232 



NATURE 



[July 7, 1887 



{Chrysotis ochrocephaia) from Guiana, deposited ; six Chin- 

 chillas {Chinchilla lanigera) from Chili, a Burrowing Owl 

 {Speotyto amicularia) from Buenos Ay res, two Hoopoes ( Uptipa 

 epops), British, a Gould's Monitor ( Varanus gouldi) from Aus- 

 tralia, purchased ; two Mule Deer {Cai-iaais macrotis), a Yellow- 

 footed Rock Kangaroo [Petrogale xanthoptis) born in the 

 Gardens ; two Blood-breasted Pigeons {Phlogcenas cruentata) 

 bred in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Relative Positions of the Principal Stars in the 

 Pleiades. — We have received vol. i., part l, of the Transac- 

 tions of the Astronomical Observatory of Yale University, con- 

 taining an important paper by Dr. W. L. Elkin, giving the 

 results of his researches with the Yale heliometer on the rela- 

 tive positions of sixty-nine stars situated in the above-mentioned 

 group. The work consists, in reality, of two independent tri- 

 angulations : one resting on measurements of the distance of 

 each star in the group from each of four stars situated near its 

 outer limits, so that nearly the entire group is inclosed sym- 

 metrically by the quadrilateral formed by them ; the other 

 resting on measurements of distance and position-angle from 

 Alcyone, the central star of the group. These two independent 

 determinations are in very satisfactory agreement, and Dr. Elkin 

 has thus furnished a most accurate catalogue, for the epoch 1885, 

 of the relative positions in R. A. and declination of these sixty- 

 nine stars. For comparison of his results with the Konigsberg 

 places for 1840, Dr. Elkin has adopted the corrections to the 

 Tatter resulting from Prof. Auwers's researches, and brought up 

 the newly reduced places to 1885, exhibiting the comparison in the 

 form of apparent displacements in R. A. and in declination, the 

 place of Alcyone being made identical in both series. For the six 

 largest cases of relative displacement there is a remarkable com- 

 munity both of direction and amount of apparent motion, and it 

 is remarkable that this general drift is very similar to the 

 reversed absolute motion of Alcyone as given by Newcomb. 

 For two of the stars, Bessel's Nos. 14 and 35, the coincidence 

 is, in Dr. Elkin's opinion, sufficiently close to warrant the deduc- 

 tion that these two stars at least do not belong to, but form only 

 optical members of, the group. It is possible, if not probable, 

 that the other four should also be placed in the same category. 

 The general character of the internal motions of the group 

 appears, however, to be extremely minute, and Dr. Elkin thinks 

 that the hopes of obtaining any clue to the internal mechanism 

 of this cluster seem not likely to be realized in the immediate 

 future. Dr. Elkin also compares his results with the micro- 

 metrical measures of M. Wolf at Paris and of Prof. Pritchard 

 at Oxford, and arrives at the conclusion that " the use of the 

 filar micrometer for such large distances as those under considera- 

 tion is likely to be accompanied with considerable casual error, 

 and, unless great care is taken, with large systematic error. The 

 conclusions of Messrs. Wolf and Pritchard as to the relative 

 motions in the group have thus been unfortunately vitiated, and 

 must be replaced by those formulated " in Dr. Elkin's most able 

 paper. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 1887 JULY 10-16. 



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

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

 is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on July 10 

 Sun rises, 3h. 57m. ; souths, I2h. Sm. 17s. ; sets, 2oh. 13m. ; 



decl. on meridian, 22° l6' N. : Sidereal Time at Sunset, 



I5h. 27m. 

 Moon (at Last Quarter on July 13) rises, 22h. 32m.^* ; souths, 



3h. 51m. ; sets, gh. 19m. ; decl. on meridian, 8° 32' S. 



Planet. 



Mercury 

 Venus ... 

 Mars . . . 

 Jupiter... 

 Saturn... 



Rises, 

 h. ra. 



6 14 

 8 10 



2 21 



34 



Souths, 

 h. m. 

