258- 



NA TURE 



[July 12, 1900 



errors in Kepler's tables probably accounting for his omitting it. 

 Horrocks made all preparations for observing the phenomenon, 

 arranging the image projected from his telescope (which had cost 

 him half-a-crown) on a sheet of white paper having a circle six 

 inches in diameter traced on it, the circumference being divided 

 into degrees. He watched from Sunrise to nine o'clock, and 

 from ten until noon. Resuming his labour again shortly after 

 three, he was overjoyed to find a round black spot just within 

 the limb of the sun, at the internal contact. During some thirty 

 minutes he was enabled to make many observations, which he 

 considered very successful. Besides these definite scientific 

 achievements, he wrote upon many different phenomena con- 

 nected with the solar system, including the motions of Jupiter, 

 Saturn, and various comets. The illustration on p. 257, repro- 

 duced from Mr. Dodgson's paper, shows Carr's house at Hoole, 

 where Horrocks made his transit observation, and also the monu- 

 mental tablet erected in 1826 to his memory in Hoole Church. 



JUBILEE OF THE IMPERIAL GEOLOGICAL 

 INSTITUTE OF VIENNA. 



'T'O celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the 

 -*- Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, a jubilee meeting 

 was held on June 9 in the Great Hall of the Institute under the 

 presidency ot its present director, Hofrath Guido Stache. The 

 meeting was attended by a number of high Government officials, 

 geologists, and representatives of national industries and 

 scientific associations. 



The director having welcomed the guests, speeches of con- 

 gratulation were delivered by his. Excellency the Minister for 

 Spiritual and Educational Affairs, Dr. W. Ritter von Hartel, his 

 Excellency the Minister for Railways, Dr. H. Ritter von 

 Wittek, and the Mayor of Vienna, Dr. C. Lueger. These 

 were succeeded by the following representatives of scientific 

 institutions and industries, who presented addresses : Geheimrath 

 von Richthofen, conveying the good wishes of the Prussian 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, the Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde, 

 and the German Geological Society ; Prof. Dr. Beyschlag, for 

 the Royal Prussian Geological Institution and the Berg 

 Akademie of Berlin ; Geheimrath Dr. Lepsius, for the Grand- 

 ducal Institute of Hesse and the Upper Rhine Geological 

 Society at Darmstadt ; Prof. Dr. E. Naumann, for the Sencken- 

 berg Natural Science Society of Frankfurt a-M. ; Sectionsrath 

 Boeck, for the Hungarian Geological Institution and the 

 Hungarian Geological Society ; and Chief Geologist Petho, for 

 the Natural Science Association of Buda-Pesth. 



Among Austrian representatives there were : Prof. E. Suess, 

 as President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences ; Prof. L. 

 Szajnocha, for the Cracow Academy ; Prof. Woldrich, for the 

 Bohemian Francis Joseph Academy ; Hofrath Steindachner, for 

 the Court Museum of Natural History ; his Excellency Field- 

 Marshal Ritter von Steeb, as Commandant of the Military 

 Geographical Institute ; Rector Zeisel, for the Agricultural 

 College ; Hofrath Juraschek, for the Central Statistical Commis- 

 sion ; Prof. Doelter, for the Steiermark Scientific Society ; and 

 Vice-President Straberger, for the Francisco-Carolineum at 

 Linz. 



The good wishes of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce 

 were presented by the President of the Northern Railway, 

 Hofrath Jeitteles, and the congratulations of societies for the 

 advancement of allied sciences were tendered by Custos 

 Marenzeller, Freiherr von Poche, Hofrath Toula, Freiherr von 

 Andrian, and Councillor Karrer. In conclusion, the Chairman 

 read those parts of the Jubilee Report which referred to the 

 advancement of the Institute by the Emperor and the Govern- 

 ment. 



Among the 264 messages of congratulation received the 

 following are specially mentioned : from the Geological Survey 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, the Geological Society and the 

 Iron and Steel Institute in London, the Smithsonian Institution 

 and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washing- 

 ton, the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and 

 the Cincinnati Society of Natural History. Also those of the 

 Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Geological 

 Committee, and the Imperial Russian Mineralogical Society at 

 St. Petersburg; the Naturalists' Society of Moscow, the Royal 

 Swedish Academies at Stockholm and Upsala, the Academia 

 dei Lincei and the Ufficio Geologico in Rome, the Science 



NO. 1602. VOL. 62] 



Academies of Naples and Turin, the Belgian Geological Society, 

 the Royal Academy of Amsterdam, and scientific associations 

 and institutions at Halle, Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau and 

 Gottingen. 



