Meteorological and Astronomical Notices. 177 



for his lost wife, some other astronomer had succeeded in finding a 

 comet, which would otherwise assuredly have fallen an earlier prize to 

 his superior skill in searching the heavens ; or as Bonaparte exclaimed 

 ' on hearing of the battle of Trafalgar when he was on the victorious 

 field of Austerlitz, that "he could not be everywhere at once;" so 

 the great English planet discoverer, Mr Hind, may complain that he 

 cannot be attending to everything; that when he goes with a portable 

 instrument to observe a total solar eclipse in a foreign country, he 

 cannot be searching for new planets in Mr Bishop's Observatory. 

 And at least it is an additional proof of the richness of the field of 

 discovery, that when almost all the astronomers of note had gone 

 to the Continent to observe the eclipse of July 28, another, M. 

 Gasparis, of Naples, who could not stir from home, succeeded in find- 

 ing, only the next day, another of the asteroidal planets. It ap- 

 peared as a star of the 9th magnitude, and has been named Eunomia. 

 Its place amongst the other members of that celestial family, will be 

 found by the following determinations, viz., mean distance = 2*46, 

 periodic time 1406 days. Its position in the sky, when found, was 

 18^ 16™, R. A., and 26° 4' south declination. 



New Satellites of Uranus. — On November 3d, Mr Lassel of 

 Liverpool, as active and successful a discoverer of satellites as Mr 

 Hind or M. Gasparis of planets, wrote to announce of his sus- 

 pected discovery in October 24th having been confirmed ; and that 

 he can now state confidently, that Uranus has two satellites interior 

 to the closest, suspected by Sir W. Herschel. This had a period of 

 five days, but the two new ones have for their time of revolution 

 four days, and 2-5 days respectively. 



" These new satellites," he says, " are very faint objects, probably 

 much less than half the brightness of the conspicuous ones, and 

 generally the nearest has appeared the brightest. All four were 

 steadily seen at one view in the 20-feet equatorial, with a magnifying 

 power of 778 in the more tranquil movements of the atmosphere. 

 The finest definition of the planet and freedom from all loose light in 

 the field of view is necessary for the scrutiny of these most minute 

 and delicate objects." 



Standard Thermometers. — Mr Sheepshanks, who has been en- 

 gaged for some time past in the construction of a standard scale of 

 length, has at last got over one of the principal difficulties, viz., 

 procuring sufficiently accurate thermometers to ascertain the tempe- 

 rature, and the consequent expansion of the scale. His success here 

 will doubtless be of service to others elsewhere, as a thermometer is 

 so essential an instrument of all scientific research, and though so 

 apparently simple, is one of the most difficult problems in practical 

 science. The stage of accuracy to which Mr Sheepshanks has ar- 

 rived, is to be able to depend on a thirtieth, or even a fiftieth, of a 

 degree of Fahrenheit ; the height of the mercurial colunm being 

 read off by a small telescope and micrometer. The bulbs are gene- 



VOL. LIT. NO. cm.— JANUARY 1852. M 



