208 



NATURE 



{June 28, 1883 



from the shoulder, even in the variety of drawing called writing ; 

 and gives a wonderful list of artistic effects which pupils who 

 have had only short instruction in these arts are competent to 

 produce. Education of this sort is valuable as simply affording 

 healthy occupation of body and mind to some classes ; it opens 

 the eyes of the mind, which will tend to make work popular 

 instead of idleness. He teaches that nothing made by machinery 

 can be artistic ; physical comforts may be supplied by it, but 

 works of taste and refinement must be hand-made, and among 

 the poorer classes should be the produce of home art, like the 

 carved oak of Ann Hathaway's cottage. Mr. Leland was one 

 of the first to point out that the decay of the apprentice system 

 must soon necessitate industrial education, and he has prepared 

 a series of cheap art-work manuals on decorative design, ceramic 

 or porcelain painting, tapestry or dye-painting, outline and 

 filled-in embroidery, decorative oil-painting, wood-carving, re- 

 pousse' ox sheet-brass work, leather work, papier mache, modelling 

 in clay, with underglaze faience decoration, and stencilling. — 

 No. 5 of the "Circulars" is on the subject of Maternal 

 Schools in France, which answer to our Infant Schools. The 

 value of them as laying the foundations of education is urged by 

 the Commissioners. Excellent suggestions for object lessens, 

 whose subjects are supplied by the season of the year, and also 

 for the arrangement of school buildings are given. The result of 

 s-uch schools should be a slight training of the senses by object- 

 lessons ; the beginnings of habits and dispositions favourable to 

 future education ; a taste for gymnastics, for singing, and for 

 drawing ; an eagerness to listen, observe, question, and answer; 

 the power of attention ; a generally quickened intelligence, and 

 n mind open to receive good moral influences. In other words, 

 education is a "bringing forth" of the powers of the mind, 

 and not a making it a live cyclopaedia. No. 6 is a full copy, with 

 a few useful notes for comparison, of the English Report of the 

 Royal Commission on Technical Education in France, presented 

 by Mr. Samuelson and his coadjutors in February, 1882. 



With the May number the Journal of Forestry changed 

 I) >th its title and the colour and design of its cover, and it now 

 appears under the simple name of Forestry, It is an acknow- 

 ledged fact that changes of this character are generally inad- 

 visable in a journal of long-established reputation, but under the 

 editorship of Mr. Francis George Heath we have no doubt that 

 Forestry will at least maintain the reputation and circulation it 

 had attained under its old management, if it does not increase 

 them, which indeed it is most likely to do. The May number opens 

 with an editorial note entitled "A May Note," in which the 

 glories of spring and summer in woodland glades and forest are 

 setforth. Then Mr. R. D. Blackmore gives us "A Cuckoo Song.'' 

 Amongst other readable articles nay be mentioned "Lord 

 Somerville ; a forgotten President of Agriculture," by Mr. R.A. 

 Kinglake ; Mr. Boulger's "Beauties of British Trees," and Mr. 

 Guillemard's " Forest Ramble in New South Wales." In the 

 June number the ;ame amount of interest and variety is main- 

 taintd. Mr. Guillemard gives "A Forest Ramble in Norway." 

 The article on " Epping Forest and its Future Management" 

 will however, we have no doubt, be read by most readers, as 

 any one having the slighi est inclination towards any branch of 

 natural his'ory cannot fail to be interested in maintaining the 

 Forest in all its native beauty, and if Forestry is able by its advo- 

 cacy, backed up by the opinions of those who are now taking a 

 lead in the matter, to stem the tide of improvements so-called in 

 Epping Forest, it will have fulfilled a work for which thousands 

 will be thankful. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Crab-eating Raccoon (Proeyon cancri- 

 varus 6 ) from Brazil, presented by Mr. Theo. Walsh ; a Ring- 

 tailed Coati (Nasita ru/a <J ) from Brazil, presented by Mr. R. G. 



