474 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Of forty. one planets, L. P.'s between and 180=30 



10 and 190 = 30 

 Of fort}' planets SI between 35 and 215 = 30 



45 and 225 = 30 

 and between 354° to 355° and 174 to 175 = 31 

 We here perceive that there are thirty L. P.'s situated in the helio- 

 centric semicircle between 0° to 10° and 180° to 190°. It is also 

 the fact, that there are thirty ascending nodes between 357° to 7° 

 and 177° to 187°, which may be called the same semicircle as that 

 in which the thirty L. P.'s are found. 



The quadrant containing the greatest number of L. P.'s of the 

 forty-one planets, is that between 10° and 100°=20. 



Those containing the greatest number of ascending nodes, are 



between 36 to 43 and 126 to 133 = 20 

 and between 62 to 66 and 152 to 156=20. 

 Surely there must be an undiscovered cause determining the 

 orbits in this way. Having laid these facts before my first assistant 

 Mr. Graham, he computed the degree of probability of such a law, 

 arguing thus: — ''Were the nodes and perihelia indifferent to all 

 heliocentric longitudes, it would of course be an equal chance in 

 the case of a planet whose orbit had not been determined, in which 

 semicircle either would be found ; and the a priori probability that, 

 of the forty-one known L. P.'s, thirty would be in one semicircle, is 

 about ^—-^ ; and that of the forty ascending nodes, thirty-one would 

 be in one semicircle, is about 4 ' 2 1 . Thus the probability that there 

 is some influence causing a tendency to one semicircle, ascertained 

 from the facts before us, is very strong: for, for the L. P.'s, the odds 

 are about 660 to 1, and for the ascending nodes about 4430 to 1 in 

 favour of such a supposition." But after all it may be an accidental 

 coincidence ; as, consistently with the laws of planetary motion, 

 such a congregation of perihelia or nodes may occur at periods 

 exceedingly remote. The further consideration of this subject must 

 be left to analysts, of leisure and inclination to pursue it. 



LXVI.I. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



RESEARCHES UPON THE MAGNETIC POWER OF OXYGEN. 

 BY M. E. BECQUEREL. 



IN a memoir read on the 21st of May, 1849, at the Academy of 

 Sciences, relating to the action of magnets upon all bodies, I 

 announced that oxygen is a magnetic body capable of being attracted 

 by magnets, and that atmospheric air also possesses this property in 

 consequence of the amount of oxygen contained in it. 



The process employed to measure the action exerted by a magnet 

 upon gases, as compared with that produced upon a body which is 

 taken for unity, consisted in placing little sticks of wax, sulphur, 

 glass, charcoal, &c. in vacuo, and in different gases, so as to ascer- 

 tain the magnetic power of these gases from the difference in the 

 effects observed under these two circumstances ; it is susceptible of 



