576 



NATURE 



[Oct. ii, 1888 



The Royal Society of Canada has issued its Proceedings and 

 Transactions during the year 1887. This is the fifth volume 

 of the series. Among the papers (some of which are in 

 French) we may note the following : the Eskimo, by Franz 

 Boas; notes and observations on the Kwakiool people of 

 the northern part of Vancouver Island, and adjacent coasts, made 

 during the summer of 1885, with a vocabulary of about seven 

 hundred words, by George M. Dawson ; on the Indians and 

 Eskimos of the Ungava District, Labrador, by Lucien M. 

 Turner ; on a specimen of Canadian native platinum from British 

 Columbia, by G. Christian Hoffmann ; microscopic petrography 

 of the drift of Central Ontario, by A. P. Coleman ; Michel 

 Sarrazin : materiaux pour servir a l'histoire de la science en 

 Canada, by the Abbe Laflamme ; a review of Canadian botany 

 from the first settlement of New France to the nineteenth century, 

 by D. P. Penhallow ; illustrations of the fauna of the St. John 

 group, by G. F. Matthew ; squirrels, their habits and intelligence, 

 with especial reference to feigning, by T. Wesley Mills. 



The first volume of the " Geological Record," for 1880-84 

 (inclusive), has just been published. The second volume is partly 

 in type, and will be ready by the end of the year. The editors 

 are Mr. W. Topley and Mr. C. Davies Sherborn. Three altera- 

 tions have been made in this issue of the "Record." Titles only are 

 given ; physical geology is all included under one heading, 

 instead of three as heretofore ; supplements are abolished, titles 

 omitted from previous years appearing in the main text. 



According to the Report of the Committee of Council on 

 Education (England and Wales) for the past year, the class 

 subjects under the head of " Elementary Science " have practic- 

 ally not been taught in the elementary schools throughout the 

 country. Only thirty-nine schools have taken up any of these 

 subjects, while geography, for instance, has been taught in 12,035 

 schools. With regard to the training colleges for teachers it has 

 of late years been arranged that success in the examinations 

 in science held by the Science and Art Department should be 

 reckoned in fixing the students' places in the class list of candi- 

 dates for certificates as teachers of public schools. It is curious 

 that in the training colleges in Wales— Bangor, Carmarthen, and 

 Carnarvon — not a single student presented himself in mathematics, 

 theoretical mechanics, ^animal physiology, or inorganic chemistry; 

 and out of 713 male students who passed the examinations in 

 science under the Science and Art Department before entering 

 training colleges in the country only seven passed in applied 

 mechanics, nine in organic chemistry, and six in botany. Amongst 

 the female students who passed the Science and Art Department, 

 animal physiology and physiography were the favourite subjects, 

 while not one passed in applied mechanics, only one in theoretical 

 mechanics, and three in organic chemistry. 



We have received a copy of "Rural School Education in 

 Agriculture (Scotland)," the opening lecture delivered to an 

 agricultural class of rural teachers in the University of Edinburgh 

 by Prof. Robert Wallace. At the outset he gives a short history 

 of agricultural education in the University of Edinburgh (the 

 Chair was founded in 1790), and comments on the fact that the 

 students attending his classes are rural schoolmasters from every 

 county in Scotland. Last year a Government grant of ^300 to 

 the University enabled the Senate to arrange special classes for 

 his hearers. The students, he says, are not intended to be 

 farmers. They are to be, so to speak, literary experts on agri- 

 cultural matters, who are to direct the minds of lads in rural 

 districts into proper channels, and to stir up amongst them an 

 intelligent curiosity as to the animal and plant life around them. 

 A suggestion made by Prof. Wallace as to the formation of 

 libraries for the help of the rural teachers is worthy of attention. 

 Each of these libraries should have a cyclopaedia of agriculture, 

 and one guinea a year should be expended on each to provide 

 some leading agricultural periodical. This is all that would be 



absolutely necessary. He also advocates the changing of the 

 text-books at present in use in agricultural classes in Scotland. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Patas Monkey (Cercopithecus patas 9) from 

 West Africa, presented by Master Lewis Levy ; a Drill Baboon 

 {Cynocephalus leucophceus §) from West Africa, presented by 

 the Rev. G. H. Richardson ; a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus 

 rhesus $) from India, presented by Miss Jessie Bone ; a Com- 

 mon Marmoset (Hapale jacchus) from Brazil, presented by Miss 

 Maud Bryden ; a Ring-tailed Coati (Nasua rufa $) from 

 Demerara, presented by Mr. Robert Sentonally ; two Grey 

 Ichneumons (Herpestes griseus <j 5) from India, presented 

 respectively by Mr. A. Cresser and Miss Alice Rutherford ; 

 two West African Love Birds {Agapornis pullaria) from West 

 Africa, presented by Miss Ethel Levy ; a Salt-water Terrapin 

 (Clemmys terrapin) from North America, presented by Mr. 

