March 9, 1905] 



NA TURE 



449 



We have received from Mr. A. C. Cossor, of Farringdon- 

 road, E.C., an illustrated catalogue of Rontgen ray tubes, 

 electrical instruments and fittings, and small electric lamps 

 for all purposes. The catalogue should be of interest to 

 physicists, medical men and others interested in high 

 vacuum work. 



The fourth part of the second volume of " The Fauna and 

 Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes : 

 being the Account of the Work carried on and of the Col- 

 lections made by an E.\pedition during the years 1899 and 

 1900," edited by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, has been pub- 

 lished by the Cambridge University Press. This part con- 

 tains reports on the Alcyonaria of the Maldives by Prof. 

 S. J. Hickson, F.R.S. ; on marine crustaceans by Major 

 Alcock, F.R.S., and Prof. H. Couti^re ; on hydroids by 

 Mr. L. A. Borradaile ; on Rhynchota by Mr. W. L. Distant ; 

 and notes on parasites by Mr. \. E. Shipley, F.R.S. 



Messrs. Teubner, of Leipzig, have just issued a fifth 

 edition of Schlomilch's " Uebungsbuch zum Studium der 

 hoheren Analysis," part i., of which the first edition appeared 

 in 1868, and a second edition of Dr. \. Fbppl's " Einftihrung 

 in die Maxwell'sche Theorie der Elektrizitat," the first 

 edition of which appeared in 1894. Of these, the former, 

 which in England would be called a " treatise on the cal- 

 culus," has been revised by Prof. E. Xaetsch, of Dresden, 

 and several new paragraphs on transformation of coordinates 

 have been added. The work of editing Dr. Fdppl's treatise 

 has been undertaken by Dr. M. Abraham, who is preparing 

 a second volume dealing with '* theory of electromagnetic 

 radiations." 



OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 Jupiter's Seventh Satellite. — Circular 74 from the Kiel 

 Centralstelle confirms the telegram received last week con- 

 cerning the discovery of a seventh satellite to Jupiter. 



It contains a message from Prof. Campbell in which he 

 states that the object was discovered by Prof. Perrine, using 

 the Crossley reflector. The position previously given, viz. 

 position angle = 62°, distance from Jupiter 21', was that 

 occupied by the satellite on February 25.6 (G.M.T.). The 

 apparent motion was direct, and the orbit is considerably 

 inclined to the ecliptic. This latest satellite has been under 

 observation, with the Crossley reflector, since January 2, 

 but no particulars of the observations, other than those for 

 January 25, are given in the circular. 



I^ONGiTUDE Observations of Points on Mars. — Bulletin 

 No. 14 from the Lowell Observatory contains the results of 

 the longitude determinations of nearly sixty features on the 

 surface of Mars made at Flagstaff during 1903. For each 

 point the times of the several observations and the resulting 

 longitudes are given, and these are followed by the mean 

 value for the longitude and its probable error ; the mean 

 value for the latitude of each point is also given. 



The longitudes were determined by noting the time of 

 transit of each marking across the micrometer thread when 

 the latter was placed parallel to the position angle of the polar 

 axis, as given in Mr. Crommelin's ephemeris, and passing 

 through the polar cap. .As the thread obliterated the mark- 

 ings it became easier in practice to record the time at which 

 the marking and the cap were equidistant from the thread. 



Mr. Lowell has allotted a number to the result of each 

 determination showing the relative weight to be attached 

 to the value obtained. 



Observations of Comets. — The comets 1904 e (Borrelly), 

 1904 d (Giacobini), and 1904 a (Brooks') have been regularly 

 observed, at Lick, by Dr. R. G. .Aitken, and the results are 

 published in No. 69 of the Lick Observatory Bulletins. 



Observations of comet 1904 e were made during the end 

 of December and the beginning of January, and two sets 

 of parabolic elements were computed from the results. 

