352 



NA TURE 



[February lo, 1898 



that only six primary races (excluding Turks, &c.) inhabit 

 Europe, with four secondary, the latter in smaller numbers and 

 probably due to mixtures of the primary. These races he 

 characterises and names : 



(1) Blond, dolichocephalic, very tall .. North-western race. 



(2) Blond, sub-dolichocephalic, short Eastern race. 



(3) Brown, very dolichocephalic, very 



short ... ... ... ... Ibero insular. 



(4) Brown, very brachycephalic, short Western race. 



{5) Brown, sub-dolichocephalic, tall.. Atlanto-Mediterranean. 



(6) Brown, brachycephalic, tall ... Adriatic. 



The four secondary races : 



(a) Blond, mesocephalic, tall ... Eastern Prussia. 



\\i) Blond, mesocephalic, very short... Sweden. 



(7) Medium, sub-dolichocephalic, tall Ireland, Belgium. 



(5) Auburn, sub-brachycephalic, me- 



dium ... ... ... ... Holland to Bavaria. 



The first number of a new volume of The Naturalist, that 

 old-established and admirable little monthly journal of natural 

 history for the north of England, marks the disappearance of 

 its former slate-grey wrapper and the substitution of a pink one, 

 together with sundry improvements in type and setting, and the 

 introduction of paper better adapted for illustrations. Alto- 

 gether the editors are to be congratulated on the changes they 

 have brought about. 



We have received from Messrs. Carl Zeiss, of Jena, a cata- 

 logue of microscopes and one of photographic objectives. The 

 former does not describe any new kind of instrument, but in 

 the latter an interesting feature is the new " Planar " lens. It 

 is claimed that, with this, objective enlargements can be obtained 

 ot microscopic sections up to icxj diameters, so that it should 

 prove extremely useful to botanists and others whose prepara- 

 tions demand the use of a lens having a large field and great 

 covering power. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Dingo {Cams dingo, 6 ) from Australia, 

 presented by Mr. D. R. McDowall ; a Long-legged Buzzard 

 {Buteo ferox), a Kestrel ( Tinnunculus alaudarius), captured in 

 the Red Sea, presented by Mr. J. Kilpatrick ; a Golden- 

 naped Amazon {{Chrysotis auripaUiatd) from Central America, 

 presented by Mr. Gambler Bolton ; two Red Ground Doves 

 {Geotrygon montana) from South America, presented by Lady 

 Blake ; a Dinker Bok {Cephalophus grimmi) from West Africa, 

 presented by Mr. L. H. Nott ; a Salvadore's Cassowary {Casu- 

 arius salvadori\ from New Guinea, a Salvin's Amazon ( Chrysotis 

 salvini), a Blue and Yellow Macaw {Ara araraurna), a Red 

 and Yellow Macaw {Ara chtoroptera) from South America, de- 

 posited ; two Black Larks {Melanocorypha peltoniensis) from 

 Siberia, purchased ; two Axis Deer {Cervus axis, 9 ? ), a 

 Pink-headed Duck {Rhodonessa caryophyllacea, i ), an Indian 

 Croy/ {Corvus splendens), four Spotted Turtle Doves {Turttir 

 suratensis), two Brown-headed Gulls (Lams brunneicephalus) 

 from India, received in exchange. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Planetary Relations. — In Comptes rendus, of January 17, 

 M. Emile Anceaux gives a note on the four great planets, and 

 some new deductions relating to them. The four great planets — 

 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — possess between them 

 more than 99/100 of the known planetary mass ; whilst Jupiter 

 and Saturn alone have a total mass greater than 9/10 of this. 

 It seems natural, then, to consider the system of these four 

 planets as a world apart and independent of the other planets 

 relatively small, and separated by a band of telescopic planets 

 smaller still. The author considered, therefore, whether, by 

 reason of their importance, the masses of the four great planets 

 would not have some influence upon their distribution with 

 respect to their distances from the sun. Some of the most 

 interesting deductions are as follow"s : — 



NO. 1476, VOL. 57] 



The masses of Jupiter and Saturn are inversely proportional 

 to the squares of the major axes of their orbits. 



