302 Royal Astronomical Society. 
While on this subject, it may further be stated that the 13th 
volume of the Memoirs, referred to in the last annual report as 
about to be presented to the Society by Mr. Baily, and containing 
the catalogues of Ptolemy, Ulugh Beigh, ‘Tycho Brahé, Halley, 
and Hevelius, is now nearly completed, and nothing but the atten- 
tion requisite for the Cavendish experiment has prevented it from 
being actually ready. Thus the Society receives, in the course of 
one year, two of the most valuable volumes of its Memoirs, both 
from the labour, and one at the expense of the same Fellow, and 
that Fellow the one of all to whom the Society is most indebted, in- 
dependently of these rich contributions. 
In the course of the last year, the question has been started, 
whether it would not be advisable to alter the numerical typography 
now in use, and to return to the old method of forming the Arabic 
figures, in the manner still usually practised in handwriting. A 
committee appointed to consider this subject reported unanimously 
in favour of the alteration, and the Council have accordingly given 
directions that it shall be carried into effect in all the future publi- 
cations of the Society. The printers have met the proposition with 
a readiness which deserves the thanks of the Society, the change 
involving, as it does, some trouble and expense. Fortunately, 
however, it has been found that though the old type has been almost 
entirely disused for many years, the punches necessary to re-cast it 
are still, of every size which the Society wants, in the hands of the 
type-founders. The Council strongly recommend the alteration to 
the fellows in their own private publications, as they are sure that 
the form now in use bears no comparison, as to distinctness and 
legibility, with that which it is proposed to restore. 
During the past year, the trustees of the Radcliffe Observatory 
at Oxford have, for the first time, published the observations made 
at that establishment, in an octavo volume, containing the observa- 
tions made in the year 1840. The director of that observatory, 
Mr. Johnson, is one of our most active members, and well kuown 
to us as the author of the excellent catalogue of southern stars, 
printed at the expense of the East India Company, and rewarded 
by this Society with its Gold Medal in the year 1835. Mr. John- 
son, conceiving that it would be desirable to confine his attention 
principally to a selected class of observations, determined to re- 
observe those stars in Groombridge’s catalogue that are situate to 
the north of the zenith of his place. ‘The volume, here mentioned, 
contains the first attempt of this kind: and in it we see the same 
marks of minute accuracy and scrupulous integrity that were so 
evident in his former publication. ‘The Council trust that the pub- 
lication will be continued in like manner from year to year, as it is 
only in this way that the progress of discovery can be rendered of 
essential and permanent advantage. 
It has been mentioned at the preceding anniversaries of this 
Society that the British Association had appropriated funds for 
three very useful and important catalogues, which the Council are 
