428 
NALTORE 
[ FEBRUARY 28, 1907 
results to an extent incommensurable with the extra labour 
involved. 
The 206 areas would include 400 square degrees of the 
sky, and this full scheme would entail the following 
labours :—The determination of the rough positions and 
sharply defined photographic magnitudes of some 200,000 
stars; visual magnitudes for the same 200,000 ; the Sees 
mination of the accurate proper motions, to within o! 
in each coordinate, of some twenty thousand of these 
objects. For the same twenty thousand, parallaxes are 
necessary, and for as many of them as is possible the 
class of spectrum and the radial velocities must be deter- 
mined. Finally, the determination of the total amount of 
light received from different parts of the sky would com- 
plete a set of homogeneous data from which undreamt-of 
additions to our knowledge of the sidereal universe might 
accrue. 
In addition to this ‘*‘ systematic plan,’’ Prof. Kapteyn, 
after much correspondence and discussion with a number 
of eminent astronomers, has decided on a scheme for the 
“ 
elucidation of ‘‘ special areas.’’ This scheme includes 
forty-six areas, such as those in the Milky Way which 
show intense variations of star-density, the rifts and 
branches of the Milky Way, and extra-galactic areas where 
nebulz or strong contrasts in star-density are preponderant. 
Many interesting devices to further the plan are dis- 
cussed by Prof. Kapteyn, e.g. the determination of colour, 
and hence the probable spectrum class, from the com- 
parison of the photographic and visual magnitudes in the 
cases where the stars are so faint that these features cannot 
be determined by the usual methods; again, the deter- 
mination of proper motions and parallaxes from plates 
exposed a second time after an interval of some years. 
Possibly Prof. Wolf’s stereo-comparator method of deter- 
mining proper motions would materially curtail the interval 
necessary between the two exposures. 
Considering a few details, it is seen that the scheme 
includes :—(1) 9710 exposures on 2620 plates, in addition 
to the plates for the determination of the radial velocities 
of three or four standards in each area. (It is intended 
that the bulk of the radial velocities shall, if possible, be 
determined by one of the wholesale prismatic-camera 
methods such as those proposed by Herr Orbinsky, Prof. 
E. C. Pickering, and Prof. Comstock.) (2) Visual phere 
ations of 3024 standard magnitudes, the determination of 
the magnitudes and positions of 200,000 stars, and the 
meridian observations of some 2600 stars for proper- 
motion standards. (3) The measuring of nearly 13 million 
images. 
Prof. Kapteyn, with all his experience, is quite ready, 
should the essential funds be forthcoming, to undertake a 
greater part of the measuring work, and could, at present, 
undertake to perform half his proposed share. A num- 
ber of other well-known astronomers, as may be seen 
from the letters which he publishes at the end of his 
brochure, are definitely and enthusiastically in favour of 
the project, and are willing to grant what aid is in their 
power, so that the scheme cannot be looked upon as 
immature or as entailing insuperable difficulties. 
Accepting for the moment that the plan, in its entirety, 
is feasible, the possibilities attached to the discussion of 
the results are obviously infinite. In some fifty or a 
hundred years, the ‘‘ Carte du Ciel,’’ if repeated, will 
probably afford a series of definitive proper motions which 
can then be discussed from the sidereal structure stand- 
point, but of the spectral layers in the visible universe it 
would leave us in almost total ignorance. On the other 
hand, the results from Prof. Kapteyn’s plan would prob- 
ably afford all the information attainable by human effort 
of the sidereal strata, or groups, or drifts, or a thousand 
and one other features. 
As an earnest of what might accrue from such a dis- 
cussion, one may cite the remarkable result recently derived 
by Mr. Eddington from the analysis of the relatively meagre 
data of the Greenwich-Groombridge proper motions (see 
Nature, No. 1938, p. 182, December 20, 1906), a result 
first derived, in a qualitative form, by Prof. Kapteyn him- 
self from a discussion of the Bradley proper motions. 