 13 40 



IS 10 



10 42 



18 26 



12 35 



Sets, 

 h. m. 



21 6 



22 10 



19 3 



23 44 



20 36 



Decl. on meridian. 



- 15 33 N. 



... 10 57 N. 



... 23 59 N. 



... 9 4S. 



... 21 16 N. 



Mercury at greatest distance from the Sun. 

 Venus at greatest elongation from the Sun>. 



46° east. 

 Mercury stationary. 



Star. 



U Cephei 

 Ceti ... 

 Algol ... 

 S Leonis 

 W Virginis 

 5 Librae 

 /3 Lyrae... 

 R Lyrse 

 S Cephei 

 R Pegasi 



July 



12, 22 52 m 



11, m 



12, 21 12 m 



13, M 



11, 3 oM 

 15, 23 42 m 



12, 22 o M 



16, 

 15. 

 13, 



M 

 oM 



M 



M signifies maximum ; tn minimum. 



Meteor-Showers. 



R.A. Decl. 



From Herculis 



Ophiuchus .. 

 Near i: Pegasi 

 From Andromeda .. 



271 ... 21 N. Very slow. 



280 ... 14 S. Very slow. 



329 ... 36 N.Swift.Red streaks^ 



352 ... 38 N. Swift. 



Indicates that the rising is that of the preceding evening. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY 

 INTO M. PASTEUR'S TREATMENT OF 

 HYDROPHOBIA. 



THE following is the text of this important Report to the 

 President of the Local Government Board : — 

 Sir, — In accordance with the instructions contained in a letter 

 dated April 12, 1886, from your predecessor, the Right Honoiu"- 

 able Joseph Chamberlain, M. P., appointing us to be a Committee 

 to inquire into M. Pasteur's treatment of hydrophobia, we beg 

 leave to present to you the following Report. 



In order to answer the several questions involved in the in- 

 quiry, we found it necessary that some of the members of the 

 Committee should, together with Mr. Victor Horsley, the 

 Secretary, visit Paris, so as to obtain information from M. Pasteur 

 himself, and observe his method of treatment, and investigate a 

 considerable number of the cases of persons inoculated by him ; 

 and, further, that a careful series of experiments should be made 

 by Mr. Horsley on the effects of such inoculation on the lower 

 animals. The detailed facts of these observations and experi- 

 ments are placed in the Appendix to this Report ; a summary ol 

 them, and the conclusions which we believe may be drawn from 

 them, are given in the next following pages. 



The experiments by Mr. Horsley entirely confirm M. Pasteur's 

 discovery of a method by which animals may be protected from 

 the infection of rabies. The general facts proved by them ma) 

 be thus stated : 



If a dog, or rabbit, or other animal be bitten by a rabid dog 

 and die of rabies, a substance can be obtained from its spinal 

 cord which, being inoculated into a healthy dog or other animal, 

 will produce rabies similar to that which would have followed 

 directly from the bite of a rabid animal, or differing only in thai 

 the period of incubation between the inoculation and the appear- 

 ance of the characteristic symptoms of rabies may be altered. 



The rabies thus transmitted by inoculation may, by similai 

 inoculations, be transmitted through a succession of rabbits wit! 

 marked increase of intensity. 



But the virus in the spinal cords of rabbits that have thus diec 

 of inoculated rabies may be gradually so weakened or attenuated; 

 by drying the cords, in the manner devised by M. Pasteur and 

 related in the Appendix that, after a certain number of days 

 drying, it may be injected into healthy rabbits or other animals 

 without any danger of producing rabies. 



And by using, on each successive day, the virus from a spina! 

 cord dried during a period shorter than that used on the previous 

 day, an animal may be made almost certainly secure againsi 

 rabies, whether from the bite of a rabid dog or other animal, 

 or from any method of subcutaneous inoculation. 



The protection from rabies thus secured is proved by the faci 

 that, if some animals thus protected and others not thus protectee 

 be bitten by the same rabid dog, none of the first set will die ol 



