442 



NA TURE 



[March 12, 1903 



encouraging. The rooms devoted to research are 

 five in number. That next the lecture theatre, with 

 furnaces and a fume chamber, is the chemical room, 

 and contains in addition the apparatus used by the 

 British Medical Chloroform Committee in its deter- 

 minations. No. 19, with two dark rooms attached, is 

 the general laboratory. This is the largest room on 

 the landing; the centre is used for general purposes 

 and the far end is half-shaded, and serves for galvano- 

 meters with the attendant apparatus. Two complete 

 tables are furnished, one with a dark room for photo- 

 graphy, and both are at present occupied. 



On the opposite side of the long corridor are rooms 

 20A, 20B, and 21. The two former are fitted up for 

 experiments on the circulation. No. 21 is the private 

 room of the lecturer in charge ; it is also used for 

 research in experimental psychology ; another galvano- 

 meter with resistances, &c. , for the lecturer's use 

 stands at one side. Two small rooms are available 

 here, either as dark rooms or for other purposes. 



The total laboratory accommodation for research 

 is arranged for a maximum number of ten workers, 

 it being considered that this was what might be 

 reasonably expected, as quality is infinitely more im- 

 portant in work of this kind than quantity. The pre- 

 sent workers are seven in number. 



Several papers communicated to the Royal Society 

 and other learned bodies testify to the activity of the 

 place, and we shall expect, with some curiosity, a re- 

 port on its first year of work. The University 

 authorised the occupation of the laboratory in 

 February last, and there does not appear to have been 

 much time lost in getting to work. 



PROF. WILLIAM HARKNESS. 



T)Y the lamented death of Prof. Harkness, America 

 ■^ loses one of the most devoted of her scientific 

 workers, and the staff of the Washington Observatory 

 one who has laboured strenuously to bring its reputa- 

 tion to the high level it at present enjoys. It is true 

 that his official connection with that institution has 

 recently ceased, but his abiding interest in its future 

 welfare did not end with his enforced retirement. In 

 the few words of farewell in which he announced his 

 approaching resignation, he still evidenced his interest 

 in the Observatory he had served so long and so faith- 

 fully, and in a spirit of true loyalty to practical astro- 

 nomical science, he indicated the direction in which he 

 considered the equipment deficient and the lines on 

 which further extension should proceed. 



In 1862 we first find his name mentioned as an 

 assistant, working with the mural circle and prime 

 vertical instrument at a time when Prof. Hubbard, 

 whose name recalls another and a different sphere of 

 scientific activity, had the control of those instruments, 

 and determined the direction in which they should be 

 employed. In the following year Prof. Hubbard died, 

 and the new assistant was elected to the professoriate, 

 but remained in charge of the same apparatus. From 

 this time onward, the history of Prof. Harkness is 

 written in the Annals of the Observatory, and in its 

 activity and its development he found ample occupa- 

 tion, as in its increasing reputation and influence he 

 found his reward. There is no need to go over in detail 

 the various works in which he was engaged, whether 

 as an accurate or painstaking observer, or as one 

 singularly capable in the management and arrange- 

 ment of large pieces of laborious, and perhaps un- 

 interesting, work. Let his work on the reduction of 

 the observations of Gilliss' zones, or his perhaps un- 

 thankful task in reducing the observations of the tran- 



NO. 1741, VOL. 67] 



sits of Venus in 1S74 an d 1882 speak for his patience 

 and energy. Just as little need we refer to his various 

 determinations of differences of longitude, or of his par- 

 ticipation in the observations of solar eclipses and their 

 subsequent discussion ; it is sufficient to say that no 

 astronomical inquiry, that occasionally in the course 

 of long years falls to the lot of an observatory assistant 

 of the highest class, passed without his contribution 

 to its success, or his suggestion for its improvement. 

 Finally, we find him occupying the position of astro- 

 nomical director of the Observatory and superintendent 

 of the Nautical Almanac, a twofold task which must 

 have taxed his activity, but it cannot be said that he 

 was found wanting in either capacity. 



Perhaps he will be best remembered, as he is best 

 known, by his work on the " Solar Parallax and its 

 Related Constants," though we should doubt if he 

 would consider it as his best contribution to astro- 

 nomical inquiry. In it he undertook the difficult, 

 perhaps impossible, task, to assign a relative degree 

 of accuracy to observations differing in character, in 

 principle and in design, and to deduce from the multi- 

 farious evidence a precise value of the solar parallax, 

 in which each of the different processes contributes its 

 just share to the final result. But the extent and com- 

 pleteness of the inquiry constitute it a valuable his- 

 torical record. His theoretical writings and his 

 mechanical ethos each call for a word of remark. As 

 evidence of the former, we may refer to his paper on 

 the " Colour Correction of Achromatic Telescopes," 

 and of the latter to the share he took in the transfer of 

 the old observatory to its new site, to his remodelling of 

 instruments, and, in particular, to his invention of the 

 spherometer-calliper, which, we believe, was used 

 with success in the testing of the instruments em- 

 ployed in the transit of Venus expeditions. In him 

 astronomy loses one who has spent himself without 

 stint in her service, and his colleagues, to whom we 

 offer our respectful sympathy, a sincere friend and an 

 able director. VV. E. P. 



NOTES. 

 The council of the British Association has unanimously 

 nominated the Right Hon. Arthur James Balfour, F.R.S., 

 to the office of president for the Cambridge meeting in 1904. 

 It has also been agreed to recommend to the Association 

 the acceptance of the invitation to South Africa for the year 

 1905. 



Major P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S., has been elected a 

 member of the Athenaeum Club under the rule which em- 

 powers the annual election by the committee of nine persons 

 " of distinguished eminence in science, literature, the arts, 

 or for public services." 



The death is announced of M. Gaston Paris, distinguished 

 by his critical contributions to philological science. M. 

 Gaston Paris was a member of the French Academy, and 

 head of the College de France. 



The death is announced of Dr. Henocque, assistant 

 director of the laboratory of biological physics in the College 

 de France. 



The officers elected by the French Physical Society for 

 the current year are as follows : — Vice-president, Prof. 

 D'Arsonval; secretary, M. H. Abraham; vice-secretary, 

 Prof. Jules Lemoine ; treasurer, M. de la Touanne. The 

 president (M. H. Poincar£) announces that the Society has 

 received an anonymous donation of 2000 francs. 



A new series of the Journal des Savants commences with 

 the present year. It will in future be under the control of 



