324 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



claim of Jansscn and Lockyer to the discovery that the promi- 

 nonce-spectra can be seen without an eclipse. Professor Brayley 

 supplies an interesting i)aper on the relation of the luminous 

 prominences to the facula3 of the sun. He shows that there is 

 stroni^ reason for supposini;^ the faculie and prominences to be 

 identical, or at least that the latter are the superior terminations 

 of the fi)rmt'r. Some very sini^ular facts connected with the mean 

 distances of the asteroids, and the commensurai/ility of their 

 periods with that of Jupiter, are pointed out by Prof. Kirkwood. 

 He shows that wherever there is a wider <rap than usual between 

 the asteroids (considered in the order of their distances from the 

 sun), that gap invarial)ly corresponds with such values of the 

 mean distance as Avould give a period having some simple asso- 

 ciation of commensurability with the period of Jupiter. It is 

 well known that any such association would result in disturbance, 

 and Prof. Kirkwood argues that the particles whic-h, on the nebu- 

 lar hypothesis, would have occupied these vacant zones, must 

 have been so disturbed by Jupiter, as to adopt eccentric orbits, 

 and so come into collision with exterior or interior particles. 

 Even if this did not happen, the disturbance of their orbits would 

 lead to a change of period, ami so of mean distance. Either 

 result serves to account for the gaps in the asteroidal zone. He 

 considers that very strong evidence is afforded by these coinci- 

 dences (which certainly cannot be looked upon as accidental) in 

 favor of the nebular h3'[)()t.hesis. He goes on to examine tlie 

 Saturnian rings, which he remarks have been quoted in Proctor's 

 Saturn as furnishing strong evidence of the nebular hypothesis 

 of Laplace. He shows th:it the great division between Uk; rings 

 corresponds exactly with that })ortion of the; width of the system 

 where the partieles would move in periods commensurate with 

 those of the four inner satellites. The coincidence is certainly 

 most remarkable. — Quarterly Jonrnal of Science, April, 18G9. 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, the 

 Astronomer Royal stated that Ik; had (obtained from Dr. ^Miller, 

 of Cambridge, evidence conlirmatorv of the connection which has 

 been supposed to exist between comets and meteors. It will be 

 remembered that IMr. Huggins' analysis of Comet n, 18G8, 

 showed that that object consisted of carbon in the state of incan- 

 descent gas. It appears that there are four meteoric stones, at 

 least, wliicli contain carbon. Of these, one fell in the south of 

 France, one attlieCape of Good Hope, one at Debreczin, in Hun- 

 gary, and the fourili at Orgeuil, in France. The number of 

 discovered asteroids has now reached lOG. 



Mr, J. Tebbutt, Jr., supplies a series of observations made by 

 him upon the star i Argiis. He compared this singular variable 

 "with neighboring stars. Itajipears from these observations, that 



V Argiis lias not exceeded the sixth magnitude during the j>ast 

 two years. Thus we are compelled to reject the Iheor}' of Pro- 

 fessor Wolf, who assigned a law of variation according to which 

 the eixuh < f minimum brilliancy sliould have occurred in 18G1, 

 and ih(! magnitude of th(i star should have been 3. G. Ccrtainlv 



V Argiis is the most remarkable star in the whole heavens. A 



