492 Anniversary Meeting. [Nov. 30, 



Mauritius, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, a copy of which has 

 been transmitted to the Royal Society by Mr. Cardwell, that arrangements 

 have been made and funds provided for a magnetical and meteorological 

 observatory in that colony, on the model of the Kew Observatory ; and that 

 Professor Meldrum, who has been appointed its superintendent, may be 

 expected immediately at Kew to receive the instruments which have been 

 prepared by Mr. Balfour Stewart, and to make himself acquainted with 

 the details both of instruments and methods in use at that observatory. 

 We have also reason to hope that the example thus set at Mauritius will 

 shortly be followed at Melbourne and at Bombay. 



A summary of the results arrived at in discussing the Solar Autographs 

 taken at the Kew Observatory with the Photoheliograph belonging to the 

 Royal Society has appeared in the ' Proceedings ; ' and the Fellows have 

 thus been made acquainted, in a general way, with the conclusions which 

 have been based on the observations so obtained. The state of the atmo- 

 sphere permitting, pictures of the sun are taken daily by Miss Beckley, 

 daughter of the resident mechanical assistant ; and these are as regularly 

 measured and discussed by Dr. Loewy. In this way has been accumulated 

 a vast mass of materials on which to found conjectures as to the nature of 

 the physical forces operating at the surface of the sun ; and, taking these 

 materials as a basis, Messrs. De la Rue, Stewart, and Loewy have drawn 

 the conclusions enunciated in their several papers on solar physics. It is, 

 however, by no means improbable that other investigators, could they ob- 

 tain access to the same full and complete details of the observations and 

 measurements, would succeed in evolving other and most important theories 

 of solar activity, and thus that our knowledge of the subject might be 

 greatly advanced. It is moreover evident that in a method of observa- 

 tion so new, and in a subject so intricate, the minutest fact can hardly be 

 dismissed as insignificant, seeing that, whatever its present apparent isola- 

 tion, it may hereafter be shown to stand connected with an important 

 series of facts, towards a right theory of which it may indeed furnish im- 

 portant aid. It has therefore to be considered in what way the publica- 

 tion of these voluminous details can be best effected. Pending this, how- 

 ever, I am glad to state that the authors above-named have themselves 

 determined to print in detail their first paper, and that a sufficient number 

 of copies will be placed at the disposal of the Society for distribution 

 among the Fellows. 



The amount of spotted area is being measured ; and the elements of the 

 sun's rotation will be calculated from the spots. 



Those of the Fellows who are interested in the trial of gun-cotton as 

 a propellant, will be glad to learn that its employment as a charge for the 

 \Vhitworth and Eufield Rifles is progressing favourably. By a mode of 

 construction of the cartridge ingeniously devised to control the too great 

 rapidity of combustion, the cotton is found to command, without injury to 



