Sept. 8, 1887] 



NATURE 



455 



to be a parabola for the sake of simplicity, and the following 

 observation made by Herr Palisa at Vienna being used : — 



August 27, I5h. 27m. I2S. Vienna M.T. 

 R.A. = 8h. 42m. 5571s., Decl. 29° 34' 24"7 N. 



Ephemeris for Berlin Midnight. 



Decl. 



Log r. 



Log ii. 



September 5 



9 



13 



17 



0120 



0'II2 



o'io5 

 0-099 



0"3ii 

 0-304 

 0-297 

 0-291 



R.A. 

 h. m. 

 9 2I-I ... 30 16 N. 



9 39 7 ••■ 30 20 

 9 58-8 ... 30 16 

 10 18 4 ... 30 2 N. 



The Morrison Observatory, — The first number of the 

 publications of the Morrison Observatory, Glasgow, Missouri, 

 U.S.A., has just appeared. This Observatory was founded, in 

 1875, by the liberality of Miss Berenice Morrison, and possesses 

 an equatorial refractor by Alvan Clark, of 12^ inches aperture, 

 and a transit-circle by Troughton and Simms, with objective of 

 6 inches aperture and 77 inches focal length, the circles being 

 24 inches in diameter. In this first volume Prof. C. W. 

 Pritchett, the Director, gives a history and description (of the 

 Observatory, with an account of the determination of the longi- 

 tude aiKl latitude of the meridian pier, besides a selection of such 

 observations and notes made at the Observatory as are likely to 

 be of use to astronomers. These latter include measures of 

 double stars, observations of occultations, of the transit of 

 Mercury, 1878, measures of the diameter of Mars, observations 

 of comets, of Jupiter and Saturn, and of the figure and dimen- 

 sions of Uranus. Prof. Pritchett's work appears to have been 

 seriously crippled through lack of means, and, considering the 

 e-Kcellent use which he has made of the resources at his com- 

 mand, it is to be hoped that he may speedily find himself in a 

 position to carry on the operations of the Observatory on a more 

 extended scale. 



New Observatory at Juvisy.— The current number of 

 VAsironomie contains a description of a new Observatory 

 belonging to M. Camille Flammarion, which has just been 

 completed. An admirer of M. Flammarion had presented him 

 some five years ago with a little chateau and park situated on 

 the road from Paris to Fontainebleau of historic name and 

 interest. The house, which was built in 1730, possessed walls 

 so thick and solid as to serve as a perfectly stable base for the 

 equatorial and dome with which M. Flammarion has surmounted 

 it. The dome is 5 m. in interior diameter, and covers an equa- 

 torial by Bardou of 0-24 m. aperture and 3-75 m. focal length, 

 with clockwork by Breguet, furnished with a Villarceau 

 governor. Two smaller telescopes — one by Secrelan of io8 mm. 

 aperture, the other by Foucault of 160 mm., stand on the 

 adjoining terrace. The Observatory, the co-ordinates of which 

 are East longitude from Paris oh. om. 8s., N. latitude 48° 41' 36", 

 commands an uninterrupted horizon, and an atmosphere notice- 

 ably purer than that of Pari>. 



The Total Solar Eclipse of August 19. — We learn 

 'from the current number of Ciel et Terre that M. Niesten, of 

 the Brussels Observatory, was fairly successful in his observa- 

 tions of the eclipse. It bad been his intention to push on as far 

 east as Perm, but a delay in the arrival of his instruments led 

 him to accompany M. Belopolsky to Jurjewitz on the Volga. 

 The sky was cloudy here as at most of the other stations, but 

 cleared a little round the sun at the time of totality, and 

 M. Niesten was able to see the chromosphere and prominences, 

 and the appendices of the corona, and his assistant secured eight 

 photographs, of which si.x were good. The exposures varied 

 from 8 seconds to half a minute ; the chromosphere and pro- 

 minences were shown on all, and two gave traces of the corona 

 ind also of Regulus, which was near the sun. M. Karinne, a 

 Moscow photographer of the same station, also secured several 

 photographs. A drawing which M. Niesten made of the corona 

 jhowed a strongly-marked coronal ray, about a degree in length, 

 in the direction of the solar equator. 



Minor Planet No. 267.— M. Charlois, of Nice, who dis- 

 :overed this object, has named it Tirza. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 



WEEK 1887 SEPTEMBER 11 -17. 



"pOR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 



' Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 



s here employed. ) 



At Greenwich on September 1 1 

 Sun rises, 5h. 30m. ; souths, iih. 56m. 36-is. ; sets, i8h. 24m. ; 



decl. on meridian, 4° 35' N. : Sidereal Time at Sunset, 



I7h. 46m. 

 Moon (New, September 17, I4h.) rises, 22h. 27m.* ; souths, 



6h. 22m. ; sets, I4h. 22m. ; decl. on meridian, 19° 12' N. 



Planet. Rises. Souths. 



h. m. h. m. 



Mercury ... 5 28 ... 12 I 



Venus 7 23 ... 12 40 



Mars I 43 ... 9 29 



Jupiter 9 46 ... 14 48 



Saturn 18... 90 



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

 Sept. h. 



14 ... 2 ... Saturn in conjunction with and 1° 39' north- 



of the Moon. 

 14 ... 18 ... Mars in conjunction with and 1° 48' north 



of the Moon. 

 17 ••• 16 ... Venus in conjunction with and 12° 50' south 



of the Moon. 

 17 ... 22 ... Mercury in conjunction with and 2° 33' south 

 of the Moon. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The most interesting item of information in the Journal oj 

 Botany for August is the record of an addition to the flowering 

 plants of Great Britain, in the discovery, by Mr. H. C. 

 Plart, of the Arctic Arabis alpitia in Skye. — Mr. Tokutaro 

 Ito, has an interesting paper on the history of botany in Japan. 



Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo, June 30. — On the 

 normal derivatives of the potential function of surfaces, by G. 

 Morera. This paper forms a supplement to the author's late 

 communication {Rendiconti, vol. xx. Part 8) on the derivatives 

 of the potential function of space. The extremely simple ana- 

 lytical method by which he succeeded in determining general 

 conditions for the existence of those derivatives and their 

 effective expressions has also enabled him to solve the analogous 

 question regarding the normal derivatives of the potential 

 function of surfaces. — On the part played by sensuous images on 

 the development and exercise of the reasoning faculty, by Tito 

 Vignoli. In this paper the author investigates the actual form 

 and genesis of perceptions acquired through the senses, from the 

 standpoint of their efficacy in developing and sharpening the 

 intelligence of animals. The subject is treated comparatively, it 

 being impossible to understand any act or fact of human psycho- 

 logy unless studied in connexion with similar manifestations in 



