Jax. 30, lSi.5] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE * 



93 



occur directions which, if literally followed, might put a 

 summary and eternal stop to tlie use of tie lantern by the 

 experimenter. It looks like, and probably is, a stupid 

 I rinter'a err<>r. 



Jioman IlU/ori/. l>y Rev. B. G. Johns. New Edition, 

 ■with an Appendix by Rev. T. H. L. Le.\uy, D.O.L. 

 (Londuu: Crusby Lockwood A Co., 1884.) — As an intro- 

 duction to Roman History for school-children, the little 

 book before us seems to fulfil its end very well, telling the 

 t'ttmiliar but wonderful story of the mighty empiie of old in 

 a series of short and simjile cha])teis. Dr. Leary contri- 

 butes an Appendix on the Literature, Laws, «nd Customs 

 <'f Ancient Rome, treating tliese subjects in a similar 

 manner. 



We have also on our table 'J'/ie 7Vici/!ist, Jiradstreet'n, 

 The Jmirnal of Botanij, Our Manthhj (Rangoon), The 

 American Xaturalist, The Medico-Legal Journal, The 

 Jfedical 2'ress atid Circular, Packard's Shorthand Reporter 

 (New York), and The Dyer. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From Ja.v. 30 to Feb. 13. 



By F.R.A.S. 



THE Sun continues to exhibit spots and groups of spots, and 

 should be examined with the telescope whenever the sky is 

 dear. The aspect of the night sky is shown in Map II. of "The 

 Stars in their Seasons." For all practical pui-poses, Mercury, 

 Venns. and Mars may be regarded as invisible. Jupiter is now 

 fairly placed for the observer during the greater part of the night, 

 thongh he does not cross the meridian until the early morning. He is 

 sitoated to the east of, hat is approaching a Leonis. and is a brilliant 

 object in the night sky. The following are the phenomena of his 

 Satellites which will occur before 1 a.m. during the succeeding 

 fortnight. On Feb. 2, Satellite IV. will disappear in eclipse at 

 lOh. 8m. 288. p.m.; the shadow of Satellite I. enters on to 

 Jupiter's face at llh. -ISm., and Satellite I. itself 12 minutes after 

 midnight. On the 3rd, Satellite I. will be eclipsed at 9h. Im. 54s. 

 p.m., to reappear from occultation at llh. 41m. At 12h. 9m. 27s. 

 Satellite II. will disappear in eclipse. On the 4th, the shadow of 

 Satellite I. will begin its transit at Ch. 17m. p.m., as will 

 the Satellite casting it at Gh. 38m.; but the observation 

 of these is doubtful. The shadow will pass off at 8h. 37m., 

 the Satellite at 8h. 57m. On the 5th, the shadow of Satel- 

 lite II. may possibly be seen to enter on to the planet's limb 

 at 6h. 32m. p.m. The ingress of Satellite II. itself will be visible 

 at 7h. 13m. The shadow will pass off the opposite limb at 

 '.'h. 28m. ; followed by the Satellite at lOh. 8m. On the 9th, 

 Satellite III. will re-appear from behind Jupiter at 7h. 53m. p.m. 

 On the 10th, Satellite I. will be eclipsed at lOh. 55m. 31s. On the 

 llth, the shadow of SateUite I. begins its transit at 8h. 11m. p.m., 

 followed by the Satellite at 8h. 22m. The shadow passes off at 

 lOh. 31m.; the Satellite at lOh. 41m. Lastly, on the 12th, 

 Satellite I. re-appears from occultation at 7h. 51m. p.m. ; the 

 ingress of the shadow of Satellite II. occurs at 9h. 6m., and that of 

 Satellite II. twenty minutes later. The shadow leaves the planet 

 at 12h. 2m.; the SateUite itself at 12h. 21m. Saturn is still a 

 heantifnl object, remaining almost sensibly stationary in the posi- 

 tion described on p. 5G. He should be observed not later than 

 ;• p.m., to be seen at his best. Uranus is to the east of n Virginis. 

 The Moon is fall at 4h. 19'2m. this afternoon, and enters the last 

 'inarter at lOh. 37 6m. on the night of Feb. 6. Three occultations 

 only of stars will be observable at convenient hours during the 

 next fourteen days. To-night '(Jan. 30), the 6i mag. star, 

 B.A.C. 3122, will disappear at the bright limb of the Moon 

 at 8h. 54m., at an angle from her vertex of 30"; re- 

 appearing at what looks like her other bright limb at 9h. 59ni., 

 237* from her veilex. C)n Jan. 31 she will rise with x Leonis (of 

 the 5th mag.) actually behind her; but the star will be seen to 

 reappear at her dark limb afterwards at 6h. 35m. p.m., at a vertical 

 angle of 255'. On Feb. 1 another 5th mag., star A Leonis, will dis- 

 appear at her bright limb at 8h. Im. p.m., at a vertical angle of 31°, 

 reappearing at her dark limb at 8h. 57m., at an angle of 218' from 

 her vertex. The moon is in Cancer when these notes begin, but at 

 3 a.m. on the 3l3t crosses into Leo. At 9 a.m. on Feb. 1 she de- 

 scends into Sextans, re-emerging in Leo at 4. -30 p.m. the same day. 

