576 



NATURE 



[October 13, 1892 



(taken every few minutes) should be made in different latitudes, 

 to ascertain the apparent height to which these clouds attain. 

 The determinations of azimuth and altitude should also be 

 current to three or four minutes of arc, and the time to two or 

 four minutes. Notice should also be taken of the general state 

 of the atmosphere at the time of observation, while photography 

 should be employed to record their place and motion. The 

 paper contains one or two more suggestions, among which is 

 the employment of the spectroscope, and concludes with the hope 

 that the importance of this phenomenon in relation to cosmical 

 problems will arouse much interest and enlist many observers, 

 for, in such a case as this, the observations of one institution 

 will not help to solve such a general question as this. 



Nova Aurig.^. — From the communications, in Astronom- 

 ische Nachrichten, No, 3120, we make the following notes with 

 reference to the magnitude and spectroscopic appearance of the 

 Nova Aurigse. 



Dr. J. Holetschek, of the Vienna Observatory, has examined 

 the star with regard to the former, and finds that, if any, 'an 

 increase in brightness has taken place since August 24. The 

 following are his figures, N. standing for the Nova, and a z. 

 neighbouring star, the magnitude of which is taken as 97. The 

 hours refer to Vienna mean time : — 



1892. h. N. m. 



August 24 I3f ... o-5<z ... 9*65 



,, 26 14 ... 2« ... 9-5 



„ 27 14 ... i-5a ... 9-55 



,, 28 I2| .. 2-5^ ... 9-45 



„ 30 12I ... 2a ... 9-5 



Sept. 2 14 ... la ... 9-4 



Observations made on Sept. 15 I2h., Sept. 16 ii|h., and Sept. 

 17 I2jh. showed that N. was at least four degrees brighter than 

 a, and two degrees brighter than the star, 9*5m. B.D. + 

 30° -924. 



Using the 30-inch of the Pulkova Observatory, Mr. A. Belo- 

 polsky has made some measurements of the brightest line 

 visible in the spectrum. His measures are : — 



501-0 



Of the other lines there were seen D or D3, F, and a dark line 

 about wave-length 465^/1. 



Minor Planets.— The application of photography to the 

 search of minor planets seems to be rewarded with remarkable 

 success, for no less than four new ones, 1892, E, F, G, and 

 H, have, since September 25, been discovered. The first 

 two are due to M. Perrotin, while the last two were photo- 

 graphed by M. Wolf A fact worth recording is that the plate, 

 on which the latter planets were found, contained also two 

 other images, those of the planets (34) Circe, and (184) Dejopeja ; 

 thus the positions of four planets were obtained with one 

 exposure. 



Report of Mr. Tebbutt's Observatory.— In this small 

 pamphlet we have a condensed account of the present state of 

 the observatory buildings, instrumental equipment, &c., together 

 with the work done during the year 1891. Although the staff 

 is not very great, yet the work carried out shows that all the 

 available time has been made the most of The observations 

 include forty-six occultations of stars by the moon, phenomena 

 of Jupiter's satellites, transit of Mercury, conjunction of Venus 

 and Jupiter, and filar micrometer comparisons of the minor 

 planet "Ceres, comprising 106 comparisons and four comparison 

 stars. Several comets were observed with the square bar- 

 micrometer, while some interesting double stars and the two 

 variables of Argus and R. Carinte have also been worked at. 

 The9h, a.m. meteorological observations have been continued 

 with the usual regularity. 



Photographic Chart ofthe Heavens.— In a paper read 

 on July I, 1891, before the Royal Society of New South Wales, 

 Mr. H. C. Russell relates many of his experiences, together with 

 som,e of the results obtained during the preparation of the 

 Sydney Observatory for the photographic chart of the heavens. 

