January 7, 1897 | 
NATURE 
2a 
SEVERAL Bibliographies, lately received, show that serious and 
increased attention is being given to the organisation of scientific 
literature. One admirable and very useful work of this kind is 
a ‘‘ Catalogue des Bibliographies Géologiques,”’ prepared under 
the direction of M. Emm. de Margerie, Secretary of the 
Commission Internationale de Bibliographie Géologique, in 
conformity with a vote taken during the International Congress 
at Washington in 1891. The volume is chiefly made up of 
descriptive lists of publications arranged according to regions, 
those in each region being in turn classified according to 
subjects and authors. The contents fill 732 pages. The work 
is primarily intended for distribution among members of the 
Geological Congress ; so onlya few copies are for sale, these 
being obtainable from either Messrs. Dulau or Messrs. 
Friedlander. As expressed by the title, it is not a bibliography 
of geology, but a bibliography of geological bibliographies, 
using this latter designation in its widest sense. The volume 
may thus be regarded as the key to geological literature, and 
it will doubtless prove of great service as the means by which 
geologists will be able to unlock their stores of knowledge.— 
The second volume of the ‘‘ Bibliotheca Geographica,” prepared by 
Herr Otto Baschin, and issued by the Gesellschaft ftir Erdkunde 
zu Berlin, has also come to hand. The-plan of the work, which 
refers to the geographical publications of the year 1893, is the 
same as that of the first volume, except for a few minor 
changes in the system of classification ; but while the previous 
volume contained 13,800 entries for the years 1891 and 1892, 
the present has over 10,000 for 1893 alone. Herr Baschin 
invites the authors of geographical papers published in journals, 
and in Transactions not restricted to that branch of science, to 
forward full titles and references to him at ‘*Schinkelplatz 6, 
Berlin, W.”—A répertoire of physiological works published in 
1895, has been prepared by Prof. Ch. Richet. In this 
**Bibliographia Physiologica’ (Paris: Felix Alcan) the 
publications are classified according to Dewey’s decimal 
system, and Prof. Richet urges authors to give their papers 
numbers based upon this plan. It is proposed to publish very 
shortly similar bibliographies of physiology for 1893 and 1894. 
The first part of the bibliography for 1896 was received a few 
days ago. Authors are requested to send copies of memoirs on 
physiological subjects to Prof. Ch. Richet, Faculté de 
médecine de Paris, and so assist to make his catalogues as 
complete as possible. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a West African Love Bird (Agapornis pul- 
Zarza) from West Africa, presented by Miss E. M. Tuely ; eight 
Grooved Tortoises (Zestudo calcarata) from South Africa, a 
Bearded Lizard (Amphibolurus barbatus), seven —— Lizards 
(Amphibolurus, sp. inc.), two Great Cyclodus (7tlzgua gigas), 
six Lesueur’s Water Lizards (Physignathus lesueurz), a Death 
Adder (Acanthopis antarcticus), a Purplish Death Adder 
(Pseudechis porphyriacus), a Short Death Adder (Brachyaspis 
curta), three Brown Death Adders (Déementa textzlis) from 
Australia, deposited. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
Tue Torat Sorar EciipseE or AuGust 9, 1896.—M. 
