April 17, 1879] 



NATURE 



55' 



NOTE OX THE SPECTRUM OF BRORSEN'S 

 COMET 



OX April I and 2 I succeeded in determining the 

 position of the green band in the spectrum of 

 Bror sen's comet. The spectrum was so faint that the 

 other bands could not be measured. The instrument was 

 the 9|-inch equatorial of our astronomical laboratory, 

 armed with a one-prismjspectroscope. The observations 

 were made by bringing an occulting bar, movable by a 

 micrometer screw, into such a position that the well- 

 defined lower (less refrangible) edge of the band in the 

 comet spectrum should be just \-i5ible as a thin line, the 

 rest of the band being hidden by the bar. After the 

 pointing the flame of a Bunsen burner was brought in 

 front of the slit, and the position of the band in the 

 comet-spectrum was thus fixed. 



It was found by four independent pointings (which all 

 agreed wathin about the interval of the ^-lines) that the 

 central band of the spectrum of the comet coincided 

 precisely (within the limits of perception) with the green 

 band in the flame of the hydrocarbon. 



The interest of the observation lies entirely in the fact 

 that it seems irreconcileable with the result obtained by 

 Mr. Huggins in 1868, who found for the same comet a 

 spectrum having bands distinctly different in position and 

 appearance. 



According to my observation, the spectrum of Brorsen's 

 comet no longer stands out as exceptional, but agrees with 

 that of other comets. 



The comet itself appears in my telescope as a small 

 roimd nebulosity, about 40" in diameter, without definite 

 nucleus, but much brighter in the centre, easily \'isible in 

 the finder of 3 inches apertiu-e, and about equal in bright- 

 ness to a star of the 7th or 8th magnitude. Before the 

 new moon a straight narrow tail, about half a degree 

 long, was faintly visible with a low power. 



C. A. Young 



Princeton, X. Jersey, U.S.A., April 5 



NOTES 

 We learn that Congress has sanctioned the scheme for the 

 reorganisation of the American Surveys recently commented upon 

 in these columns. It is understood that the Geological Survey 

 will be placed under the control of Mr. Clarence King, who has 

 so long had charge of the Geological Exploration of the 40th 

 Parallel. But no details have yet reached us. 



Ix the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards has been elected a member in place of the late M. 

 Gervais, in the Section of Anatomy and Physiology ; M. Abich 

 a correspondent in the Section of Mineralogy, in place of M. 

 Damour; and Mr. Lawes a correspondent in the Section of 

 Rural Economy, in place of the late Marquis de Vibraye. 



The following are the probable arrangements for the Friday 

 evening meetmgs at the Royal Institution after Easter : — April 

 25. Francis Gallon, F.R.S. : " Generic Images." May 2. Prof. 

 John G. McKendrick, M.D. : ".The Physiological Action of 

 Anaesthetics." May 9. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. : 

 "The Habits of Ants." May 16. Prof. A. Comu : "Etude 

 Optique de I'Elasticite" (in French). May 23. W. H. Preece, 

 M.R.I. : "Multiple Telegraphy, or Duplex and Quadruplex 

 Telegraphy." May 30. Grant Allen: "The Colour-Sense in 

 Insects ; its Development and Reaction." June 6, Prof. Dewar, 

 F.R.S. June 13. Frederick J. Bramwell, F.R.S. : "The 

 Thunderer Gun Explosion." 



A CATALOGUE of the library of the Museum of Practical 

 Geology and Geological Survey has been lately published, com- 

 piled by Messrs. H. White and T. W. Newton, which cannot 

 fail to be of use beyond the walls of the hbrary of which it is a 



record. The arrangement is alphabetical, the author's name and 

 important groups of works, as "Geological Surveys" and 

 " Statistics," being printed in black thick type, secondary titles 

 and subdivisions in italics. The pages are clear and easily read 

 and the titles full and accurate. The price, considering that 

 there are over 600 pages, and that only 270 copies appear to 

 have been printed, is somewhat less than that which is generally 

 fixed on the publications of this Department. When the 

 Geological Survey was instituted in 1843, its first Director, Sir 

 Henry De la Beche, C.B., commenced the formation of a 

 musetmi illustrative not only of the palaeontology of the coimtry, 

 but of the economic application of geology to the arts and 

 manufactures. These collections were exhibited in a small build- 

 ing in Craig's Court, and wishing still further to foster geological 

 study. Sir Henry presented to the Survey the whole of his 

 scientific hbrary. This was added to from time to time, until in 

 1 85 1 these collections were removed to the Museum of Practical 

 Geology, which was built for their reception, and to provide 

 accommodadon for the Royal School of Mines, which was then 

 instituted, and to a certain extent associated with the Survey. 

 Since this time, partly by the annual grant firom Parliament, 

 partly from the gifts of the various scientific societies of the 

 world, and partly by the bequest of the late ^Sir Roderick 

 Murchison's hbrary, it now numbers no less than 28,000 works, 

 on the special subjects taught in the School of Mines, geology, 

 mining, chemistry, biology, &c., and it is specially rich in 

 foreign transactions, and the works of reference useful to a 

 mining engineer. 



Lord DtTFFERlK, -who had accepted the presidency of the 

 Birmingham and Midland Institute, having been compelled to 

 relinquish that office on his appointment to the Embassy at St. 

 Petersburg, Prof. Max Midler was commimicated with by the 

 Coimcil, and has signified his acceptance of the post. 



The pubUcation of weather warnings in Switzerland will begin 

 on May i in Zurich, and on June 1 5 in Geneva. A telegraphic 

 despatch, containing a description of the weather in Europe, 

 with weather warnings, will be sent from the observatory every 

 day, by telegraph, to any person who wiU pay quarterly 4/. 8j., 

 and a shorter bulletin containing only a weather prognostic, will 

 cost i/. for three months. 



Swiss papers are much alarmed by a case of infection by 

 birds. Two brothei^, merchants at Uster, in the canton of 

 Zurich, who have a large collection of various birds and monkeys, 

 lately received some tropical birds which were sent in a cage 

 from Buda-Pesth. Immediately after the arrival of the birds the 

 two brothers, the wife of one of them, and a shop girl became 

 sick. A third brother, who is a surgeon, understood the cause 

 of the illness and ordered all suspicious birds to be killed, fifty 

 or sixty in number, the cages to be destroyed, and a strong 

 sanitary cordon around the house to be established. A tinker 

 who had done some repairs to the cages also became sick and 

 died in hospital, as well as an innkeeper and his wife, at whose 

 inn the birds stayed for some days. The number of sick aheady 

 has reached eight, and their state is very bad. The illness is 

 described as a black typhus. 



The third fascicule of the " Pflanzenleben der Schweiz," by 

 M. Christ, has just appeared, and contains a very fine map which 

 illustrates the subdivisions of the Swiss flora. 



A COMMITTEE has been appointed by the Paris Society of 

 Photography to collect funds in order to erect a statue to 

 Xicephore Niepce, who was born at Chalons-sur-Saone in 1765. 

 The subscriptions are to be sent in Paris to M. Pector, 9, rue 

 d'Albe, or M. Koziell, 20, rue Louis-le-grand. 



Mr. Clifton Ward's papers on the physical history of the 

 English lake-district have been reprinted in a separate form 

 from the Geological Magazine. 