 The first difficulty that turned up had reference to the photo- 

 graphing of the stars of the fourteenth magnitude. The two 



NO. I 198, VOL. 46] 



minutes' exposure was found quite long enough for ninth 

 magnitude stars, but the thirty minutes was not sufficient to 

 record those of the fourteenth. A question also arose as to 

 coloured stars, for in many cases stars visible telescopically were 

 not photographed at all. Of the many objects photographed 

 with the portrait camera, Mr. Russell describes very fully the 

 beautiful nebula 30 Doradus. This nebula, as he says, is 

 a great spiral structure, of which we see the greatest diameter, 

 its thickness measured through in the line of sight being compara- 

 tively small. He has been able also to obtain a very fine photo- 

 graph of N. Argus, a nebula, which, as may be concluded from 

 the negative, "covers a much larger area than that of Orion." 

 The same photograph also confirms the observations made by 

 Mr. Russell in 1872 that a conspicuous part of the nebula which 

 Herschel drew and described in 1838 has wholly disappeared, 

 and that its place is now occupied by a dark round spot. What 

 this may be is a doubtful question, but as Mr. Russell says " It 

 cannot be a solid body, because the stars are there, but a slight 

 misty body would hide the nebula and not affect the stars very 

 much." The pamphlet concludes with an excellent picture of 

 the K Crucis cluster. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Colonel Bailey, R.E., lecturer on Forestry in theUniversity 

 of Edinburgh, has been appointed secretary to the Royal Scottish 

 Geographical Society, in room of Mr. A. Silva White, whose 

 resignation on account of ill-health we noticed some months ago. 



Prof. Cherski, whose projected journey in Eastern Siberia 

 was mentioned in Geographical Notes for June 30 (p. 212) is 

 reported to have died near Sredne Kolymsk, on his way down 

 the Kolyma river towards Nizhne Kolymsk, where he intended 

 to have passed the winter. Cherski has travelled frequently and 

 far in Siberia, and has done much to elucidate the geographical 

 conditions, and in particular the geology of many parts of 

 Northern Asia. His great geological map of the Lake Baikal 

 district is the work by which he will be best remembered. 



The current number of the Scottish Geographical Magazine 

 contains Mrs. Bishop's account of her travels in Ladak and the 

 adjacent territories, often called Lesser Tibet. As a record of 

 personal adventure and observation of native character the 

 paper ranks worthily with the published records of this traveller's 

 earlier and later journeys. 



The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 

 October publishes a short statement of the progress of Indian 

 surveys during the last field season. In Bengal the Behar de- 

 tachment completed the traverse survey of 1610 square miles in 

 districts Muzaffarpur and Champaran. In Bombay 2536 square 

 miles of detailed survey were completed on the scale of two 

 inches to one mile, and 2100 square miles were triangulated in the 

 Gujarat and Mahratta country. Two parties were at work in 

 Burma. In district Sagaing 1842 square miles of cadastral sur- 

 vey and 1 142 of traverse survey were completed, while 700 

 square miles of traverse survey were made in district Shwebo, 

 and a topographical survey, on the scale of one mile to an inch, 

 of 106 square miles of the Chindwin coalfields. There were 

 also carried out in districts Amherst, Tavoy, and Mergin 881 

 square miles of cadastral survey, besides a traverse survey of 510 

 square miles. 



THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE SOIL} 



'X'HE high office with which you have honoured me entails the 

 -•■ delivery of an address, which I keenly feel I cannot give 

 in keeping with the standard set by my distinguished predeces- 

 sors. 



Fermentation, though observed since pre-historic times, is 

 perhaps less understood than any chemistry has to deal with. 

 The exciters of fermentation are rendered exceedingly difficult 

 of investigation, because they, like all living things, are subject 

 to physiological — or more specially pathological — functions of 

 life ; they are so sensitive that any abnormal influence either 

 changes their whole mode of existence or destroys it altogether ; 

 a medium suitable to the life of one special kind is changed by 



1 Address delivered by Prof. Alfred Springer as Vice-President of Section 

 C. at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