 She quits Leo for Virgo at 4 p.m. on the 2nd. In Virgo she 

 remains until 9 p.m. on the 5th, when she enters Libra. Across 



this she travels until 10 p.m. on the 7th, crossing at that hour into 

 the northern .strip of Scorpio, which it takes her nearly 12 hours 

 to pass over. Having done so, sho moves into I lie soutliern part 

 of Opliiuchus. At 4 a.m. on the lOth she passes into Sagittarius, 

 which, at 9 p.m. on the 12th sho ([uits for A(iu!irins. There wo 

 leave her. 



iHi^rrllanfa. 



At last Fridav's meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works, 

 Capt. Shaw pre'sented his report on the fires in London during 

 IhM, which showed an increase in number of 145 upcm the previous 

 year, and 531 above the average of the last ten years. The number 

 of lives lost was 42. 



Thk New Yokk Ki.evated Uaii.ROAP. — The necess.ary agree- 

 ments and contracts relative to tho amalgamation of the several 

 electromotor interests for the elevated railroads in New Vork will 

 be signed upon the same table and in the same room where the 

 contract for the first Atlantic cable was signed, March 10, 1854, and 

 Mr. Cyrus W. Field will represent one of tho parties in each 

 instance. — Eiujineerimj. 



From a report by Professor Church, of the Agricultural College 

 at Cirencester, it would appear that sugar beet was grown success- 

 fully in England during the hot .-ind dry summer of the past year, 

 ordinary root crops (such as mongold-wurzel, Ac.), having been, as 

 is well known, exceedingly deficient. As wheat, at its present 

 price, is wholly unremunerative to the farmer, the cultivation of 

 the sugar beet'would appear to open up a possible source of com- 

 parative prosperity to him. 



Another Telephoxe Action.— The " New Telephone Comp.any,' 

 owning the patents of Professor S. P. Thompson and Mr. Jolin, is 

 threatened with litigation by the United Telephone Company, 

 owning the Edison and Bell patents, on the ground that the " valve 

 telephone," advertised for sale by the former company, is an in- 

 fringement of their rights. If the suit comes on, the whole 

 question of the scope and powers of the Edison and Bell patents 

 in this country will probably be raised again.— Enginceriiiri. 



Encocraged a]iparently by the success of their work, entitled, 

 "The Royal Academy Illustrated," the first volume of which 

 appeared last year, we hear that Messrs. Chapman & Hall are not 

 only going to issue a corresponding volume during the present one, 

 but propose to supplement it by a second one, entitled, " Not 

 Hung at the Royal Academy, 1885," containing a selection from 

 the rejected paintings, the sketches for which will be published 

 under the authorisation of the artists. This will afford the public 

 an opportunity of judging between the great unappreciated and the 

 Royal Academicians. 



■The following abstract of a paper read at the meeting of the 

 Geological Society, on Jan. 14, will be read with interest in con- 

 nection with the article by Mr. W. Jerome Harrison, which appeared 

 on p. 337 of our second Volume :—" 3. 'The Drift-deposits of 

 Colwyn Bay.' By T. Mellard Reade, Esq., F.G.S. The author, 

 after referring to a former paper ('Quart. Journ. Geo. Soc.,' vol. 

 XXXIX., p. Ill), described the drifts of Colwyn Bay as forming 

 cliffs towards the sea, and thinning out inland, forming a crescent- 

 shaped deposit, which lies for the most part upon Silurian rock 

 of Wenlock age, while the two headlands of Colwyn Head and 

 Rhos Point are denuded remnants of Carboniferous Limestone. He 

 distinguished three divisions in the drifts:—!. Bluish-grey Till, 

 composed of disintegrated Silurian and Carboniferous rocks, and 

 full of striated fragments of slaty rock, with few gr-uiite boulders; 

 its surface is unevenly denuded. 2. Brown BouMer-clay repre- 

 senting the Low-level Boulder-clay and Sands, overlying the 

 former, evidently a marine deposit, and containing shell-frag- 

 ments. To this bed the author referred most of the erratics 

 found on the shore, which included boulders of Eskdale and 

 Scotch granites ; and 3. Rearranged gravels. The line of 

 demarcation between numbers 1 and 2 is particularly clear. 

 The author considered the Bluish-grey Till to be here, as else- 

 where, chieflv, if not entirely, made up from the denudation of the 

 local rocks, the material being brought down by the action of ice 

 and snow from the high ground lying inland; while the overlying 

 deposit of brown Boulder-clay is part of the great sheet of Low- 

 level boulder-clay and sands which occupies the plains of the 

 north of England frtm the mountains to the shores of the Irish 

 Sea, and, like the more sandy boulder-clays near Liverpool, its 

 materials were probably derived chiefly from Triassic rocks, which 

 occur in the neighbouring Vale of Clwyd, mi.xed with material 

 derived from other rocks, and especially with argillaceous matter 

 from the underlying till. The granite boulders contained in it 

 were carried to where they lie by floating ice." 



