October 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



237 



following May, the star was inconveniently placed for 

 observation. 



Computed from the old elements, maxima were due 

 February 21th, May 6th, and July 16th. On May 1st the 

 star was barely visible in the fieldglass, and on the 

 following night was invisible in that instrument. The 

 next clear night, May (ith, it was found with the two and 

 three-quarter inch refractor, and there was a complete 

 reversal of phase, for instead of being at maximum, as 

 computed, the star was at a very faint minimum close to 

 tenth magnitude. On -June 11th it had reached a magnitude 

 of 5-1, and then fell to 0-25 on June 29tih. It then rose to 

 5-4.5 magnitude July 17th, at which date a maximum was 

 due in regular succession. It was last night at sixth mag- 

 nitude. This star is quite interesting ; its alternate bright 

 and faint phases, and particularly its complete reversals, 

 seem, in connection with its position in the Milky Way, to 

 make it worthy of the best thought of the day, if variable 

 star observation and study are of the importance attached 

 to them by eminent astronomers. 



E HydrsB passed a maximum May 17th, at 1-1 mag- 

 nitude, and seventeen days later than the predicted date. 



E Corvi was not within my view till after the predicted 

 date of maximum, March 27th, had passed ; but on April 

 4th it was a fine star 6o magnitude, and was lost AprU 

 26th at 8-2 magnitude. 



S CoroniB passed maximum March 24fch at 7-3 magni- 

 tude. It seemed to brighten April 20th, was lost June i>th, 

 and definitely glimpsed June 22nd. 



T Ursse Majoris reached maximum June 5th at seventh 

 magnitude, and remains still in view, but faint. 



E Leonis seems to have passed a minimum tenth magni- 

 tude June 16tb, which was the proper date for that phase 

 computing froai the old elements, but fourteen days short 

 of the one hundred and sixty-nine days usual between 

 maximum and minimum, counting from YendeU's maxi- 

 mum and my own given in Knowledge for March. The 

 next maximum of this star — which Mr. Yendell, in Popular 

 Astronomy for June, says is, next to Mira, the most 

 interesting of the variablet —will be of increased impor- 

 tance, as it will show (to the present writer at least) 

 between which of the phases, whether on the rise or the 

 fall, the shortening of the period occurs. 



Dr. Chandler has corrected the elements of U Cephei by 

 adding forty-five minutes andmaking the timeof its changes 

 that much later than tlie tine given in the "Companion." 

 This satisfies my conviction, hiefly in my inner conscious- 

 ness, that the star for some years has been behind time m 

 reaching minimum. 



U Coron;e is another star of the same type that seems 

 to need a similar revision. 



The new variable S S Cygni of the U Geminorum type 

 is receiving considerable attention. It is within range of 

 the fieldglass at miximum for a few days, reaching 8 2 

 ma^'nitude. 



David Flanejiy. 



Memphis, Tenn., U.S.A., 

 28th July, 1897. 



" MORE ABOUT AXTIVEXEXE." 

 To the Editors of Knowledge. 



Sirs, — This article contains a statement that snake 

 poison introduced into the stomach does not produce any 

 active poisoning effects. If my memory serves me, there 

 is a directly antagonistic statement in a paper by Drs. 

 Eeichardts and Weir Mitchell, which is preserved in the 

 records of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Again, the rattlesnake is spoken of as being one of the 



most deadly of the serpent tribe. I think that a reference 

 to the American authorities already quoted will sufficiently 

 disprove this. In fact, I believe that rattlesnakes are, as 

 a group, the least deadly of the North American poisonous 

 snakes, and that their venom is not so virulent as that of 

 the water viper (Anri.'itrodon piscivorug), the copperhead 

 (A. contortrix), and the coral snake {Elapa), which, with 

 the rattlesnakes, exhaust the 'i^Qxih.kxa&cic&nThamitophidia. 

 There is, I imagine, no doubt that many of the South 

 American, Australian, East Indian, and African snakes are 

 infinitely more poisonous than any of those of North 

 America. Lionel Jervis. 



[Prof. Fraser's experiments bear out the statement made, 

 that snake poison can be introduced into the stomach up 

 to a certain extent without producing any active poisonous 

 effects. For instance, a cat was made to swallow one-fifth 

 of the minimum lethal dose ; this dose was gradually 

 increased till, on the hundred and sixteenth day, it 

 received into the stomach at one time a dose eighty times 

 larger than would have killed a clean cat by injection — yet 

 no observable disturbance was produced by these doses. 



It is generally admitted that the rattlesnake is a genus 

 of highly specialized venomous snakes, and that its poison 

 is very deadly, rapidly paralyzing the nerve centres, and 

 affecting the respiratory and circulatory functions. — J. G. 

 McPherson.1 



THE VEaETATION AND SOME OF THE VEGETABLE 

 PRODUCnONS OF AUSTRALASIA. 



In reply to a correspondent's questions, which it seems 

 unnecessary to reproduce here, Mr. Hemslej' writes : — 

 " The leaves of most Australian plants, especially of those 

 in the drier regions, are woody (rarely succulent), and 

 either small and often spiny, or larger with the surfaces 

 vertical. Climatic conditions are directly or indirectly 

 connected with these curious modifications, which, coupled 

 with anatomical peculiarities, render superficial evaporation 

 exceedingly slow, and thus enable plants to live through 

 the prolonged droughts which are not infrequent. The 

 prickly, woody nature of the leaves also protects plants from 

 destruction by animals. Aromatic plants abound in 

 Australia ; the gum trees, or Eucalypti, being remarkable 

 for their resinous secretions." — Eds. 



Notices of I3oolt0. 



Elements of EUctro-Cliemistry, By Dr. Eobert Liipke. 

 Translated from the German by M. M. Pattison Muir, 

 M.A. (Grevel & Co.) Illustrated. 7s. 6d. So far as 

 we know, this is the first book in Enghsh which sets forth 

 succinctly the experiments by means of which the theories 

 of electro-chemistry are elucidated and the laws deduced. 

 It is true that Ostwald's " Chemistry," etc., and various 

 journals contain information of this land, but not in that 

 form which is most convenient. Dr. Liipke, however, has 

 brought together many hitherto scattered fragments, and 

 a prominent feature of the work finds its expression in the 

 fact that the fundamental conceptions of physics and 

 chemistry, as far as they appertain to the subject in hand, 

 may be rendered intelligible to students by experiments 

 carried out with simple apparatus, most of which can be 

 rigged up by the average student who knows how to mani- 

 pulate glass before the blowpipe. Van't Hofl's theory of 

 solutions, although not at first sight relevant to the sub- 

 ject, here finds its proper place. Eaoult's laws relating 

 to the determination of molecular weights ; Beckman's 

 measurement of boiling points, plasmolysis, and the law 



