December 15, 1923] 



NA TURE 



875 



atoms and electrons, muscular exercise, giant and 

 dwarf stars, monkey glands, the Himalaya, astro- 

 nomical evidence bearing on Einstein's theory, the 

 fuel of the future, and new uses of silica in industry. 

 The full time-table of lectures and tickets in advance 

 can be obtained from the secretary of King Edward's 

 Hospital Fund for London, 7 Walbrook, E.C. The 

 unusually wide scope provided by the lectures and 

 demonstrations in both pure and applied science, 

 and the authority given by the names of the lecturers 

 and those associated with the Exhibition, should 

 prove an attraction which it is to be hoped will be of 

 even greater financial assistance to the hospitals of 

 London than the Exhibition of last year. 



November was abnormally cold this year in many 

 parts of England, and in places the month was said 

 to be colder than any previous November on record, 

 a feature perhaps greatly due to the short period of 

 observation. Using the meteorological observations 

 at Greenwich Observatory for the civil day, published 

 by the Registrar-General in his weekly return, and 

 comparing with similar observations available from 

 1 84 1, it is seen that the month's temperature was 

 not unique. The mean temperature for the month 

 was 38 •8'' ; since 1841 there have been three years, 

 1 85 1, 1 87 1, and 1879, with a lower mean than 

 November this year; the lowest was 38-0° in 1871. 

 The mean of the maximum or day readings was 

 44'2° ; since 1841 there have been three Novembers 

 with a lower mean maximum, in the years 1871, 

 1879, and 1919, and the lowest was 43*2° in 1871. 

 The mean of the minimum or night readings was 

 33*3° ; there were also three years, 1851, 1871, and 

 1910, with a lower mean minimum than this year; 

 the lowest was 32*4° in 1851 and 191 o. The lowest 



shade temperature in November was 22-7° on 

 November 26 and 23-4° on November 8 ; there have 

 been ten Novembers since 1841 with a lower tempera- 

 ture, but only two with a temperature below 20° ; 

 the lowest was i8"3° in 1890. The lowest radiation 

 temperature at Greenwich in November this year 

 was 14-0° on November 12 and 14-1° on November 8 ; 

 there have only been five Novembers since 1856 with 

 a lower radiation temperature ; the lowest was 9'i° 

 in 1908. 



A DISPATCH from the Belgrade correspondent of 

 the Times published on December 6 records some 

 interesting discoveries at Doiran and Mitrovitsa. At 

 Doiran, the ruined town situated on the lake of the 

 same name, which formed part of the Bulgar front 

 line in Macedonia during the War, workmen have 

 brought to light large columns of white marble, 

 presumably part of a temple, well-preserved marble 

 tablets with finely carved reliefs of the heads of six 

 Greek gods, a quantity of coins, and a vase so large 

 that two men can stand in it with ease. This last 

 should be comparable with the enormous Graeco- 

 Roman vase found on the Struma, which stood in the 

 gardens of the French Military Club at Salonika in 

 the latter years of the War. At Mitrovitsa two 

 Roman graves were found on the site of the old 

 Roman Sirmium, once the metropolis of Illyricum. 

 Of these, one contained the sarcophagus of a girl 

 of 14 years of age. The bust of the girl and her 

 brother are represented in relief. The names in the 

 Latin inscription suggest that the girl was a Pannonian, 

 possibly living under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius 

 in the third century a.d. The sarcophagus had 

 evidently been plundered and contained nothing but 

 the skeletal remains. 



Our Astronomical Column. 



Recovery of D'Arrest's Comet. — This periodic 

 comet was not seen at the 191 7 return, and ex- 

 y>erienced large perturbations by Jupiter in 1920 

 minimum distance from Jupiter 0-50). Two nearly 

 Identical computations of the perturbations were 

 made : (i.) by Mr. F. R. Cripps, (ii.) by A. Dubiago 

 cind A. Lexin of Kasan. Their respective dates of 

 perihelion were 1923, Sept. 1412 and Sept. 14715 \ 

 the other elements of (ii.) were w 174° 1-5', W 143° 

 31-7', i 18° 3-9', <^ 38° i-i', M 534'783", equinox 1925-0. 



In spite of these accurate forecasts, search was 

 vainly made for the comet during July, August, 

 and September. However, on Nov. 10 at ii"* 50'" 

 S.A.S.T., Mr. William Reid, of Rondebosch, Cape 

 Town, well known for his cometary discoveries, found 

 a comet the approximate position of which was 

 K.A. 21'' 30'", S. Decl. 28° 30'. His description was: 

 " Fairly large, very faint, sHghtly brighter in middle, 

 no nucleus. It appeared like a faint star-cluster 

 with many stellar points." A position on Dec. i at 

 ()h 2i"» G.'M.T. was telegraphed : R.A. 22*> 39'" 32", 

 S. Decl. 25° 16'. 



These positions leave no doubt that the object is 

 D'Arrest's Comet, which has presumably brightened 

 physically since the summer. The date of perihelion 

 deduced from the observations using elements (ii.) is 

 Sept. I5'i5 G.M.T. The following ephemeris is for 

 Greenwich midnight : 



NO. 2824, VOL. 112] 



R.A. S. Decl. logr. log A. 



Dec. l6. 23'' 22"' 16" 21° 36' 0-2304 0-2000 

 ,, 20. 23 32 48 20 33 -2369 -2147 



,, 24. 23 43 16 19 29 -2436 -2293 



„ 28. 23 53 12 18 24 -2500 -2435 



Jan. I. o 2 56 17 20 0-2565 02576 



As the distances from sun and earth are rapidly 

 increasing, the comet is not likely to be seen for long. 

 Its recovery is a matter for great satisfaction, as it 

 was in danger of being permanently lost. The 

 present observations will enable accurate predictions 

 to be made for the next two apparitions ; the Jupiter 

 perturbations are small in the revolution now 

 commencing. 



Interesting Cepheid Variable. — Seflor Comas 

 Sola, of Barcelona, discovered, in April last, an in- 

 teresting variable star in R.A. is^ i4-2"', S. Decl. 

 8° II '. Harvard College Observatory Bulletin 791 

 describes a photographic study of the star, which 

 shows that it is a periodic variable with sharp maxima, 

 the period being approximately 0-369 day. It is 

 a Cepheid of the ' cluster " type ; the extreme range 

 of magnitudes is from io-8 to 12-5, which is noted as 

 larger than usual for this type. The Bulletin gives 

 a scries of suitable comparison stars for the variable, 

 the magnitudes of which are from 7-8 to i2-8. The 

 galactic co-ordinates are 322° +38°. 



