Sept. 25, 1879] 



NATURE 



Srs 



Minima of S Cancri occur on 



h. m. 



6 56-3 

 18 33-0 



6 9-9 

 17 46-3 



Dec. 3 ... 



12 ... 



22 ... 



31 ■■• 



R Leporis will be at a maximum on October 3, and x 

 Cygni at a minimum on December 6 according to Schon- 

 feld' s elements, but the average period of late years, 406 

 days added to Schmidt's last well-determined epoch of 

 minimum, October 11, 1878, would fi.x the next minimum 

 on November 21 ; observations of this star are much to 

 be desired, owing to the irregularities in the period which 

 have been recently evident ; the star is a little brighter 

 than 13m. at minimum. 



The star observed six times at Bonn in 1863 in R.A. 

 22h. 28m. i6'9s,, Decl. —8° 21' 19" for i8S5'o is variable 

 from 9m. to below I3'5m., and though long notified as a 

 variable star, appears to have been little observed. It 

 was invisible on November 9, 1874. Cooper estimated it 

 9ni. on October 27, 1848, and it was equally bright in 

 August, 1855. This object is not in Schonfeld's catalogue 

 of 1875. 



The New Minor Planets. — Names continue to be 

 assigned to the newer discoveries in this group, though 

 they can hardly be said to be invariably euphonious, at 

 least to English ears. The last circular of the Berliner 

 Asironomisches Jahrbuch states that the following selec- 

 tion has been made by the Berlin astronomers at the 

 request of the discoverer, Herr Palisa, of Pola : for No. 

 192, Nausikaa; No. 195, Eurykleia; No. 197, Arete; 

 and for No. 201, Penelope. 



The Outer Satellite of Mars. — The satellite 

 Deimos was observed by Mr. A. A. Common, of Ealing, 

 on the morning of September 22, or three weeks earlier 

 than Prof. Asaph Hall expected that it would be observable 

 with the Washington 26-inch refractor. Mr. Common's 

 angle of position, measured with his new 36-inch silver- 

 on-glass reflector, differs only + i°'8 from that assigned 

 by Prof. Hall's elements. 



NOTES 

 We regret to have to announce the death of Mrs. Norman 

 Lockyer, an occasional contributor to this journal and translator 

 of several French works on popular science. Her husband's 

 scientific work for the last eleven years owes whatever it may 

 possess of merit to her constant interest, encouragement, and 

 assistance. Her untimely death will be a shock to many men of 

 science in many lands to whom she was personally known. 



It will interest many of our readers to learn tliat Dr. William 

 Jack, who has been an occasional contributor to Nature, and 

 is well known to most of those connected with it, has been 

 unanimously elected to the chair of Mathematics in Glasgow 

 University, recently vacated by Prof. Blackburn. 



Baron Ferdinand von Mijller, Government botanist of 

 Victoria, has been rewarded for his Colonial services as a 

 naturalist with the Knight Commaudership of the Order of 

 St. Michael and St. George. 



The death, on the 13th inst., is announced, of Mr. W. Wilson 

 Saunders, F.R.S. 



The iioth anniversary of the birthday of Alexander von 

 Humboldt was pnblicly celebrated by the Society of Cosmophiles 

 tit Leipzig on the 14th inst. A festival address was delivered by 

 the secretary of the Society, Herr E. Haynel. 



At the Berlin meeting of the German Astronomical Society 

 on September 5-8 last the series of scientific communications 



was opened by Dr. Forster, who minutely described the innova» 

 tions recently made at the Berlin Observatory, which he subse- 

 quently invited the meeting to inspect. Prof. Bmhns, of Leipzig, 

 spoke on the progress made in calculating the orbits of comets, 

 Prof. Gylden, of Stockholm, pointing out a shorter method in 

 these calculations. Prof. Winnecke then gave a description of 

 the new Strassburg Observatory, and was followed by Dr. 

 Drechsler,"of Dresden, who made a communication on the col- 

 lections belonging to the Royal Mathematical Saloon of Dresden. 

 The last paper was by Prof. Schaffarick on variable stars. At 

 the subsequent inspection of the Berlin Observatory the excellent 

 arrangements to prevent damage to the instruments from varia- 

 tions in temperature were particularly admired. Great admira- 

 tion was also elicited by the Astro-Physical Observatory at the 

 Telegraphenberg, near Potsdam. The Society wiU meet again 

 at Strassburg in iSSl. 



We have already, in our " Notes," chronicled the "inaugura- 

 tion " of the Water Supply Exhibition at the Alexandra Palace 

 by the Lord Mayor, on August 14. The exhibition is being held 

 under the auspices of the committee for promoting a permanent 

 water supply museum to be established somewhere in London, 

 the lessees of the Palace kindly placing their exhibition court at 

 the disposal of the committee for the purpose. The " inaugura- 

 tion" was fixed at a date when the exhibition was in a very rudi- 

 mentary state ; but as the Lord Mayor had given his patronage, 

 and as he was leaving town on the isth, it was felt undesirable 

 to postpone it. The exhibition has grown slowly since then, 

 though it is still far from coming up to the scheme as sketched 

 out by the committee. The nature of the exhibition precludes 

 its growing very rapidly, for the scheme does not appeal to many 

 classes of exhibitors, and no commercial benefits are likely to 

 accrue to contributors except in a few of the trade sections. It 

 is understood that the Lord Mayor, accompanied by some of the 

 provincial mayors, will visit the exhibition to-morrow (Friday), 

 and will be entertained at lunch. This visit may help to draw 

 attention to the efifort to establish what might be made a very 

 valuable institution. 



The statue to Arago was unveiled at Perpignan on September 

 20. Arago is represented as speaking and extending his arm 

 towards the heavens. There are also three bas-reliefs. The 

 first shows young Arago preparing for his examination at the 

 Polytechnic School and studying without any master at the Old 

 Perpignan fortifications. The second is the triumphant march 

 from the Observatory to the Hotel de Ville, when Arago pro- 

 claimed the Republic in 1848 ; the great astronomer is leaning 

 on Emanuel, his eldest son, now a member of the French Senate. 

 The third relief _represents Arago almost blind, sitting on his 

 bed and composing his memoirs ; Madame Tangier, his niece, is 

 writing what the great dying astronomer is cictating. 



A METEOROLOGICAL Station is to be established at Mont de 

 Mignons, near Nice. 



One feature of the last eruption of the remarkable volcano of 

 Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands, is the fact that the great 

 molten lake of lava, occupying a huge caldron nearly a mile in 

 width, and known as the " South Lake," was drawn off subter- 

 raneously, giving no warning of its movements and leaving no 

 visible indication of its pathway or the place of its final deposit. 

 "Other eruptions," writes Dr. Coan to Prof. Dana, in a letter 

 dated June 20, " have blazed their way on the surface to the sea, 

 or while on their subterranean way have rent the superincumbent 

 beds, throwing out jets of steam or of sulphurous gases, with here 

 and there small patches or broad areas of lava. But as yet no 

 surface-marks of this kind reveal the silent, solemn course of this 

 burning river. One theory is that it flowed deep in subterranean 

 fissures, and finally disembogued far out at sea. Our ocean was 

 much disturbed during those days, and we had what might be 



