340 



TABLE-TALK A!N~D VARIETIES. 



delivered and defended the latter j 

 being always privately rehearsed 

 beforehand with a friend, and the 

 play acted in public as a species of 

 genteel comedy, the concedo and 

 gratulor following a desultory al- 

 tercation of about ten minutes, the 

 insignificance of which is concealed 

 under the veil of a dead language. 

 The candidate then challenges any 

 one present e corona to break a 

 lance with him; and the comedy 

 is terminated by the dean, gene- 

 rally the only member of the fa- 

 culty present, putting the oath 

 that he shall do nothing unworthy 

 his art and calling, and presenting 

 the candidate with his diploma. 

 (Medical Times.) 



THE GREENWICH PLAXET-WATCHER. 



Summer is his time of labour, 

 winter his time of rest. It appears 

 that in our climate the nights, on 

 the whole, are clearer than the 

 days, and evenings less cloudy 

 than mornings. Every assistant 

 takes his turn as an observer, and 

 a chain of duty is kept up night 

 and day ; at other periods, the 

 busiest portion of the twenty-four 

 hours at the observatory is be- 

 tween nine in the morning and 

 two in the afternoon. During this 

 time they work in silence, the task 

 being to complete the records of 

 the observations made, by filling 

 in the requisite columns of figures 

 upon printed forms, and then add- 

 ing and subtracting them as the 

 case requires. Whilst thus en- 

 gaged, the assistant who has charge 

 of an instrument, looks from time 

 to time at the star-regulated clock, 

 and, when it warns him that his 

 expected planet is nearly due, he 

 leaves his companions and quietly 

 repairs to the room where the tele- 

 scope is ready. The adjustment of 

 this has previously been arranged 

 with the greatest nicety. The 

 shutter is moved from the slit in 

 ihe roof, the astronomer sits on an 



easy chair with a movable back. 

 If the object he seeks is high in 

 the heavens, his chair-back ia 

 lowered till he almost lies down; 

 if the star is lower the chair-back 

 is raised in proportion. He has 

 his note-book and metallic pencil 

 in hand. Across the eye-piece of 

 the telescope are stretched seven 

 lines of spider-web, dividing the 

 field of view. If his seat requires 

 change, the least motion arranges 

 it to his satisfaction, for it rests 

 upon a railway of its own. Eesiue 

 him is one of the star-clocks, and 

 as the moment approaches for the 

 appearance of the planet the ex- 

 citement of the moment increases. 

 The tremble of impatience for the 

 entrance of the star on the field of 

 view, is like that of a sportsman 

 whose dog has just made a full 

 point, and who awaits the rising 

 of the game. When a star appears, 

 the observer, in technical language, 

 "takes a second from the clock 

 face ;" that is, he reads the second 

 with his eye, and counts on by the 

 ear the succeeding beats of the 

 clock, naming the seconds men- 

 tally. As the star passes each 

 wire of the transit he marks down 

 in his jotting-book with a metallic 

 pencil the second and the only 

 second of his observation, with 

 such a fraction of a second as cor- 

 responds in his judgment to the in- 

 terval of time between the passage 

 of the star and the beat of the 

 clock which preceded such passage. 

 (Dickens' Household Words.) 



EELLS. 



The nearer bells are hung to the 

 surface of the earth, other things 

 being equal, the farther they can 

 be heard. Franklin has remarked 

 that, many years ago, the inhabi- 

 tants of Philadelphia had a bell 

 imported from England. In order 

 to judge of the sound, it was ele- 

 vated on a triangle in the great 

 street of the city, and struck, as it 