The mass of Jupiter is to the sum of the masses of Uranus 

 and Neptune as the inverse square of the major axis of Jupiter's 

 orbit is to the sum of the inverse squares of the major axes of 

 Uranus and Neptune. 



The mass of Jupiter is to the sum of the masses of the four 

 planets as the inverse square of Jupiter's major axis is to the 

 sum of the inverse squares of the major axis of the four planets. 



The mean moments of inertia of Jupiter and Saturn referred 

 to the sun are equal to each other. 



The mean acceleration of the solar attraction on Jupiter is to 

 the sum of the mean accelerations produced upon Uranus and 

 Neptune as the mass of Jupiter is to the sum of the masses of 

 Uranus and Neptune. 



The reason of this harmony may be in the conditions of 

 stability of the system, or in the circumstances which prevailed 

 at the formation of the planets. If this last cause be possible, 

 the study of these relations would not fail to throw some light 

 upon the cosmogony of the solar system. 



U Pegasi and Short-period Variables.— The telescopic 

 variable known as U Pegasi, which was discovered by Chandler 

 in 1894, has for a long time been thought to have the shortest 

 period of all variable stars, but observations made at the Harvard 

 College Observatory go to prove that this is not the case. 



Prof. Pickering, in Circular No. 23, from the above Observ- 

 atory, gives the results of the observations made by Mr. O. C. 

 Wendell with the polarising photometer, and states that the dis- 

 crepancies between various observers, as to the period of the 

 star, made it desirable to determine the true form of the light 

 curve photometrically. 



Mr. Wendell began his observations on December 28 of last 

 year, using, as comparison, the star -t- I5°'49i6, mag. 8*90, 

 which is only 15' distant. From 2784 settings of the photo- 

 meter he constructed a light curve, from which it soon became 

 evident that alternate rather than successive minima were alike ; 

 the magnitudes at principal and secondary minima being 9 '90 

 and 975 respectively. The light curve thus drawn, closely re- 

 sembles in form that of /3 Lyrse, having nearly equal maxima, 

 with magnitudes of about 9*30, and a period of 8h. 59m. 41s.,. 

 the secondary minimum occurring nearly midway between the 

 two primaries. 



This period, it will be seen, is considerably different from 

 that of 5h. 32m. 15s., as given by Mr. Chandler; but Prof. 

 Pickering points out that, taking either value, the phases recur 

 at nearly the same times every three days. If we neglect the 

 difference between the primary and secondary minima, reduce 

 the half-period to fractions of a day, and multiply it by 16, 

 we obtain the product 2'99824d., or very nearly three days. If 

 we multiply the period 5h. 32m. 15s. by 13, we obtain 2'99948d., 

 or very nearly the same quantity. Accepting this new result, it 

 appears that U Pegasi is no longer the variable star having the 

 shortest period known. This position appears to be held by the 

 variable w Centauri 19, discovered by Prof. Bailey, who finds 

 its period to be 7h. iim. Although U Pegasi can no longer be 

 regarded as an example of that peculiar class of short-period 

 variables, having a single maximum in which the decrease is 

 more rapid than the increase, this class is still represented not 

 only by S. Antliae, but by co Centauri 24, which Prof. Bailey 

 finds to decrease twice as rapidly as it increases, while 

 « Centauri 415 increases at least five times as fast as it diminishes. 



Winnecke's Comet, a 1898. — Theephemeris of this comet is 

 continued in the Astronomical Journal i^o. 425) from February 7 

 to March 31, but for the purpose of observation it will suffice to 

 give positions as far as the end of February ; for after then the 

 comet will be too near the sun to be conveniently observed. 



Ephemeris for Greenwich Midnight. 



log A 

 h. m. s. o / // 



Feb. 7-'; ... 17 U 3-34 ... -12 i 18-5 ... 0-1457 



0'I400 



0x356 



01326 



01310 



0-1307 



