1^8 Scientific Intelligence. 



situated on the edge of the nebula, nor are they parallel to the edge, but 

 they appear to be entirely free from the nebulous matter, which seems to 

 retire from them in a semicircular form, as if they had either absorbed or 

 repelled the light from their discs. Mr Pond remarked the same curious 

 appearance round the five stars of the trapezium, from which the nebulous 

 matter seems also to have receded. He therefore supposes that the stars 

 have been in both cases the immediate cause of the disappearance of the 

 nebulous matter, and therefore he is anxious that other astronomers 

 should attend to the subject. 



Mr Pond has noticed a similar appearance of a still more decided cha- 

 racter, at some minutes distance from the trapezium. 



2. Local Attraction of the Plumb»Line. — The difference between the results 

 of the geodetical and the astronomical observations lately made in Italy, 

 amount in one case to nearly 27", and in another to 17". The matter 

 near the surface at Milan, appears to attract the plumb-line considerably 

 to the north of the vertical, and that near Rimini considerably to the 

 south.— Dublin Phil. Journal, No. ii. p. 449. 



3. Captain Ross on the Occultation of the Planet Herschel by the Moon.—' 

 In observing the immersion of Herschel behind the dark limb of the moon 

 on the 6th August 1824, with Mr Ramage's 25 feet reflector, Captain Ross 

 noticed that the light of it began to diminish before it touched the disc, 

 and it appeared to have extended one-third of its diameter on the dark part 

 of the moon, at the same time separated by a fine line of light before it 

 disappeared. At its emersion, on the contrary, it appeared one-fourth of its 

 diameter distant from the moon's western limb. — Mem. Astron. Soc. vol. 

 ii. part i. p. 91. 



4. Fifth Comet of 1825 in Eridanus. — In our 7th No. p. 176, § 5, 

 we have mentioned the discovery of this comet, and in No. viii. p. 377, 

 § 5, we have given the parabolic elements of it by Capocci. These, 

 however, and others that have been computed, deviate greatly from obser- 

 vation, and hence M. Clausen of Altona was induced to try an elliptical 

 orbit, of which the following are the elements : 



These elements differ very widely from the parabolic ones. 



5. Second Comet o/1825 in Taurus. — In our two preceding numbers, we 

 have given a full account of this comet, including the parabolic and ellip- 



