OX THE PKOGRESS OF SCIENCE. XV 



of the British Parliament in 1862, the House of Commons appointed 

 a select committee to consider and report on the subject. This com- 

 mittee, ably constituted, and assisted by the best scientific counsel, 

 have, after six months' investigation, recently reported " that they 

 have been unable to arrive at any definite or satisfactory opinion re- 

 specting the matter entrusted to them." 



Specialties of Recent Scientific Progress. In the departments of 

 Mechanics, Physics, and Chemistry, while there has been continuous 

 and important progress, no achievement has been made during the 

 past year -worthy of special notice. As regards projectiles and armor- 

 plates, continued experimentation and actual war service have, as yet, 

 led to no universally-accepted conclusions. The problem of photo- 

 graphing in natural colors seems fast approaching a solution, and 

 awaits but the discovery of a method to render the colors permanent, 

 to be, even now, a success. The spectroscope, with varied improve- 

 ments, has already become a familiar instrument with chemists, and 

 during the past year has given us some most interesting and positive 

 additions to our knowledge of the fixed stars; so that it is not too 

 much to expect that soon these almost inconceivably remote bodies 

 may severally be made to describe, in the rays of light they flash to us, 

 the nature of their elementary structure, and their chemical relations 

 to the world we inhabit. 



Liquid Diffusion. Some important practical applications have also 

 been made of Dr. Graham's researches on " Liquid Diffusion," and the 

 Council of the Royal Society, England, in awarding to him the Cope- 

 ley Medal for 1862, intimate that since Davy startled the scientific 

 world by his discoveiy of the metallic bases, no scientific researches 

 have been published which are so pregnant with important results. 



Astronomy. The record of the progress of Astronomical Science, 

 during the past year, is a brilliant one, and includes the discovery of 

 four new asteroids, four new comets, and a companion or satellite to 

 Sirius. The number of stars known to be variable in brightness has 

 also been increased, and one such star has been found among those 

 visible to the naked eye. More interesting still is the discovery of the 

 existence of variable nebulas, phenomena which seem even more 

 unaccountable than that of the variable stars. The regular periodical 

 return of Encke's Comet also took place in the beginning of the year 

 1862, and when first observed varied only about a minute and a half 

 from its predicted or theoretical place, a quantity equal to about one- 

 twentieth of the apparent diameter of the sun, and this when it had 

 not been visible for three years. Our readers can infer from this 



