40 



NA TURE 



[Nov. 13, 1 < 



thing in photography. It is, in the case of eye-observation, 

 a fact that you could positively have a telescope too big 

 for the eye to use, but any increase that is at present 

 possible in the reflector would only add to its photographic 

 power. 



The optical arrangements of the reflector are so varied 

 that I propose to treat of them in detail for the purpose of 

 indicating the most suitable. A. AlNSLIE COMMON 



NOTES 



The following is the list of officers, &c, to be proposed at the 

 anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, December I, 1884 : — 

 President, Prof. Thomas Henry Huxley, LL.D. Treasurer, 

 John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D. Secretaries : Prof. George Gabriel 

 Stokes, M.A., U.C.L., LL.D., Prof. Michael Foster, M.A., 

 M.D. Foreign Secretary, Prof. Alexander William Williamson, 

 LL.D. Other Members of the Council : Capt. W. de Wive- 

 leslie Abney, R.E., William Henry M. Christie, Astronomer- 

 Royal, Prof. George H. Darwin, M.A., F.R.A.S., Warren De 

 La Rue, M.A., D.C.L., Robert Etheridge, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., 

 Sir Frederick J. O. Evans. K.C.B., Prof. William Henry 

 Flower, LL.D., Prof. George Carey Foster, B.A., Sir Joseph 

 D. Hooker, K.C.S.I., Prof. Henry N. Moseley, M.A., F.L.S., 

 Hugo Miiller, Ph.D., Capt. Andrew Noble, R.A., C. B., 

 Lord Rayleigh, D.C.L., Prof. J. S. Burdon Sanderson, LL.D., 

 Lieut-Gen. R. Strachey, R.E., C.S.I., Prof. J. J. Sylvester, 

 M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. 



Prof. Liversidge, of the Sydney University, sends to the 

 local press a suggestive c miiminication in connection with the 

 recent meeting of the Briti. h Association in Montreal, and the 

 invitation forwarded by the Victorian Premier to visit Melbourne 

 next year. Feeling how insurmountable for the present are the 

 obstacles to such a visit, the writer propo es what appears to be 

 a very wise alternative. Instead of looking forward to a near 

 visit from the Association, he suggests, as a preliminaiy step, a 

 federation of the various scientific societies in Australia, Tas- 

 mania, and New Zealand into an Australasian Association for 

 the Advancement of Science on the lines of the British Associa- 

 tion. A first meeting of the new Association might be held in 

 Sydney on the hundredth anniversary of the colony, which with 

 the combined attractions of an International Exhibition might 

 induce a fair number of scientific visitors from England to take 

 part in the proceedings. After the first meeting gatherings 

 could take place annually, or every two or three years, as migh t 

 be agreed upon by the members, in various parts of Australasia. 

 The writer concludes with the remark, which few will gainsay, 

 that such an Association would tend greatly to advance the 

 sciences in the colonies, and in many ways materially favour 

 their progress elsewhere. 



According to Science, Prof. E. S. Holden, Director of the 

 Washburn Observatory of the University of Wisconsin, has lately 

 collected all the data available for the discussion of the law of 

 distribution of the fixed stars, so far as this is determinable from 

 the method of star-gauging. The data were c dlected from a com. 

 parison with the results of a series of star-gauges in progress with 

 the 15-inch equatorial of the Washburn Ob ervatory ; and they in- 

 cluded (1) the 6S.3 previously published gauges of Sir W. Herschel, 

 with the places brought down from 1690 to i860; (2) the 405 

 unpublished gauges of Sir W. Herschel, extracted from his 

 observing-books, and generously placed at Prof. Holden's dis- 

 posal by Lieut. -Col. John Herschel (these also reduced to i860) ; 

 (3) 500 counts of stars from the published charts of Dr. C. H. F. 

 Peters ; (4) 983 counts of star, from the unpublished charts of 

 Dr. Peters, from the Paris charts as revised by him, and from 

 the unpublished ecliptic charts of Prof. Watson ; (5) 856 counts 

 of stars from the unpublished and published charts of Dr. J. 



Palisa. These, with the data from Sir J. Herschel's6o5 southern 

 gauges, and Celoria's Durchm listening of the stars between 0° 

 and + 6", complete the very valuable collection of data which 

 Prof. Holden has brought together in convenient tabular form, 

 and from which one of his most important c inclusions is, that 

 the method of star-gauging must be applied to the study of 

 comparatively small regions, and that the results from these are 

 then to be combined into larger groups. Prof. Holden hopes 

 that these tables may serve the valuable end of finally disposing 

 of the fundamental assumption that the stars are equally scattered 

 in space, and may bring about the study of their distribution on 

 a more general basis. 



The Boston Society of Natural History have adopted a policy 

 with regard to their library which, if generally followed, would 

 make scientific libraries more generally useful. The Society 

 send such books as can be replaced to students in any part of the 

 country. The receivers of course pay the cost of carriage, and, 

 in addition, strangers are required to deposit a sum equal to 

 twice the market-value of the books so lent, as a guarantee 

 against loss. 



A bureau of scientific information has been formed in Phila- 

 delphia, composed of officers and members of the Academy of 

 Science, whose duty shall be the imparting, through correspond- 

 ence, of precise and definite information upon the different 

 departments of science. The organisation is purely voluntary. 

 The Secretary is Prof. Angelo Heilprin, of the Academy of 

 Science. 



The new buildings of the Central School at Paris were 

 opened last week by M. Rouvier, the new Minister of Com- 

 merce and Agriculture. A number of speeches were delivered 

 on the occasion, from which we learn that as many as 5000 

 French engineers owe their training to this institution since its 

 foundation fifty years ago by the late M. Dumas and others. 

 The object contemplated by the erection of this institution was 

 to check the predominatingly theoretical character of the in- 

 struction imparted by the Government schools and to remodel 

 the engineering education in France according to the English 

 standard. About ten years ago the establishment was purchased 

 by the Government, but the teachers have held as closely as 

 possible to the lines on which its teaching was originally laid 

 down. 



Mr. Stanford, of Charing Cross, has issued a reprint of the 

 paper on the Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan, contributed by Prof. 

 A. H. Keane to the November number of the Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute. This monograph, which will be 

 welcome to ail interested in the eventful drama now in progress 

 in the Nile Valley, contains a summary but comprehensive 

 survey of all the races between Egypt and the Equator, which 

 are grouped in five main divisions: Bantu, Negro, Nubian, 

 Semitic, and Hamitic. Much light is thrown on the obscure 

 relations of these peoples to each other, and a clear picture pre- 

 sented to the reader of the manifold ethnical conditions in those 

 regions. The tabulated schemes of all the Sudanese race; with 

 their numerous subdivisions, seem to be very complete, and will 

 help to a better understanding of the reports daily received from 

 the scene of the operations undertaken for the relief of Gen. 

 Gordon and the Egyptian garrisons in the Sudan. 



The first annual meeting of the New England Meteorological 

 Society was held in Boston on the 2 1st ult. The papers read 

 were : — On rain-gauges, by Mr. Fitzgerald ; rainfall maps, by 

 Mr. Davis ; weather observers in New England, by Prof. 

 Upton ; the establishment of a meteorological station on Blue 

 Hill, Mass., by Mr. Rotch. 



With reference to our recent note to the effect that Prof. 

 Hugo Gylden, Director of the Stockholm Observatory, had 



