Nov. 1 6, 1876] 



NATURE 



6i. 



Sclavonic, Italian, Norwegian, and English being spoken, 

 though all orders were given in Italian. It was well 

 selected, and the ships equipped according to the most 

 approved directions, but still scurvy broke out, though 

 apparently not to so serious an extent as in the case of the 

 Alert and Discovery. Fresh meat was abundant, and 

 everything known to prevent or counteract the disease, 

 but it broke out in both winters, the men improving 

 during spring. Payer is distinctly of opinion that a 

 judicious use of alcohol is a preventive, but evidently the 

 1 oal cause of this scourge of Arctic explorers has yet to 

 1)0 found out. The lowest temperature met with was a 

 little over 40° R., though the general temperature was 

 much milder. No one suffered seriously from frost bites, 

 though they were common. The single death was due to 

 consumption. 



The conduct of the expedition by its two leaders, and 

 tlie behaviour of officers and men, were all that could be 

 wished. Observations in meteorology and magnetism, 

 on the Aurora (of which there were many magnificent dis- 

 plays), geology, biology, and other departments of science 

 v^cre regularly and carefully made, and will no doubt 

 ;jradually find their way into the general body of scien- 

 titic knowledge and deductions. Unfortunately, many of 

 the specimens, geological and zoological, had to be left 

 behind with the ship. On the whole, this expedition is 

 one of the most satisfactory in its conduct and results of 

 all that have gone out to gather knowledge in these in- 

 hospitable regions, and Lieut. Payer has written its story 

 in a style not surpassed in fascinating interest and scien- 

 tific value by any of those old narratives that are still the 

 delight of all who love to read of the adventures of daring 

 men. The translator has had a hard task before him in 

 putting the narrative into English dress, but he has 

 succeeded, we think, completely ; while retaining an un- 

 mistakable German flavour, the English version is tho- 

 roughly idiomatic and readable. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Nineveh Solar Eclipse of b.c. 763. — In the Rev. 

 A. H. Sayce's notice of the discoveries of the late Mr. George 

 Smith amongst the Assyrian inscriptions in the British Museum 

 (Nature, vol. xiv. p. 421), reference is trade to a solar eclipse 

 in the month Sivan, which has been fixed to the year B.C. 763, 

 June 15 (not in May, as printed in the notice quoted). The 

 following are elements of this important eclipse — which has so 

 direct a bearing upon the Assyrian chronology of the perio.^ — 

 deduced upon the same system of calculation adopted for oth-r 

 ancient eclipses previously alluded to in this column : — 

 Greenwich MeanTim« of Conjunction in R. A., r>.c. 763, Jane i\, 

 at igh. 9m. 25s. 



■•• 73 9 43 

 39 56 

 2 34 

 ... 23 10 10 N. 

 ... 22 53 4N. 

 0S4N. 

 o 17 N. 

 60 9 

 o 9 

 16 24 

 IS 25 



The sidereal time at Greenwich noon was 4h. 57m. 47s., and 

 the equation of time 8m. 4s, additive to mean time. Hence the 

 middle of the eclipse fell at igh. 8m. 52s., and the following 

 would be points in the line of central and total phase : — 



Longitude ... 35 H E- Latitude ... 30 59 N. 

 ... 40 2 „ ... 32 58^^ 



... 43 35 E- - ••• 34 19 N. 



Sir George Airy places the Pyramid of Nimrud in long. 

 43° 20' 8" E., and lat. 36° '6' i". Calculating directly for this 



R.A 



Moon's hourly motion in R.A. 

 Sun's „ „ „ 



Moon's declination 

 Sun's „ 



Moon's hourly motion in decl. 

 Sun's ,, „ ,, 



Moon's horizontal parallax 

 Sun's ,, ,, 



Moon's true semi-diameter 

 Sun's „ „ 



point from the preceding elements we find a very large partial 

 eclipse — 



h. m. 



Beginning June 15 at 7 52 a.m., local M.T. 

 Ending ,, „ 10 23 ,, ,, 



Greatest phase at gh. 8m. A.M., magnitude of eclipse 0987. 



The breadth of the zone of totality in the longitude of Nim- 

 rud measured upon the meridian was 2° 5', whence it appears 

 that this point is distant by calculation about 50' outside th« 

 northern linait, but at this remote period a very small alteration 

 in the value of the moon's secular acceleration employed would 

 suffice to bring Nimrud within the total eclipse, and it has 'oeen 

 inferred that the eclipse was probably total at the station of the 

 Assyrian Court, from the circumstance of the inscription referring 

 to the phenomenon being underlined in the Assyrian Canon or 

 register of annual archons at Nineveh, although there is no in- 

 terruption in the official order of the Eponymes. 



The discovery of the record of this eclipse was first announced 

 by Sir Henry Rawlinson, in May, 1867. 



The Comet of 1652. — This comet, which was observed for 

 about three weeks only, is stated by Hevelius and Comiers to 

 have equalled the moon in apparent magnitude, a fact pointing 

 to a near approach to the earth. At present we have only the 

 elements given by Halley in his " Synopsis Astronomiar Come- 

 ticse," which were calculated upon the observations of Hevelius, 

 extending from December 20, 1652, to the 8th of the following 

 month, published in the scarce volume of his " Machina 

 Ccelestis." From this orbit the following positions and dis- 

 tances result : — 



So that the comet's least distance from the earth was about 

 0*13 of the earth's mean distance from the sun, and the real 

 diameter of the cometic nebulosity rather less than iio,ooe 

 miles. 



The Brightness of Jupiter's Satellites. — In connection 

 with a recent reference in this column to M. Prosper Henry's 

 direct comparison of the brightness of Jupiter's satellites with 

 that of Uranus, it may be mentioned that Dr. Engelmann of 

 Leipsic, in his memoir "Uber die Helligkeitverhaltnisse der 

 Jupiterstrabanten," taking the star 132 Tauri as 5-3 in magni. 

 tude found the respective magnitudes of the satellites 



m. m. m. m. 



1 5-52 II 5-70 III 5'32 IV 6-28 



While a reduction of light-comparisons by Prof. Auwers between 

 November, 1858, and May, i860, gave 



1 6-;3 II 6-59 III 587 IV. 



6-76 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 

 The Progress of Embryology.— The value of Dr. Dohm's 

 Zoological Station at Naples has never been more conclusively 

 demonstrated than by the publication, in a recent number 

 (July, 1876) of the Archtv fiir mikroskopische Anatomie, of 

 a series of researches by Dr. Bobretzky, of Kiew, on the 

 development of certain forms of Gastropods. The systematic 

 search for embryonic forms which is carried on under Dr. 

 Dohm's superintendence has enabled Dr. Bobretzky to pub- 

 lish a memoir of great value, illustrated by a hundred 

 figures. His skill and success have been previously attested by 

 his excellent researches on the development of the crustacean 

 genera, Astacus, Palsemon, and Oniscus ; and he has now passed 

 with equal good fortune into the Gastropod group, dealing with 



