August 22, 1895] 



NA TURE 



395 



Committee had been unable to gi\e any prize, and to 

 which they had felt desirous to give some honourable 

 mention, and on their representing this to the Smithsonian 

 Institution, they had been commissioned to do so, and also 

 to give certain medals of silver and bronze which had 

 been subseciuently placed at their disposition. 



The Committee has decided that honourable mention 

 should be made of the papers, twenty-one in number, 

 included in the following list, which also gives the full 

 names, titles, and addresses of the authors, and the 

 mottoes or pseudonyms which in four instances were 

 employed. To three of the papers a silver medal is 

 awarded, and to six a bronze medal. 



Honoii rable Mention with Silver Medal. 



L. Herrera and Dr. \'ergara Lopez, of the city of 

 ' La Atmosfera de las altitudes y el bienstar del 



L. Maclsen ("Geo"), Helsigor, near Copenhagen, 



Mr. A. 

 Mexico : 

 hombrc." 



Mr. C. 

 Denmark. 



Mr. K. A. R. Russell, of London, Vice-President of the Royal 

 Meteorological .Society of Great Britain : "The Atmosphere in 

 Relation to Human Life and 'Health.'" 



Honourable Mention with' Bronze Medal. 



Mr. E. Deberaux-Dex and Mr. Maurice Dibos ("Spes"), of 

 Rouen, France : " Etudes des courents aeriens continentaux et 

 de leur utilization par des parostats long-courriers." 



Dr. O. Jesse, of Berlin, " Die leuchtendon Nachtwolken." 



Dr. .\. Loewy, of Berlin : " L^ntersuchungen Uber die 

 Respiration und cirkulation unter verdiuinter und verdichteter 

 .Sauerstoflarmer und sauerstoffreicher Luft." 



Mr. Alexander McAdie (" Dalgetty"), of Washington : 

 " The known properties of atmospheric air considered in their 

 relationships to research in every department of natural science, 

 and the importance of a study of the atmosphere considered in 

 view of those relationships : the proper direction of future 

 research in connection with the imperfections of our knowledge 

 of atmospheric air and the conditions of that knowledge with 

 other sciences." 



Mr. Hiram S. Maxim, of Kent, England : " Natural and 

 Artificial Flight." 



Dr. Franz Oppenheimer and Dr. Carl Oppenheimer ("E pur 

 si muove '), of Berlin, Germany: " Ueber atmospharische 

 Luft, ihre Eigenschaften und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem 

 menschlichen Leben." 



Honourable Mention. 



Mr. E. C. C. Baly, of University College, London : " The 

 decomposition of the two constituents of the atmosphere by 

 means of the passage of the electric spark."' 



I'rof F. H. Kigelow, of Washington : " Solar and Terrestrial 

 Magnetism and their relation to Meteorology." 



Dr. I. B. Cohen, of Yorkshire College, Leeds, England : 

 " The .\ir of Towns." 



Dr. F.,J. B. Cordeiro, of Washington : — " Hypsonietrj'." 



I'rof Emile Duclaux, of the French Institute, Paris, France : 

 " Sur I'actinomctrie atmospheritjue et sur la constitution 

 actinimie de I'atmosphcre." 



Prof. Dr. Gieseler, of Bonn, tlermany : " Mittlere 

 Tagestemperaturen von Bonn, 1848-S8." 



Dr. Ludwig Ilosvay von Nag)- Ilsova, Professor in the 

 Koyal Joseph Polytechnic School, Budapest, Hungary : " Ueber 

 den unmittelbar oxydirenden Bestandtheil der Luft." 



Dr. A. Magelssen, of Christiania, Norway: "Ueber den 

 Zusammenhang und die Verwand.schaft der biologischen, 

 meleorologi.schen, und kosmischen F.rscheinungen." 



Dr. A. .Marcusc, of the Royal Observator)-, Berlin, 

 tiermany : " Die atmcspharische Luft.' 



Prof. C. Nees, of the Polytechnic School, Copenhagen, 

 Denmark : " The Use of Kites and Chained .Vir-balloon.s for 

 observing the Velocity of Winds, etc." 



Surgeon Charles Smart, of Wa.shington : " .\n Essay 

 on the Properties, Constitution and Impurities of Atmo- 

 spheric Air, in relation to the promotion of Health and 

 Longevity." 



