152 



NATURE 



{June 15, 1876 



Chancellors, thinks of the results of Mr. Wells's work 

 may be gathered from one of his published speeches. He 

 calls it " one of the most splendid triumphs of modern 

 surgical art and modern philanthropy, one of the greatest 

 achievements of medicine or surgery in any age." Mr. 

 Wells himself has repeatedly urged that what he learnt 

 by the result of the experiments we performed together 

 has been of the utmost importance for the success of the 

 operation, and in a note addressed to me to-day he re- 

 peats and permits me to publish his views in his own 

 words : — 



" The few experiments we made on the narcotised 

 animals taught in a few weeks, in the early days of ovario- 

 tomy, what I could not have learned to this hour, after 

 many years' observations on suffering women. To my 

 mind, the loss to the world by the few animals sacrificed, 

 when compared with the gain by the lives of the thou- 

 sands of suffering women already saved, wherever the im- 

 proved methods of operating learned by these experi- 

 ments has been followed, is so utterly disproportionate as 

 not even to be worthy of consideration." 



Benjamin W. Richardson 

 {To be continned) 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Comet of 1698. — The orbit of the comet of 1698, 

 which appears in our catalogues was calculated by H alley 

 from the observations of Lahire and Cassini at Paris. In 

 his " Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets " he remarks 

 that the comet " was seen only by the Parisian observers 

 who determined its course in a very uncommon manner. 

 This comet was a very obscure one, and although it 

 moved swiftly, and came near enough to our earth, yet we, 

 who are not wont to be incurious in these matters, saw 

 nothing of it." 



The comet was detected on Sept. 2, between ^3 and k 

 Cassiopea;, and thence pursued a southerly course until 

 on the 28th of the same month it was last observed 

 between ^ and -^ Scorpii. On calculating geocentric 

 places from Halley's orbit, it appears that the elements as 

 originally published by him, and as they have been 

 successively copied into all our catalogues, give an 

 apparent track in the heavens which is totally different 

 from that recorded by Lahire and Cassini, and described 

 in Aftciens Mdmoires de V Academic des Sciences, t. x., and 

 which is traced on the chart in the M'emoires for 1702. 

 Employing positions deduced as closely as practicable 

 from the somewhat imperfect details in our possession, 

 for Sept. 2, 15, and 28, the following orbit results : — 



Perihelion Passage 1698, Ircpt. 17 '02 14 Paris mean time. 

 Longitude of the perihelion . . . 274° 42' ) Equinox 



,, Ascending node ... 65 53 J of 1699. 



Inclination ... ... ... 10 55 



Log. Perihelion Distance ... 9 '86252 



Heliocentric motion — retrograde. 



On comparing these elements (which very fairly repre- 

 sent the apparent track of the comet) with Halley's, it is 

 at once evident that the cause of the failure of the latter 

 is the substitution in the " Synopsis " of the longitude of 

 the descending, instead of that of the ascending node, an 

 oversight which appears to have escaped detection hither- 

 to. Making this change in Halley's elements they will 

 stand as follows : — 



Perihelion Passage 1698 Oct. 18 at i6h. 57m. Greenwich 

 Longitude of Perihelion ... 270° 51' 15" time. 



,, Ascending Node 87 44 15 



Inclination ... ... ... 11 46 o 



Log. perihelion distance ... 9 "83966 



Motion — retrograde. 



The first orbit appears to agree better upon the whole 

 with the path of the comet laid down in the above men- 

 tioned diagram. 



The Binary Star « Leonis. — In the " Transactions 

 of the Royal Irish Academy," vol. 26, Dr. Doberck has 

 given the details of a very elaborate determination of the 

 orbit of this star, on measures extending to the spring of 

 the present year. Madler had previously given two orbits, 

 Villarceau one, and Klinkerfues three, so that the object 

 had not been neglected, but a longer course of measures 

 than had been employed by these calculators was required 

 for a trustworthy approximation to the orbit. Dr. Do- 

 berck presents the following elements as definitive for the 

 present : — 



Peri-astron passage 1 841 -81 



Node 148° 46' 



Angle between the lines of nodes and 



apsides (A.) 121° 4' 



Inclination ... ... ... ... ... 64° 5' 



Excentricity ... ... ... ... ... 0*5360 



Semi-axis Major ... ... ... ... o"'890 



Period of revolution ... ... ... 11082 years. 



From these elements we deduce the following angles 

 and distances, exliibiting the course of the companion 

 during the present century : — 



1878-0 

 82-0 

 86 -o 



Pos, 75-1 

 „ 86-0 

 » 95 'o 

 Some remarks 



Dist. ©•56 

 ,, 0*62 

 „ 068 



Dist. 



075 

 082 

 o-8q 



1890-0 Pos. 102 '4 

 940 „ 108-5 

 98-0 ,, 113-6 



on the correction of orbits of double 

 stars, appended by Dr. Doberck to his paper on w Leonis, 

 one of the most complete of the series emanating from 

 Col. Cooper's Observatory at Markree Castle, may be 

 useful to those who are occupied with these orbits. 



Variable Stars.— (i) Olbers' supposed variable, near 

 53 Virginis. Mr. J. E. Gore, writing from Umballa, 

 Punjab, on May 13, says he examined the place of this 

 star a few nights previous with a 3-inch refractor, and 

 found it about 9 m., being about equal in brightness to 

 Olbers' star c, and brighter than his star d, which latter 

 appeared more nearly 9^ or 10 than 11, as given by 

 Olbers. With an opera-glass the suspected variable was 

 " about the faintest star in the immediate vicinity of 53 

 Virginis." 



(2) 5 Ceti,. — Recent observations afford a suspicion of 

 variability to a small extent in this decidedly reddish star, 

 which, by the way, is not found in Schjellerup's second 

 catalogue of objects of this class. It may be advan- 

 tageously compared with its neighbours 4 Ceti and 

 B.A.C. 5. (3) The Companion of Algol. The small star 

 near /S Persei, appears to have been first remarked by 

 Schroter, on October 12, 1787, with a 7-feet telescope, 

 power 160 ; on November 3 the distance was estimated 

 I' 30". On April 9, 1788, he could not find the small star, 

 and hence concluded it to be variable. Observations 

 during the last two or three years have rather indicated 

 fluctuation of brightness, the star being sometimes caught 

 at once, and at others only perceived with difficulty, em- 

 ploying the same telescopes and on nights not differing 

 materially in transparency. It would not be without 

 interest to ascertain definitely by systematic observation 

 whether there is any ground for the suspicion first enter- 

 tained by Schroter. 



The Double-Star y Centauri.— Will one of our 

 southern readers put upon record the actual angle of 

 position and distance of this object, to decide upon the 

 direction and amount of the motion, which at present are 

 by no means obvious ? Capt. Jacobs' measures in 

 December, 1857, showed that the star was widening, as 

 compared with his estimate in March of the preceding 

 year, but he found a retrograde change of angle to the 

 amount of 7°, whereas the angle of 1856, compared with 

 Sir John Herschel's measures in 1835-36, rather poitn 

 to direct motion. Capt. Jacobs says, in 1857, " Has 

 opened sensibly since 1853, being now an easy object, 

 whereas then, under the most favourable circumstarices, 

 it could only just be discerned as not round." 



