JANUARY 31, 1907] 
NATURE 
331 
barometer readings much in excess of the average during 
the whole voyage, and for the greater part of the month. 
As early as January 4, a region of high barometer, with 
readings 30-3 inches, spread in over the Bay of Biscay 
from the Atlantic; this gradually extended eastwards over 
south-western Europe, and on January 12 the region in- 
tensified, readings of 30-7 inches occurring over the Bay 
of Biscay and western France. The anticyclone main- 
tained its ground, and on January 17 and 18 was distinctly 
spreading northwards, the isobar of 30-5 inches embracing 
France, England, Denmark, and the greater part of 
Norway and Sweden. On January 20 the anticyclonic area 
was greatly augmented, apparently by an independent 
region of high barometer spreading down from the extreme 
north of Europe. The highest readings—3o-9 inches—were 
situated over Lapland and Finland, and on January 21 
the highest pressure was in the vicinity of the White 
Sea, the barometer at Archangel reading 31-39 inches. 
On January 22 the anticyclone was central over northern 
Russia, the barometer at Kuopio standing at 31-46 inches. 
The maximum height of the barometer was attained on 
January 23, when at Riga the reading was 31-58 inches, 
and the region of 31 inches and above embraced parts of 
England, Scotland, and Ireland, the barometer at some of 
the stations in the British Islands being higher than any 
previous record. The high barometer area continued to 
travel southwards, and on January 26 the centre was in 
the neighbourhood of Constantinople, but the highest read- 
ing had then decreased to about 31-1 inches. 
The absolutely highest reading of the barometer on 
record is 31-72 inches, which occurred at Irkutsk on 
December 20, 1896, and at Semipalatinsk on December 16, 
1877. The highest in the British Islands is 31-11 inches, at 
Aberdeen on January 31, 1902, and 31-10 inches at Fort 
William on January 9, 1896. The lowest reading on record 
at the surface of the earth, and reduced to sea-level, is 
27-12 inches, at False Point, on the coast of Orissa, on 
September 22, 1885, and the lowest in the British Islands 
27-33 inches, at Ochtertyre on January 26, 1884. 
From about January 20 to January 26 the weather was 
intensely cold over western Europe, and an easterly wind 
was blowing for the most part. The Weekly Weather 
Report issued by the British Meteorological Office shows 
that, for the week ending January 26, the mean tempera- 
ture was 9° F. below the average in the midland, southern, 
and south-western districts of England, and the deficiency 
amounted to 7° F. in several other districts. The mini- 
mum temperatures were as low as 5° F. and 10° F. in 
many parts. 
STAR CATALOGUES.' 
SOME astronomical work is so attractive that it readily 
finds support and imitation. The preparation of star 
catalogues scarcely belongs to that category. Such work 
is dreary and monotonous, and those who devote them- 
selves to it are entitled to the acknowledgment that is 
invariably granted to those who are willing to sacrifice 
brilliancy to utility. There is little scope for the exercise 
of originality. Once the scheme is defined, the stars 
selected, and the needed accuracy attained, there is nothing 
to break the wearisome repetition of a purely mechanical 
process. The work can hardly be said to possess the 
attractiveness of permanence. The observations give the 
position of the stars at a certain epoch, and almost before 
the catalogue is available as a whole, the work of supple- 
menting it has begun. The wayward and lawless proper 
ee Catalogue of 8560 Astrographic Standard Stars between Declina- 
tions —4o° and —52° for the Equinox z900 from Observations made at the 
Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, during the Years 1896-99 under 
the Direction of Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S.” Pp. lix+403 (London ; 
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1906.) 
“Catalogues of Stars for the Equinox 1900 0 from Observations made at 
the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, during the Years 1900-1904 
under the Direction of Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S.” Pp. xiii+123. 
(Edinburgh: Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Neill and Co., Ltd., 
1906.) Price 4s. 6d. 
“ Astrographic Catalogue 1900’0, Oxford Section, Dec. +24° to + 32°. 
