6i8 



NA TURE 



[October :6, 189; 



inclined to the horizontal at an angle of 45" is another 

 screw geared to a frame on which moves a circle 

 carrying the fixed holder which receives the plate to be 

 measured. 



Each plate after it has been put in the holder can be 

 subjected to three movements : a movement of rotation, 

 which serves the purposes of orientation, and two recti- 

 linear movements, one of which takes place on the 

 horizontal and the other on the inclined plane. Each of 

 the rectilinear movements can be roughly read off by 

 means of the millimetre scales attached to the planes. 

 Fractions of a scale division are determined by means 

 of the micrometer screws. The head of each screw is 

 divided into one hundred parts, and this is further 

 divided into ten by estimation. Since, then, one turn of 

 the screw corresponds to one minute of arc, it is possible 

 to read to 06" by means of the micrometer divisions. 



It is hoped that in five or six years all the plates re- 

 quired from each observatory will have been obtained, 



Fio. 2. — Instrument for Mea^utin;; Star Photographs. O, Observing 

 Microscope, 



but the measures can hardly be completed in less than 

 ten years, and the computations to which they give rise 

 will occupy about the same length of time. This rate 

 of progress, however, cannot be regarded as slow for it 

 must be remembered that the results will occupy forty 

 ponderous volumes of one thousand pages, each page con- 

 taining the positions of fifty stars. 



When the immense labour involved is taken into con- 

 sideration, one ceases to wonder that some of the 

 co-operating observatories are unable to keep up with 

 the measurements. It is to be hoped that lack of funds 

 may not be allowed to prevent the obtaining of proper 

 assistance in such cases, or to retard the publication of 

 the results as soon as they are ready. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ; HODGKINS 

 FUND PRIZES. 



T N answer to inquiries, and in further explanation of 

 ■*• statements made in the Hodgkins circular (Nature, 

 vol. xlvii. p. 611), it may be added that any branch of 



NO. 1252, VOL. 48] 



natural science may offer a subject of discussion for the 

 Hodgkins prizes where this subject is related to the 

 study of the atmosphere in connection with the welfare 

 of man. 



Thus, the anthropologist may consider the history of 

 man as affected by climate through the atmosphere ; the 

 geologist may study in this special connection the crust 

 of the earth, whose constituents and whose form are 

 largely modified by atmospheric influences ; the, botanist, 

 the atmospheric relations of the life of the plant ; the 

 electrician, atmospheric electricity ; the mathematician 

 and physicist, problems of Eerodynamics in their utili- 

 tarian application ; and so on through the circle of the 

 natural sciences, both biological and physical, of which 

 there is perhaps not one which is necessarily excluded. 



In illustration of the donor's wishes, which the Insti- 

 tution desires scrupulously to observe, it may be added 

 that Mr. Hodgkins illustrated the catholicity of his plan 

 by citing the work of the late Paul Bert in atmospheric 

 electricity as a subject for research, which, in his own 

 view, might be properly submitted for consideration in 

 this relationship. 



While the wide range of the subjects, which the 

 founder's purpose makes admissible, cannot be too 

 clearly stated, it is equally important to emphasise the 

 fact that the prizes in ttie different classes can be awarded 

 only in recognition of distinguished merit. 



S. P. Lanc.lev. 



NOTES. 

 Prof. Virciiow was elected honorary president of the 

 Berlin Medical Society on Monday. 



The death is announced of Prof. Lean Lefort, vice-president 

 of the Paris Academy of Medicine. 



Prof. Schauta, of Vienna, has received the Cross of a 

 Knight of the Order of the North Star from the King of 

 Sweden. 



A DISPATCH from Valparaiso announces that a volcanic erup- 

 tion has occurred near Calbuco, causing great damage to that 

 town. 



We are glad to learn that Prof, von Helmholtz is recovering 

 from the injuiries he sustained from falling down a companion 

 ladder on board the Saale, while returning from his recent visit 

 to America. 



The Franklin Institute has received the sum of one thousand 

 dollars from Mr. A. A. Boyden, to be rewarded as a premium 

 to any resident of North America who shall determine by ex- 

 periment whether all rays of light, and other physical rays, are 

 or are not transmitted with the same velocity. 



Miss Ormerod has received a report from her correspon- 

 dent on crop insect pests in Norway to the effect that the 

 Hessian fly is now for the first time recorded as occurring in 

 Norway and doing damage to barley. Specimens of the 

 infested straw, showing the presence of the flat brown chrysalis 

 of the Cccidomyia destructor, were sent with the report. 



Dr. J. W. Gregory has returned from East Africa after a 

 very successful investigation of the geology and natural history 

 of Mount Kenia and the neighbouring region. His observa- 

 tions, and the large number of geological, zoological, and 

 botanical specimens collected during the expedition, add con- 

 siderably to our knowledge of the character and capabilities of 

 British East Africa. 



With reference to the reported outbreak of cholera at Green-, 

 wich, Dr. Thome Thome reports that, whilst in certain important 

 respects the materials that have been investigated suggested that 



