Jan. 2, 1890J 



NATURE 



211 



along as his own, since it included his observations extending 

 over very many years. The court held, firstly, that the manu- 

 script could not belong to Hamilton College, of which Dr. 

 Peters is Professor, nor to Litchfield Observatory, of which he 

 is Director, but to the authors and to them alone ; and secondly, 

 that the whole of the manuscript, numbering 3572 pages, held 

 l>y Mr. Borst, had been wrongfully detained, and would have 

 to be delivered to Dr. Peters, with compensation for the 

 detention. 



Longitude of Mount Hamilton. — A telegraphic de- 

 termination of the longitude of Mount Hamilton has been made 

 by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the result 

 found for the transit house meridian (Fauth transit instrument) 

 of the Lick Observatory is — 



8h. 6m. 34-8073., or 121° 38' 42""lo W. of Greenwich, 



with an estimated probable error ± o'is. or i"'5. 



Comet Borelly, g 1889 (December 12). — The following 

 elements and ephemeris have been computed for this comet by 

 Mrs. Zelbr and Froebe {As/r. Nach., 2943) : — 



T = 1890 January 277438 Berlin Mean Time. 



IT = 211 4 23 ) 



fl = 16 59 17 [ Mean Eq. 1889-0. 

 ' = 59 56 56 ) 

 log q = 9'4575S 



AA cos = - 4"- 1 



A)3 rr + 107 



EpJicDicris for Berlin Midnight. 



R.A. Decl. 



li. m. s. 3 , 



18 31 40 ... -f 21 36-2 



35 45 - 15 22-9 



40 25 ... 8 20-5 



46 40 ... -I- o 197 



56 31 ... - 8 42-1 



1889-90. 



Jan. 4 



8 



12 



16 



20 



The brightness at discovery has been taken as unity. 



Comet Brooks, d 1889 (July 6). — The following epheiieris 

 is in continuation of that previously given (Nature, vol. xli. 

 P- 115):— 



Bnght- 

 ness. 

 368 



5 02 

 7-06 



IO'22 

 1 4 "80 



Jan. 4 



8 



12 



16 



20 



24 

 28 



R.A. 

 h. m. s. 



45 54 

 52 5 

 58 25 



1 4 53 

 II 29 

 18 12 

 25 I 



Decl. 



+ 7° 52-6 



8 37-6 



9 227 

 10 7-8 



10 52 7 



11 37 "4 



12 2 1 "9 



Bright- 

 ness. 

 06 



o'5 

 0-5 

 0-5 

 0-4 

 0-4 

 0-4 



Brightness at discovery = 1. , 



The Solar Eclipse. — Intelligence has been received by 

 Mr. Turner, Secretary of the Eclipse Committee, from Mr. 

 Taylor, stationed at Loanda, announcing that he has obtained 

 no observations. 



ACCUMULATIONS OF CAPITAL IN THE 

 UNITED KINGDOM IN 1875-85. 