From Photographs taken and measured at the University Observatory, 
Oxford, under the Direction of Prof. H. H. Turner,*F.R.S. Vol. i. Pp 
Ixvi+-223. (Edinburgh: Printed ‘for H.M. Stationery Office by Neill and 
Co., Ltd., 1906.) 
NO. 1944, VOL. 75] 
motions of the stars tend to render the coordinates 
obsolete, and this cause alone will necessitate the repeti- 
tion of the work upon which so much labour has been 
bestowed. Yet no work requires more care and _ fore- 
thought, and this will be painfully evident to those who 
read the introductions to the several works, the titles of 
which are quoted below. It will be equally evident to those 
who recall the names of those who have devoted them- 
selves to this work, and who will thus be reminded that 
many astronomers, from Flamsteed to Airy, have been 
content to stake their reputation upon their contributions 
to the cataloguing of star places. It is the opportunity 
for the introduction of greater accuracy that affords the 
necessary compensation. Sir David Gill, than whom few 
can look back upon the accomplishment of a greater mass 
of work, probably views the completion of these catalogues 
with very considerable satisfaction, and regards them as 
rounding a well-filled career. 
The usefulness of a catalogue will be more readily 
appreciated if the star places are required to make 
accessible other material to which it is at present impossible 
to give a final and convenient form. This is the case 
with the first of the catalogues on our list. The 8560 stars 
are not isolated points irregularly distributed over the 
sky, but are generally the brighter stars to be found in 
the zone allotted for observation to the Cape of Good 
Hope Observatory by the Astrographic International Con- 
gress. These stars form the fiducial points to which the 
unknown stars of the photographic plates will be referred. 
The coordinates, determined on one plan, will give great 
uniformity to the resulting photographic catalogue. All 
the observations have been made between 1896-9, and, since 
the plates have been taken approximately within the same 
years, possible errors arising from proper motion are 
effectually eliminated. Moreover, the advantages arising 
from employing stars taken at one epoch and observed on 
one uniform plan are patent. Apparently, in the use of 
facilities for reducing photographs, observers in the southern 
hemisphere were at a disadvantage compared with those 
in the northern, since the latter could immediately bring 
into use the admirably arranged catalogues of the Astro- 
nomische Gesellschaft; but the pains bestowed by Sir 
David Gill upon this piece of work have entirely reversed 
the conditions, and placed the Cape Observatory in the 
most favoured position, for, to a certain extent, he is able 
to select those stars for the reduction of his measures 
which are most suitably arranged upon the plate. The 
northern observers have to accept such stars as have been 
observed; but in forming a new catalogue, one would 
naturally observe those stars which will furnish the best 
data for subsequent reduction. An- ideal scheme would be 
to select for each plate eight stars distributed uniformly 
round the circumference of a circle of about 55’ in 
diameter, the centre of which coincided with the centre 
of the plate, and, in addition, two stars near the centre 
of such plate; but owing to overlapping, whereby the 
four corners of one plate become the centres of four other 
plates, such a scheme does not work out practically, and 
on the average twelve or thirteen stars, somewhat irregu- 
larly situated, will be available for the reduction of each 
plate, and this number may rise to seventeen or eighteen 
stars. 
The individual results on which the catalogue places rest 
have been published in the annual volumes. The details 
here presented enable one to follow the small corrections 
that have been introduced to eliminate systematic errors 
and to secure uniformity throughout. To the ledgers of 
right ascension three terms have been applied, one to 
reduce the right ascension to what it would have been 
if Newcomb’s system had been adopted; a second correc- 
tion, depending on magnitude, is required to reduce the 
R.A. of a particular star to what the observer would 
have recorded if the star had been of the fourth magnitude. 
The necessity of the third correction is not very clear. It 
has been required because of the small number of clock 
stars employed in each zone, ‘‘ and perhaps also because 
of small outstanding errors in the adopted values of 
Level, Collimation, and Azimuth.”’ 
In order to obtain the greatest possible accuracy in the 
declinations, a system of small corrections has been applied 
