76 Aslronomy, 



carrying on with all quarters of the globe, have long excited surprise 

 that a pui)lic repository for the productions of distant countries 

 has not been sooner established : it is, however, expected that 

 the liberality of its inhabitants and of the friends of science will 

 soon increase the foundation now laid of such a laudable under- 

 taking, as many valuable donations have already been received. 

 The ^.oological part (filling two commodious rooms) is systema- 

 tically arranged with reference to the modern discoveries and im- 

 provements, by Mr. Wm. Swainson, F.L.S., who has superin- 

 tended the whole. The collection of Zoophytes are uncommonly 

 hnc, and are arranged after the admirable system of Lamarck. 



The gallery of pictures and sculptures has likewise been en- 

 riched by a fine series of casts from the Phygalian marbles, de- 

 posited there by John Foster, jim. esq. well known as the com> 

 paiiion of Mr. Cockerell, while prosecuting those interesting re- 

 searches in Greece which led to their discovery. An academy 

 of painting is to be immediately established. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The true angular distances of the moon, from a certain num- 

 ber of fixed stars throughout each month, and from the sun also 

 in the first and last quarters of each lunation, are calculated, for 

 every third hour at Greenwich, and published in the Nautical 

 Almanack, which furnish the means to navigators of finding the 

 longitude ; through observations which they may make of the 

 distance of the moon fiom a star or from the sun, for comparir 

 son with the Greenwich distance of the same luminaries, at that 

 instant, obtained by interpolation. The defect of this method 

 of finding the longitude, highly useful as it is, consists in the 

 slow apparent motion of the moon, in approaching or receding 

 from a star, which is fixed, and more so from the sun, which has 

 itself a slow apparent motion in the same direction with the 

 moon : on the contrary, several of the plunels, according to the 

 rate of their own motions visibly recede from or approach to- 

 wards the moon, through a considerable portion of each luna- 

 tion, and these planets, when so circumstanced, have a consider- 

 ably greater apparent velocity of approach or recession from the 

 moon, than the sun or any stars have therefrom. For vvant of 

 tallies of the apparent distances of the moon and the planets, 

 being published in the Almanacks, navigators have not yet been 

 able to avail themselves of the planets, in their Imiaj- observa- 

 tions; but this defect the Danish Government is about to supply, 

 by the Almanack for 1822, which is to appear in .June or-July 

 next, and contain the planets' distances from the moon every 

 three hours at Copenhagen, calculated under the directions of 

 M. Schumacher, Professor of Astronomy. 