W. E. Rotston. 
NO. 1048, VOL. 75] 
| White; 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Oxrorp.—At a meeting of members of convocation in 
Magdalen College on February 23, which had _ been 
summoned by the Vice-Chancellor to consider the election 
of a Chancellor of the University, there seemed to be a 
majority in favour of the nomination of Lord Curzon. 
The published accounts of the common university fund 
for 1906 show that the income for that year was 6937l., 
and the expenditure 6395/., of which sum 3577l. was 
devoted to scientific objects. ; 
CaMBRIDGE.—The Smith’s prizes have been awarded for 
the following essays :—‘* Fluorescence,’’ G. R. Blanco- 
‘The Systematic Motions of the Stars,” A. S. 
Eddington ; ‘“The Bending of Waves Round a Large 
Opaque Sphere and some Associated Problems,’’ J. W. 
Nicholson; ‘‘ The Variation of the Absorption Bands in 
the Spectrum of a Crystal under the Action of a Magnetic 
Field,’ W. M. Page. The names are arranged in alpha- 
betical order. The essay on ‘‘Some Problems on the 
Diffraction of Electric Waves,’’ by H. J. Priestley, is 
awarded honourable mention. 
H. R. Hassé has been elected to the Isaac Newton 
studentship, tenable from April 15, 1907, to April 15, 1910. 
‘The student will carry on a course of research in physical 
| optics. 
W. Spens has been elected fellow at Corpus Christi 
College, and has also been appointed director of natural 
science studies in the college. 
Dr. Harmer, the superintendent of the Museum of 
Zoology, announces the receipt of a cast of a skeleton of 
Diprotodon australis, presented by Dr. E. C. Stirling, 
F.R.S., director of the South Australian Museum at 
Adelaide. Dr. Harmer also records the gift of a valuable 
consignment of some nine skeletons and forty skulls and 
skins of mammals, mostly antelopes, from tropical Africa, 
presented by Mr. C. B. C. Storey, of Clare College. 
The Cavendish Laboratory Extension Syndicate has 
proposed plans for the new laboratory running along Free 
School Land, which will cost between 7oool. and 8300l. 
‘Towards defraying the cost of this building there is avail- 
able Lord Rayleigh’s gift of 5000l. out of the Nobel prize, 
and Prof. Thomson is able to find 2000l. from the labor- 
atory funds. 
The recommendation of the general board of studies 
that a university lecturer in pathology be appointed, in 
connection with the special board for medicine, with an 
annual stipend of rool. payable out of the common uni- 
versity fund, will be brought before the Senate on 
March 9. 
It is proposed to nominate Prof. A. Thomson to be a 
member of the board of electors to the professorship of 
anatomy; Sir E. C. Perry, a member of the board of 
electors to the Downing professorship of medicine; Prof. 
Graham Kerr, an elector to the professorship of zoology ; 
Dr. Anderson, an elector to the chair of physiology; Prof. 
Middleton, an elector to the Drapers’ professorship of 
agriculture; and Prof. Langley, to that of botany. 
The local examinations and lectures syndicate has 
appointed E. A. Parkyn and D. H. S. Cranage as delegates 
at the International Congress on School Hygiene to be 
held in London in August. 
Mr. J. J. Lister has been appointed a manager of the 
Balfour fund until June, 1909, in succession to the late 
Sir Michael Foster. 
Mr. F. A. Potts has been nominated to occupy the 
University table at the laboratory of the Marine Biological 
Association at Plymouth for one month during the ensuing 
Easter vacation. 
Tue Mercers’ Company has made a donation of fifty 
guineas, and the Grocers’ Company one of ten guineas, to 
the South-Eastern Agricultural College. 
Ar the South-Western Polytechnic on March 15 the Lord 
Alverstone, G.C.M.G., Lord Chief Justice of England, 
will present prizes and certificates to students of evening 
classes and of the day college. 
