452 Zoological Society : Mr, Ossgw on a tnicroscopic 



the two stars exactly on the same meridian, and diff. decl. = 13". 

 That is, 



1780-+ Pos.360° 0' Dist. 13"-00 



1822- .. 227 19 5''-55 



1834-35 .. 223 34 4"'80 



But, of all the double stars in the heavens, if Dunlop's measures of 

 it are to be depended on, the star 6 (Bode) Eridani is, perhaps, the 

 most remarkable. This star has occurred to me both in my 20-feet 

 sweeps and in my equatorial reviews, and has been measured, in both 

 cases, without being aware in the one what star it was — in the other, 

 that it had been previously observed as double. By subsequent com- 

 parison, the place identifies it with Dunlop's No. 5 (Ast. Soc. Mem. 

 vol. iii., part ii., pp. 267 and 259). His angle is 73° 6' nf by 3 ob- 

 servations, of which he states the particulars, in December J 825, 

 that is to say, 1825*9, Pos. = 16° 54', in my notation ; whereas, by 

 my sweep, with which the equatorial measures agree almost exactly, 

 the position for 1834, October 5, was 121° 30', giving a rotation of 

 almost 105° in nine years, or averaging 10°-67 per annum, which, if 

 continued, would bring it round in a period of little more than thirty 

 years. 



** My mirrors tarnish with extraordinary rapidity. Half-a-dozen 

 nights' sweeping dims their fresh lustre ; and three months' work so 

 effectually spoils them, as to render it useless to go on. Happily 

 I had taken the precaution to bring out a complete polishing appa- 

 ratus with me, and have been perfectly satisfied with the efficacy of 

 it, as you may judge I have reason to be, when I mention powers of 

 480, 800, and* 1200, as giving perfectly round and well-defined discs 

 with an aperture of twelve inches ; and, on one occasion, 1 have car- 

 ried the magnifying power as far (I believe, for I have no means of 

 measuring it otherwise than by the focal length of the lens,) as 2000, 

 without destroying useful vision. With a power 1200, and a reduced 

 equilateral triangular aperture, a Eridani was, I think, the most re- 

 gular, and beautiful object, on the superb night of the 6th instant, I 

 ever beheld. My sweeping-book says of it, * The disc a perfect circle, 

 and the six rays' (which the equilateral triangle always gives to large 

 stars,) 'extending, like delicate, perfectly straight, white-hotrods, 

 into the field long after the star was withdrawn from it.* " 



HI. Transits of the Moon with Moon-culminating Stars, observed 

 at Cambridge Observatory in the month of December, 1834. 



IV. Observed Transits of the Moon and Moon-culminating Stars, 

 over the meridian of Edinburgh Observatory, in December 1834, by 

 Mr. Henderson. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Feb. 24, 1835. — A paper was read by Mr. Owen, entitled, "De- 

 scription of a Microscopic Entozoon infesting the Muscles of the Hu- 

 man Body." The author observes, that upwards of fifteen different 

 kinds of internal parasites are already known to infest the human 

 body, but none have been found of so minute a size, or existing in 

 su«h astonishing numbers, as the species about to be described. 



