48 



NATURE 



\May 20, 1875 



remaining constant) is a logarithmic function was plainly indi- 

 cated jn the last paragraph but one in my second paper in 

 Nature, p. 277. In my paper in the Anurican Journal of 

 Science, Feb. 1875, p. 130, a formula was given at the close of 

 the paper, p. 137, which is equivalent to Hinrich's formula (i), 

 calling T the time of exhaustion (or number of lifts), and s the 

 strength of the muscle obtained with a dynamometer, and 



r=a(. -iS)- (2) 



where a and ;3 are constants. If the dynamometer gave the 

 real strength in kilograms, j8 would equal w. In the series pub- 

 lished in Nature, s was obtained in another way, there described, 

 and y3 was zero (nearly) ; z/ is a function of the weight. So that 

 Hinrichs' formula does not seem to differ essentially from (2). 

 In giving this formula, I stated expressly that I did not wish to 

 discuss this equation at present, as the constants had not been 

 determined with satisfactorj' precision, I take this occasion to 

 repeat that statement. 



Another point to which it may be well to call attention is, 

 that in exhausting the arm with heavy weights very little pain is 

 felt. With light weights, however, the pain is very great. 



Our knowledge of this whole subject is yet so fragmentary, 

 and the subject itself is so complex, that we can only hope to 

 represent our knowledge by empirical formulae. The best ser- 

 vice is to be rendered in the direction of careful experiment. I 

 shall therefore devote a few years to the work outlined in my 

 paper in the American yotirnal of Science. 



Washington University, F, E. Nipher 



St, Louis, Mo., April 28 



Physiological Effects of Tobacco Smoke 

 Is Dr. Krause (Nature, vol, xi. p. 456, vol. xii. p. 14) 

 acquainted with the manner in which cascarilla bark modifies 

 the physiological effects of tobacco smoking? The addi- 

 tion of a few very small fragments of the bark can hardly 

 be supposed to materially affect the amount of carbonic 

 oxide produced ; and yet, with such an admixture, the strongest 

 tobacco may be smoked by a tyro without, in most cases, the 

 production of the usual nauseating effects. Loss cf appetite, 

 thirst, vascular and nervous depression are sometimes produced 

 if such a mixture is smoked in excess. On the other hand, if Dr. 

 Krause's theory, that the nausea, &c., of tobacco smoking is due 

 to the carbonic oxide inhaled, be admitted, the question is sug- 

 gested whether some of the volatile products of burnt cascarilla 

 bark are antagonistic in their physiological action to the gas in 

 question? C. E. S. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 New Variable Star (?). — Mr. J. E. Gore, of Umballa, 

 writes with reference to a star of about the 6th magni- 

 tude noticed on the 13th of January about 1° north, 

 following 6 Leporis, and not having found it in Harding's 

 Atlas or in Lalande, or the B, A, C, he supposed it 

 might be a new star. " It is of a reddish colour, and is 

 in the same low-power field with, and about 25' north of 

 (a Httle preceding) the 7m, star Lalande 11778 ... It is 

 closely followed by two small stars which formed with it 

 a curved line." From this description the star is evi- 

 dently VI. 58 of Weisse's first Catalogue, observed by 

 Bessel early in 1825, and estimated 67 magnitude, the 

 small stars preceding it being Nos. 68 and 78 of the same 

 hour. It is not found in D'Agelet, Lamont, or in any 

 other catalogue we have examined, of previous date to 

 that accompanying Heis's Atlas, where it is entered 67, 

 but erroneously identified with VI. 78 of "Weisse's second 

 Catalogue, instead of VI. 58 of his first. (The large 

 number of similar errors in Heis's references is a serious 

 defect in a work otherwise of so much value.) Mr. Gore 

 mentions that he had not remarked, up to the middle of 

 April, any variation in the star's light, but it evidently 

 requires further examination, and may yet appear on our 

 rapidly extending list of variables. 



