i'KO(aii;ss oi' Asriioxu-MV roi; isim and ]s!»2. 717 



siil)j«'ct to ii sl(»\v rctaidiitioii, wliicii in its tiiiii is not uiiitonii 

 Tlir icsiili (a) was at liist |»i(»ii(»Mii(e(l iiiipossililc, and it is even now 

 so r(',iiai'(l<'(l in s()in<' (HiarttMs. I'lof. Xewconih. liowevci'. soon after 

 found the deft'ct ill the tliroiy. and is now as cordially in faxor i»f tlu- 

 it'snlt Liix'cn 1»_\' ohscrx at ion as lie was orij^iiially against it.. • 

 Now. ina.\ it not reasonably be ask(Mi. if the direct deduction from 

 obscixation lias lc(l to the correction (tf the theory in the lii'st pur- 

 ticnlar, is it l)eyoiid hope that it may do so in rej^aid to the second!?'' 



SiUih a truly scientiti<- attitude inspires contideiice that the search is 

 beiii^' ri.u'htly conducted : but the most sauj^uinecould hardly be [)re- 

 l)ared for the reconciliation of obsei\ ation and theory in the very next 

 l)ai)er of the series, jniblished six weeks later. 



1>\' this time Mi-. Chandler had rearranged his material, and found, 

 not oiH' ntriiihlc rotation of the i»ole. but two cotistdul rotations (with a 

 (pialiticatioii). one in 4L'7 da\sand the other in about a year. The(|ual- 

 iticatio!i is that the (iniplitiHlf of the latter is appareiitl\' Aariabh-, not 

 the period. The superj)osition of these two rotations is almost exactly 

 e([idvalent. for the obser\ations a\aihible, to the law (or summarx ot 

 observation, as it nH.nht fairly be called) pr«'\ioiisly announced. To 

 make clear the no\elty of this discoveiy it may be remaiked that, 

 althouLi'h tluctuations in zt'iiitli distances of annual ]>erio(l have loni; 

 been reco.unized, tliey have iienerally been ascribed to temperature 

 effects, in which case the maxima and niinima for all stations in the 

 Xorthern Hemisphere sluuild occur at the sjiuie eixx-li — -sax , midsummer 

 and midwinter. But this is not the case with the annual term now 

 reveale<l. The epoch chaiiiies with the Ionf;itu<le, showing' that the 

 pole moves just as in the case of the 4L*7-day term. 



It is somewhat remarkable that two formuhe differing so much 

 in form should be fouiul to rei)resent the obsei\ations almost. 

 e(pially well. Api)arently this is to be attiibuted chiefly to the varia- 

 bility in am])litude of the annual term, and as yet this variability has 

 not been accounted for. But to have advanced the work to this stage 

 in such a short time is a great achievement, and much may conlidently 

 be expected from Mr. ("haiidlei's future work. lie i>oiiits (»ut. in a 

 paper dated January 2, 1893. that the discovery of these periodic in- 

 ('(pndities in the latitude makes it necessary to go over much old work 

 afresh, and is himself leading the way with a discussion of the aberra 

 tion constant. 



in the saiin- paix-r lie shows that the recent results obtained at Ber- 

 lin, Prague, Strasbiiig, I'ulkowa, Ifockville, and Honolulu give a meai- 

 correction to his tlnal forninia of only five days in the eiKX'ii; '"and tlif 

 accordance of tlie separate values is high testimony to the skill of tlie 

 observers, to whom astronomers owe a (leej) debt of gratitude tbi- their 

 laborious and conscientious work." 



ISUoulard fiim . — In ie\ie\\ing tlu' recent |M-ogress made in the intro- 

 duction of uniform standards of time M. Pas(piier states that in (!au- 