A T a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on December 1 7, 

 Mr. Robert Giffen read a paper on accumulations of 

 capital in the United Kingdom. He began by stating that he 

 proposed to continue and expand the paper which he read to the 

 Society ten years ago, on " Recent Accumulations of Capital in 

 the United Kingdom," which dealt specially with the increase of 

 capital between 1S65 and 1875. He would now deal with the 

 accumulations between 1875 and 1885, another ten years' period, 

 and 1885 also being practically the present time, there being very 

 little change in the income-tax assessments since 1885, though it 

 appeared likely enough there would be considerable changes in 

 a year or two. His notes had extended so much, as really to 

 become a book, which would be published immediately by 

 Messrs. George Bell and Sons, under the title of " The Growth 

 of Capital," and the paper he now proposed to read consisted of 

 extracts from that book. It must be understood that the om- 

 pulations were necessarily very rough and approximate only, and 

 only designed, in the absence of better figures, to throw light on 



the growth of societies in wealth, and on the relations of different 

 societies in that respect, with reference to such cjuestions as the 

 relative burden of taxation and national debts, the rate of saving 

 in communities at different times, and the like. Exact figures 

 were impossible, but approximate figures were still useful. The 

 method he followed was to take the income-tax returns, capitalise 

 the different descriptions of income from property there mentioned 

 at so many years' purchase, and make an estimate for property 

 of other kinris not coming into the income-tax returns. Formerly, 

 in comparing 1865 and 1875, he had capitalised at the same 

 number of years' purchase in each year, but between 1875 and 

 1885 there were changes in capital value irrespective of changes 

 in income which it wa< important to take notice of, at least as 

 between different descriptions of property, though the results in 

 the aggregate would not be much different from what they are 

 if no change in the number of years' purchase were made. In 

 1885, then, the total valuation of the property of the United 

 Kingdom, according to the method followed in the paper, came 

 to 10,000 millions sterling in round figures, equal to about ;i^27o 

 per head. The principal items were : Land.s, 169 1 millions ;. 

 houses, ;,f 1,927,000 ; railways in United Kingdom, 932 millions ; 

 miscellaneous public companies in Schedule D, 696 millions ; 

 trades and professions in Schedule D, 542 millions : farmers' 

 profits, &c., in Schedule B, 522 millions ; public funds (excluding 

 home funds), 528 millions ; gasworks, 126 millions ; water- 

 works, 65 millions ; canals, docks, &c., 71 millions ; mines and 

 ironworks, 39 millions. These were all based on the method 

 of capitalising income in the income-tax returns, and the principal 

 item of other property, for which an estimate was made in a 

 dififerent way, was that of movable property not yielding income, 

 e.g. furniture of houses, works of art, &c., which was taken at 

 about half the value of houses, or 960 millions. Comparing 

 these figures with those of 1875, when the valuation was 8500 

 millions, the apparent increase was 1500 millions, or about 17^ 

 per cent. ; but there were important changes in detail, lands 

 having declined considerably, mines and ironworks having also 

 declined, and there being a great increase in houses and some 

 other items. It appeared also that the increase in the decade 

 1875-85 was considerably less than in the previous decade dealt 

 with in the former paper. In 1865-75, in fact, the increase was 

 from about 6100 millions to 8500 millions, or no less than 2400 

 millions, and 40 per cent, in ten years, and 240 millions per 

 annum ; whereas in 1875-85 the increase was only 1500 millions, 

 or 17^ per cent, in ten years, and only 150 millions per annum. 

 The difference in the rate of growth was ascribed very largely to 

 a difference in the rate of growth of money values only, reasons 

 being given for the belief that in real prosperity, in the multiplica- 

 tion of useful things, and not merely money values, the improve- 

 ment in the later period was not less than in the first. The 

 distribution of this great property between England, Scotland, 

 and. Ireland, could not be exactly shown, part of the income 

 belonging to the community of the United Kingdom in a way 

 which did not permit of a distinction being made ; but upon a 

 rough estimate it appeared that England was considered to 

 have 8617 millions, or 86 per cent, of the total ; Scotland, 973 

 millions, or 97 per cent. ; and Ireland, 447 millions, or 4-3 per 

 cent. These figures worked out about ;^3o8, ^243, and ^^93 

 per head respectively, as compared with the average of £'2.'jo 

 for the United Kingdom. The small relative amount of property 

 in Ireland was commented upon, and the difference between it 

 and Great Britain was ascribed very largely to the political 

 agitation in Ireland, which depreciated property, and the excess 

 of population on the land, which had the same effect ; these 

 two causes together making a difference of 200 millions in the 

 apparent capital of Ireland. Measured by property, Ireland 

 was enormously over-represented in the Imperial Parliament. 

 Looking at the subject historically, they found that there had 

 been an enormous and continuous advance in the course of the 

 past three centuries, during which at different times there had 

 been contemporary estimates on the subject. In 1600 the 

 property estimate was for England only lOO millions, or ;{^22 

 per head ; 1680, 250 millions, or ^^46 per head ; 1690, 320 

 millions, or ;^58 per head ; 1720, 370 millions, or ;,^57 per 

 head ; 1750, 500 millions, or £']\ per head ; and in 1800, 1500 

 millions, or £16"] per head. The estimate for Great Britain in 

 the latter year being about one-eighth more in the aggregate than 

 for England only, and ^160 per head. Since 1800 there are 

 figures for the United Kingdom, and these show: 181 2, 2700 

 millions, or ;^ 160 per head ; 1822, 2500 millions, or ;^120 per 

 head (a reduction largely due to fall of prices) ; 1833, 3600 



