Ga2805y) [April 
PROCEEDINGS OF METROPOLITAN SOCIETIES.* 
THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 
THE contributions to the transactions of this Society have been, during 
the period which we are about to chronicle—namely, the months of 
November, December, and January—of an extremely interesting cha- 
racter, and the subject to which the largest amount of new information 
has been added is the physical character of the Sun. 
Let us state by way of preface, however, that at the first meeting 
of the session, November 13, 1863, the business of the meeting com- 
menced with an announcemeut from the chairman, Dr. Lee, V.P. (who 
presided in the absence of the President, the Astronomer Royal), to 
the effect that an Anglo-French astronomical treaty had been made, 
the contracting parties being M. Le Verrier, the director of the Paris 
Observatory, on the one side, and our own Astronomer Royal on the 
other ; the object of which is so to divide the large amount of work 
that is usually exacted from national observatories between the two 
establishments so that, whilst nothing important is omitted, the astro- 
nomical observer shall have some relief at those seasons when the re- 
quirements of science press peculiarly heavy upon him. 
The observations of the Moon, as our readers are aware, have ever 
been followed at the Greenwich Observatory with unfailing assiduity. 
Whilst that body passes the meridian in the evening, the addition of 
the planetary observations only adds to the labour of the Observatory 
in proportion to the number of observations ; but when the moon is a 
morning observation, the evening observations of the planets add a 
very oppressive labour. In order to diminish this oppression on the 
staff, an arrangement of the following kind has been made between the 
directors of the two Observatories :—The Paris Observatory undertakes 
the planetary observations from full moon to new moon, the Greenwich 
Observatory those from new moon to full moon. The small planets 
are, with some few exceptions, observed only between the hours 10 
and 13, solar time. It is to be hoped that this example will be fol- 
lowed, not only by public Observatories, but by the many private 
establishments which are in the habit of doing good work. A very 
great amount of labour and time is no doubt wasted through the want 
of combined effort. 
We must, however, for the present pass over the papers read at the 
November meeting, and refer to two by the Rev. W. R. Dawes, at 
those of December and January, on “ The Telescopic Appearance of the 
Hiterior Envelope of the Sun and of its Spots.” 
Solar physics always command a great deal of interest, and the name 
* Our limited space, and still incomplete organization, necessitate the post- 
ponement of articles on the Proceedings of two or three Metropolitan Scientific 
Societies, 
