January 13, 1898] 



NATURE 



251 



theory gives 6475. The stars in the cluster 47 Tucana; 

 are divided into bright and faint stars. The number of 

 each counted is 1495 and 740 respectively, while theory 

 gives 1495 and 734. We, in the Northern Hemisphere, 

 think Messier 13 a magnificent object, but the number of 

 stars counted is only 723, while theory assigns one 

 more. It says much for the admirable character of the 

 photographs that, notwithstanding the closeness of the 

 stars and the consequent tendency for the individual 

 members to be obscured by the spread of the images, it 

 should be possible to count the stars with approximate 

 accuracy. And further, the individual 

 stars are so distinct that variations 

 of brilliancy are easily recognised. 

 In this way no less than eight new 

 variable stars have been detected in 

 the cluster of w Centauri, while six 

 have also been discovered in the south 

 following portions of the cluster 47 

 Tucanse. The occurrence of a large 

 proportion of variable stars in star 

 clusters is a most interesting subject 

 of inquiry. Counts have been made 

 of the number and distribution of 

 stars in several clusters, with the 

 result that 400 were found in these 

 objects. Nearly 7000 estimates were 

 made of the brightness of the 120 

 variables contained in w Centauri, and 

 of the eighty-five variables in Mes- 

 sier 5. 



It might be thought from this short 

 summary that Prof. Pickering is in- 

 teresting himself mainly in these very 

 interesting objects. It must be re- 

 membered, however, that they come 

 naturally before him in the course of 

 a complete survey of the whole 

 heavens, and that while we have re- 

 ferred to only a few plates, the entire 

 scheme had on January i, 1895, re- 

 sulted in the collection of no less than 

 12,777 plates taken by the Bache, and 

 6281 by the Boyden telescope. Such 

 a mass of information is likely to 

 yield many discoveries, some of which 

 are given in this volume before us, 

 but to which we cannot adequately 

 refer. This is the case with the dis- 

 cussion of that interesting variable. 

 Nova Normee, which in nineteen days 

 sprang from a magnitude below visi- 

 bility to the seventh, and then gradu- 

 ally faded away, passing beyond the 

 reach of the most powerful telescopes 

 in about two years. Comparisons of 

 its spectrum with that of Nova Auriga 

 are given, showing the hydrogen 

 lines bright in both stars, and each 

 accompanied by dark lines of slightly shorter wave- 

 length. 



ERNEST HART. 



MR. ERNEST HART, editor of the British Medical 

 Journal^ died on January 7 at Brighton, where he 

 was staying for the benefit of his health. He had suffered 

 from diabetes for many years, and had been compelled 

 to submit to amputation of the leg last September. The 

 operation though successful only postponed the fatal 

 termination of his illness. 



Ernest Hart was born in London in 1836, and received 

 his early education at the City of London School during 

 the headmastership of Dr. Mortimer. At school he per- 



NO. 1472, VOL. 57] 



formed prodigies of prize-winning, and would have taken 

 up a scholarship to Cambridge, in the same year as the 

 late Sir John Seeley, but for the disabilities under which 

 the Jews then lay at the older Universities. He resolved 

 to enter the medical profession, and joined Lane's School, 

 then attached to St. George's Hospital. He became a 

 member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1856, and 

 after serving the office of Resident Medical Officer of St. 

 Mary's Hospital, was appointed Ophthalmic Surgeon and 

 Lecturer on Ophthalmology at that hospital. Subse- 

 quently he became Aural Surgeon also, and for some 



Fig. 2. — CO Centauri. 



years held the office of Dean of the Medical School. He 

 was already a valued member of the staff of the Lancet, 

 then still directed by its founder, Mr. Thomas Wakley, 

 M.P. ; and though he engaged, not without considerable 

 success, in the practice of surgery, and especially of 

 ophthalmic surgery, his heart was in public work. Even 

 as a student he had given evidence of his natural bent 

 by organising a society, to which he acted as secretary, 

 which had for its object to ameliorate the depressing 

 and injurious conditions under which the Naval Medical 

 Service then laboured. This movement was completely 

 successful, as was also another in which he took an 

 active part as one of a commission appointed by the 

 Lancet to inquire into the nursing and other arrange- 

 ments of the poor law infirmaries in London. The 



