May 17, 1894] 



NA TURE 



65 



Juno w;ll soon be in a favourable position for observalion, and 

 Prof. Barnard will then apply the filar micrometer to its disc. 



Return ok Temi-el's Comet. — A telegram from the Cape 

 Town Observatory to Prof. Krueger {Astr. Nach. 3228) 

 announces that Tempel's periodical comet (1873 II), the return 

 of which was expected this year, was observed by Mr. Kinlay 

 on May 8. Its position was then R..\. =356° 20' i6"S. P.D. 

 = 94° 5' " • The object was circular, with a diameter of 

 about one minute of arc and some central condensation, but no 

 tail. Its brightness was about the eleventh magnitude, or fainter. 



feel above sea-level. The second is at La Joya, in the desert, 

 altitude 4140 feel. The third is at the Observatory itself, alti- 

 tude S060 feet. The fourth is upon the side of the Misli, at an 

 altitude of about 16,000 feet, and the fifth is upon the summit of 

 the MistI, altitude 19,200 feet. The discoveries made at the 

 Observatory aio enumerated by Prof. Pickering. They include 

 double stars, the "lakes" on Mars and the rapid changes in 

 I some of the canals and dark markings on the planet at the time 

 I of the melting of the southern snow-cap, the observations of 

 changes of shape of Jupiter's satellites, which led to the conclu- 

 sion that the outer satellites are not solid bodies, but dense 

 swarms of meteorites, and pointed to a modification of La- 

 place's nebular hypothesis, to explain some of the diffitulties 

 inherent in it. Peculiar lunar formations have also been ob- 

 served, and an explanation has been given of the bright streaks 

 seen at the time of full moon. A new class ol lunar rills has 

 been found, winding and tapering like a terrestrial river bed, 

 and various facts have been determined with regard to what are 

 called "variable spots" on the moon, which darken as the 

 sun rises upon them, and fade out as it sets. Finally, the 

 remarkable photograph of the spectrum of Nova Normas, 

 I showing the star's constitution to be the same as that of Nova 

 I Aurigse, was obtained at Arequipa. But only a small portion of 

 the work of the Observatory is devoted to original research, the 

 greater part of the time being taken up by routine work. Few 

 observatories, however, can show a better record than that 

 made at Arequipa during the three years of the Observatory's 

 I existence. 



The Diameters of some Minor Planets. — Various at- 

 I tempts have been made to measure micrometrically the dia- 

 meters of some of the larger asteroids, and also to determine 

 them by photometric means, but the values obtained have never 

 been very trustworthy. Prof. E. E. Barnard has now taken 

 up the work, using the 36inch of the Lick Observatory, and 

 has already obtained some new results (AUionainy and Aitro- 

 Physics, May). So far, he has succeeded in directly measuring 

 Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta, to which he assigns the following 

 I diameters : — 



Ceres ... 599 ± 29 miles. 

 Pallas ... 273 ± 12 ,, 

 Vesta ... 237 ± 15 ,, 



i It will be seen from this that, contrary to the general beliet', 

 ! Ceres is the largest of the minor planets, and not Vesta. The 

 values obtained by Argelander from a consideration of the rela- 

 tive light of the three foregoing asteroids and Juno, and those 

 determined by Mr. F,. J. Stone in 1867 from measures made by 

 Herschel and Lamont, are as follows : — 



THE NEW ENGINEERING LABORATORY AT 

 CAMBRIDGE. 



TTHE new Engineering Laboratory was opened on Tuesday by 

 Lord Kelvin, in the presence of a brilliant assemblage of 

 University dignitaries. The building occupies the site of the old 

 Perse Grammar School, and has been erected (rom the designs of 

 Messrs. Marshall, Vicars, and Co. The exterior is of plain but 

 not unattractive red brick, in the French chAUau style. The 

 main building is of three stories. The three chief rooms, one 

 above the other, are on the left of the handsome entrance door- 

 way, and overlook the grounds of Corpus Christi College. To 

 the right of the doorway are ollices, small class-rooms, and 

 rooms for special researches. The electrical laboratory is on 



NO. I 28 I, VOL. 50] 



the ground-floor ; above it is the drawing school, excellently 

 lighted by large western windows ; and at the top is the 

 mechanical museum, lighted by dormer windows and a cupola. 

