172 



NATURE 



[May 26, 1910 



factory manner ; but at present there is still too wide 

 a divergence of opinion to render a definite proposal 

 generally acceptable. In order to evade the difliculty 

 at present preventing the association from having 

 funds of its own, the committee of the association, 

 at a meeting held last year, at which nearly all the 

 academies were represented, passed a unanimous reso- 

 lution recommending that the different academies should 

 declare themselves ready to accept legacies or gifts 

 to be held in trust by them for the purposes of the 

 association. When this resolution came up for dis- 

 cussion at the present meeting, objections were raised 

 by several delegates, and the matter had to be referred 

 to the several academies for an authoritative expres- 

 sion of opinion. Doubts were expressed in several 

 quarters whether it would be advisable for the asso- 

 ciation to be in possession of funds, and at any 

 rate one delegate thought that it would be more 

 powerful if satisfied with its present "moral" force. 

 Time, further reflection, and the force of circum- 

 stances will no doubt lead to a generally acceptable 

 solution. 



By the admission of the Soci^te helvetique des 

 Sciences naturalles, which was decided upon almost 

 unanimously, the association has established the im- 

 portant, and, I believe, wise, principle that it attaches 

 greater importance to the representation of countries 

 in which important work is being done and of 

 societies which take a leading part in such work than 

 to the more or less exclusive tests of membership 

 which a society may adopt. The Swiss society is not 

 an academy in the old and perhaps proper sense. It 

 may be the poorer for having no mediaeval traditions, 

 but it is the richer for not having adopted, without 

 such traditions, a medieeval organisation. 



Our association now consists of twenty-one societies, 

 and fears have been expressed that our work would 

 become more difficult if the number were to be in- 

 creased substantially. These fears are not, perhaps, 

 groundless, if the addition of a new society does not 

 mean the inclusion of new interests and of independent 

 directions of activity. Now, if we look at the proper 

 balance of representation of such independent scien- 

 tific activitv, it seems altogether anomalous that the 

 British Empire should only be represented by the 

 Royal Society and the British Academy. The non- 

 representation of India more especially denotes a gap 

 which should be filled without delay. Both on the 

 literary and on the scientific side our work has dealt 

 with matters in which India is directly concerned. 

 The publication of the " Mahabharata," more espe- 

 cially, cannot be carried out without substantial help 

 from India, and at the present meeting in Rome it 

 was announced that several of the Indian native 

 rulers have subscribed to the undertaking. In the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, India possesses a society of 

 full academic' rank, and without it the International 

 Association of Academies is not complete. Some 

 formal changes in its organisation, the dropping of 

 the word " Bengal " from its title (I understand that 

 its inclusion vWas purely accidental and not originally 

 intended), and an increased activity on the scientific 

 side may be desirable, but even with its present 

 organisation there is no reasonable doubt that a pro- 

 posal coming from the Royal Society to add the 

 Asiatic Society to the list of academies forming the 

 union would be generally welcomed. 



In his introductor}^ speech, Prof, Blaserna made a 

 feeling reference to the death of King Edward, and 

 several of the festivities prepared in honour of the 

 meeting were modified in consequence of the Court 

 mourning. A state dinner which the King had in- 

 tended to give was changed into a private reception 

 of the delegates, and in place of a garden-party 

 arranged for by Queen Margherita, the Queen enter- 

 NO. 21 17, VOL. 83] 



tained the delegates informally one afternoon at her 

 palace. Soirees were given by the Syndics of the 

 City of Rome in the Museo Capitolino, by Prince 

 Teano and by Coyntess Lovatelli, but these were, as 

 a matter of course, not attended by the British dele- 

 gates. An interesting excursion by motor-car to 

 Ostia, including a visit to the important excavations 

 which are being carried out in that locality, concluded 

 the meeting. Arthur Schuster. 



HALLEY'S OBSERVATIONS ON HALLEY'S 

 COMET, 1682. 



IN the record-room at the Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich, are preserved nineteen manuscripts of 

 Edmund Halley. In one of these, Halley's original 

 observations of the comet afterwards called by 

 his name were recently discovered by Messrs. 

 Davidson and Burkett. Ihe book is of about octavo 

 size ; it appears to have been originally a college 

 notebook. On the cover Halley ha»' written "Edmund 

 Halley his Booke and he douth often in it Looke." 

 Part of the book contains neatly written notes (in 

 English) on geometrical conies, with carefully drawn 

 figures, chiefly written on alternate pages. The 

 observations (in Latin) and calculations have been 

 jotted down subsequently wherever there is room, 

 and in many cases have been written over the original 

 contents of the book. By a strange coincidence (it 

 can, I think, be no more than a coincidence) the 

 observations, now identified as those of Halley's 

 comet, are interspersed among notes on the parabola. 



It will be recalled that Halley's researches which 

 led to his discovery of the periodicity of this comet 

 were not made until about twenty years after its 

 appearance of 1682 ; in fact, the law of gravitation 

 was not published until 1686. It is, however, well 

 known that Halley saw the comet, but I believe that 

 details have hitherto been lacking. 



The observations now identified are given below in 

 full, with practically no changes, except that punctua- 

 tion has been added. In the original, symbols are 

 used for the days of the week and the signs of the 

 zodiac. The observations, which must have been 

 made with the naked eye, are almost entirely align- 

 ments with stars ; they are, of course, too rough to 

 have any scientific value now, but are of historic 

 interest. Calculations to determine the R.A. of the 

 comet from these observations are intermingled with 

 them. Although the observations can hardly be cor- 

 rect to 15', six-figure logarithms are used in the cal- 

 culations i Halley, however, did not use his own 

 observations in his determination of the orbit of the 

 comet. The references to the "hand," "foot," 

 "knee," "pastoral staff," &c., of Bootes are of some 

 interest as illustrating the early method of specifying 

 stars, based on the Almagest. 



The year is not given, but as the observations are 

 certainly those of Halley's comet, and the days of 

 the week agree, we may supply the date, 1682. 



Saturday, August 26, yh. 29'. Culminante 277° A.R., 

 Cometa visus in linea recta cum Arcturo et capita 

 Ophiuchi ; et ex altera parte cum Corde Caroli et secunda 

 caudae Ursae Majoris ; vel linea recta a cometa ad i"^ 

 caudae Ursae Majoris relinquebat in consequentia stellam 

 dictam Cor Caroli 30' A.R. 



Tuesday, August 29, 7h. 15'. Cometa in linea recta 

 cum Arcturo et medium inter duas precedentes Coron^, 

 item in altera linea per Cor Caroli quae relinquebat in 

 conseq. stellam in radice caudae Ursae Majoris 30'; item 

 in altera per genu praeced. Bootis et medium inter con- 

 tiguas dorsi ; item in altera per genu sequens et med. inter 

 3am et 4am Serpentis. Ascent. Recta Cometae 198° circiter. 



Wednesday, August 30. Culminante 280° A.R., visus 

 est Cometa' in linea recta quae transiens genu praeced. 



