October 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



365 



resources of modern photographic art all that is needful for 

 his purpose. i\Ir. Jennings's brochure will be found handy 

 by all who are entering on this fascinating pursuit, as he 

 describes instruments, processes, and objects in considerable 

 defciil. Dr. JIaddox contributes a chapter on preparing 

 bacteria. Illustrations from photographs, as also from 

 ordinary wood blocks, appavr wherever they are i-equired 

 to elucidate the text. 



Partiality in Unity ; or, A Vieiv of the Universe. By 

 "One 01'- ITS Parts." (London: Wyman & Sons. 

 1886.) — The author of this work, brooding over the mystery 

 which has puzzled wiser heads than his own, sujjposes him- 

 self to wander forth on a summer night and hold converse 

 with a '• stranger." This conversation is carried on 

 throughout in blank verse, at the end of 1,400 lines of 

 which the " Mortal " — or author — arrives at the original 

 conclusion that " Humility alone is peace." His end thus 

 being peace, it only remains to remark that neither mortal 

 nor immortal seemingly possesses the most rudimentary idea 

 of scanning. 



Algebra for the use of Schooh and CoUe(jes. By AVm. 

 Thomson, M.A.,B.Sc., ikc. (London : Samp.son Low, Marston, 

 Searle, & Rivington. Cape Town : J. C. Juta & Co. 1886.) 

 The Elements of Plane Geometn/. Part II. (coiTesponding 

 to Euclid, Books III., IV., V., VI.) (London: Swan 

 Sonnenschein, Lowrey, & Co. 1886.) Arithmetical 

 Exercises. By F. C. Horton, B.A. (London : Seeley k, 

 Co. 1886.) — Of making many (school) books there is 

 seemingly no end. Our table is rarely free from them, and 

 " the cry is still ' They come I ' " Of the thiee whose titles 

 bead this notice, Mr. Thomson's Algebra may be commended 

 for its thoroughness. It seems somewhat too absti'act in 

 places for the incipient learner, but as it is intended for 

 colleges — and is, in fact, the text -book at the University of 

 the Cape of Good Hope — it is not difficult to see on what 

 ground this might be defended. The second work on our 

 list Ls prepared by the Committee of the Association for the 

 Improvement of Geometrical Teaching. With reference to 

 it we may remark that while some of the theorems are sim- 

 plifications of those of Euclid, and a few of the proofs dis- 

 tinguished by a certain amount of neatness, in other cases 

 we fail to see any improvement whatever on the demonstra- 

 tions contained in the immortal work of the mighty 

 Alexandrian geometer. Mr. Horton's examples seem judi- 

 ciously selected. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR OCTOBER. 



By F.R.A.S. 



g^^lIE sun may be looked at on clear days for the spots 

 and facolie which from time to time appear in 

 diminishing size and numbers on his face. Tlie 

 Zodiacal light is now visible in the East before 

 * '^1^1 'iv^ ' -unrise. The night sky is delineated in map x. of 

 '•i''^- ■/>▼»» " The Stars in their Seasons." Minima of the 

 variable star Algol (" The Stars in their Seasons," 

 map xii.) will occur on the 1st, thirty-one minutes 

 after midnight ; on the 4th at 9h. 20m. P.M. ; on 

 tlie 7th at 6h. 9m. P.M. ; on the 24th at llh. 3m. P.M. ; and on the 

 27th at 7h. 52m. P.M., other minima happening at very inconvenient 

 hours. Jlercury is an evening star, in so far that he souths after the 

 sun, but he is very badly placed for the observer throughout the 

 month. Venus is a morning star throughout the month, but is in an 

 indifferent position, and is becoming a veiy insignificant object. 

 Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus are all three invisible. Saturn is a 

 morning star, but he rises about lOh. 45m. P.M. on October 1, and 

 before nine o'clock at night at the end of the month. He forms 

 a right-angled triangle with 5 and k Geminorum (" The Stars in 

 their Seasons," map ii.). Xeptune is a morning star, but he may be 

 fairly seen during the working hours of the amateur observer's night, 

 as he rises before half past five in the evening at the end of October. 

 He is about 6° south of the Pleiades in a perfectly blank part of 



the sky. The moon enters her first quarter at lOh. 33-6m. on the 

 night of the 4th, and is full at 3h. 23-9m. A.M.on the 131h. She 

 enters her last quarter at 2h. 40 8m. o'clock in the afternoon of the 

 20th, and is new at 7h. 1.5-5m. A.M. on tlie 27th. No less than 

 eleven occultations of stars by the moon will be visible at con- 

 venient hours during the month. On the 6th, B. A. C. 7097, a star 

 of the (ith magnitude will disappear at lOh. 33m. p.m. at the dark 

 limb of the moon at an angle from her vertex of 142°. It will re- 

 appear at her bright limb at llh. 42m. p.m. at an angle of 312° from 

 her vertex. On the 12th, / Piscium, a oAUi magnitude star will 

 disappear at her dark limb at llh. oSm. P.M. at a vertical angle 

 of 40°, leappearing at 12h. 15m P.M. at an angle of 19°. 

