206 



NA TURE 



[December 27, 1900 



requisite in the household to sterilise the full amount, and unless 

 explicit directions on this point are given, smaller quantities 

 will be treated, with the result indicated. With regard to the 

 thermal death point of the tubercle bacillus, I am acquainted 

 with the researches of Bang, Gal tier, de Man, MacFadyean, 

 and others. Undoubtedly 85" C. is a safe temperature, but the 

 claim that the milk is unaltered in flavour and nutritive quali- 

 ties thereby cannot be substantiated. In view of Theobald 

 Smith's most careful work, which, so far as I know, has not 

 been challenged, it seems that, provided the milk be heated in 

 a closed vessel so that no skin forms on the surface, pasteurisa- 

 tion at 68° C. for 20 minutes will kill the 

 tubercle bacillus with certainty, and this 

 treatment but slightly alters the flavour of 

 the milk. It may be wise to select the 

 higher temperature, but it should not be 

 stated that the milk is practically unaltered 

 thereby. YOUR Reviewer. 



distinct hand, while Tycho's astronomical MSS. in Copen- 

 hagen are anything but pleasant to wade through, and 

 we are still of the opinion that it is very doubtful (to say 

 the least) whether the MS. in question was written by 

 Tycho himself. But this is really of no consequence, 

 as nobody doubts that he is the aiithor of it. The Uni- 

 versity Library also possesses a MS. copy of the table 

 of sines of Copernicus, written by Tycho. Of much 

 greater interest is a copy of the edition of" Ptolemy's 

 works of 1 55 1, on the title-page of which Tycho has 



TYCHONIANA AT PRAGUE.^ 



C~\^ October 24, 1901, three hundred 

 ^-^ years will have elapsed since the 

 death of Tycho Brahe, and this memoir 

 has been published in order to draw 

 attention to that day and at the same 

 time to give some account of the very 

 few relics existing at Prague of the 

 great astronomer, who spent his last 

 years there and whose tomb is in the 

 Teinkirche in that city. Print and illus- 

 trations of this memoir are excellent, 

 but we could have wished that the text 

 had been fuller and that at least one of 

 the relics had been discussed in some 

 detail. Tycho Brahe's instruments seem 

 ,to have been destroyed during the 

 Thirty Years' War, and not one of those 

 he used at Uraniburg has been pre- 

 served ; his library was scattered, but 

 -his manuscript observations fortunately 

 found their way back to Denmark after 

 having been thoroughly utilised by 

 Kepler. The relics at Prague are there- 

 fore very modest ones — a few books 

 from his library and a few manuscripts 

 of no great importance. In the library 

 of the Bohemian National Museum there 

 js an album which Tycho gave his eldest 

 son in 1599 ; on the first page of it is a 

 portrait of the astronomer, reproduced 

 •in the present memoir. It is the well- 

 ;known engraving by Geyn, coloured by 

 hand. The book contains an autograph 

 dedication by Tycho and a picture of 

 his family arms, both of which Dr. 

 Studnicka gives in facsimile. In the 

 University Library there is a more im- 

 portant MS., containing on twenty leaves 

 a short text-book on trigonometry, dated 

 1591. This was published in 1886 in 

 photolithographic facsimile by Dr. 

 Studnicka, who is exceedingly irritated 

 with the writer of this review for having 

 ventured to say that " Tycho has written 

 his name under the title of the MS., but 

 the handwriting of the remainder does not seem to be his." 

 He eveii insinuates that the writer had perhaps never seen 

 the facsimile reprint when he uttered this shocking heresy. 

 The fact is, that the excellent reprint showed that the 

 MS. in question was written in an extremely legible and 



' 1 "Prag;er Tychoniana." Gesammelt von Prof. Dr. F. I. Studnicka. 65 

 ■pp. 8vo, with a coloured frontispiece and illustrations in the text. (Prague, 

 1901.) 



NO. 1626. VOL. 63] 



Fig. I. — Portrait of Tycho Brahe. 



written that he bought it at Copenhagen on November 30, 

 1560, for two thaler. He was barely fourteen years of 

 age when be obtained this standard work, and he made 

 good use of it, as appears from the great number of 

 marginal notes which he entered in it from time to time. 

 We should have liked very much to have learned some- 

 thing about these notes, which doubtless would throw 

 much light on the growth of the owner's knowledge, but 



