NA TURE 



[June 2.6, 1884 



The Prussian Government having requested the Swedish to 

 effect measurements of the tide, &c, on the Swedish coasts in the 

 Baltic, similar to those which for some time have been carried 

 nut on the Pomeranian coast, Capt. Malmberg and Prof. Rosen 

 have been commissioned to visit the, German stations during the 

 .summer, and select the most suitable places on the Swedish 

 coast for realising this proposal. 



The Norwegian Storthing has voted the entire sum proposed 

 for scientific and literary purposes — about 5000/. Among these 

 we note 150/. to the Technical Journal, 350/. to Dr. Norman's 

 "Flora," 60/. to Dr. Sophus Tromholt for prosecuting his 

 auroral researches, 50/. each to. the Ada Mathemalica and the 

 "Fauna litoralis Norvegire." 



At Weimar, Munich, Elberfeld, and some other German 

 towns have been erected what are called " pyramids of instruc- 

 tion." They show on their various faces the elevation of the place 

 above the level of the sea, the population, the difference of local 

 time from that of Vienna, Paris, London, New York, &c. There 

 are also a clock, barometer, thermometer, vane, and a variety of 

 statistical information. 



Me. H. W. Eaton of Louisville, Kentucky, writes to Science 

 that the Commercial of that city for May 17 and IS gave accounts 

 of a tailed child recently born there. As such cases are of scien- 

 tific interest, and are very rare, a party of four, including a 

 prominent doctor and Mr. Eaton, concluded to investigate the 

 case. " We found a female negro-child, eight weeks old, nor- 

 mally formed in all respects, except that slightly to the left of 

 the median line, and about 1 inch above the lower end of the 

 spinal column, is a fleshy pedunculated protuberance about z\ 

 inches long. At the base it measures i\ inch in circumference. 

 A quarter of an inch from the base it is somewhat larger, anil 

 from that it tapers gradually to a small blunt point. It closely 

 resembles a pig's tail in shape, but shows no sign of bone or 

 cartilage. There seems to be a slight mole-like protuberance at 

 the point of attachment. The appendage has grown in length 

 about a quarter of an inch since the birth of the child. The 

 mother, Lucy Clark, is a quadroon, seventeen years old, and the 

 father a negro of twenty, — both normally formed. In I 'own 

 ' Descent of Man,' vol. i. p. 28, he speaks of a similar case, 

 and refers to an article in Revue des Cours Scientifiques, 1867-68, 

 p. 625. A more complete article is that by Dr. Max Battels, in 

 Archiv fiir Anthropologic for 1S80. He describes twenty-one 

 cases of persons born with tails, most of them being fleshy pro- 

 tuberances like the one just described." 



On May 27, at about S.45 p.m., immediately after sunset, 

 a magnificent meteor or fireball was seen at Skonevik, on the 

 west coast of Norway. It went in a perfectly horizontal line 

 to north-north-west, leaving a bright tail behind appearing like 

 steam. This trail was distinctly observable for quite five minutes, 

 when it gradually spread in the shape of a light cloud, which 

 was soon hidden in the approaching darkness. About two 

 minutes after the ball had passed out of sight a loud report was 

 heard in the same direction ; it was very much like ordinary 

 thunder heard from a distance, with the exception of its lasting 

 twice as long. The sky was perfectly clear, and several persons 

 witnessed the phenomenon. The meteor was also observed in 

 the Kvinherred parish. 



Another "blue grotto," or, rather, series of three large 

 grottoes, 87 metres in length, has been discovered on the 1 lal- 

 matian island of Buoi, lying to the south-west of Lissa. The 

 cave is described by its discoverer, Baron Kamsonnet, Austrian 

 Secretary of Legation, as surpassing the famous Capri Grotto. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Macaque Monkeys [Macacus cyno- 

 molgus 9 ? ) from India, presented respectively by Mr. Howard 



Lane and Madam Kettner ; two White-fronted Capuchins 

 (Ccbus albifrons £ 9 ) from South America, presented by Mr. 

