254 



NATURE 



\yan. 1 6, 1890 



Now bodies in which \l is so small as 3'6 belong distinctly 

 to the non-magnetic class ; but the test with the magnet 

 would very markedly distinguish them from manganese 

 steel with 12 per cent of manganese. The distinction. 



however, between \i = 36 and /x = 1000 is comparatively 

 small ; whereas, under the conditions of experiment, /x is 

 much more than 1000 for most bodies of which iron is 

 the principal constituent. 



Fig. 7. 



The effect of stress on the magnetic properties of iron 

 and nickel have been studied by Sir W. Thomson. A fact 

 interesting from a broad and general point of view is 

 that the effects of stress are different in kind in the case 

 of iron and nickel. In the case of iron, for small mag- 



netizing forces in the direction of the tension, tension 

 increases the magnetization ; for large forces, diminishes 

 it. In the case of nickel the effect is always to diminish 

 the magnetization. 



{To be continued^ 



LORENZO RESPIGHI. 



r^URING the last forty years the Eternal City has 

 possessed two astronomical observatories. It was 

 at the old building, connected with the Collegio Romano, 

 that Scheiner collected the principal materials for his 

 farnous work on the sun, called from its dedication to 



Prince Orsini. the Duke of Bracciano, " Rosa Ursina" ; 

 and though it is with some justice that Delambre speaks 

 disparagingly of its contents as compared with its bulk, 

 the observations of the solar spots show with what care 

 they were made, and they afford the first indication of 

 the now familiar fact that their rotation varies in duration 

 in different heliographical latitudes, though Scheiner's 

 idea seems to have been that it was not the same in the 

 two solar hemispheres. But it was not until 1787 that the 

 present observatory of the Collegio Romano was com- 

 menced, nor until 1804 that the general interest felt in the 

 great eclipse of February 1 1 in that year induced Pope Pius 

 yil. to provide G. Calandrelli with the means of furnish- 

 ing it with suitable instruments. Another astronomical 

 phenomenon, the appearance of the great comet of 1843, 

 led his son Ignazio CalandreUi, to wish to form a new 

 observatory on the Capitohne Hill ; but it was not until 

 five years later that Pius IX. was able, in 1848, to provide 

 him with the means for carrying out this design. Mean- 

 while Calandrelli continued his observations at Bologna, 

 ably assisted by the subject of our notice. 



Lorenzo Respighi was born at Cortema^giore, in the 

 province of Placentia, in 1824. His first studies were 

 made at Parma, from which town he proceeded to the 

 University of Bologna, where he obtained high Jionours 

 in the departments of mathematics and philosophy in 

 1847. Nominated Professor of Optics and Astronomy in 

 185 1, he subsequently succeeded Calandrelli as Director 

 of the Observatory. On the retirement of the latter in 



1865 (followed by his death in 1866) Respighi was ap- 

 pointed his successor. His earliest papers were on 

 mechanical and optical subjects ; but he will be best 

 remembered by his subsequent labours on stellar spectra, 

 on those of the solar corona and protuberances, and on 

 the scintillation of the stars. In 1871 he went on an ex- 

 pedition to Poodocottah, in Hindustan, to observe the 

 total eclipse of December 12 in that year ; an account of 

 the observations will be found in the eclipse (41st) volume 

 of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, of 

 which Respighi was elected an Associate in 1872. He 

 formed from his observations between 1875 and 1881 a 

 catalogue of 2534 stars in the northern hemisphere from 

 the first to the sixth magnitude, which was published 

 in successive numbers of the Memoirs of the Lincean 

 Academy. 



His death took place after a long illness, aggravated by 

 the recent epidemic, on December 10 last, and the Cam- 

 pidoglio Observatory has thus been deprived of its second 

 director, who has so ably and energetically conducted its 

 operations during nearly the last quarter of a century. 



W. T. Lynn. 



NOTES. 



On Saturday evening, at the Royal Institution, Prof. Max 

 Miiller delivered an address to inaugurate the establishment of 

 a school for modern Oriental studies by the Imperial Institute in 

 union with University College and King's College, London. 

 The Prince of Wales presided, and among those present were 

 many eminent persons, including some distinguished Orientals 

 Prof. Miiller presented with admirable force and clearness the 

 need for a great English school for Oriental studies, and had 

 much to tell his hearers as to work done in this direction in 

 other countries. His account of the new Berlin seminary of 



