AUGUST 13, 1914] 
On July 27, at toh. 584m., a fine meteor, brighter 
than first magnitude, was doubly observed by Miss 
Cook at Stowmarket and by Mr. Denning at Bristol. 
Its heights were from 85 to 56 miles from over 
Hailsham to Selsey Bill on the south coast. Its path 
extended over 49 miles at very swift speed. 
On August 7, at toh. 37m., a brilliant Perseid, 
giving a vivid flash and leaving a strealx for ten 
seconds, was seen at Bristol. It shot from 2863°— 
23° to 280°—134°, but no further observations of this 
fine object have yet been received. On the same 
night, at 1oh. tom. to roh. 15m., a ‘“‘mock moon,” 
or Paraselene, was observed at the same altitude as 
the moon, and about 23° east of our satellite. 
This year, moonlight has interfered with the 
character of the Perseid display in its earlier stages, 
but her lustre will not: materially obscure the meteors 
at the period of their expected greatest frequency, on 
August 11 and 12, when a considerable number of 
observers will have been engaged in watching them if 
the weather was suitable. 
A New SATELLITE TO JuPITER?—In the Times of 
August 8, it is stated that ‘‘a telegram has been 
received announcing the discovery of a tiny object 
near Jupiter, which appears to be a new satellite of 
the planet. The discovery was made photographically 
by Mr. Nicholson at the Lick Observatory, Mount 
Hamilton, California. He reports that the new body 
is still fainter than the eighth satellite, which is of 
the seventieth magnitude, and only about forty miles 
in diameter, so that it can only be observed with very 
large instruments.’’ It is further stated that on 
July 21 the new body was 6m. 41s. west of Jupiter, 
and on July 24, 6m. 36s. W. 
STELLAR RaDIAL-VELOCITY OBSERVATIONS.—In 1908 
Prof. Kistner published the results of the radial 
velocities of ninety-nine stars of the spectral types 
F to M, which he determined during the period 1903 
to 1908 with the three-prism spectrograph of the 
30 cm. Bonn refractor. The faintest star then photo- 
graphed in two hours was of the magnitude 5:2. In 
Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4750, he publishes 
the radial velocities of 227 stars of the spectral type 
F to M which he has determined during the period 
1908 to 1913, with the same refractor. In this case a 
new spectrograph was employed in order to continue 
the work to fainter stars. At the conclusion of the 
individual observations he compares his values, where 
possible, with those obtained by Prof. Campbell at 
the Lick Observatory: the values for 151 stars are 
available, and he determines the mean differences of 
the observed radial velocities, Lick minus Bonn, for 
each spectral class. These differences he regards as 
errors of the Bonn observations, taking into account 
the better observing conditions and more efficient in- 
struments available at the Lick Observatory. Mr. 
J. H. Moore publishes in the Lick Observatory 
Bulletin, No. 257, the observations of seventeen stars 
the radial velocities of which vary, and also those of 
two stars which have large and apparent constant 
radial velocities. These stars are AGC7195 and 
w Pavonis of magnitudes 5:2 and 5-1 respectively. 
They belong to the spectral classes G and K, and the 
velocities derived were +184:8 and +184-4 kilometres 
a second respectively. 
THE Sorar Eciipse.—The Times announces that a 
telegram has been received from Major E. H. Hills, 
president of the Royal Astronomical Society, stating 
that he and Prof. A. Fowler, who had intended going 
to Kieff for the purpose of observing the solar eclipse, 
have abandoned their project, and are on their way 
to St. Petersburg. 
N@W2337, VOL. 93) 
NATURE 
623 
SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
HE twelfth annual session of the South African 
Association for the Advancement of Science was 
held in Kimberley, Cape Province, during the week 
commencing Monday, July 6, under the presidency of 
Prof. R. Marloth. There was the usual round of fes- 
tivities and of visits to places of scientific or historic 
interest. The association meets in four sections, but 
in view of the increasing interest of matters pertain- 
ing to South African native races, Section D resolved 
to establish a subsection for African ethnology, educa- 
tion, history, language, and native affairs before next 
year’s meeting in Pretoria is held. 
The papers read numbered between forty and fifty, 
and brief outlines of the four sectional presidential 
addresses and some of the papers contributed by 
members are given below. 
Dr. A. Ogg, professor of physics at Rhodes Univer- 
sity College, Grahamstown, in his presidential address 
to Section A, dealt with some of the ideas in physical 
science which are under discussion at the present 
time in the light of recent research, and sought to 
bring under review some of our fundamental notions 
or principles, having regard to the fact that what 
mathematicians and physicists have long considered 
well established is now being uprooted and replaced by 
non-Newtonian mechanics based on the principle of 
relativity. Shape and mass, in fact, are looked upon 
as functions of velocity. Scientific thought, Prof. Ogg 
described as so plastic nowadays that the most 
cherished tenets of the last generation of men of 
science are being abandoned, and the greatest danger 
is that the meaning of the involved consequences is 
not always realised. As to the true physical meaning 
of the new ideas propounded there is much speculation, 
and many hold such speculations to be beyond the 
true scope of science. Quoting Schuster, in conclu- 
sion, Prof. Ogg said that all preferred being right to 
being wrong, but it is better to be wrong than to be 
neither right nor wrong. 
In Section B the presidential address was given by 
Prof. G. H. Stanley, of the Transvaal School of Mines 
and Technology, whose subject was ‘“‘A Decade of 
Metallurgical Progress on the Witwatersrand.”” The 
greatest advances during the last ten years, he said, 
were in improving methods of carrying out the various 
stages of the extraction processes, the essentials re- 
maining unchanged. Sorting tables, for example, had 
been replaced by travelling belts, which were also 
elevators. Amalgamation is now carried out by flow- 
ing the tube-mill product over stationary plates, shak- 
ing plates having been discarded. Slime is now being 
treated more cheaply than sand; classification had 
greatly improved, and this, together with finer grind- 
ing, ensured that the sand residue after cyaniding 
contained only 0-2 of a dwt. of gold per ton. For slime 
treatment filtering methods were now sometimes 
employed, giving higher gold extraction and increased 
profits. Working costs had been brought as low as 
3s. per ton. : 
In Section C, comprising the biological sciences and 
agriculture, the presidential address of Prof. George 
Potts, of Grey University College, Bloemfontein, dealt 
with rural education. South Africa, except the Rand 
and some coast towns, Dr. Potts pointed out, is essen- 
tially rural, and inland towns depended on the sur- 
rounding pastoral population. Ali grades of education 
should therefore be made adaptable to a rural people. 
The following reforms were advised :—(1) More repre- 
sentation for agriculture and the natural sciences on 
the University Council; (2) encouragement of the study 
of natural science in university colleges; (3) appoint- 
ment of additional school inspectors specially qualified 
