ASTRONOMY. 203 



of the places where they are located. In a few years these various ob- 

 servatories will be coin])lf'tely organized, the personnel consisting: in 

 part of astronomical students who have obtained their acquaintance 

 with the practical branches of the science in the Observatory of Paris. 

 The director therefore aims at providing a medium in the Bulletin As- 

 tronomiqne whereby the work of French astronomers may be si)eedily 

 made known, and where at the same time an analysis of the contents 

 of the princii^al foreign periodicals, etc., may be available to them. 



The Bulletin will thus present two distinct sections : The first will 

 be composed of observations of current interest, ephemerides of planets 

 and comets, and memoiis or notices on various questions in theoretical 

 and practical astronomy. The second will comprise as complete a 

 resume as possible of astronomical intelligence and an analysis of the 

 principal periodicals and newly-published works. Further, in a sup- 

 plementary section it is intended to introduce articles on subjects re- 

 lating to the sciences allied to astronomy, as terrestrial physics, geodesy, 

 and meteorology, not excluding points of interest in the historj' of the 

 science. Contributions from foreign astronomers are invited. {Na- 

 ture.) 



The mathematical magazine conducted under the name of the Analyst 

 for the past ten years, by Mr. J. E. Hendricks, will, we learn from Sci- 

 ence, be continued under the editorial charge of Ormond Stone, profes- 

 sor of astronomy, and William M. Thornton, professor of engineering, 

 with the title, Annals of Mathematics, Pure and Applied. The numbers 

 will be issued at intervals of two months, beginning February 1, 1884. 

 In scope the journal will embrace the development of new and impor- 

 tant theories of mathematics, pure and applied; the solution of useful 

 and interesting problems; the history and bibliography of various 

 branches of mathematics ; and critical examinations and reviews of im- 

 portant treatises and text-books on mathematical subjects. The office 



of publication will be at the University of Virginia. 



« 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The council of the Eoyal Astronomical Society have awarded the 

 gold medal this year to Mr. A. A. Common, for his photographs of 

 celestial bodies. President Stone, in placing the medal in .Mr. Com- 

 mon's hands, remarked to the society that their council had been less 

 influenced by originality in the methods adopted than by the great 

 practical success which has attended the efibrts of Mr. Common in this 

 important field of astronomical research. He began with a 5^-inch re- 

 fracting telescope ten years ago, and from time to time enlarged his fa- 

 cilities for celestial photography, until in 1879 he was in possession of 

 a great reflector of 3 feet diameter, whose superior character is well 

 known in astronomy from its behavior in observing the moons of Mars, 

 and the fainter satellites of Saturn. Early in 1880 the first attempt 



