58 



KNOWLEDGE 



[July 18, 1884. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From Jily ISth to August 1st. 

 By F.R.A.S. 



SUN-SPOT activity, albeit somewhat subsiding at last, continues 

 sufficiently to render the Sun an interesting object of daily 

 examination. Map VII. of " The Stars in their Seasons" furnishes 

 the present aspect of the night sky. Jlercnry is an evening star, 

 but by no means well placed for the observer. Venus is a morning 

 star, and may be seen before sunrise with the naked eye. To the 

 student who possesses the means of directing a telescope on her 

 during the daytime, she will appear as a lovely object. These are 

 the two solitary planets now visible. The Moon will scarcely come 

 nto view for the purpose of the ordinary observer until about the 

 27th, being New 54 minutes after noon on the 22nd, and travelling 

 « luthward in the sky. One occultation of a star only will be visible 

 fluring the period covered by these notes. It occurs on the 27th, 

 ■when the 64th magnitude star, 15 A C 4,294, will disappear at the 

 dark limb of the moon at 8h. lUm. p.m. at an angle from her vertex 

 of 164^, and reappear at her bright limb at 8h. 50ra. p.m. at a 

 vertical angle of 229". The Moon is in Taurus to-day at noon, and 

 i-emains in that constellation until 6 a.m. on the 20th, when she 

 passes into the northern part of Orion. This she traverses in, as 

 nearly as may be, 12 hours, entering Gemini at G o'clock in the 

 evening of the same day. She does not leave Gemini for Cancer 

 until 6 a.m. on the 22nd, and, oddly, it is 6 p.m. on the 2.3rd when 

 sbe crosses the boundary into Leo. At 9 p.m on the 24th she 

 descends into Sextans, emerging into Leo again about 9h. 30m. the 

 aiext morning. At 11 a.m. on the 2Gth she enters Virgo, a constel- 

 lation which she does not quit for Libra until 7 p.m. on the 29th. 

 She is crossing Libra until 9 o'clock at night on the 31st, at which 

 instant she passes into the narrow northern strip of Scorpio. Her 

 path over this is traversed by 7h. 30m. the next morning, when she 

 emerges in Ophiuchus. There we leave her. 



DESIGN FOR PARLOUR ORGAN. 



OUR engraving shows a design of an organ made many years 

 ago, in which all the pipes arc said to have been made of 

 silver. We present it to our readers with the hope that it may 



so novel and popular a cliaracter that people must have it would be 

 worth many thousands of dollars to the manufacturer who secured 



it. — Scientific American. 



serve as a suggestion leading to the production of something new 

 and good in the form of musical keyed instruments. We are tired 

 of the present stereotyned shapes of our pianos and organs. _ Will 

 not somebody strike out in a new direction? A suitable design of 



iHiSrrllnnrn. 



The Koyal Microscopical Society, after carefal deliberation, have 

 decided upon admitting ladies to all the privileges of fellowship, 

 attendance at the ordinary meetings excepted. 



A COEEESPONDEXT, writing anent a paragraph which appeared in 

 p. 37, says that there must be some mistake in it, inasmuch as both 

 the astronomical Doctors Draper, father and son, are, unhappily, 

 dead. 



To get rid of the smell of paint, plunge a handful of hay into a 

 pail of water, and let it stand in any room newly painted. The 

 smell will be greatly lessened. 



It is stated that the gas sold in the metropolis cortinnes to in- 

 crease, the quantity in 1883 being more than 20,000 millions of 

 cubic feet. The quantity is vast, and the consumption of coal is 

 proportionate, the weight carbonised being more than 2,000,000 

 tons. 



An article on " Patent Medicines" appears in our contemporary 

 the Lancet for July 5, which may be perused with advantage by all 

 who labour under the delusion that the Government stamp affords 

 the slightest security against even the poisoning of the purchaser 

 of any advertised nostrnm. 



Ik 1882 the colony of A'ictoria was required by the courts to pay 

 £120,000 to persons injured by accidents on the States railroads, of 

 which it had 1,355 miles. The sum was 17 per cent, of the total net 

 earnings of its railroads. Most of these accidents were on one 

 comparatively short line, and the payments for injaries exceeded 

 the net earnings of this line by about £25,000. 



The following quantities — in tons — of zinc were produced in 

 1883, by the different countries named : — The Rhine district and 

 Belgium, 123,891; Silesia, 70,405; Great Britain, 27,661; France 

 and Spain, 14,671 ; Poland, 3.783 ; Austria, 2,870; United States, 

 32,790 ; totals, 276,080. These figures all show increase on previous 

 years, except as relates to France and Spain and to Poland, which 

 show a decrease. 



Sir Loris Malet, late Under Secretary of State for India, Sir 

 Evelyn Baring, late Minister of Finance in India, and Mr. West- 

 land, Comptroller and Auditor-General to the Government of India, 

 have addressed a letter to Mr. Henry Dunning Macleod to be 

 forwarded to the Civil Service Commissioners, earnestly recom- 

 mending that his works on Political Economy should be adopted in 

 the Civil Service examinations. 



Some time since, Dr. Morris, of Birmingham, succeeded, as he 

 believed, in photographing a third sort of blood corpuscle, which, 

 being of the same colour and the same refractive index as the 

 liquor sanguinis, was invisible to the eye. Grave doubt has been 

 thrown on the objective existence of these corpuscles by Mr. St. 

 George St. Clair, who, as the result of a series of experiments, has, 

 he conceives, demonstrated that Dr. Morris's corpuscles are nothing 

 but photographic ghosts. 



It is estimated that the total annual production of watches in 

 Switzerland at the present day exceeds 1,600,000, with an aggre- 

 gate value of 88,000,000 francs, the total number of workmen em- 

 ployed averaging 40,000. A novel kind of watch has been recently 

 invented by Mr. Paul Kramer, at Neuchatel. This watch is called 

 M aiguilles nniverselles, and indicates simultaneously the times of 

 different countries ; one, for example, shows the different times for 

 Paris, Suez, Bombay and Hue, another for New York and San 

 Francisco. 



The Anti-Vivisection .Society have lodged a protest against the 

 crucial experiment by which M. Pasteur proposes t.^ demonstrate 

 the efficiency of his vaccine for rabies. Mrs. Kingsford, M.D., who 

 made herself prominent on this occasion, exclaimed that M. Pastetir 

 was not justified in "torturing thousands of animals" with the 

 object of abolishing so " very rare " a disease. The " thonsaads " 

 when translated into the language of sober reason shrink to forty I 

 As for the *' rarity," we must remember that twenty-one persons 

 died of hydrophobia in the Department of the Seine within twelve 

 months. — Medical Press and Circular. 



A DEPUTATION from the City Commissioners of Sewers visited 

 Wimbledon recently to see the result of the experiments in elec- 

 trical street lighting which have been conducted for some months 

 past by Mr. Preece. From these it appears that 'be most efficient 



