October 9, igic 



NATURE 



119 



October is a transition month so far as winds and 

 distribution of atmospiieric pressure are concerned in 

 tlie East Indian Seas, and the Monthly Meteorological 

 Chart published by the Meteorological Office shows that 

 a considerable change is taking place in the general 

 meteorological conditions. To the north of the equator 

 northerly winds are decidedly asserting themselves and 

 the south-west monsoon of the summer months is giv- 

 ing wav. In the Bay of Bengal and in the Arabian 

 Sea, October and November are the most stormy 

 months of the year, and cyclones are more numerous 

 than at any other period. The low barometric pres- 

 sure which has prevailed over the land to the north 

 of India is giving place to higher barometer readings, 

 which causes a diametrically opposite wind circulation. 

 The chart contains an interesting note of sea phos- 

 phorescence in the vicinity of ?vladras on July 3. At 

 2.10 a.m., in latitude 12° 43' X., longitude 30° 3-1' E., 

 the steamship Clan Ogilvy (Capt. \V. M. Porterfield) 

 passed through what appeared to be a gigantic wheel, 

 with manv "curved" spokes, revolving the same way 

 as the hands of a clock. The phenomenon lasted 

 quite ten minutes, and is said to have been caused by 

 phosphoresrence. The wheel was travelling to the 

 (■asi\\:n'(l. .\s each "spoke" passed, the ship was 

 lit up. 



That the war has done a great deal to show the 

 value of the spectroscopic examination of metals and 

 allovs is proved in an article on the subject in La 

 Nature (September 6). Considerable information 

 was gleaned regarding the composition of secret 

 (ierman al!n\s which were investigated by A. de 

 Gramont I)\- hi-, mitiiiid, and tin- same remark 

 applies to the composition of the metal used by the 

 enemr in the manufacture of the long-range shells 

 fired upon Paris. The spectroscopic method would 

 seem to be of particular value when applied to the 

 examination of the constituents of ;dlov steels and 

 commercial ;illo\s, and, as the writer states, is 

 capable of great expansion in this direction. 



Messrs. Lever Bros., Ltd., Liverpool, have lately 

 published an interesting "Cattle Food Calendar" for 

 11)19-20. This contains .-irticles on the scientific side 

 of agriculture written bv men competent to speak on 

 their respective subjects. Further, it is illustrated by 

 photographs and pictures of many of the important 

 operations in agricultural seienc<'. Among the articles 

 we note "How Mendelism May Help the Stock- 

 breeder," and shorter, but equally interesting, articles 

 on "The Work of the Hoard "f Agriculture," "Plant 

 Diseases," "The Relation ticlwcen Skin-temperature 

 and the Fattening Oualit\ of Cattle," "The Ofificial 

 Seed-testing Station at the i''ood Production Depart- 

 ment," "The Work of tin- Rothamsted Kxperimental 

 Station," "The Breeding of New Wheats," "Warble 

 -Maggots in Cattle," "Investigation and Research in 

 I)air\ing," "Contagious .-Xbortion in Cattle," "Horti- 

 cultural Research," "The Cheshunt Experimental 

 and Research Station," and "Forestry." The list 

 covers .-i wide field, and the articles give brief, but 

 useful, summaries of the application of science to 

 .'igriculture. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



CoMK'i igiqi;. — The following is a continuation of 

 the ephemeris of comet Tqu)c (Metcalf-Borrelly) for 

 Greenwich midnight : — 



S. Decl. 



Oct. 



Log r and log A on October g, 01574, 03052; on 

 October 25, o-no6, 0-2884. The comet is an evening 

 object, and is getting inconveniently near the sun. 



A Faint Nova. — Miss Mackie announces that she 

 has discovered a nova from a study of the Harvard 

 photographs (Harvard Bulletin 691). Its position is 

 R.A. 2oh. 3m. 4s., N. declination 17° 24-3' (1900). 

 It follows a 14th magnitude star by o-2s. It 

 reached its maximum, 72 magnitude, on Novem- 

 ber 22, 1913, and has now sunk to below 14-5. The 

 position is in Sagitta, within the limits of the galaxy; 

 it is onlv about 26° from Nova Aquilaf. 



Hindu Spherical Astronomy. — Mr. G. R. Kaye 

 has published a paper on " .\ncient Hindu Spherical 

 .\stronomy " in the Journal and Proceedings of the 

 Asiatic Societv of Bengal (vol. xv.). In this he sum- 

 marises, with the aid of modern mathematical 

 formulEe, the fundamental portions of the principal 

 classical astronomical texts, which date from between 

 A.D. 498 (the Aryahhatiya) and about a.d. 1000, when 

 the redaction of the Surya Siddhanta now extant was 

 written. Indian trigonometry is, like Indian astro- 

 nomv, of Greek origin, but the Indians developed the 

 methods received from the Greeks in various ways. 

 There seems to be no doubt that the Indians were 

 the first to introduce the use of sines instead of 

 chords, and to compute tables of sines. But they 

 never went further, and did not make use of the 

 tangent function. Thev never give a proof of any 

 rule thev enunciate. The title of Mr. Kaye's paper 

 refers to spherical astronomy only, but the author 

 also gives a short account of the Hindu notions of 

 the motions of the planets, though this has been done 

 bv several previous writers. The Hindu planetary 

 theories differ in several details from those of Ptolemy, 

 and were probablv mainlv derived from .Mexandrian 

 writings from the period between Hipparchus and 

 Ptolemv, now lost. Though there is nothing par- 

 ticularlv new in Mr. Kaye's paper, it gives a con- 

 venient summarv of the principal doctrines taut'ht 

 in the great Indian .astronomical text-books. 



Stellar Clusters. — Dr. and Mrs. Shapley con- 

 tribute another paper to the Axlropliysital Journal for 

 Julv on stellar clusters. The\ gi\c a table of forty- 

 one clusters, of which thirty show ellipticity, eleven 

 are sensibly circular, and one is unsymmetrical. The 

 most elliotical cluster is Messier 19, in which the 

 greatest diaineter is about twice the least; this is a 

 much lower degree of flattening than that in the 

 galaxv or the spiral nebulae. In the case of the cir- 

 cular clusters, the form may be real or it may be 

 due to our being situated near their polar diameters. 

 There is some evidence that clusters near the galactic 

 plane tend to have their equatorial planes parallel to 

 it. .\t a distance from the galactic plane this no 

 longer holds. 



THE AT-ROR] OF OCTOBER i. 



' I ■" HERE was noteworlln auroral activitv on the 

 -'- night of October i. The display started in the 

 early evening and lasted until well after midnight. 

 As seen in the south of England, the aurora was 

 generally of the glow type. The absence of streamers, 

 etc., was commented on by Mr. W. H. Dines, of 

 Benson Observatory, but Capt. J. E. Cowper noted 

 streainers at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, soon after 

 22h. 15m.' The colour of the glow, which was ccm- 

 parable in effect with bright moonlight, was reported 

 as "pale white" at Benson, "greenish-yellow" at 



^ According to t!ie Times of October 3 tliere was a brilliant display with 

 streamers seen from Worcester Park about i 30 r-n October 7. " Cu' tains " 

 were seen at Newport between 21.30 and 23 on October i. 



