194: RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



the quality of the images of the stars. This can be done with a sciii- 

 tilloscope or more accurately with the scintillometer, for it is this scin- 

 tilliitiou or superpositiou of au infinite number of movable images that 

 causes the nnsatisfactory seeing so often encountered. Herr Exner, in 

 studying the scintillation at Vienna, has not found a single night on 

 which this disagreeable phenomenon was not present. 



"The Observatory" on completing its tenth volume with the number 

 for December, 1887, passed from the hands of Messrs. Maunder, Down- 

 ing and Lewis to Messrs. Turner and Common. The editors' address 

 remains Hyde House, Westcombe Park, Blackheath, S. E., England. 



The tw^efth meeting of the International Astronomische Gesellschaft 

 was held at Kiel from the 29th to the 31st of August, 1887, under the 

 presidency of Dr. Auwers. The next meeting will be at Brussels iu 

 1889. 



A new society for encouraging the study of nature, the " Gesellschaft 

 Urania," has been established at Berlin under the i)residency of Pro- 

 fessor Forster, of the Berlin observatory. Popular lectures are given 

 on scientitic subjects, and a very well- written popular journal, "Him- 

 mel und Erde," is published, especial attention being paid to astron- 

 omy. 



Another new society, the "Societ6 Astronomique de France," founded 

 January 28, 1887, at Paris, by M. Flammarion, has met with remark- 

 able success. Reports are published in the "Observatory," and in 

 " L'Astronomie," and the proceedings appear in an annual bulletin. 



Among recent works of general interest to astronomers are Professor 

 Langley's "ISTew Astronomy," Young's "Text- book on Astronomy," 

 Proctor's " Old and New Astronomy," which is being published in 

 parts, and volume I, part 1, of Houzeau and Lancaster's admirable 

 " Bibliographie g6n6rale de I'astrouomie." 



ASTRONOMICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR 1888. 



The following list contains the titles of the most important books and 

 journal articles published during the year 18SS, with a few papers of 

 earlier date, that have come under the writer's notiio. A number of 

 titles have also been taken from reviews or catalogues v '.ere the pub- 

 lications themselves have not been accessible. A more complete bibliog- 

 raphy for the year 1887 has already been published in the- Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections, No. 664, and it has not seemed advisable to 

 extend the present list by including references to observations of comets 

 and asteroids, or the titles of journals or other annual publications. 

 The prices quoted are generally from Friedliinder's Natur-.p Novitates, 

 iu German "marks" (1 mark=LOO pfennige=l franc 25 centimes=25 

 cents, nearly). 



In the references to periodicals the volume and i)age are simply sep- 

 arated by a colon; thus: "Astron. Nachr., 118: 369," indicates volume 



