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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ology, W. T. Blanford ; D, Biology, Profess- 

 or H. N. Moseley; E, Geography, Colonel 

 Rhodes and P. L. Sclater, Vice-Presidents ; 

 r, Economic Science and Statistics, Sir R. 

 Temple; G, Mechanical Science, Sir F. J. 

 Bramwell ; H, Anthropology, Professor E. 

 B. Tylor. It is expected that the public lec- 

 tures will be by Mr. Crookes, Dr. Dallinger, 

 and Professor Ball. The special discussions 

 will be: Friday, August 29th, "The Seat 

 of the Electro-motive Forces in the Vol- 

 taic Cell " ; and Monday, September 1st, 

 " The Connection of Sun-Spots with Terres- 

 trial Phenomena." Most liberal provisions 

 have been made by the Canadians for the 

 accommodation and entertainment of their 

 guests. The expenses of fifty ofl&cers are 

 guaranteed ; the Dominion Parliament has 

 appropriated $14,000 toward the expenses 

 of ordinary members ; the steamship com- 

 panies have made considerable reductions 

 of fares ; members of the Association are in- 

 vited to bring their wives and two near rela- 

 tives with them ; the Canadian Pacific Rail- 

 way offers free excursions to one hundred 

 and fifty members from August Ist till the 

 grand excursion to the Rocky Mountains ; 

 and other excursions have been provided for 

 or are contemplated, among which is the ex- 

 cursion to the American Association, which 

 meets in Philadelphia, September 3d. 



Death of Professor Klinkerfnes. — 



Professor C. A. Eggert, of the Univer- 

 sity of Iowa, has kindly furnished us with 

 the following facts respecting the life and 

 work of Professor F. W. Klinkerfues, of 

 the University of Gottingen, one of the most 

 prominent astronomers in Germany, who 

 died by suicide — provoked, it is supposed, 

 by pecuniary losses and excessive use of 

 intoxicating liquors — on the 28th of Jan- 

 uary last : Professor Klinkerfues was born 

 at Ilofgeismar in 1827, and very early mani- 

 fested a decided taste for astronomical stud- 

 ies. He became a pupil of Gauss, who rec- 

 ognized his very remarkable mathematical 

 talents. Some of his earlier efforts were af- 

 terward incorporated, with but little change, 

 in his " Theoretical Astronomy," a work of 

 decided merit. Two of them deserve spe- 

 cial mention : one, a new method of calculat- 

 ing the course of a comet from one incom- 

 plete and two complete observations ; and 



the other, for the computation of the orbits 

 of double stars. His hypothetical method 

 for the determination of the distance of 

 certain fixed stars belonging to the same 

 system was applied with a satisfactory re- 

 sult to Sirius. Other of his hypothetical 

 combinations were bold and successful in 

 a high degree. Thus, he predicted a close 

 relation between the meteoric shower of 

 November 2*7, 1872, from the constellations 

 Perseus and Andromeda, and Biela's comet, 

 and that the comet would be found in 

 the opposite quarter of the sky. He tel- 

 egraphed to the director of the observa- 

 tory in Madras : " Biela's comet has touched 

 the earth. Look for it in Centaur, near 

 the star i^." The comet was found at the 

 spot indicated. Professor Klinkerfues was 

 the discoverer of comets III, 1853; III, 

 IV, 1854; III, 1857; V, 1857, and II, 1863. 

 He was best known in Germany for his pre- 

 dictions of the weather, which he based on 

 the hygrometric indications of moisture in 

 the air. Their fault was, that they depended 

 on the indications at the surface, while the 

 weather goes by the proportion of moist- 

 ure in the upper strata of the atmosphere, 

 which may be very different. His instru- 

 ment, known as the Klinkerfues hygrometer, 

 met with considerable success for a time, 

 but was ultimately found to be of little 

 practical value, and is not much used now. 

 Although Professor Klinkerfues was no 

 more successful in other points as a weather- 

 prophet, he has enriched meteorology with 

 observations and facts of some importance ; 

 and it would be unjust to classify him with 

 the noisy charlatans whom our newspapers 

 hoist into temporary fame. Notwithstand- 

 ing his mistakes, the death of such a man 

 is a loss to science. Supplemented by care- 

 ful observations, his hypotheses on astro- 

 nomical matters often approached mathe- 

 matical certainty, and it is not easy to say 

 how much he might yet have accomplished 

 but for the abrupt and melancholy closing 

 of his career. 



Facts about British Stature.— The An- 

 thropometric Committee of the British As- 

 sociation, after several years of labor, made 

 its final report at the recent meeting of that 

 body. The committee was appointed for 

 the purpose of " collecting observations in 



