i8o 



NATURE 



[October 30, igig 



comet passed about 7,500,000 miles outside the earth's 

 orbit. 



Comet 1919& (Brorsen-Metcalf). — Messrs. Braae 

 and Fischer-Petersen have redetermined the orbit of 

 this comet from observations on August 21 and 

 September 7 and 27. They first assumed the period as 

 seventy-two years, and found that on this assumption 

 there were residuals of + i-6i', -1-47' in longitude 

 (great circle) and latitude in the middle observation. 

 They then left the period to be determined by the 

 observations, and obtained the following orbit {Ast. 

 Nach., No. 5015) : — 



T = l9i9 Oct. 17-156 G.M.T. 

 a> =129" 53'io'i 

 fl = 3io" 28 56'U9i9o 

 i = 18° 5302'J 



log y = 968695 

 log e =9'98229 

 Period = 42 '465 years 



The residuals are now —0-21', —012', and, as it 

 appears that a further reduction of the period would 



THE NEW LABORATORIES AT 

 ROTHAMSTED. 



ON Monday, October 20, the new laboratories at 

 Rothamsted were opened by Sir Arthur Griffith- 

 Boscawen, Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries, in the unavoidable absence 

 of the Right Hon. Lord Lee of Fareham, President 

 of the Board of Agriculture, who had intended to 

 be present himself. There was a distinguished 

 gathering of men and women interested in the practice 

 of agriculture and in the sciences underlying it, which 

 included Sir Horace Plunkett, the Hon. Rupert and 

 Ladv Gwendolen Guinness, Sir David Prain, Sir 

 Francis Watts, Mr. Otto Beit, Prof. V. H. Black- 

 man, Dr. M. O. Forster, Prof. MacBride, Sir Robert 

 and Ladv Robertson, Mr. Arthur Sutton, Mr. M. R. 

 Pryor, Dr. M. C. Rayner, Dr. T. A. Henry, Dr. 

 J. A. Voelcker, and others. 



The chair was taken by Prof. H. E. Armstrong, 



make them smaller, it is concluded that the comet has 

 made two revolutions since 1847. The observations in 

 that year were not very numerous, and the periods 

 then deduced were liable to much uncertainty. 



If the 36-year period is right, the comet belongs to 

 the family of Uranus, not to that of Neptune as 

 formerly supposed. 



It is now more than ever desirable that the comet 

 should be observed for as long a period as possible. 

 The following ephemeris, for Greenwich midnight, has 

 been corrected approximately for the change in the 

 orbit : — 



Nov. 



vice-chairman of the Lawes Agricultural Committee, 

 who said that Rothamsted had long been known 

 throughout the world as the chief centre of scientific 

 inquiry into the problems of agricultural practice. It 

 was novi^ the Mecca of agricultural pilgrims. Its 

 sphere had been further widened by the recent action 

 of the Board of Agriculture in establishing there an 

 institute for the study of plant pathology, where 

 entomological and mycological investigations could 

 be carried on. The demands of modern scientific 

 I workers were very considerable, but no pains had 

 ! been spared to make the equipment and laboratories 

 : as efficient as possible. The total cost of these im- 

 provements had been 26,000!. ; of this sum no less 

 than lo.ooo^ was collected in public subscriptions 

 from farmers and their friends. The Board of -Agri- 

 culture gave generous assistance, and granted an 

 equal sum— io,oooZ.— from its Development Fund. 

 The remaining 6000I. had been given by private 

 donors and obtained in other ways. Fortunately, the 



NO. 2609, VOL. 104] 



