among other interesting facts, he states that 

 the instrument for determining absolute personal 

 equations was completed last autumn, and several 

 series of observations have been taken with it ; the 

 results were very satisfactory (the accordance being 

 as close as could be expected), and seem to show 

 that all the observers observe in the direction of being 

 somewhat too late. 



The spectroscopic observations include a consider- 

 able number made of the new star which burst out 

 last August in the great nebula of Andromeda. 

 Measurements for the determination of the motion 

 of stars in the line of sight were continuously carried 

 on. Photographs of the sun were taken on 205 days. 

 By interpolating in the Greenwich series photographs 

 obtained in India and the Mauritius, photographs 

 were recorded in the yfear 1885 on 360 days. 