 Messum ; a Coypu (Myopotamus coypus) from South America, 

 presented by Mrs. Constance Keely ; a Harpy Eagle ( Thrasatttu 

 harpyia) from South America, a Red-billed Tree Duck (Dendro- 

 cygna autumnalis) from America, presented by Capt. H. King ; 

 a White-tailed Buzzard [Buteo albicaudalus) from America, pre- 

 sented by Mr. Lewis ; a Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) 

 from Queensland, presented by Mr. Henry Ling Roth ; two 

 Choughs (Pyrrhceorax graculus), British, presented by Mr. J. 

 Compton Lees ; a Gray-breasted Parrakeet {Bolborhyitchus 

 monachus) from Monte Video, presented by Mrs. Moore; two 

 Cape Crowned Cranes [Balearica chrysopelargus) from South 

 Africa, presented by Mr. J. R. Chapman ; a White Stork 

 (Ciconia alba), European, presented by Mr. Hubert D. Astley ; 

 a Partridge [Terdia cinereti), British, presented by Mr. George 

 Rubie ; a Blue and Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) from South 

 America, deposited ; a Brush-tailed Kangaroo {Petrogale paii- 

 cillata) from New South Wales, four White Storks (Ciconia 

 alba), three European Pond Tortoises {Emys europced), European, 

 a Common Boa (Boa constrictor) from South America, purchased : 

 a Black-necked Swan (Cygnus nigricullis) from Antarctic 

 America, received in exchange. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Oxforii University Observatory. — The Savilian 

 Professor of Astronomy has issued his Annual Report to the 

 Board of Visitors of the University Observatory, which was read 

 on the 5th of the present month, and forms a supplement to 

 No. 493 of the Oxford University Gazette. The attendance of 

 students at the lectures has been greater than at any previous 

 time, and the Professor mentions "the phenomenon" of the 

 regular appearance of two ladies at his lectures on the planetary 

 and lunar theories, at the same time reminding the Board what 

 even the approximate mastery of such theory implies. 



On the astronomical work of the staff of the institution during 

 the year, Prof. Pritchard's Report is a most favourable one. He 

 refers to three memoirs on important astronomical questions 

 which have issued therefrom, and which have been printed in 

 the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. These include 

 an extensive memoir by himself on the " Photometric Deter- 

 mination of the Relative Brightness of the Brighter Stars North 

 of the Equator," in which his work at Cairo is brought to bear, 

 and a memoir by the first assistant, Mr. W. E. Plummer, on 

 the probable motion of the solar system in space, the data 

 for which depend upon Mr. Stone's recent catalogue of southern 

 stars ; it is a memoir very similar in character to the well-known 

 one by the late Mr. Calloway. Further, Prof. Pritchard has 

 communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society a paper which 

 was read at the last meeting, demonstrating, as he thinks, the 

 existence of small displacements among the Pleiades. Upwards 

 of a thousand measures of the relative brightness of stars were 

 made, leaving about the same number to be made in the next 

 year. This measurement of all the naked-eye stars from the 

 Pole to the Equator will furnish a Uranomelria Nova Oxo- 

 niensis, and Prof. Pritchard hopes that its publication may be 

 undertaken by the University Press. The measures of the 

 Pleiades having been completed, he now intends to devote 

 himself to lunar work — the determination of selenographical 

 longitude and latitude of a large number of points on the 

 moon's surface by means of a valuable series of lunar pho- 

 tographs at the Observatory. Reference is made, in addition 

 to the Pleiades work, to the existence of measures of some 250 

 stars in another cluster made at the Observatory a few years since, 

 and to be shortly reduced and published ; the particular cluster 

 is not indicated in the Report, but presumably may be M. 39 in 

 Cygnus, described by Messier when he observed it in 1764 a- 

 " a star-cluster of i° diameter." 



Variable Stars. — In a communication to the Liver- 

 pool Astronomical Society Mr. Baxendell notifies that his 

 determinations of the times of eight maxima between 1861 

 October 16 and 1881 November 21 are not satisfied by a 

 constant period, but that, dividing them into two groups, he 

 obtains the following results : — 