Hamilton ; two Common Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaus), 

 British, presented by Mr. S. Mummery ; four Restless Cavies 

 (Carta caprera) from Brazil, presented by Mr. E. H. Draper; a 

 Ring-necked Parrakeet (Palaornis torquatus) from India, pre- 

 sented by Mr. W. Quail ; two Common Kingfishers (Alcedo 

 isptda), British, presented by Mr. T. E. Gunn ; three Common 

 Vipers (Vipera bents), British, presented by Mr. C. Taylor; two 

 Common Snakes (Tropidortotus natrix), European, presented by 

 Lord Arthur Russell, F.Z. S. ; a Puma (Felts concolor 9) from 

 South America, a Gofhn's Cockatoo (Cacatua goffini) from 

 Queensland, deposited ; two West African Love Birds (Ago- 

 pornis pullaria) from West Africa, an Indian Python (Python 

 molurits) from India, purchased ; two Vulpine Phalangers 

 (Phatangista vulpina), eight Gold Pheasants (Thaumalca picla), 

 six Prairie Grouse (Tetrao cupido), a Herring Gull (Lartts argen- 

 tatus), bred in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Next Total Solar Eclipse. — In Nature, vol. xiv. 

 p. 450, we gave some results of an approximate calculation of 

 the total eclipse of the sun on September 8-9, 1885, wherein the 

 central line traverses New Zealand, but does not encounter land 

 in any other part of its course. The correction required to the 

 moon's place there employed is sufficiently important to render a 

 new calculation of interest, and we shall accordingly present here 

 some of the circumstances of the eclipse, resulting from the 

 substitution of the lunar places in the Nauiieal Almanac, which 

 are founded upon Hansen's Tables, with Prof. Newcomb's cor- 

 rections. The elements of the eclipse as given in the ephemeris 

 are employed, excepting that in place of Hansen's semidiameter 

 of the moon, we infer the semidiameter from the ratio, o 2725 of 

 the horizontal parallax. 



At a point in longbude llh. 40m. OS. E. of Greenwich, with 

 40 49' '4 south latitude (nearly on the central line) the total 

 eclipse begins, September 9, at 7h. 44m. 9s. local mean time, 

 and continues Im. 51s., and this will be about the longest dura- 

 tion of totality available for observation upon land in this 

 eclipse. For any place near the above point, the Green- 

 wich mean times of beginning and ending of totality may be 

 obtained from the following formulae : — 



Cos. iu — — it6'3io8 — [3 "10863] sin. / + fi '64777] cos. /cos. (L - 161* if' '5) 

 /■=8h. 58m. ai'is ""p [1*74578] sin. w - [3*37987] sin. / 



— [3 85619] cos. / cos. (L — 145* 49"6). 



Here L is the longitude from Greenwich, reckoned positive, 

 and / the geocentric latitude, which may be deduced from Mr. 

 Stone's valuable table in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society for January last, a table it might have been 

 worth while to publish separately. The quantities in square 

 brackets are logarithms. 



As one result of the introduction of the more accurate place 

 of the moon, it is found that the central line approaches much 

 nearer to Wellington ; a direct calculation for that place shows 

 that the total eclipse begins there at 7I1. 44m. 23s. a.m., and 

 ends at 7h. 45m. 46s. local mean time, thus continuing im. 23s., 

 and the same figures are given by the above equations. At 

 Nelson totality commences at 7I1. 37m. l6=. a.m. local mean 

 time, and continues im. 3s. 



It may be noted that during the totality of this eclipse the 

 planet Jupiter will be situated only 45' from the sun's limb, on 

 an angle of about 26° with the circle of declination at his 

 centre. 



The Annular Solar Eclipse of October 31, 1883. — 

 In May last we had a case where the track of a total eclipse of 

 the sun was almost w holly an ocean-track, and where it was 

 consequently necessary to send expeditions to the Mid-Pacific, 

 to obtain observations. The annular eclipse in October next is 

 similarly circumstanced ; excepting p ssibly one or two mere 

 rocks in the Pacific, it will not be observable on land, elsewhere 

 than on the island of Niphon, Japan. If we calculate from the 

 Nautical Almanac elements for longitude 9h. 20m. 48s. E. and 

 latitude 38° n' N., we find the annular phase commences at 

 7h. 28m. 2s. a.m., and ends at 7h. 35m. 23s., a duration of 7m. 

 21s., and the sun will be at an altitude of about 12°. At the 

 capital, Tokio, the eclipse will not be annular; the greatest 

 phase is at 7h. 28m. a.m., magnitude o'88 (the sun's diameter 

 being taken as unity). 



