Barker.] J-t)t) [April 1, 



breath. When this iuhalation of breath had been carried on for a consid- 

 erable time the patient was passed three times under the belly and over 

 the back of the brute." 



Bingworm : "The common cure for this disease was rubbing with sil- 

 ver. The modes of rubbing were various." 



Warts : "Wrap up in a parcel as many grains of barley as there are 

 warts, and lay it on the public road. Whoever finds and opens it inherits 

 the warts. 



"Rub the warts with a piece of raw meat, bury it, and as it decays the 

 warts disappear. 



"Wash the warts with water that has collected in the hollow parts of a 

 layer-stone.'" 



Eye Disease : "Catch alive frog and lick the frog's eyes with the tongue. 

 The person who does so has only to lick with the tongue any diseased 

 eye, and a cure is effected. " Compare this with the cure for burns. 



Bheumaiism : "Those who were born with their feet first possessed 

 great power to heal all kinds of sprains, lumbago and rheumatism, either 

 by rubbing the aflected part or by trampling on it. The greater virtue 

 lay in the feet." 



071 the Henry Draper Memorial Photographs of Stellar Spectra. By Oeorge 

 F. Barker. 



{Bead before the American Philosophical Society, April 1, 1SS7.) 



By the courtesy of Prof Edward C. Pickering, Director of the Harvard 

 College Observatory, I have the pleasure of exhibiting to the members of 

 the American Philosophical Society some of the remarkable photographs 

 of stellar spectra which have been recently taken under his direction, and 

 which form part of an original research to be called the Henry Draper 

 Memorial. 



The first photograph of a stellar spectrum ever taken was that of the 

 star Sirius (a Canis majoris), obtained by Dr. Huggins in 1863. But, as 

 he says, it was scarcely more than a stain on the plate, and showed no in- 

 dications of fixed lines.* The first spectrum photograph showing distinct 

 lines, was obtained by Dr. Henry Draper in 1872. The star photographed 

 was Vega (a Lyrte), and the spectrum showed four strong lines toward 

 the more refrangible end. It was taken with the twenty-eight inch x'eflect- 

 ing telescope which Dr. Draper had himself constructed. Subsequently 

 he used for this purpose the twelve inch refractor which he had obtained 

 from A. Clark & Sons in 1875. Up to the year 1877, he had taken, beside 

 a Lyraj, the spectra of a. Aquihe, Arcturus, Capella, the moon, Venus, 

 Mars and Jupiter.f In 1880 this refractor was exchanged for another, also 



* Phil. Trans., 1S64, 428. 



t Am. J. Sci., Ill, xviii, 419, 1879. 