 Subsequent observations did not confirm these, and conse- 

 quently Dr. .Aitken computed elliptic elements from his 



NO. 1845, VOL. 71] 



observations of December 31, 1904, January 17 and 27, 1905. 

 When the observational values were compared with the places 

 calculated from these elements, the agreement was found 

 to be satisfactory, and it seems probable that the comet 

 is moving in an elliptical orbit with a period of about 

 7.3 years. An ephemeris based upon these elements and 

 extending to March 31 is given, and shows that on March 11 

 the comet will be only 0.27 as bright as at the time of 

 discovery, when it was variously estimated as being of the 

 tenth or eleventh magnitude. 



Comet 1904 d was observed on January 28, and the ob- 

 servation showed that the orbit published in Bulletin No. 67 

 needs very little correction. From the comet's appearance 

 on that date it is evident that this object will soon be beyond 

 the reach cf all but the most powerful telescopes. .\n 

 ephemeris extending to April 3 is given. 



Observations of comet 1904 a were made with the 12-inch 

 refractor by Messrs. Maddrill and Aitken during the period 

 June 2i-September 4, 1904, and the results are given in the 

 same circular. A footnote by Dr. Aitken states that the 

 comet was still visible in the 12-inch telescope on January 

 26, and an observation made on that date showed that Prof. 

 Nijland's ephemeris is very nearly exact. 



The Government Observatory .\t 'Victoria. — 'VVe have 

 received the annual reports of the board of visitors and the 

 director of the Victoria (Australia) Observatory for the years 

 ending March 31, 1903, and 1904. 



The reports show that the routine work connected with 

 the meridian observations, the time service, the meteor- 

 ological, magnetic, and seismological observations, and 

 instrument testing was carried out as usual. 



On the later date the taking of the catalogue plates for 

 the astrographic chart, to the number of 1149, had been 

 completed, whilst satisfactory progress had also been made 

 with the other sections of the work. The measurement of 

 both the Sydney and the Melbourne plates is being earned 

 out at Melbourne, and on March 31, 1904, 239 Sydney plates 

 containing 137,812 stars, and 522 Melbourne plates contain- 

 in<' i?! 343 stars, had been completely measured. A new 

 measuring machine designed by Mr. H. C. Russell was 

 finished, and its fitness was being investigated when the 

 report was issued. 



The director, Mr. P. Baracchi, states that the work of 

 measuring the' magnetograph curves and reducing all the 

 magnetic observations made since 1868 is progressing satis- 

 factorily, and that he hopes the results will be published 

 within the next two or three years. 



Observ.ations of Saturn's S.-\tellites.— The results of a 

 series of observations of the relative positions of the seven 

 inner satellites of Saturn are published in Bulletin No, 68 

 of the Lick Observatory. The observations were made by 

 Prof Hussey with the 36-inch refractor between August 3 

 and December 2, 1904, and in each case the position angle 

 and distance of the satellite in regard to one of the other 

 satellites are given. 



Bright Meteors.— Mr. R. L. Jones, writing from 3 King's 

 Bench Walk, Temple, B.C., refers to three bright meteors 

 observed on the nights of February 27 and 28 All the three 

 appear to have started from the constellation Monoceros, and 

 to have tracked thence in a north-westerly direction. A 

 brilliant meteor was also seen at 12.10 a.m. on March i, its 

 brightness far exceeding that of Venus. 



THE MAGNETIC SURVEY OF THE UNITED 



STATES. 



THE report for the year ending June 30, 1904, on the 

 magnetic survey of the United States and its out- 

 lying territories has' lately been issued by the authorities 

 of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and contains a long list 

 of field observations of the magnetic elements made with 

 the usual completeness, supported by results obtained in 

 five fixed observatories. Two of the latter are at Porto 

 Rico and Honolulu respectively. 



The new feature in the present report is that the survey 

 has been extended to the neighbouring seas both on the 

 .Atlantic and Pacific sides of North America, and it records 

 the successful observation at sea of thirty-four values of 



