96 



KNOWLEDGE. 



March, 1911. 



attention to. and emphasized, the fact that this 

 observational portion and its reduction to standard 

 points of reference, was both the most costly and the 

 most laborious" of the four items for investigation 

 proposed for the Institutior.'s kindlv interest and 

 pecuniary support. 



The Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution 

 agreed to aid Professor Boss, and, under grant No. 

 479, £5,000 was appropriated for the use of the 

 Department of Meridian .Astrometry, to be directed 

 by Professor Boss at the Dudley Observatory. 

 Albany, New York, for " stiufy of iiiotion and 

 sfnictiirc of the stellar system of tlie Xorthern and 

 Souther II Hem isph eres . ' ' 



Work ujion this larger General Catalogue of about 

 25,000 stars, was commenced at Alban\" at the earliest 

 moment in 1907, October 7th, and by the end of 

 1908, August 15th, or after ten months' work. 

 10,421 meridian observations were obtained \\ith the 

 Olcott Circle. Thc\" were chiefly made by the two 

 assistants, Mr. A. J. Roy and Mr. W. B. Varnum, 

 whose zeal, loyalty, and efficiencw as Professor Boss 

 specially testifies, is \\'orthy of all praise. Eight others 

 have also assisted in the work at Albany. These 

 observations were made upon a fundamental s>-s- 

 tem, and are mostly of standard stars between 83"' 

 north zenith distance and 40" of south declination. 

 All the stars visible from the Alban\- zenith to 

 this south declination can also be observed at the 

 finally-adopted site of the southern observatory 

 at San Luiz, latitude — 33" 18' and longitude 66""3 

 or 4'' 25'" 25"" W. of Greenwich. So soon as 

 the favourable conditions of the climate were 

 ascertained, and it had been decided that San 

 Luiz, in .\rgentina, should be the site for the 

 southern observatory, progress was made with the 

 preparations for the establishment of the observa- 

 tory during 1907 and 1908. San Luiz is a town of 

 about ten thousand inhabitants, and is situated on 

 the Trans-Andean Railway, about five hundred miles 

 inland or west of Buenos Aires, and at an altitude 

 of two thousand five hundred feet above sea level. 

 The site is not near enough to the Andes to get 

 influenced by the intense and oppressive heat waves 

 of the Andean plains. 



The U.S. Department of State, through the 

 courteous and cordial interest of the Secretary of 

 State, Mr. E. Root, was specialh" helpful in arrang- 

 ing matters with the Argentine minister. Senor 



Don E. Portela, who interceded and induced the 

 Argentine Government to facilitate the choice of a 

 site, for various permissions, and for other privileges. 



By the valuable influence, interest, and courtesy 

 of Mr. W. G. Davis, Director of the Meteorological 

 Department in Argentina, Dr. L. S. Rowe, Mr. De la 

 Plata. Mr. Naon, and Mr. Ezcurres, Ministers of 

 Foreign Affairs, of Justice, of Pulilic Instruction, 

 and of Agriculture respectively, they were saved 

 much trouble and expense in the entry of the 

 instruments, in their free conveyance to San 

 Luiz, in free tickets for the observers, and in the 

 free use of a site on national propert\- of the 

 Escuela Regional (San Luiz). which is under the 

 direction of Dr. C. L. Xewton. 



So the Argentine authorities — especiall\- those at 

 San Luiz — having entered thus heartily into the 

 matter, it was possible for Professor Boss, with 

 Professor R. H. Tucker and Mr. W. B. Varnum, to sail 

 in the SS. Velasquez, on August 20th, 1908; they 

 arri\'ed at Buenos Aires on September 13th, and at San 

 Luiz on September 20th, where they were met by a 

 party of official representatives of the Provincial 

 Govermnent of San Luiz, consisting of Senores 

 Gazari, Ouiroga and Romanella, and bj' many 

 prominent citizens of San Luiz. Professor Boss and 

 his colleagues at once proceeded to choose the actual 

 site at San Luiz, to select the quarters for the 

 observatory staff, offices, and so on, and to make 

 general arrangements for the woik. Certain instru- 

 ments and portions of some of the constructive 

 materials were taken out there by these astronomers. 

 As soon as the ground could be prepared, and the 

 construction of the observatory had been planned and 

 started, Professor Boss returned to Buenos Aires 

 on October 7th. leaving Professor Tucker and 

 Mr. X'arninn to take charge and superintend the 

 erection. 



On October 10th, Professor Boss sailed in the 

 SS. Wiasi/uez on his return to New York, On the 

 sixth da)' out the ship ran at full speed upon the 

 rocky coast of San Sebastian Island ; the night was 

 very dark, with rain and fog. The ship and its 

 cargo became a total wreck, but after some dangers 

 and hardships, all the passengers, crew, and most of 

 their luggage were saved, and the\" proceeded to 

 Santos, Brazil, from which jiort Professor Boss 

 again started, in the S.S. Titian, for New York, on 

 No\-ember 1 1th. 



f To he eontinued I. 



RKLSSNER'S FIBRE. 



At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society of 

 London, Professor Dendy and Mr. G. E. Nicholls 

 exhibited a series of lantern slides illustrating the 

 structure and relation of the sub-commissural organ 

 which has a sensory function in brains of various 

 vertebrate types as well as of Reissner's fibre 

 which runs from the sense organ down the spinal 

 cord. The slides were described by Professor 



Dend\-, while Mr. Nicholls gave a brief account 

 of some experiments which he had made, which 

 so far seemed to support the view that the 

 organs in question constitute an apparatus for 

 automatically regulating the flexure of the long 

 axis of the body. Reissner's filire does not 

 apparently exist in man, though some traces of 

 the sub-commissural organ occur in the embryo. 



