1864. | Astronomy. 109 
wolf, or a dog, as a male or female bear. Here then are heavenly 
animals inhabiting that part of the sky where this constellation is to 
be found, and recognized by ancient astronomers because they saw four 
stars in a square, and three occupying a right line. They must have 
been endued with a better eyesight than ours, and the sky must have 
been very clear. Since they say it is a she-bear, let it be one. They 
were very lucky in being able to distinguish it.” King Alphonso was 
evidently much in advance of his age to speak thus slightingly of popu- 
lar tradition ; his work isa worthy monument of his energy and genius. 
Mr. J. R. Hind has brought out a third edition of his ‘ Introduc- 
tion to Astronomy,’ which is decidedly the best arranged elementary 
manual in the English or any other language. A new catalogue of 
standard stars has been issued from the Harvard College Observatory, 
Cambridge, U.S.A. It is a compilation of right ascensions from the 
best catalogues, of 152 stars, with copious constants for reduction, 
creditably arranged by Mr. Truman Henry Safford. The year 1863 
has, amongst other events, witnessed the successful starting of what is, 
as far as we have been able to ascertain, the first purely astronomical 
periodical ever issued in England. The ‘Astronomical Register ’ 
occupies a field hitherto a wide waste, and deserves to find a place on 
every astronomer’s table. The Rev. R. Main, Radcliffe observer at 
Oxford, has recently published a ‘College Manual of Physical Astro- 
nomy,’ designed for the use of students. After a long delay, rendered 
necessary by the discovery of certain collateral errors, the second 
portion of ‘ Bessel’s Zones’ has just been published in a handsome 
volume, at St. Petersburg. It will be recollected that Bessel observed 
a large number of stars lying between 15° 8. and 45° N., down to the 
ninth magnitude inclusive; his observations having been left unre- 
duced, the task was undertaken by the St. Petersburg Academy of 
Sciences, which entrusted the work to the hands of M. Weisse. The 
first portion, comprising 31,085 stars, lying within 15° on either side of 
the equator, was given to the world in 1846 ; but the second, containing 
31,445 stars, lyimg in a zone extending 30° northwards of the parallel 
of 15°, for reasons above stated, did not appear till 1863. 
At the head of literary announcements undoubtedly we must place 
a new edition of Admiral W. H. Smyth’s world-renowned ‘ Cycle of 
Celestial Objects.’ This book, long out of print, being constantly asked 
for, its venerable and gallant author decided some time since to reissue 
it with such alterations and additions as twenty years made requisite. 
The new edition is now in progress, the more laborious part of it 
having been undertaken by the Admiral’s accomplished son-in-law, 
Mr. Isaac Flitcher, of Tarn Bank, Workington. 
Though Mr. Carrington has abandoned the observatory for the 
brewery, his important Redhill results will nevertheless be made avail- 
able,—so far at least as regards his solar-spot observations, which are 
now in a forward state for publication. 
The Obituary of 1863 happily contains no more leading names 
than Edward Josiah Cooper of Markree, Esq., and ex-M.P. for the 
county of Sligo; Virgilio Trettenero of Padua; J. W. H. Lehman of 
Gottingen; and M. Weisse of Cracow. 