 Nicholas Fen wick Hele ; four Blue-bearded Jays (Cyanocorax 

 cyanopogon) from |Para, a Violaceous Night Heron (Nycticorax 

 violaceus) from South America, purchased ; a Laughing 

 Kingfisher (Dacelo gigantea) from Australia, deposited. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Light-Curve of U Ophiuchi.— Mr. S. C. Chandler 

 investigated the light-curve of this most interesting variable 

 about a year ago (Nature, vol. xxxvii. p. 36), and found evi- 

 dence of a slight shortening of the period. Mr. Chandler's 

 light-curve also showed an irregularity in the increase of light 

 after minimum, similar to that which Schonfeld had already 

 exhibited in the light-curves of Algol and S Cancri — a diminu- 

 tion, that is, in the speed of recovery almost amounting to a 

 short halt. It is evident that it is of great importance to decide 

 whether this irregularity is due merely to 'some personality of 

 the observer, or is truly characteristic of the star's variation, for 

 in the latter case it would be difficult to reconcile it with the 

 view now generally held that the variability of stars of the Algol 

 type is due to the transit of a dark satellite. Mr. Sawyer has 

 recently published {Gould's Astronomical Journal, No. 177) the 

 light-curve from his own observations, which are 527 in 

 number, made on 57 nights, and involve 1 135 comparisons. Mr. 

 Sawyer's curve shows an irregularity similar to but slighter than 

 that of Mr. Chandler's, but the retardation takes place sooner 

 after the minimum, and the mean of the two curves gives 

 an almost perfectly symmetrical curve for both decrease and 

 recovery. It would seem likely, therefore, that for this star 

 at least this curious irregularity is a purely subjective one, and 

 the regularity of the mean curve would seem to afford con- 

 firmation to the satellite theory. 



Comets Brooks and Faye. — The following ephernerides are 

 in continuation of those given in Nature, vol. xxxviii. p. 503, 

 and p. 528 : — 



Comet 1888 c (Brooks). Comet 1888 d (Faye). 



1888. R.A. Decl. R.A. Decl. 



h. m. s. o / h. m. s. o / 



Oct. 15 ... 16 14 43 ... 5 57-4 N. 7 33 20 ... 11 11 N. 



17 ... 16 19 50 ... 4 57-6 7 36 29 ... 10 47 

 19 ... 16 24 49 ... 4 01 7 39 32 ... 10 23 

 21 ... 16 29 38 ... 3 4-8 7 42 28 ... 9 59 

 23 ... 16 34 22 ... 2 n-9 7 45 17 ... 9 35 

 25 ... 16 38 58 ... 1 218 7 47 59 ... 9 11 



27 ... 16 43 28 ... o 32-8 N. 7 50 34 ... 8 47 N. 



Comet 1888 e (Barnard). —Mr. W. R. Brooks discovered 

 this comet independently on the following morning to that on 

 which Mr. Barnard discovered it at Mount Hamilton. 



Ephemeris for Berlin Midnight (continued from Nature, 



vol. xxxviii. p. 528). 

 1888. R.A. Decl. Log r. Log A. Bright- 



h. m. s. o / ness. 



Oct. 12... 62314... 6 59-5 N... 0-3523 ... 0-2550 ... 351 

 14 ... 6 19 19 ... 6 39-7 

 16 ... 6 14 58 ... 6 186 ... 0*3466 ... 0-2265 ... 4*io 



18 ... 6 10 12 ... 5 562 



20... 6 4 57-- 5 32'4 ... 0-3410 ... 0-1972 ... 4*80 

 22... 55912... 5 7-1 



24... 55255... 440-3 N.... 0-3354 ... 0-1672 ... 5-60 

 The brightness on September 2 has been taken as unity. 