Dr. F. Viault, of the Faculty of Medicine, Bordeaux, 

 trance: " Dccouvcrle d'une nouvclle et importante propriele 



NO. 134;, VOL. 52] 



physiologique de I'Air atmospherique (action hematogene de 

 fair rarefie)." 



(Signed), S. P. Lanci.ev, 



G. Browx Goode, 

 John S. Billings, 

 .\ugust 9, 1S95. M. W. Harrington. 



THE PERSEIDS OF 1895. 



THE conditions ha\e been very unfavourable for the 

 observation of this meteoric display. The moon's 

 presence in the firmament overpowered the smaller 

 meteors, and unfortunately the weather was very un- 

 settled, the first half of August being notable for its 

 frequent rains and clouded skies. 



It was intended to obtam some observations at the end 

 of July before moonlight interfered, but the attempt 

 failed at several stations. On July 25, however. Prof. 

 A. S. Herschel, at Slough, availed himself of a pretty 

 clear interval between irh. and I2h. 40m. to watch for 

 .\quarids and early Perseids. He found meteors rather 

 bright and plentiful, and the chief radiants in Cassiopeia, 

 Camelopardus, Perseus, .Aquarius, and Capricomus. .\t 

 I ih. 33jm. an .A.quarid brighter than Jupiter was recorded 

 in a position a few degrees north of the head of Draco, 

 and at iih. 55m. a bright Capricornid, equal to Jupiter, 

 traversed a long slow course from the north-east region 

 of Cassiopeia. 



On August 2, Mr. E. R. Blakeley, of De\vsbur>', 

 watched the sky from iiih. to I4^h., and obser\ed thirty- 

 one meteors, of which seventeen, or slightly more than 

 one-half, were Perseids with a radiant about y in diameter 

 at 35i '+ 52^. Mr. Blakeley regards the declination as 

 rather uncertain ; it is probably 3^ S. of the real position. 

 The brightest meteors seen were Perseids ; very fine ones 

 were noted at I3h. 33m. and I3h. 45m. 



On .August 7, between loh. and i2jh., some meteors 

 were observed at Slough, Bridgwater, and Bristol. Prof. 

 Herschel at the former place found them veiy scarce, 

 howe\er, for though the sky was quite clear from loh. 

 50m. to 1 2h. only four meteors were detected. Mr. Corder, 

 at Bridgwater, noted twelve in a w\atch of 2A hours. Three 

 or four of the paths indicated a good radiant at 17 Persei, 

 but others seemed to come from just below y. At Bristol 

 the writer recorded seven meteors in i|h., and of these 

 five were Perseids with a radiant at 41° + 57°, which 

 agrees with the usual position on August 7. Three 

 meteors were obser\ed at more than one station, and the 

 particulars are as follows : 



loh. I2ni. — .\ swift, streak-leaving meteor of 2-3 mag- 

 nitude observed at Bridgwater and Bristol. Height at 

 beginning 43 miles over Bromyard, Hereford, and it 

 disappeared at an elevation of 28 miles near Crickhowell, 

 Brecon. The real length of path was 42 miles, and the 

 earth-point at Barnstaple, Devon. The radiant was at 

 45° -f- 47", so that it was not a true Perseid, but a mendjer 

 of a well-known contemporar)- shower near a Persei. 



iih. 4m. — .-X. fine moderately swift meteor variously 

 estimated as first magnitude, equal to a Lyra-, and Jupiter 

 by observers at Bridgwater, Slough and Bristol re- 

 spectively. Height at beginning 74 miles, at end 45 

 miles. The meteor passed from above Newport, Mon., 

 to C.ellygacr, {'dam. Real length of path 33 miles. 

 Earth-point 5 miles north of Pontardawc. Radiant at 

 jj-^f -I- 36' in the south region of Lacerta. 



ilh. 29111. — .4 swift, streak-leaving meteor of second 

 magnitude observed at Bridgwater and Bristol. Height at 

 beginning 105 miles o\cr Stratford-on-.\von, at end 63 

 miles over 01dbury-on-Sc\ern. Real length of path 64 

 miles. Earth-point near Chumlcigh, Devon. Radiant 

 at 38' + 57', so that the meteor was a true Perseid. 



On .August g. Mr. Corder, at Bridgwater, watched from 

 loli. 34m. to I3h. 45m., and saw about 30 meteors, nearly 

 all of which were Perseids. He found the radiant in- 

 definitely marked. .A certain proportion of the meteors 



