Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 211 



ceding comets ; and nineteen for which elliptical orbits have been 

 calculated with some degree of probability, making the total number 

 of periodical comets twenty-seven. 



In the latter jjart of the paper a general account of remarkable 

 comets is given, commencing with that mentioned by Ovid, and con- 

 tinued down to 1843. The author has collected together the best 

 determinations of the orbits of periodical comets, and many parti- 

 culars relating to the phj'sical appearance of these bodies. 



XXXVII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 

 ON Newton's telescope at the royal society. 

 Gentlemen, Sid/nouth, Feb. 9, 1847. 



"VTOUR correspondent Mr. Weld charges me, in a somewhat angry 

 -*- tone, with having made an unfounded statement respecting the 

 telescopes of Newton and HadleJ^ For my own justification I sub- 

 join the extract from which I derived my information, and leave the 

 result in the hands of Sir James South and Mr. Weld. 

 With respect, I am, Gentlemen, 



Yours obliged, 



N. S. Heineken. 

 " The Newtonian reflecting telescope was discovered by the head, 

 and made by the hands, of Sir Isaac Newton in 1671. Its large 

 speculum was two inches and three-tenths in diameter; its focal 

 length was about five inches, and magnified thirty-eight times : it is 

 in the possession of the Royal Society. 1 regret to say it is in a 

 most dilapidated condition, and its eye-glass is lost. The next of 

 any importance was made by Hadley in 1728 ; its large speculum's 

 diameter was about six inches ; its focal length about sixty-three 

 inches ; it magnified 230 times ; in performance it equalled the great 

 Huygenian refracting telescope of six inches diameter and 123 feet 

 focus. He gave it to the Royal Society. Its metal is ruined, and its 

 tube, its stand, and other of its appurtenances are lost, &c." — Times. 

 I have extracted the above from the Magazine of Science, vol. vii. 

 p. 36.— N. S. H. 



Note. — We learn, on making inquiry of eminent prnctica! astronomers, 

 on whose judj^enient we can rely, that there is no foundation for the repre- 

 sentation given in the above-cited letter to the Times newspaper. At the 

 same time we cannot see that any blame whatever attiiches to our much- 

 respected r<)rrcspr)ndent Mr, Heineken, relying as he has done on the au- 

 thority which he quotes. — V,o. 



FORMATION OF SULI'HOVINIC ACID. BY M. M. E. MILLON. 



The author .«tates, that some years since wishing to jjrejiarc sul- 

 pliovinic acid witli peculiar care, he made a mixture of 8ulj)huric acid 

 and alcohol in a ])latina crucil)le surrounded with ice and common 

 salt : the acid mixture being afterwards saturated, did not yield the 

 slightest trace of sulj)hovinate. 



Wishing afterwards to ascertain precisely the conditions under 



