December 22, 1904] 



NA TURE 



185 



Two new volumes have been added to Ostwald's series 

 of scientific classics, published by Mr. W. Engelmann, 

 Leipzig (London : Williams and Norgate), bringing the 

 number of reprints and translations in the collection up to 

 145. One of the volumes, is a translation, by Herr F. 

 Plehn, of Kepler's " Dioptrice," with an introduction, 

 notes, and sketch of Kepler's life and work. The second 

 volume (No. 145) contains reprints of two papers by Kekul6, 

 ■edited with notes by Herr A. Ladenburg ; the papers are : — 

 " Uber die Constitution und die Metamorphosen der 

 chemischen Verbindungen und iiber die chemische Natur 

 ■des Kohlenstoffs " and " Untersuchungen iiber aromatische 

 Verbindungen. " 



The annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the year ending June 30, 1903, has been received. As usual, 

 the general appendi.K makes up the greater part of the 

 volume. The e.Kcellent and varied selection of beautifully 

 illustrated papers by men of science of all nationalities, con- 

 stituting the general appendix, provides a trustworthy in- 

 dication of the extent and nature of the progress in science 

 during the twelve months with which the report deals. It 

 is impossible here to give even the titles of the fifty-three 

 papers included. Some of the papers have been reprinted 

 from Nature and other periodicals, some are addresses de- 

 livered before scientific bodies, and a few are new 

 contributions. In addition to these works there are 

 a number of translations of papers originally published in 

 other languages. The first place is given to a reprint of 

 the general description of the moon included l)y Prof. N. S. 

 Shaler in the introductory chapter of his memoir on " A 

 Comparison of the Features of the Earth and the Moon." 

 This paper is illustrated by ten magnificent plates. The 

 work done on radium and radio-activity is chronicled in 

 papers by M. E. Curie, Prof. J. J. Thomson, Sir William 

 Ramsay, Mr. Soddy, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes 

 — the names being mentioned in the order in which the 

 papers are printed. Geographical research is represented 

 by contributions by Captain E. W. Creak, Mr. Alfred H. 

 Brooks, Commander Peary, Sir Clements R. Markham, 

 Dr. Otto Nordenskjold, M. G. Ts. Tsybikoff, and others. 

 The articles on geographical and zoological subjects are 

 illustrated very profusely, and the volume wall malce a 

 valuable addition to reference libraries fortunate enough to 

 secure copies of it. 



OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Discovery of a New Comet (1904 d). — A telegram from 

 the Kiel Centralstelle announces that a new comet was dis- 

 covered by M. Giacobini at Nice on December 17-11. Its 

 position at lyh. 4i-3m. (M.T. Nice) was 



R.A. = i6h. 14m. 40s., dec. = +27° 28', 

 and its movement was in a north-easterly direction. 



This position is situated on the western boundary of the 

 constellation Hercules, about 44m. east of a Coronte, which 

 has appro.\imateIy the same declination (27° 2'), and is 

 favourably situated for observation during the three or four 

 hours preceding dawn. 



A second telegram from Kiel informs us that the comet 

 was again observed at Nice on December i.S. Its position 

 at i6h. 44m. (M.T. Nice) was as follows : — 



R.A. = i6h. 17m. 3-4S., dec. = -1-27° 54' 8". 



Tempel's Comet (1904 c). — ^The following details of M. 

 St. Javelle's re-discovery of Tempel's second comet are given 

 in No. 3984 of the Astronomische Nachrichten : — 



M.T. Nice R.A. (app.) Dec. (app.) 



h. m. s. h. m. s. . , 



Nov. 30 ... 6 7 48 ... 19 36 39-89 ... -24 48 37-3 



Dec. 1 ... S 55 10 ... 19 40 23-58 ... -24 46 17-5 



NO. 1834, VOL. 71] 



The comet was a feeble and ill-defined object as seen in 

 the Nice equatorial of 076 m. aperture, and had the appear- 

 ance of a whitish spot i'^ to 2' o in extent; no nucleus 

 was visible. 



