September 22, 1898] 



NA TURE 



515 



from an anthropological standpoint, it appears that so far from 

 the black races being the most leprous, and the yellow the 

 least, over the great area dealt with, the black races are quite 

 free from leprosy, except where, as in Fiji, it has been recently 

 introduced ; and the yellow race, the Chinese, is the leper and 

 the distributor of leprosy. In not a single instance are the 

 native races attacked without there being Chinese lepers in the 

 country. In other words, leprosy follows the lines of Chinese 

 emigration, and in the East Indian Archipelago and Oceania 

 is co-terminous and co-existent, in time and area, with the 

 Chinese coolie. Mr. Skertchly believes that the only way to 

 stop the spread of leprosy is to put an end to the coolie traffic 

 from the infected provinces, and this cannot be done except 

 by concerted action of the Governments holding possessions in 

 the Far East. 



The Wilde lecture "On the Physical Basis of Psychical 

 Events," delivered by Prof. Michael Foster before the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society last March, is printed 

 in Manchester Memoirs, \o\. xlii. (1898), No. 12. 



A COPY of "Bourne's Handy Assurance Manual" (1898), 

 edited by Mr. William Schooling, has been received. The 

 volume shows the position of every assurance office, and should 

 be consulted before taking out a policy in any company. 

 Students of statistics will also find the tables useful. 



A NINTH edition of Skertchly's " Geology," revised in 

 accordance with the latest requirements of the Science and Art 

 Department's syllabus, has been prepared by Dr. J. Monckman, 

 and published by Mr. Thomas Murby. A new section dealing 

 with minerals and their microscopic characteristics has been 

 added, but the general appearance of the book and the illustra- 

 tions are behind the times. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Ring-tailed Coati {Nasua rufa) from South 

 America, presented by Mr. S. C. Rogers ; two Little Armadillos 

 (Dasypus minutus) from Patagonia, a Vociferous Sea Eagle 

 (Halialtts vocifer), a Chameleon {Chamaleon vulgaris) from 

 Africa, deposited ; a Pleasant Antelope {Tragelaphus grattis, 9 ), 

 bred in Amsterdam, purchased ; a Crested Porcupine {Hystrix 

 cristata), three Swinhoe's Pheasants {Euplocamus switthoii), 

 three Mandarin Ducks {(Ex galerictdata), bred in the 

 Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Nebula of Andromeda.— A telegram from the 

 Centralstelle, Kiel, received here on the 20th, announces that 

 Seraphimoff has observed a stellar-like condensation near the 

 centre of the nebula of Andromeda. 



This is not the first time that variations near the centre of 

 this nebula have been observed. In 1885 a star of 6 '5 mag. 

 appeared suddenly near the centre, giving a continuous spectrum 

 containing probably a few bright lines ; in 1886 this had entirely 

 disappeared. Espin thought that the nucleus was variable, and 

 that he could see stars in it ; and Young, with a 23-inch re- 

 fractor, confirmed this. The fine series of photographs taken 

 by Roberts also indicate that the nucleus of the nebula is 

 variable. 



An examination of the nebula on the early morning of the 

 21st, with the 30-inch reflector of the Solar Physics Observ- 

 atory, South Kensington, gave the idea that the centre of the 

 nucleus seemed more elongated and was more of a stellar nature 

 than usual. The application of the spectroscope indicated 

 nothing more than a continuous spectrum, although there may 

 have been faint bright lines which could not be seen. 



Comets Tempel 1866 and Perrine-Chofardet. — Just 

 after we had gone to press last week we received another 

 telegram, concerning the comet discovered by Pechuele, saying 

 that it was Wolf's comet and not that of Tempel. 



NO. 1508, VOL. 58] 



Another telegram, dated September 15, informs us that 

 Perrine, on September 13, discovered a comet at l6h. I4"3m. 

 Lick Mean Time, in position of R. A. gh. 41m. 40s. and Declin- 

 ation ■¥ 30° 36'. Two circulars from Kiel (Nos. 11 and 12), 

 which have since reached us, give the elements of the comet's 

 orbit and an ephemeris for the present month, besides telling 

 us that Chofardet made the same discovery independently at 

 Besan9on on September 14, i6h. 37m. local time. 



Both the elements calculated by Berberich from observations 

 on September 12, 13, 15, and by Perrine and Aitken from 

 observations on September 13, 14 and 15 are very similar, so 

 we will confine ourselves to the former, whch are namely : — 



T = 1898 October 19-9565 Berlin M.T. 



« = 165 56''29 

 fl, = 36 20-85 

 i = 29 i6*4i 

 log 9 = 9*57608 

 For the present month the positions of the comet for every 

 two days are as follows : — 



12/4. Ber/in M.T. 



1898. R.A. Decl. Br. 



h. m. s. „ , 



Sept. 22 ... 10 35 2 ... +2$ 9*9 



24 ... 10 48 3 ... 23 32-4 ... 2-o8 



„ 26 ... II I II ... 21 46*6 



,, 28 ... II 14 23 ... -H 19 52-3 ... 2-67 



Catalogue of Nebul.«. — Mr. Lewis Swift publishes in a 

 recent number of As/r. Nachr. (No. 3517) a catalogue of nebulre 

 which have been discovered by him during the last three years. 

 All the observations were made at the Lowe Observatory, Echo 

 Mountain, California, the low latitude of this station, namely 

 -f 34° 20', enabling him to search further south than when he 

 was situated at Rochester, New York. He says : "I am further 

 south than any observatory in Europe and America north of the 

 equator except the one at Tacubaya, Mexico, yet I find that 

 the southern sky has been pretty thoroughly explored by Sir 

 John Herschel, Dunlop, and others." 



The present catalogue contains 243 objects, some of which 

 are very interesting. Thus, Nos. 6 and 27 are described as being 

 very singular. They resemble a fairly bright double star, each 

 component being an exceedingly small nebulous disc " like an . 

 imaginary double nebulous Uranus distant about 5" or 6"." 



No. 56 is described as "a nebulous hair-line of one uniform 

 size from end to end," while No. 91 has one side extending like 

 a brush. 



In addition to the above, this keen-eyed observer has discovered 

 no less than four comets, one of which is of short period, and. 

 his son has discovered a fifth, also of short period. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The Calendar of University College, Bristol, for the Session- 

 1898-99 has been published. The College ofliers excellent 

 opportunities for the study of science, languages, history and 

 literature, and possesses good facilities for giving systematic 

 instruction in the branches of applied science more nearly con- 

 nected with the arts and manufactures. Medical education is 

 provided by the Faculty of Medicine of the College ; and 

 students can complete in Bristol the entire course of study 

 required for the various medical and surgical degrees. 



In order to encourage systematic study, a definite course of 

 instruction extending over three years has been established in 

 the Morley Memorial College (for working men and women), 

 Waterloo Bridge Road. In the first and second years all 

 students will follow almost the same course of study, but in the 

 third year they will take up a selected group of literary, mathe- 

 matical, or scientific subjects. Organised courses of this kind' 

 are of far greater educational value than the study of a large 

 number of disconnected subjects. 



Major P. G. Craigie's annual report to the Board o» 

 Agriculture on the distribution of grants for agricultural educa- 

 tion and research in 1897-98, has just been issued as a Parlia- 

 mentary paper. The total amount distributed during the 

 financial year to each of the fifteen institutions receiving assist- 

 ance was 7200/., as compared with 7000/. in the previous year. 

 The following table shows how this money was expended : — 



