ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



that President Garfield received the shot that 

 subsequently proved fatal, and it put an end to 

 Mr. Arthur's electioneering efforts in behalf of 

 Mr. Conkling. While the President lingered 

 between life and death from July 2d to Sep- 

 tember 19th, the Vice-President refrained from 

 all part in public affairs and the controversies 

 of the time, only expressing on fitting oc- 

 casions his own sincere share in the common 

 grief and anxiety. 



The death of President Garfield was an- 

 nounced to him in New York by a telegraphic 

 dispatch from the members of the Cabinet, 

 who expressed the wish that he would repair 

 to Long Branch the following morning. In 

 accordance with the advice of his friends, he 

 took the oath of office at his own house in 

 New York before one of the judges of the 

 State Supreme Court, at about two o'clock in 

 the morning of September 20th. After visiting 

 Long Branch and accompanying the remains of 

 the dead President to Washington, Mr. Arthur 

 was sworn into office in a more formal manner 

 before the Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court 

 on the 22d, and delivered a brief address in 

 which he expressed his sense of the grave re- 

 sponsibilities devolved upon him. The same 

 day, as his first official act, he proclaimed a 

 general day of mourning for his predecessor. 

 A special session of the Senate was called, to 

 begin on the 10th of October, for the purpose 

 of choosing a presiding officer and confirming 

 such appointments as might be submitted. 

 The members of the Cabinet were requested to 

 retain their places until the regular meeting of 

 Congress in December. Only Secretary Win- 

 dom, of the Treasury Department, who de- 

 sired to become a candidate for the Senate 

 from Minnesota, insisted on his resignation. 

 Chief -Judge Folger, of the New York Court of 

 Appeals, was chosen as his successor, after 

 ex-Governor E. D. Morgan, of the same State, 

 had declined the appointment, though it had 

 been submitted to the Senate and promptly 

 confirmed. The new President took a promi- 

 nent part officially in the Yorktown celebration 

 on the 19th of October, delivering an appro- 

 priate address. 



ASTPvONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND 

 PROGRESS. The Sun. The " American 

 Journal of Science" for June, 1881, contains 

 a discussion of the American photographs of 

 the transit of Venus in 1874, by Professor D*. 

 P. Todd. The mean equatorial, horizontal 

 parallax of the sun derived from these photo- 

 graphs is 8-883", corresponding to a distance of 

 92,028,000 miles. 



Solar Activity. The " Comptes Rendus," 

 vol. xciii, No. 8, gives the result of M. Tac- 

 chini's solar observations up to August 1 st. The 

 number of spots and prominences continues to 

 increase. At no time between January 1st and 

 July 31st was the sun's disk found free from 

 spots. The daily record of their numbers has 

 indicated several well-marked epochs of special 

 solar activity. Whether these secondary max- 



ima are accidental, or whether their occurrence 

 is in accordance with an undiscovered law, is a 

 question to be decided by future observations. 

 The dates of these periods are : January 17-21, 

 March 9-20, April 2-9, April 16-25, May 5-9, 

 May 23-31, June 12-18, June 25-July 10, and 

 July 24-August 4. M. Tacchini observes that 

 these epochs are frequently separated by half a 

 solar rotation. 



New Minor Planet. On the night of May 

 18th, Dr. Palisa detected a new minor planet, 

 the 220th of the group. This is the only plan- 

 etoid discovered during the year. Its light at 

 the time of discovery was extremely feeble, 

 the apparent magnitude being 13 - 5. 



Jupiter 1 * Spots. Within the past year Pro- 

 fessor Hough, Director of the Dearborn Observ- 

 atory, Chicago, Illinois, has given special study 

 and attention to the spots of Jupiter. A discus- 

 sion of all the measures of the great red spot, 

 commenced in the autumn of 1879 and continued 

 through 490 days, gives a mean rotation period 

 of 9 h - 55 m - 35 2'-. But individual observations 

 seem to indicate a motion of oscillation of the 

 spot itself; the displacement in longitude 

 amounting to 3,200 miles. The observations 

 of small spots during two months indicated an 

 average drift in longitude of about three miles 

 per hour. The rotation period derived from 

 observations of a small white spot almost ex- 

 actly on the equator was 9 k - 50 m 0-56'-. If the 

 great red spot, therefore, be regarded as fixed, 

 tlie mean drift of the equatorial parts will be 

 265 miles per hour in the direction of the plan- 

 et's rotation. The true diameter of the equa- 

 torial white spot measured about 2,800 miles. 

 These observations, it must be confessed, leave 

 the true rotation period of the planet some- 

 what uncertain. As they indicate, however, 

 but slight deviations from permanency in the 

 position, form, and dimensions of the red 

 spot, the period can differ but little from 9 h- 

 55 m - 35-- 



Comets. The sixth comet of 1880 was dis- 

 covered December 16th, by Dr. Pechule, of Co- 

 penhagen. Its motion is direct, and the ele- 

 ments of its orbit resemble those of the comets 

 of 1807 and 1881 ft. 



The first comet of 1881 was discovered May 

 1st, by Dr. Lewis Swift, Director of the War- 

 ner Observatory, Rochester, New York. Its 

 elements have no marked resemblance to those 

 of any known comet. 



On the night of May 22d, Mr. John Tebbutt, 

 of Windsor, New South Wales, discovered a 

 comet which proved to be one of more than 

 ordinary interest. The same body was inde- 

 pendently detected a few days later by Dr. 

 B. A. Gould, at Cordoba, South America. It 

 was observed at many places in Europe and 

 America on the morning of June 23d, and was 

 conspicuously visible to the naked eye from 

 June 23d to August 1st. Its tail could be traced 

 to a distance of 12 or 13 from the nucleus, 

 the true length being nine or ten millions of 

 miles. Its orbit resembles that of the comet 