A continued abstract of M. Coniel's daily ephemeris 

 (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3971) is given below : — 



h. 



I (app.) 



i2h. M.T. Paris. 

 «(app.) 



log A 



Dec. 20 ... 20 51 30 ... -22 55 ... 0-31206 ... 0-113 



„ 22 ... 20 58 39 ... -22 36 ... 0-31480 



„ 24 ... 21 5 43 ... -22 17 ... 0-31760 ... o-io8 



„ 26 ... 21 12 44 ... -21 57 ... 032044 



„ 28 ... 21 19 41 ... -21 35 ... 0-32333 ... 0-103 



,, 30 ... 21 26 35 ... -21 13 ... 0-32626 



Jan. I 



21 33 24 



- 20 50 



0-32924 



o-cg 



Encke's Comet (1904 b). — An observation of Encke's 



comet was made by Herr van d Bilt at Utrecht on 



December 8. At 8h.'3m. 46s. (M.T. Utrecht) the position 

 of the comet was 



a (app.) = 2oh. 46m. 2211S., 5 (app. )= -1-5° 12' 29"-5, 



and its magnitude was estimated as 7-5. This observation 

 indicated that a correction of -I-41S,, +1' 2 was necessary to 

 the ephemeris published by Messrs. Kaminsky and Ocoulitsch 

 in Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3981 (Astronomische 

 Nachrichten, No. 3985). 



Observations of Occultations by Planets. — Dr. T. J. J. 

 See, writing to the Astronomische Nachrichten (No. 3984), 

 explains the futilitv of making observations of occultations 

 by planets for the purpose of determining the extent of the 

 planetary atmospheres. He points out that the e.xtent of 

 the irradiation about a planet's disc, at night time, in every 

 case exceeds the probable extent of the planet's atmosphere, 

 so that the star is lost in the irradiation zone before the 

 interposition of the atmosphere between it and the observer. 



Thus observations of this character, made during the 

 hours of darkness when the irradiation affects the observ- 

 ation, can never succeed in determining the amount of re- 

 fraction suffered by the star light in passing through the 

 planet's atmosphere, because the star is always hidden 

 before it reaches even the outer limit of that atmosphere. 



Relative Drift of the Hyades Stars. — In a paper com- 

 municated to the British Astronomical Association Dr. 

 Downing, F.R.S., discusses the resulting values obtained 

 by Herr Weersma, and published in No. 13 of the Groningen 

 .Astronomical Laboratory Publications, in order to determine 

 the relative drift of the sixty-six Hyades stars dealt with 

 by the latter observer. 



The results of the discussion show that these stars may 

 be arranged in three chief groups as regards the amount 

 and direction of their annual motion. The first group con- 

 tains thirty-eight stars, including most of the bright ones 

 except Aldebaran, having a mean motion of o"oq6 per year 

 in the mean direction 106° from north towards east. In the 

 second group Aldebaran and three faint stars are included, 

 and the annual mean motion is as much as o".i6o in the 

 mean direction 160°. In both these groups the magnitudes 

 are in no way related to the amounts of movement, some 

 of the fainter stars, in fact, having a greater apparent 

 motion than the brighter ones in the same group. The 

 values for the third group are o".036 and 254° respectively, 

 and it is reasonably conjectured that this group is at a 

 greater distance from our system than the others (Journal 

 British Astronomical Association, No. i, vol. xv.). 



Design.-vtioxs of the Vari.hble Stars discovered during 

 1904. — In No. 3984 of the .Astronomische Nachrichten the 

 Variable Star Commission of the .Astronomischen Gesell- 

 schaft publish a catalogue of fifty-eight new variables, dis- 

 covered bv various observers during the present year. They 

 give for each star the number by which it will in future be 

 known, the temporary designation which this replaces, its 

 coordinates and the amount of precession in each coordinate, 

 for iQoo, and the magnitude. The catalogue is followed by 

 a detailed account of the discovery, variations, and general 

 characteristics of each variable. 