The Institute, or Geologische Reichsanstalt, was founded in 

 1849 by the then Minister of Mines and Agriculture, von Thinn- 

 feld, with the object of working out the geology of the whole 

 empire, collecting and arranging the material, and publishing 

 the results in maps and memoirs. Haidinger was its first 

 director, and his chief geologist was Freiherr von Plauer, who 

 was appointed director on Haidinger's death in 1866. In those 

 early days the position of the Institute was not by any means 

 secure. In 1859 an attempt was made to abolish it as a separate 

 institution and to incorporate it with the mathematical and 

 natural science section of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. 

 But the proposed change failed to obtain the approval of the 

 Reichsrath. 



Between 1867 and 1 871, under von Hauer's direction, a 

 geological map of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy was pub- 

 lished, to a scale of i in 576,000. Under the supervision of the 

 present director, Hofrath G. Stache, the publication of a series 

 of detail maps has been commenced. The publications of the 

 Institute comprise the zsm^x^X Jahrbuch, which has now reached 

 its fiftieth volume, the Verha^uilungen, and the Abhandlungen. 

 The latter are in 4to, and up to the present they have an aggre- 

 gate of 7000 pages and 950 lithographic plates. Besides, ex- 

 planatory letterpress is issued with each section of the new 

 detailed geological map drawn to a scale of i in 75,000. 



A chemical laboratory is attached to the Institute, which un- 

 dertakes geological and industrial analyses. This laboratory 

 was suppressed for several years, owing, it is said, to the over- 

 shadowing influence of another laboratory connected with the 

 Vienna Academy of Sciences (see Dr. Tietze's " Life of Franz 

 von Hauer," Vienna, 1900). 



The Institute possesses extensive geological and mineralogical 

 collections, chiefly from Austrian and Hungarian districts. 

 These are exhibited in twenty-one rooms, some of which are 

 really halls of great architectural beauty. The library contains 

 over 40,000 volumes. 



The Reichsanstalt is under the supervision of the Minister for 

 Spiritual and Educational Affairs. Its annual income is 18,000/. 

 Its staff numbers twenty persons, twelve of whom are employed 

 in the Geological Survey. 



A PARTIAL EXPLANATION OF SOME OF 

 THE PRINCIPAL OCEAN TIDES. 



AT the meeting of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences 

 ■^~*" on April 19, a paper bearing the above title was read by 

 Mr. R. A. Harris, of the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. An abstract summarising the chief results arrived 

 at has been published by the Academy : the full memoir is to 

 be issued as an Appendix to the Annual Report of the Survey 

 for. 1 899- 1 900. The abstract is too short to allow of critical 

 examination of the methods employed in these inquiries, but 

 some of the conclusions stated are very significant and important. 



Mr. Harris enunciates the fundamental proposition of his 

 investigation in the following terms: " Considering the actual 

 distribution of land and water, a few computations upon hypo- 

 thetical cases will suffice to convince one that as a rule the 

 ocean tides, as we know them, are so great that they can be 

 produced only by successive actions of the tidal forces upon 

 oscillating systems, each having, as free period, approximately 

 the period of the forces, and each perfect enough to preserve 

 the general character of its motion during several such periods 

 were the forces to cease their action . . . having once for all 

 constructed a set of force diagrams for the various latitudes, we 

 have only to discover those regions which have a free period of 

 oscillation about equal to the period of the forces, and to then 

 ascertain at what time the particles should be at elongation in 

 their nearly rectilinear paths." 



The main idea underlying this proposition is not altogether 

 new, the novelty in the present paper is rather an attempt to 

 locate and define areas which seem to account for the principal 

 ocean tides, due regard being had to the difficulties arising from 

 irregularities in the natural boundaries of such areas where 

 such exist, or from the absence of natural boundaries. Each 

 oscillating area is one of comparatively simple form, of which 