 Behind, the fine old schoolroom has been altered by raising 

 its floor, but the beautiful oaken-roof of sixteenth-century work 

 has been preserved, and the room gains rather than loses by the 

 slight change in its proportions. Here is the chief mechanical 

 laboratory, and it is furnished with all needful apparatus for 

 work on the strength of materials, mechanism, and applied 

 mechanics. Beyond, in the old schoolyard an admirable steam 

 and dynamo laboratory has been erected from Prof. Ewing's 

 designs. Here are several types of experimental steam-engines, 

 dynamos, and motors, and in another compartment the boilers 

 and other heavy appliances. The Uboratories are on one 

 side contiguous to the Chemical Laboratory, and when some 

 day the necessary extension of the Cavendish Laboratory 

 takes place, they will also abut on the Physical department The 

 cost of the whole has been some ;/^6ooo, of which about 

 pf 5000 was contributed by friends of the University who desired 

 to see engineering science properly established and equipped in 

 Cambridge. 



The Vice Chancellor presided at the ceremony, and in a 

 happy speech alluded to the doubts at first entertained by many 

 worthy Cambridge men as to the wisdom of admitting purely 

 professional studies among those fostered by the University. 

 In medicine, however, in law, and lately in agriculture, the 

 claims of applied and practical knowledge had been recognised, 

 and the recognition had been amply vindicated. It was due to 

 the enterprise and ability of Prof. Ewing that engineering had 

 now overcome all opposition to its admission to rank as a 

 scientific profession, the preliminary training for which might 

 fitly be carried on within the academic precincts. Lord Kelvin, 

 in declaring the Laboratory open, spoke of the direct evolutional 

 connection between the theoretical mechanics and pure mathe- 

 matics of his day at Cambridge, and the establishment of a 

 department in which their principles found application and verifi- 

 cation. The Laboratory was excellently furnished so far as it went, 

 but £io,coo might well be spent, in the interest of the University 

 as well as of engineering science, in extending and completing 

 it. Prof, Kennedy spoke of the place of such laboratories in 

 the training of the engineer. Engineering was taking its 

 due rank as a liberal profession, and from Cambridge, the centre 

 of mathematical and physical inquiry, future engineers would 

 go out fitted for acquiring with sureness and rapidity the practical 

 details of their work. Sir p'rederick Bramwell told stories of 

 his early experiences. Prof. Jebb, M.P., and Prof. Ewing, 

 who was very warmly received, gave thanks to all who had 

 wrought with the Engineering Laboratory Syndicate to bring 

 about the result they were celebrating. 'The donors, past and 

 future, the architect, builders, demonstrators and workmen 

 received their meed of acknowledgment. After the ceremony a 

 reception was held by Prof, and Mrs. Ewing, and nearly 800 of 

 the members of the University and ladies inspected the rooms. 

 The students acted as guides and demonstrators, and at the 

 close it was on all hands acknowledged that the occasion h.ad 

 been one of the most successful of University functions in recent 

 years. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



'T'HOUGH articles on scientific subjects are sprinkled through 

 this iKonth's magazines, they contain little that is new or 

 suggestive. In the Quarterly Rei'u-.v {ti o. 356) two interesting 

 articles appear, one on " Shakespeare's Birds and Insects," and 

 another on " Ocean Meadows." Much has been written con- 

 cerning Shakespeare's natural history, but the conclusion to 

 which an examination of the poet's writings inevitably leads is 

 that he was not an observant student of animal and plant 

 life. The Quarterly reviewer criticises Shakespeare's know- 

 ledge of these matters, pointing out that Chaucer wrote 

 of what he saw and heard in the animal life about him with 

 a sense of personal delight that convinces the reader of his 

 familiarity with animate nature. So too with Spenser, and with 

 lien Jonson. But, ^ays the reviewer, Shakespeare resembles 

 neither of these. "He borrows from Gower and Chaucer and 

 Spenser ; from Drayton and Du Bartas and Lyie and William 

 Browne ; from Pliny, Ovid, Viigil, and the Bible ; borrows, in fact, 

 everywhere he can, but with a symmetry that nukes his natural 

 history harmonious as a whole, and a judgment that keeps it 

 always moderate and passable." This indictment is supported by 



