178 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[August 1, 1899. 



The announcement of the discovery of this variable 

 reached this Observatory on June 1. On June 8, the 

 elements and ephemeris bad been determined just in time 

 to prepare for the minimum of that night. Accordingly, 

 the star was followed all night by Prof. Wendell, assisted 

 by Mr. Leon Campbell, and two hundred and seventy-two 

 settings were made with the photometer attached to the 

 fifteen-inch equatorial. From these it appears that at 

 16*0 G. M. T., it was 0-20 magnitudes brighter than the 

 comparison star, -4-45° 3067, while at 19*9 G. M. T., 

 when observations were stopped by the dawn, it was 

 2-25 magnitudes fainter than the same comparison star, 

 although it was still l*-5 before the predicted minimum. 

 Observations by Argelander's method were also made all 

 night by Mr. Wm. M. Reed, with the six-inch equatorial. 

 Meanwhile, thirty photographic images were obtained by 

 Mr. H. R. Colson, assisted by Mr. E. R. Cram. 



Nearly a year would have been saved had the original 

 discovery of the variability of this star been sent here for con- 

 firmation from the photographs, or had it been announced 

 publicly. There is so little chance for error in a photo- 

 graph that such cases are always examined here. Con- 

 firmation is not always obtained. A striking instance of 

 this kind is furnished by a photograph, X 7524, taken 

 at Arequipa with the thirteen-inch Boyden telescope on 

 May 22, 1896, at 14* 20- G. M. T. Miss A. J. Cannon 

 found that this plate shows the spectra of A. G. C. 17312, 

 17407, and 17453, magns. 7-0, 7-2, and 7-5 respectively, 

 but fails to show the spectrum of the brighter star 

 A. G. C. 17270, magn. 6-0. Apparently this is an Algol 

 star observed at one minimum only. On one hundred 

 and fifty-three other plates the star appears of its normal 

 brightness. On a photograph, C 7354, taken at Cambridge 

 with the eleven-inch Draper telescope on December 18, 

 1894, at 11* 8"- G.M.T., the star, -f 42° 4182, magn. 9-1, 

 was found by Miss L. D. Wells to be absent, although 

 stars two and a half magnitudes fainter were shown. On 

 plate C 7353, taken twelve minutes earlier, and on two 

 hundred and fifty-nine other plates, it appears of its normal 

 brightness. An adjacent defect in the film of the first 

 plate is perceptible, and perhaps explains the absence of 

 this star. Edwaed C. Pickering. 



Harvard College Observatory, 

 June 10th, 1899. 



[A rainhnum is predicted for the new variable IV" before midnight 

 on August 11th, and again 2" before midnight on September 12th.] 

 «. 



Binttstj <!5rntti^ological Kotts. 



Conducted by Harkv F. Witherby, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 

 • 



MisTLE Thrush swallowing Droppings of Young. — I 

 can endorse what Mr. East says about the Mistle Thrush. 

 As in his case, a nest was built this year near my study 

 window, easy of observation. There were three young 

 ones, and, up to the time of leaving the nest, the old 

 bird always swallowed the droppings. That she did not 

 disgorge them, for some time at any rate, was evident, as 

 she would often brood the young ones for several minutes 

 before taking flight again. While she was sitting I noticed 

 the cock bird pay her an occasional visit. She then 

 perched on the edge of the nest, into which he disgorged 

 some food and flew away. After eating at her leisure she 

 resumed her duties. — Geohge J. Chapman, m.a. (oxon.), 

 F.Z.S., Carlecotes, Dunford Bridge, Sheffield, June 20thi 

 1899. 



All contributions to the column, eitlier in the way of notes 

 or photographs, should be forwarded to Harry F. Witherby, 

 at 1, Eliot Place, Blackheath, Kent, 



Sir John Donnelly, who has just retired from the 

 secretaryship of the Science and Art Department, and is 

 succeeded by Sir George Kekewich, has during the forty 

 years of his public service performed an amount of good 

 work, the far-reaching eti'ects of which wUl be better 

 realised a generation hence, perhaps, than at present. 

 Those who are best acquainted with his history do not 

 hesitate to say that the present effective system of scientific 

 instruction throughout this country is due almost entirely 

 to Sir John's organizing ability and untiring efforts. A 

 great friend of Gordon's from their student days at the 

 Royal Military Academy, he was very near joining that 

 hero in China when he commanded the " ever- victorious" 

 army. When Gordon was Governor- General of the Soudan 

 he invited his friend to join him, with a view to succeed 

 him. All was settled to that effect, but, at the last 

 moment. Sir John was induced to remain at home ; 

 the transference of his attention from military to 

 civil problems has been a great factor in those innova- 

 tions which have secured equal chances to all classes for 

 the acquisition of sound instruction in Science and Art 

 subjects. 



H*M 



The interesting collection illustrating the coinage and 

 currency of the Chinese Empire, brought home by Lord 

 Charles Beresford from his recent mission to China, has 

 been generously lent by him to the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum, South Kensington, and is placed in the Chinese 

 Section in the Cross Gallery behind the Imperial Institute. 

 It includes a series of silver taels in the form of cast ingots 

 in the rough, with a pair of scales with brass and ivory 

 weights for estimating the value, and some fi-agments used 

 as small change. There is a set of dollars of different 

 nationalities which pass in China, among them being the 

 new British dollar, first issued in 1898 and coined in India. 

 Among the copper coinage is a collection of ten thousand 

 cash, strung together in bundles by means of the central 

 hole which is a characteristic of Chinese copper coins, 

 representing £'1 in English money. 



A novel camera, designed so as to admit of approaching 

 quite near to any subject it is desired to photograph with- 

 out betraying the purpose of the operator, has just been 

 introduced by Messrs. W. Watson and Sons. It is in the 

 form of a binocular field-glass. The photographer, osten- 

 sibly looking at an object in the direct line of vision through 

 dummy object glasses, really operates on unsuspicious 

 people at right angles^to the left or right — by means of 

 intercepting prisms which divert the incident rays round a 

 comer, as it were. Very good results can be obtained, and 

 the action is instantaneous. 



<©tttttarg. 



m 



Sir William Flower, whose death, we regret to record, 

 occurred on Saturday, the 1st July, was much and justly 

 esteemed by scientific men the world over. Born at 

 Stratford-on-Avon in 1831, after a course of study at 

 University College, London, he entered the Army, and 

 served in the Crimea as Assistant-Surgeon, becoming on 

 his return home. Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Middle- 

 sex Hospital, and a year or so later. Curator of the 

 Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, then 

 Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology, and, in 1884, succeeded Owen as Director of the 

 Katural History Museum at South Kensington. He was 