The Binary Star f Herculis.— If good measures of 

 this star are obtained during the present season, we may 

 expect to know the elements of the orbit with conside- 

 rable precision. Dun^r's results, founded upon measures 



1826-69, will be the best so far published, but he did not 

 regard them as definitive ; they will no doubt be very 

 useful in any further investigation, and for this reason 

 are here subjoined : — 



Peri-astron passage 1 864 "23 



Node 45° 56' Excentricity ... 0*42394 



Node to peri-astron Semi-axis ... i"'223 



onorbit ... 250 50 Period 34'22l yrs. 



Inclination ... 34 52 



Peters' Elliptic Comet 1846 (VI,). — This comet, 

 which was detected at Naples on the 26th of June. 1846, 

 by Dr. Peters, now Director of the Observatory at Clinton, 

 New York, was calculated by Prof. D'Arrest, and in a 

 more complete form by the discoverer himself, who, in a 

 memoir pubhshed in the Transactions of the Naples 

 Academy in 1847, found the time of revolution i2"85 

 years, but with an uncertainty of ± i*6i years ; in a sub- 

 sequent communication to Briinnow's Astronomical 

 Notices, he gave elements for 1859, including the effect of 

 perturbations of the planet Saturn, which, however, he 

 shows to be liable to very considerable doubt, on account 

 of the observations in 1846 being insufficient to fix the 

 mean motion at perihelion in that year within narrow 

 limits. It is to be remarked that in 1846 the comet 

 appeared under nearly the most favourable circumstances 

 possible for observation, and at the time of discovery the 

 comet was distant from the earth less than o"6 of our 

 mean distance from the sun, yet Dr. Peters found it very 

 small and faint, and unless the perihelion passage should 

 happen to fall about the same time of the year as in 1 846, 

 it might be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to 

 recover it. The only hope of doing so is in keeping a 

 close watch in the late spring and early summer, upon 

 those parts of the sky indicated with different suppositions 

 for date of perihelion passage, say from May 15 to June 

 15, which are wholly in south declination, a circumstance 

 that will render the assistance of observers in the other 

 hemisphere very desirable. To give an idea of the comet's 

 track in the heavens when the perihelion falls in May, 

 we assume the 15th and 25th for the passage by 

 this point of the orbit, and thus have the following posi- 

 tions : — 



In perihelion, May 25 '0. 

 B.A. Decl. Distance 



228° -8. 55° -8 S 0-600 



231 "I 48 '4 0-561 



233 -4 39 -2 0-546 



235 -8. 29 -4 S 0-564 



In perihelion, May 15-0. 



R.A. Decl. Distance 

 May 15... 256" -5 5o°-oS 0-594 



„ 25.. 256 -5 42 -2 0-552 

 June 4---255 "9 32 '8 0538 



„ 14.. .255 -3 23 -iS 0-555 



The least distance between the orbits of the earth and 

 comet is about 0-53. 



Considering the uncertainty in the mean motion de- 

 duced from observation in 1846, it is quite within possi- 

 bility that a perihelion passage may occur as late as the 

 summer of the present year, and it may be worth while to 

 institute a search upon that supposition. 



Minor Planets. — No. 26, Circular zum Berliner 

 Astronomischeii Jahrbuch, just issued, contains new ele- 

 ments and an ephemeris of No. 114, Cassandra, and 

 corrected ephemerides of No. 71, Niobe, and No. 128, 

 Nemesis. The period of revolution assigned to Cas- 

 sandra for November 1872 is 1 598-5 days. Several of 

 this group are now adrift, the elements not having been 

 determined with sufficient approximation to keep them in 

 view. The planet found by Borrelly at Marseilles, 1868, 

 May 29, and that detected by Pogson at Madras on 

 November \'] in the same year, are thus situated ; both 

 travel beyond the limits of our ecliptical charts, which 

 contain very small stars. 



OUR BOTANICAL COLUMN 

 The PandanEjE. — A fine series of Pandanus fruits 

 has recently been received at the Kew Museum from 

 Mr. John Home, of the Botanic Garden, Mauritius 