Deslandres, who was commissioned by the Bureau des Longitudes 
to proceed to Japan and make observations of the total solar 
eclipse visible there on August 9 last year, gives in La Mature 
for December 26 a short account of the expedition in general 
and a brief description of the results obtained. The station 
decided upon was the small port known as Yesashi, on the 
northern side of the island of Yézo, where the Japanese party 
under Prof. Terao and the American expedition were eventually 
located. During their stay of six weeks there were only eight 
fine days, so that the previous meteorological reports, which indi- 
cated the bad climatic conditions of the island at this season, 
were entirely corroborated. As we all know, the sky was 
_NO. I419, VOL. 55] 
cloudy during the time of totality, but the French party was 
more fortunate than the Norwegian observers, for their clouds 
were evidently not so dense as those which obscured the sun at 
Vads6 and Kid. M. Deslandres, who was directing the ob- 
servers under him, saw at a glance that it was useless to proceed 
in the programme previously arranged for under fine weather 
conditions. He therefore gave instructions that in the different 
instruments a single sensitive plate should be exposed for the 
entire duration of totality. Of the plates exposed, six showed 
the corona ‘‘plus ou moins fort,” while on the remainder 
nothing was seen after development. The negatives indicated 
dim extensions in the north-west, north-east, and south-west 
directions, but practically only the general distribution of the 
coronal light was shown. The images of Venus and Jupiter 
were also found recorded on two of the negatives. The eclipse 
of 1896, as M. Deslandres says, confirms the following law, 
indicated already to a certain extent in previous eclipses, 
namely, that the periodical variations of the spots which are 
followed by the prominences extend to the corona, and therefore 
also to the entire solar atmosphere. 
THE MELBOURNE OBSERVATORY.—The thirtieth report 
(May 1895—-June 1896) of the Board of Visitors to the 
Melbourne Observatory, shows that since the large reduction 
of the staff which has taken place during the last two or three 
years, the work of the observatory has had to be necessarily 
limited. Mr. Baracchi, who is the acting astronomer, has 
nevertheless been able to cope with the existing circumstances 
and carry on, at any rate, the most important work and supply 
the local requirements for meteorological statistics and other 
scientific matters. Reference is also made in this report to the 
existence of a large amount of valuable work which is yet un- 
published. Besides over thirty years’ records in terrestrial 
magnetism and valuable investigations bearing on the climate 
of the colony, there is the important work of measurement of 
the photographic plates of southern zone stars, which is the 
Melbourne portion of the great international undertaking of the 
photographic chart of the heavens. There seems also to bea 
great mass of material unpublished concerning the work done 
with the great reflector; this consists, as we are told, of 
finished drawings of nebulz, sketches, notes, and micrometric 
measurements ‘‘only a minute portion of which has been 
published.” It is sad to read that ‘‘observations with the 
great telescope and other equatorials must for the present be 
abandoned, and that even if the extra assistance asked for be 
granted, we shall only be able to barely fulfil already accepted 
obligations.” Perhaps some public-spirited person will offer 
financial aid to tide over the present difficulties. 
Mists oN Mars.—A circular from Kiel, dated December 27, 
reports the following information received from M. Flam- 
marion:—‘*M. Flammarion announces mists (brouillards) 
on Mars extending to various distances round the polar cap. 
This whitish zone, less brilliant than the polar snow, extends to 
a great distance from the pole, and finally vanishes. One might 
easily mistake it for an extension of the polar cap itself, and this is 
what has occurred in old observations. M. Antoniadi has made 
some accurate measurements at Juvisy.” 
THE ATMOSPHERIC ABSORPTION OF 
LIGHT. 
T is well known that there are some circumstances, connected 
with photometric observations, calculated to make us 
doubt whether, theoretically or observationally, we have deter- 
mined correctly the amount of light that is extinguished in its 
passage through our atmosphere. Foremost amongst these con- 
siderations may be mentioned the fact, pointed out some time 
since by Prof. Seeliger, that the very accurate and trustworthy 
observations made by Dr. Miiller, at Potsdam, with a view to 
determine this quantity, are not rigorously represented by the 
theoretical expressions derived by Laplace. The deviations may 
not be large in amount, but they exhibit a systematic character 
which is suspicious. In the same connection may be mentioned 
the initial objection, urged by Prof. Langley, that the funda- 
mental expressions used in those investigations are not equally 
applicable to light of all wave-lengths. There are, further, in 
use different numerical values of the coefficient of transmission, 
pointing either to various degrees of transparency in the at- 
mosphere, or to peculiarities in the instruments themselves, or 
the methods employed in the reduction of the observations. 
