PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY. 



1909. 



First Meeting : 5th May. 1909. 



Present : Mr. Edgar R. Waite (President), in the chair, and over sixty others. 



The President briefly referred to the work done by the Council during 

 the recess. 



He announced that the banquet to Lieutenant Shackleton organized by the In- 

 stitute had been a success in every way, and would necessitate no call on the finances 

 of the Institute. He made reference to the carrying-on of observations at the Arthur's 

 Pass Tunnel, to the inojectcd visit to the Chatham Islands, and to the proposed schemes 

 initiated by the Council for examining the C'hristchurch artesian system, and for carry- 

 ing out a bathymetrical, geological, biological, and physical survey of the Canterbury 

 lakes. 



The Secretary read letters from Professor E. Rutherford, F.R.S.. and 

 from Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, acknowledging the congratulations of 

 the Institute on receiving their recent honours. 



The former stated that, as an old member of the Canterbury Institute and as an 

 honorary member of the New Zealand Institute, he took a keen interest in the welfare 

 of the societies affiliated to it. His first papers were read before the former, and he was 

 in no way ashamed of those papers ; in fact, he esteemed them as highly as any he had 

 wi'itten. 



Dr. A. R. Wallace, after acknowledging the congratulations, requested the gift of 

 seeds of plants from the subantarctic islands of New Zealand. 



The President drew attention to the circulars issued with reference to 

 the Hector Memorial. 



He asked that all who intended to subscribe to such a worthy object should forward 

 their subscriptions to Dr. Charles Chilton at an early date. 



A large number of donations of books and papers were laid on the table. 



Five new members were nominated. 



The retiring President (Mr. E. G. Hogg) delivered his ex-presidential 

 address on " Recent Advances in Astronomy." 



After a brief account of the manner in which the light-changes of a variable star 

 are graphically represented, the Icctin'er showed the light -curves of the stars Algol and 

 /3 Lyr£e, and described the generally accepted view of the physical constitution of 

 these binary stars. He then entered into a detailed account of the recent work of M. 

 Nordniann, in the stars Algol and X Tauri, by which that observer had been led to believe 

 that the waves giving rise to red and violet light travelled through S])ace with different 

 velocities. M. Nordmann had passed the light from the above stars thj-ough thin screens, 

 coloured red, green, and blue, and traced their light-curves for each of the three kinds 

 of light : he found that for Algol the minimum occurred earlier for the rays of light 

 passing through the red screen than for those passing through the blue screen by about 

 sixteen min>ites of time. Assuming that Pritchard's estimate of the parallax of Algol 

 was correct, and that Algol's distance from the earth was about sixty light-years, it 

 follows, according to Nordmann, that the longer light-waves travel through space faster 

 than the short waves by about 150 metres a second. In the case of \ Tauri the minimum 

 for red waves preceded that for blue waves by from fortjj minutes to one hour, leading 

 to the conclusion that this star is about three times as far from the earth as Algol. After 

 referring to M. Lebedew's suggestion that this a])i>arent dis))ersiou of light might be 

 ex]ilained by an asymmetrical disposition of the atmos))here of Algol's satellite, the 