 from the moon's vertex. On the 14th, ix Ceti, a 4th magnitude star, 

 will be occulted as it is rising. It may afterwards be seen to 

 reappear at 7h. Im. P.M. at the dark limb of the moon, at an angle 

 of 272° from her vertex. On the 16th, 9' and fl- Tauri, both stars of 

 the 4Ath magnitude, will be behind the moon when she rises. The 

 former will reappear at 7h. Im. P.JI. at an angle of 272°, the latter 

 at 7h. 36m. P.M. at an angle of 216° from her vertex; both, of 

 course, at her dark limb. Later on, 80 Tauri, a 6th magnitude star, 

 win disappear at her bright limb at 7h. 25m., at an angle of 24° 

 from her vertex, and reappear at 8h. 4m. p.m. at her dark limb, at 

 a vertical angle of 287°. Then at 7h. 36m., 81 Tauri, of the 5ith 

 magnitude, will disappear at the bright limb of the moon, at an 

 angle of 32° from her vertex. It will reappear at her dark limb at 

 8h. 20m. P.M., at an angle of 279° from her vertex. The last occulta- 

 tion on this night is that of 85 Tauri, a 6th magnitude star, which 

 will disappear at the bright limb at 8h. 5m., at an angle of 53° from 

 the vertex of the moon ; and will reappear at her dark limb at 

 Sh. 59m. P.M., at a vertical angle of 255°. Before the moon rises 

 the next night (the 17th) she wiU have occulted 111 Tauri, of the 

 5Jth magnitude. The star will reappearat her dark limb at Sh. 14m. 

 P.M., at an angle of 210° from her vertex. Afterwards, at 9h. 9m. 

 P.M., 117 Tauri, a star of the 6th magnitude, will disappear at 

 her bright limb, at a vertical angle of 339° ; reappearing at 

 her dark limb at 9h. 17m. p.m., at an angle of 322° from her 

 vertex. The remaining occultations occur during the morn- 

 ing hours. At noon, on October 1, the moon is in Libra, 

 but at 5h. 30m. P.M. arrives on the boundary of the narrow 

 northern strip of Scorpio (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxvi.) 

 By 2h. 30m. A.M., on the 2nd, she has crossed this and passed into 

 Ophiuchus. Her path across Ophiuchus is completed by 9 P.M. on 

 the 3rd, and she then enters Sagittarius. She quits Sagittarius 

 for Capricornus at 9 A.M. on the 6th (" The Seasons Pictured, 

 plate xxi.), and the last-named constellation for Aquarius 

 9h. 30m. A.M. on the 7th. She is travelling through Aquarius until 

 3h. 30m. P.M. on the lOtb, and then she enters Pisces (" The Seasons 

 Pictured," plate xxii.). She does not leave Pisces until 10 P.M. on 

 the 13th, at which hour she passes into the north-east corner of 

 Cetus. By 11 o'clock the next morning she has traversed this 

 and entered Aries (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.). At 

 2h. 30m. P.M. on the loth she crosses the boundary between Aries 

 and Taurus: In her journey through Taurus she arrives at Sh. A.M. 

 on the 18th, at the most northerly outline of Orion. It takes 

 her twelve hours to cross this, and at 8 o'clock the same evening she 

 emerges in Gemini ("The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiv.). Her 

 journey through Gemini terminates at 1 p.m. on the 20th, and she 

 then enters Cancer. At 12h. 30m. p.m. on the 21st she quits Cancer, 

 in turn, for Leo. She passes out of Leo into Virgo at noon on the 

 24th (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxv.), and from Virgo into 

 Libra at 8h. 30m. A.M. on the 27th. Traversing the last-named 

 constellation, she arrives, as she did at the beginning of the 

 month at the northern apex of Scorpio (" The Seasons Pictured," 

 plate xxvi.), at 4 A.M. on the 29th. At 1 o'clock the same afternoon 

 she emerges in Ophiuchus. She is parsing through Ophiuchus until 

 6 A.M. on the 3l3t, when she crosses the boundary into Sagittarius. 

 There we leave her. 



By 



WHIST. 



•Five of Clubs.' 



but 11 ', the last 



X, the last but two.) 



HE Whist Editor of the Australasian, whose skill 

 is well known (lie has read me more than one 

 lesson by which I have profited) has obligingly 

 sent me the following game, with the notes — 

 except those within brackets, which are mine. I 

 have ventured to alter his U'and A' into I'and Z. 

 (I cannot understand why, using the first two 

 letters of the alphabet for one pair of partners, 

 he should not use t'ne last two for the other pair, 



but three — and an awkward letter any way — with 



