August 9, 1888] 



NATURE 



35i 



Assuming the diameter of Titan as o"'75— the value given 

 independently by Schroeter, Madler, and Struve — the density of 

 the satellite would be about one-third that of the earth. Picker- 

 ing's diameter, deduced from photometric observations of the 

 satellite on the assumption that its albedo was equal to that of 

 the primary, would involve a density nearly four times that of 

 the earth. It would seem clear, therefore, that Titan possesses 

 a much greater density than Saturn, but that its surface is less 

 highly reflective. 



Names of MiNon Planets. — Minor planet No. 276 has 

 been named Adelheid, and No. 278 Paulina. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 1888 AUGUST 12-18. 



/T70R the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 ^ *• Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 

 is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on August 12 



San rises, 4I1. 43m. ; souths, I2h. 4m. 43 - 8>. ; sets, icjh. 26m. : 

 right asc. on meridian, c,\\. 30-201. ; decl. 14"" 47' N. 

 Sidereal Time at Sunset, i6h. 53m. 

 Moon (at First Quarter August 14, I7h.) rises, ioh. 14m. ; 

 souths, 16I1. 8m. ; sets, 2ih. 49m. : right asc. on meridian, 

 I3h. 34 '5m. ; decl. 4° 16' S. 



Right asc. and declination 

 on meridian, 

 h. m 



Planet. 



Mercury. 

 Venus .. 

 Mars . . 

 Jupiter .. 

 Saturn .. 

 Uranus.. 



Rises, 

 h. m. 



3 29 



5 29 



12 33 



13 50 

 3 5i 

 9 5° 



Neptune.. 22 50* 



Souths, 

 h. m. 



11 18 



12 41 



17 9 



18 13 

 II 31 



15 28 



6 37 



Sets, 

 h. m. 

 19 7 



19 53 



21 45 



22 36 

 19 11 

 21 6 

 14 24 



8 43-5 

 10 6-4 



14 35" 6 



15 40-0 



8 56-4 

 12 537 



4 i-8 



19 18 N. 

 13 ti N. 

 16 38 S. 

 18 50 S. 



18 1 N. 



5 4 S. 



18 59 N. 



* Indicates that the rising is that of the preceding evening. 



ug- 

 13 



14 

 15 



h. 

 21 



4 

 o 



Mars in conjunction with and 6° 49' south 



of the Moon. 

 Mercury in conjunction with and 0° 39' north 



of Saturn. 

 Jupiter in conjunction with and 4 7' south 



of the Moon. 



Variable Stars. 



h. m. 



Aug. 12, 3 12 « 



,, 16, 2 4 m 



,, 12, M 



,, 18, m 



,, 1 6, 23 o m 



„ 15, 23 35 m 



,, 14, 2 2 m 



,, 14, 22 10 m 



„ 15, » 



„ 13. 3 o m, 



,, 18, m 



,, 12, M 



,, 14, 2 o m 



„ 16, 23 o m 



,, 18, 2 o m 



,, 12, o o m 



„ 15, 4 oM 



,, 18, 22 o m 



M signifies maximum ; m minimum ; ;« 2 secondary minimum. 



THE SCIENTIFIC VALUE OF VOLAR UK. 



HPHE Committee appointed by the American Philosophical 

 *■ Society, on October 21, 1887, to examine into the scientific 

 value of Volapiik, presented the following Report at the meeting 

 of the Society held on January 6, 1888: — 



Your Committee proposes, first, to consider the desirability of 

 a universal language ; secondly, what should be its character- 

 istics ; and, thirdly, whether that invented by the Rev. Mr. 

 Schleyer, called by him Volapiik, meets the requirements. 



I. — That in the vastly increased rapidity of interchange of 

 thought in modern times, some general medium of intercom- 

 munication would be welcome, is unquestioned. Wherever 

 there are close commercial relations between nations speaking 

 different tongues, such media are sure to arise from the neces- 

 sities of daily life. Thus, the Lingua Franca in the Mediterra- 

 nean, and " pigeon English " in the Chinese ports, are dialects 

 which have sprung out of the urgency of business needs. These 

 mixed languages are called "jargons," an I have a very high 

 interest to the scientific linguist, as illustrating the principles of 

 the evolution of human speech. The English language is a 

 jargon of marked type, and illustrates what was stated by W. 

 von Humboldt early in this century, that from such crossings 

 and mingling of tongues are developed the most sinewy and 

 picturesque examples of human language. This consideration 

 shows that in adopting or framing a universal language we need 

 not hesitate to mould it from quite diverse linguistic sources. 



The presence of a number of these jargons in different parts 

 of the world testifies to the desirability for some one simple 

 form of discourse which could be of general adoption. Another 

 and higher testimony to the same effect is the need now fre 

 quently and loudly expressed for a uniform terminology in the. 

 sciences. For many years it has been urged, both in this country 

 and in Europe, that the neologi ms required by the sciences be 

 derived according to a uniform plan from the Greek, and that 

 those heretofore obtained from Greek or Latin be brought into 

 one general form. There is no practical difficulty about this 

 except that which arises from the Chauvinism of some nations 

 which are blinded by egotism or narrow notions to the welfare 

 of the whole. Such a tendency is observable in Germany, a 

 country once noted for its cosmopolitan sympathies. Its medical 

 teachers, for example, have of late frequently dismissed the 

 terms of their science derived from the Latin and Greek, in 

 order to substitute in their place long, awkward, and inhar- 

 monious Teutonic compounds. No effort at a uniform inter- 

 national scientific terminology can be successful if the learned in 

 each nation be governed by national prepossessions. 



Another obstacle to a universal tongue, and which at the 

 same time is a cogent argument for the adoption of one, is the 

 sentimental love of local dialects and forms of speech by those 

 who have imbibed them in infancy. Today there are active 

 Societies organized for the preservation of the Welsh, the 

 Armorican, the Basque, the Finnish, and the Flemish. For 

 many generations nearly all learned writings in Europe were in 

 Latin. In the eighteenth century the Latin threatened to be 

 superseded by the French. The Transactions of the Academy 

 of Sciences of Berlin were in French ; si were the articles by 

 the Russian Professors ; and in th~ earlier decades of the present 

 century French prevailed in the Reports of the Royal Northern 

 Society of Antiquaries, and inmostscientilic publications in Slavic 

 and Northern Teutonic countries. This is the case no longer. 

 Every little principality claims that it should print what it has 

 to tell the world of science in its own dialect, and claims that 

 the world of science should learn this dialect. Thus we have 

 on the list of our scientific exchanges publications in Roumanian 

 and Bohemian, in Icelandic and Basque, in Swedish and Hun- 

 garian, in Armenian and modern Greek, in Japanese and in 

 Portuguese, without counting the more familiar tongues. Even 

 a linguist by profession, such as Max M tiller, has exclaimed 

 against the very Babel, the confusion of tongues, which exists 

 in modern scientific literature. He has sounded an earnest 

 appeal to the learned writers of the world to express themselves 

 in one of the half-dozen languages which every roan of wide 

 education is supposed to read— to wit, the English, French, 

 German, Spanish, Italian, or Latin. 



But even with the advantage of a well-developed inter- 

 national scientific terminology, it is a good deal to ask of a 

 student of science that he should spend the time to acquire a 

 reading knowledge of these six tongues. In many cases it is 

 wholly impossible for lack of time. But time could always be 



