382 



NATURE 



[March 14, 1878 



latitude (which may be taken from tables found in many 

 astronomical works — in Loomis's " Practical Astronomy," 

 for instance, or in the Berliner Jahrbnch iox 1852) is 

 — ii''4 and consequently / = 40° 1 1''6, 



The duration of the total eclipse is therefore 2m. 54s. 

 and the middle at loh. 28m. iSs. G.M.T. ; the Natitical 

 Ahnanac has 2m, 55s. and loh. 28m., so that the correc- 

 tions which we have introduced into the calculation have 

 had but very insignificant effect. It may be added that 

 when cos w is found greater than unity, and therefore 

 impossible, the place for which the calculation is made is 

 beyond the zone of totality. 



The Star Lalande 31266-7. — Mr. J. E. Gore writes 

 with reference to this object, which in the reduced Cata- 

 logue of Lalande appears as a first magnitude, with posi- 

 tion for 1800 (by a mean of the two observations), R.A, 

 I7h. im. 22-36s., N.P.D. 45° 57' 2i"'6, and suggests that 

 it may prove to be a remarkable variable, since it is 

 " shown 6m. in Flammarion's edition of Dien's Atlas.' 

 The introduction of such a star into the Catalogue is 

 easily explained, and in fact is rather an old story. The 

 two observations on p. 353 of the " Histoire Cdleste" 

 were really observations of Capella {Chevre, as Lalande 

 calls it) j?^3 /<?/«?, and were erroneously reduced to 1800, 

 as though the star had been observed above pole. It is 

 singular that these two observations should have givtn 

 rise to the introduction of a spurious star, since there are 

 eight other observations of Capella sitb polo in the same 

 year, 1790, between April 19 and July 24, of which no use 

 has been made by the computers in their reduction of the 

 stars of the " Histoire Celeste." There is no sixth mag- 

 nitifde in the position of the reduced catalogue. 



Minor Planets. — There are yet two more members 

 to be added to this group— No. 184, discovered by Herr 

 PaUsa at Pola, on February 28, and No. 185, tby Prof, 

 Peters, at Clinton, U.S., on the following night. The 

 Berlin Circular, No. 86, contains elements of Nos, 181- 

 183. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 



Inland Fisheries, America.— We are indebted to 

 Mr. Theodore Lyman, one of the United States Com- 

 missioners on Inland Fisheries, for an early copy of the 

 Twelfth Annual Report to the Commonv/ealth of 

 Massachusetts, Among other interesting facts we gather 

 from it that there is still a mystery about the young of the 

 Californian salmon {Salmo quinnat), for, notwithstanding 

 the hundreds of thousands that have been put into New 

 England waters, no one has been able to say with 

 certainty that a single sraolt has been seen. In reference 

 to the true salmon (.5*. salnr) it is pleasant to know that 

 the return of mature salmon to the waters of the Merrimac 

 last year (1877) commences a new era in the history of 

 fish-culture in America. From the observations taken many 

 of these mature salmon were from eight to ten pounds 

 weight each, and were from the parr put into the river in 

 1873 ; but some were seen from fifteen to eighteen pounds 

 weight, and these were most probably the result of the 

 first parr put into the river in 1872. From 1872 to 

 1876 upwards of 830,000 parr were put into the riven and 

 hundreds of fine fish were seen passing up in the spring 

 of 1877 ; and, so says the report, " it will be seen that what 

 we have so long fought for, what the mass of people here 

 have generally considered mere theories, visions of men 

 who suffered from fish on the brain, has been fully sub- 

 stantiated. It is true it took a little longer than was at 

 first thought, but now Massachusetts knows that while she 

 was the first of the States to take an interest in fish- 

 culture, so she has been the first to demonstrate the 

 certainty of a good return, and she can restock those rivers 

 where the fish have been lor a long time killed out," 



The Development of Nerves. — Dr. A. M. Marshall 

 is continuing his careful researches into the earliest 

 stages of nerves in vertebrate embryos. He has recently 

 published in the Quarterly Jonrtial of Microscopical 

 Science some of his latest results, obtained from embryos 

 of the common fowl, treated with picric acid. He 

 describes a distinct neural rid^e at the top of the cerebro- 

 spinal tube in the middle cerebral track, before it has 

 even closed in, the embryo being barely two days old in 

 development. This ridge afterwards becomes continuous 

 along the whole brain and great part of the spinal cord, 

 and many of the nerves undoubtedly arise from it. It 

 appears in the highest degree probable that the olfactory 

 nerve originates from the anterior part o'\ this ridge ; but 

 Dr. Marshall is quite certain that there is no special 

 olfactory vesicle in the chick. This is directly contrary 

 to the received teaching, which speaks of an olfactory 

 lobe of the brain, and does not compare the olfactory 

 with other nerves. Dr. Marshall believes that the 

 common olfactory nerve is really the nerve of the anterior 

 cranial segment. The third nerve is for the first time 

 developmentaliy traced by Dr. Marshall, and he finds it 

 to be a strictly segmental nerve. The seventh and eighth 

 nerves (facial and auditory) are shown to have a common 

 origin ; the auditory is really a branch of the facial. The 

 history of the vagus nerve (pneumogastric) is regarded as 

 suggesting very strongly that it is equivalent to several 

 spinal nerves, and not merely to one. 



French Polyzoa. — An important contribution to the 

 history of a number of species of marine polyzoa will 

 be found in a memoir on " Les Bryozoaires des Cotes de 

 France," by M. L. Joliet, of the Zoological Laboratory at 

 Roscoff, a spot so well known to every tourist in Britanny. 



