5S 



NA TURE 



[May 20, 1897 



school of astronomy has lost an exponent whom it is not 

 easy to replace. But it would be an injustice to his 

 memory to forget that he showed at times considerable 

 power of originality. His work on such questions as that 

 of the Solar Parallax is deservedly well appreciated. 

 Thirty years ago the problem of the sun's distance occu- 

 pied a very different position to what it does now. 

 Encke's value, obtained from the discussion of the 

 Transits of Venus of 1761 and 1769, long used without 

 question or hesitation, was beginning to lose its authority 

 before the tests of more rigorous analysis, and the adop- 

 tion of methods better suited for the determination 

 ■of this fundamental constant. Stone, by his investiga- 

 tion of the observation of Mars in the opposition of 

 1862, contributed in no small measure to increase 

 the suspicion which was hovering around the old 

 value of 8""58. With his attention drawn to this subject, 

 he next reviewed the evidence on which this value was 

 based. With better knowledge of the longitudes of the 

 observing stations, and with possibly a more judicious 

 interpretation of the observer's remarks, he was able to 

 give not only greater accordance to the various observ- 

 ations, but to obtain a result more nearly equal to that de- 

 rived from other sources of information. For this work he 

 was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, the President contending that Mr. Stone had 

 shown, beyond all doubt, " that the method pursued by 

 his illustrious countryman Halley, when fairly treated, is 

 capable of furnishing a value of the Solar Parallax com- 

 mensurate in precision with the expectations formed of 

 it." The history of subsequent transits has, perhaps, not 

 borne out this favourable view, expressed in 1869 ; but 

 Stone's loyal and persistent efforts to deduce from the 

 transits all that they were capable of giving are shown, 

 by the part he took, both in 1874 and 1882. In the 

 former year he was Her Majesty's astronomer at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and contributed much to the 

 organisation of the various expeditions to the Southern 

 Hemisphere. By the time of the second transit in 1882, 

 he had succeeded to the direction of the Radclifife 

 Observatory on the death of the Rev. Robert Main, and 

 there he trained the selected observers in methods sug- 

 gested by the experience gained in 1874. After the 

 transit, the whole of the observations were reduced 

 under his immediate superintendence, with results too 

 well known to need further mention. 



It is needless to say that Mr. Stone's direction of the 

 Radclifife Observatory during the last twenty years 

 was characterised with vigour and general success. 

 Two important star catalogues were issued under 

 his superintendence. The meteorological department 

 received considerable attention, and Mr. Stone, in 

 addition, accepted a seat at the Board of the Meteor- 

 ological Council. In another matter, which one naturally 

 wishes to pass over very briefly, his researches were 

 not so successful, but have shown him the victim of a 

 strange paradox. The comparatively large discrepancies 

 which exist between the observed longitudes of the moon 

 and those computed from Hansen's tables, he sought to 

 explain by attributing their origm to the substitution of 

 Le Verrier's tables of the sun for those of Carlini. This 

 slight breach of continuity in the record of mean solar 

 time, produced by the introduction of the newer tables 

 into the Nautical Almanac was, he urged, the cause of 

 the gradual increase in the error of Hansen's tables ; 

 and though many eminent authorities, including Profs. 

 Adams and Newcomb, endeavoured to convince him of 

 his error, he supported his views to the last, and regu- 

 larly published the errors of the lunar tables, as derived 

 from the Radcliffe observations, after applying to the 

 mean time of observation a correction based upon his 

 theory. 



On two occasions Mr. Stone observed a total eclipse 

 of the sun ; the first at Klipfontein in Namaqualand, and 



NO. 1438, VOL. 56] 



last summer he accompanied Sir George Baden Powell 

 to Nova Zemlya, where he was again successful in watch- 

 ing the phenomenon. But to the physical side of astro- 

 nomy he gave little attention ; nor is the Radcliffe Ob- 

 servatory equipped in a manner to make such observations 

 possible. 



Mr. Stone received many acknowledgments of the 

 value of his work. Besides being a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, he had been President of the Royal Astronomical, 

 and held other offices in connection with the same 

 Society. He received a Doctor's degree from the Univer- 

 sity of Padua, and besides the Astronomical Society's 

 medal, to which allusion has been made, the French 

 Academy bestowed upon him the Lalande medal, as a 

 testimony to the value of his Southern Catalogue of 

 12,500 stars. He died on Sunday, May 9, at his Oxford 

 residence, aged sixty-six. W. E. P. 



NOTES. 

 The first of the two annual conversaziones of the Royal 

 Society was held yesterday evening, as we went to press. 



The University of Toronto has decided to confer the degree 

 of LL.D. upon Lord Lister, Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, and 

 Sir John Evans. 



The fifteen candidates selected on Thursday last by the 

 Council of the Royal Society to be recommended for election 

 into the Society are :— Dr. R. Bell, Sir W. H. Broadbent, Bart., 

 Dr. C. Chree, Mr. H. J. Elwes, Dr. J. S. Haldane, Prof. W. A. 

 Haswell, Prof. G. B. Howes, Dr. F. S. Kipping, Prof. G. B. 

 Mathews, Mr. G. R. Milne Murray, Mr. F. H. Neville, Dr. 

 H. A. Nicholson, Prof. J. M. Thomson, Dr. F. T. Trouton, 

 and Prof. H. H. Turner. Following our usual custom, we print 

 in another part of this issue the certificates of the candidates 

 selected. 



Dr. C. Le Neve Foster has given men of science cause to 

 be proud that he is one of them. On Saturday morning last 

 he was at the Snaefell lead mine, Isle of Man, in his capacity of 

 Her Majesty's Inspector of Mines. An explosion had occurred 

 there on the preceding Monday, and Dr. Foster's object was to 

 ascertain whether it was possible to recover the body of a miner 

 remaining in the workings. Lighted candles sent down to 

 test the atmosphere burnt brightly at 115 fri thorns, but were 

 extinguished at 130 fathoms. From these indications it was 

 considered safe to go down a certain distance ; so a party, con- 

 sisting of Dr. Foster, Mr. G. J. Williams (Assistant Inspector 

 of Mines), Captain Reddicliffe, Captain Kewley, and eight 

 others descended the shaft. The air below was tested, and 

 found to be poisonous ; but as the party was only a few feet 

 above the body of the miner, Captain Kewley went two or three 

 steps down a ladder, and attempted to catch the man's clothing 

 with grappling-irons. The commotion caused by his swinging 

 to and fro appears to have disturbed the gas, for Captain 

 Kewley was at once overcome, and had to be hauled back to 

 the landing. He was put into the box, and the box was going 

 up to the surface, when it became jammed, and for over an 

 hour could not be moved. Meanwhile, Dr. Foster and 

 those of his companions who could not climb to the surface 

 were below suffering from the influence of the poisonous 

 gas — apparently carbon monoxide. During this time, when 

 death seemed to be very near, Dr. Foster made copious 

 notes of his sensations. He commenced writing at 2 p.m., 

 and continued until 3.30, when he was brought to the 

 surface, he being the last to go up. Some of the men were 

 unconscious when brought to the surface, and others arrived in 

 an excited and hysterical condition. The record obtained by 

 Dr. Foster will be a most valuable physiological document, 



