Ang. lo, 1876] 



NATURE 



V^ 



The boiled liquor potassae is only capable of imitating fer- 

 mentative changes, and of leading to the appearance of 

 Bacteria when it is added in quantities strictly regulated 

 by the quantity and degree of acidity of the specimens of 

 urine with which experiment is being made. 



Another fact, just as strikingly opposed to M. Pasteur's 

 view that Bacteria germs can survive in boiled liquor 

 potassK has been revealed by my researches on the fer- 

 mentation of urine. It is this : — A very slight excess of 

 liquor potassas over and above the quantity needed for 

 exact neutralisation almost always yields negative results. 

 This, of course, would be quite inexplicable if the liquor 

 potassaj really acted as a mere germ-containing medium. 



An en-or of procedure of this kind, unwittingly made 

 by M. Pasteur, because he was not forewarned, was in all 

 probability the reason of his obtaining negative results 

 when he operated with solid potash raised to 110° C. or 

 higher. M. Pasteur says {loc. cit., p. 179) : The potash 

 was dropped into the urine in quantity sufficient to render 

 it "alkaline." The negative results obtained in these 

 trials he attributes to the fact that the potash had been 

 heated to 230° F. (110° C), whilst I feel certain that 

 they were rather due to the addition of an excess of 

 potash, seeing that the addition, as he himself says, ren- 

 dered the fluid " alkaline." 



Briefly, then, M. Pasteur admits me to be correct in 

 staling that boiled liquor potassas, in proper quantity, 

 will fertilise sterilised urine, and I prove that his inter- 

 pretation of this fact is wrorg by referring him to the 

 totally different effects which would result from the addi- 

 tion of one or two drops, or of a slight excess of boiled 

 liquor potassas. These effects are wholly irreconcilable 

 with the notion that living germs are capable of surviving 

 after they have been boiled in strong liquor potassas. 



H. Charlton Bastian 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Reissig's Comet (?) of 1803.— The following particu- 

 lars of a stellar-looking object, with considerable retro- 

 grade motion, were communicated to Bode — at the time 

 the centre of general astronomical correspondence — by 

 Reissig, of Cassel, son of a well-known optician at that 

 place. He stated to Bode that on the morning of 

 Feb. 2, 1803, he perceived with a 30-inch comet-seeker, 

 near the double- star 148 Ophiuchi B. (36 Ophiuchi Fl.), 

 a star of from 5th to 6th magnitude, which he had not 

 remarked on Jan. 28, with a 7-feet reflector. " The star 

 or comet," under a power of 400, appeared without 

 sensible nebulosity, and somewhat magnified. On the 

 early morning of Feb. 4, the stranger appeared to have 

 moved to the westward. The weather was not clear 

 again till the morning of the 7th, when the object was 

 faint from presence of the full moon, and it was difficult 

 to fix its position. On the 9th it was found near 139 

 Scorpii B. (25 Scorpii Fl.) ; at 3.2 A.M. it occulted this 

 star, and at 4.9 there was first perceived a space between 

 them. Unfavourable weather following, further observa- 

 tion was prevented. Reissig sent Bode a small chart of 

 the path of the object " between tt Ophiuchi arid Antares," 

 and the four following places, from observations with a 

 3-feet Gregorian reflector and an annular micrometer. 



h. m. o / • / 



Feb. 2 at 4 51 a.m. ... R.A. 253 48 ... Decl. 26 19 S. 

 „ 4„ 3 49 M - » 252 4 ... „ 25 49 

 „ 8„ 4 4 „ ... „ 249 30 ... „ 25 12 

 „ 9„ 4 4S .. ••• .. 248 51 ... „ 25 II 

 With regard to these places, Bode remarked that they 

 do not lie in a regular curve, which may well be attributed 

 to the observations (apparently rough). He observed, 

 further, that the elongation of the object from the sun on 

 Feb. 2 was 56° 34' W., that as seen from the sun its 

 motion must have been retrograde, and hence it was " a 

 ■ :ant comet." 



On attempting to found a parabolic orbit upon the 

 positions given by Reissig, taking, however, the place of 

 25 Scorpii for the place of the object at 3.2 A.M. on the 

 9th, it is soon apparent that the distance, instead of being 

 very great, as Bode surmised, must have been very small, 

 so small, indeed, that the earth's perturbations during the 

 week's observations, might, and probably would, greatly 

 distort the apparent track as deduced from the orbit. In 

 fact, after a number of trials, in which, as was to be ex- 

 pected, the elements resulting therefrom differed but 

 slightly and yet gave large differences in the geocentric 

 places, we find that, assuming the elements to be — 



Perihelion Passage, 1803, February 10 "164 G.M.T. 



Longitude of Perihelion 146 15 



,, Ascending Node 307 45 



Inclination o 55 



Log. Perihelion Distance 9 '98234 



Heliocentric Motion — Direct, 



the following apparent track of the comet results — 



oil G.M.T. 



1803, Jan. 25 

 26 

 27 

 28 

 29 

 30 

 31 

 Feb. I 



Longitude. 



62 35 

 60 52 



57 44 

 49 56 

 10 29 



278 57 

 262 2 

 256 2 



Latitude. 



O / 



+ 2 17 

 + 26 



+ I 47 

 + o 57 



- 3 I 

 -5 18 

 -4 6 



- 3 40 



Distance from 



the Earth. 

 , 00336 

 . 00258 

 . 0'0l82 



. o'oio6 



. o'0040 



. 00065 



. 0-0137 



. 00214 



No further weight is to be attached to these inferences 

 from calculation than as tending to render possible such 

 positions of an object moving under the laws of gravita- 

 tion, but duly regarding the rough character of Reissig's 

 observations, his last place differing some ten minutes of 

 arc from what we might judge it to have been, if 25 

 Scorpii were occulted an hour previous. If a comet were 

 really moving in an orbit with elements resembling the 

 above, it might have passed in twenty-four hours (January 

 29-30) from Pisces to Sagittarius, and the circumstance 

 of the object not being found by Reissig near the place it 

 occupied on February 2, with a much larger telescope on 

 January 28, would be accounted for. We are met never- 

 theless by the difficulty, that for a body at so small a 

 distance from the earth, to appear like a star of the fifth 

 or sixth magnitude, devoid of nebulosity, it is necessary 

 to assign it very small dimensions, while the appearance 

 described is quite irreconcilable with the aspect presented 

 by the few comets which have been seen in close proximity 

 to the earth, particularly that of 1770, which at its perigee 

 was upwards of two degrees in diameter according to 

 Messier. 



Reissig claimed to have discovered the comet of i8oi 

 some twelve days before it was detected by Pons, but the 

 account he sent Bode of his observations is a singularly 

 lame one. (B. J., 1805, p. 129.) 



It must be admitted that the examination of such 

 observations as those of Reissig and of Huth, as treated 

 in this column last week, is mainly a matter of curiosity, 

 still if it be possible to show that the observations are not 

 necessarily to be regarded as impositions upon the astro- 

 nomical world, it will be granted that something is gained 

 thereby. 



Satellites of Saturn. — Mr. Marth's elaborately 

 constructed ephemerides of the satellites of Saturn appear 

 in the Astronomische Nachrtchtai, Nos. 2,098-2,100, 

 with some remarks on the advantage of careful esti- 

 mations of conjunctions with the ends of the ring and 

 the limbs of the ball over micrometrical measures during 

 the next two or three years. The preparation of these 

 ephemerides must involve an amount of labour and care 

 of which few but those who have attempted such calcu- 

 lations can form any adequate idea, and their value is 

 I proportionally great- 



