ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PEOGEESS. 



empire. In the Corea, a dependency of China, 

 two French bishops and seven priests were 

 massacred an outrage which, led to a French 

 expedition against that country. The Chinese 

 Government repudiated all responsibility ^for 

 the action of the Coreans, and made no objec- 

 tion to the French expedition. (See CHINA and 

 COREA.) 



The relation of Japan to foreigners becomes 

 more and more friendly. The treaties con- 

 cluded with the chief foreign nations remained 

 in force, and further provisions in favor of for- 

 eign commerce were secured by a new treaty 

 concluded between American, English, French, 

 Dutch, and Japanese plenipotentiaries on June 

 25th. A civil war broke out between the Tycoon 

 and one of the princes, before the termination 

 of which the Tycoon died. (See JAPAN.) 



British India remained free from disturb- 

 ances, the difficulty with Bhootan being fully 

 settled in February. But the country suffered 

 from a terrible famine, which carried off a very 

 large number of people. On the western border 

 of India civil broils continued in Affghanistan 

 throughout the year, and in Farther India a rev- 

 olution broke out in Burmah, which, however, 

 was tin successful. (See INDIA and BITEMAH.) 



The " Geographical Year-book " of Dr. Brehm 

 for!866 (GeograpMsches Jahrbuch, Gotha, 1866, 

 pp. 53 to YO) gives the following statements 

 on the area and population of the several terri- 

 tories of Asia : 



ASTEONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND 

 PEOGEESS. The march of astronomical dis- 

 covery during the year 1866 has not lagged be- 

 hind that of the other great departments of 

 science. To chemistry, astronomy is especially 

 indebted ; for there is scarcely a discovery made 

 in the domain of the former science which does 

 not, or may not, contribute to the solution of 

 some of the enigmas which still abound in the 

 latter. The spectrum analysis, the original 

 function of which was to determine the pres- 

 ence or absence of the earthy elements in the 

 chemist's laboratory, is now the familiar guest 

 of the astronomer in his watchings through, 

 the night, and discloses to him what all his 



* One geographical square mile equal tc 21.il English 

 square tailes. 



improved telescopes had hitherto not availed 

 to show, the constitution of the sun, and the 

 stars, and the comets, and enables him even to 

 hazard a guess at the material nature of the 

 far-away nebulas. The application of this new 

 and powerful instrument to astronomical in- 

 vestigation has given rise to many brilliant 

 speculations, which may have to be discarded 

 hereafter, but it has also added many facts to 

 our knowledge of the heavenly bodies. Just 

 in proportion as the spectrum apparatus is im- 

 proved from year to year and there can be no 

 doubt that improvements will continue to be 

 made indefinitely in a field of inquiry so prac- 

 tical the burden of mystery which rests upon 

 astronomy will bo lifted ; and so we may go on 

 from one discovery to another, until the splendid 

 thought uttered by Mr. Grove, in his address 

 at the last annual meeting of the British As- 

 sociation, may be realized. He said: "We, 

 this evening assembled, ephemera that we are, 

 have learned by transmitted labor, to weigh as 

 in a balance other worlds larger and heavier 

 than our own, to know the length of their days 

 and years, to measure their enormous distance 

 from us and from each other, to detect and ac- 

 curately ascertain the influence they have on 

 the mpvements of our world and on each 

 other, and to discover the substances of which 

 they are composed. May we not fairly hope 

 that similar methods of research to those which 

 have taught us so much, may give our race fur- 

 ther information, until problems relating not 

 only to remote worlds, but possibly to organic 

 and sentient beings which may inhabit them ; 

 problems, which it might now seem wildly 

 visionary to enunciate, may be solved by pro- 

 gressive improvements in the modes of apply- 

 ing observation and experiment, induction and 

 deduction ? " 



The public interest in astronomy has been 

 more than usually stimulated this year by the 

 occurrence of two wonderful phenomena : the 

 sudden apparition and disappearance of a star, 

 perhaps not inferior in size and splendor to our 

 own sun; and the great meteoric shower of 

 November (see METEOES). Events of this kind 

 have a favorable effect upon the science of 

 astronomy, because they tend to popularize it, 

 and to make the great body of the people more 

 willing to contribute the necessary funds for 

 the erection and support of first-class astronomi- 

 cal observatories. It is not improbable that, 

 before many years, every important city in the 

 Union will have an observatory equal to that 

 recently established by the liberality of the 

 citizens of Chicago. 



The Temporary or Variable Star in Corona. 

 The most remarkable astronomical event of 

 the year was the appearance of a temporary or 

 variable star in the constellation of the Crown, 

 less than a degree distant from e Corona in a 

 S. E. direction. It was seen at the "Washington 

 Observatory on the night of May 12th, when 

 its size was that of a star of the 2d magnitude. 

 Its lustre was a pure soft white. On the fo\ 



