July ii, 1884] 



NA TURE 



of the North China Herald. A native public writer not long 

 since claimed that a skilful physician in this department of 

 medicine could cure such diseases as imbecility, fits, cholera, 

 &c. The principle of cauterisation is simply that of counter- 

 irritation ; and the English writer bears personal testimony to its 

 efficacy in the case of a slight sunstroke, although the operator 

 was a simple Manchu peasant, and instrument a couple of copper 

 coins. Very extraordinary cures are attributed to acupuncture 

 by the Chinese. It is first performed in the hollow of the elbow 

 of each arm. If the puncture draws blood there is no danger, 

 but if no blood appears the case is regarded as very grave. But 

 before abandoning the sufferer, puncture of the abdomen is 

 tried. Seizing a handful of flesh, the operator drives the needle right 

 through it, and then draws it backwards and forwards a few 

 times. If the patient manifests any sense of pain, or if any 

 blood is drawn, a poultice of eggs and buckwheat flour is applied 

 over the puncture, and recovery is regarded as almost certain ; 

 but if no pain is felt and no blood flows, the case is declared 

 hopeless, and the sufferer is left to die. The case is then quoted 

 of a young Chinese, educated abroad, who was attacked with 

 cholera ; his extremities became cold, and cramp set in in a 

 somewhat alarming manner. The barber-surgeon who was 

 called in commenced by running a needle into the pit of the 

 patient's stomach, a jet of very dark blood following ; he then 

 punctured the calf, the two breasts, ami the forehead of the 

 sufferer, freeing a certain quantity of blood at each prick. The 

 relief is said to have been instantaneous, and in two days recovery 

 was complete. The Chinese explanation of this treatment is that, 

 when the blood is in the poisoned condition which induces the 

 choleraic symptoms, it becomes thick, and accumulates in cer- 

 tain portions of the body. A clever surgeon knows exactly 

 how to put his finger on the particular spots, and, by skilfully 

 "opening the mouth of the heart," as the operation is called, 

 sets free the poisoned fluid which causes all the mischief. It 

 is noteworthy that faith in the efficacy of this mode of treatment 

 is not confined to the masses, but is shared by Chinese who have 

 been abroad and have had ample experience of Western medical 

 practice. 



Mr. James Hopps, Indian Engineering College, Cooper's 

 Hill, writes us with regard to his paper on the electric resistance 

 of metals, read before the Physical Society (Nature, vol. xxx. p. 

 2S3), that an increase of resistance on uncoiling, and a decrease on 

 coiling takes place with lead, copper, German silver, aluminium, 

 and magnesium, and also during the first few operations on soft 

 iron. An increase almost invariably follows coiling and uncoil- 

 ing with zinc, but the effects of coiling vary from A to is of the 

 effects of uncoiling. The full paper will appear in the Society's 

 Proceedings. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Malbrouck Monkey (Cercopithecus cyno- 

 surus £ ) from West Africa, presented by Mr. J. H. Hailing ; a 

 Cape Sea Lion (Olaria pusilla) from South Africa, presented by 

 Mr. John Hunt ; two Daubenton's Curassows (Crax dauben- 

 toni £ 9 ) from Venezuela, a Common Guinea-Fowl ( Vumida 

 meleagris), British, presented by Mr. W. Burch ; two Indian 

 Kites (Milvus govinda) from Eastern Asia, presented by Mr. W. 

 Jamrach ; a Barn Owl (Slrix flammea), European, presented by 

 Mr. G. H. Garrett ; three Angulated Tortoises {CAersina angu- 

 lata), two Geometric Tortoises ( Testudo geometricd) from South 

 Africa, presented by the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S. ; two 

 Smooth Snakes {Coronella Levis), European, presented respec- 

 tively by Mr. W. H. B. Pain and Mr. F. H. Jennings ; two 

 Black-tailed Deer [Cariacus columbianus £ 9) from North 

 America, two White-backed Piping Crows (Gymnorhina leuco- 

 nota) from Australia, two Common Cormorants {Phalacrocorax 

 carbo), British, deposited ; two Red-capped Parrots (Pionotsitta 



pileata) from Brazil, a White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Halio:'.its leuco- 

 gaster) from Australia, a Mohr Gazelle (Gazella mohr ? ) from 

 North Africa, a Violet-necked Lory {Eos rinciniala) from 

 Moluccas, a Black Tortoise {Testudo carbonaria), a Common 

 Boa {Boa constrictor) from South America, two Electric Eels 

 {Gymnotus ckctricus) from British Guiana, purchased ; three 

 Elliot's Pheasants {Phasianus ellioti), bred in England ; a Mule 

 Deer {Cariacus macrotis), a Mesopotamian Fallow Deer {Daina 

 mescpotam : ca £ ), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Schmidt's Variable-Star in Virgo. — On June 6, 1866, 

 Schmidt remarked, east and south of Spica, a star which he at 

 first estimated 4 m., subsequently 5'4, not found in Argelander's 

 Uranometria ; it was much better visible than ;' Virginis, the 

 reddish-yellow fifth magnitude south of Spica. By observations 

 during the next fortnight its light appeared to have slowly 

 diminished, nevertheless on June 19 it was still visible with the 

 naked eye, though there was strong moonlight. On examina- 

 tion of the catalogues, &c. , it was found that Lalande estimated 

 it 67 on May 10, 1795 ; Piazzi calls it 67 and 7 in the Storia 

 Celeste, not 8 as in the printed catalogue : Bremicker entered it 

 of the seventh magnitude on his Berlin chart, while Lamont 

 calls it 8 m. in Zone 355, observed on May 22, 1846. Heis has 

 it 67, while Gould says, "Var. 5J-6L" Houzeau judged it a 

 sixth magnitude at the date iS75"i 1. We have thus evidence 

 that it has been pretty conspicuously visible to the naked eye, 

 while, on the authority of Bremicker and Lamont, it has been 

 at other times beyond average unassisted vision. 



Schjellerup has raised a point of much interest in connection 

 with this star. There has been a difficulty in identifying satis- 

 factorily Ptolemy's 19th star in Virgo, which he calls a fifth 

 magnitude (e in his notation). Baily, in his notes to his edition 

 of Ptolemy's Catalogue, published in vol. xiii. of the Memoirs 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, writes: "The star 68 Vir- 

 ginis agrees with the position given by Ptolemy ; but it is diffi- 

 cult to make it accord with the description, as being in the 

 'latus sequens ' of the quadrilateral figure." Schjellerup, in his 

 translation of Sufi, remarks : "A l'endroit oil, selon la descrip- 

 tion detaillee que nous a fournie Sufi, doit se trouver la 19^ 

 etoile, il n'y a aucune etoile aujourd'hui visible a l'ceil nu, selon 

 Uranomelrii Nova d'Argelander, pendant qu'il s'accorde tres- 

 bien avec celui de Lalande 25086, etoile qui est entre la sixieme 

 et la septieme grandeur. En faisant la revision de cette note, 

 je me rappelai l'etoile variable au sud-est de a Virginis, dont 

 nous a donne avis M. Schmidt dans le nr. 1597, Astronomische 

 Naclirichten. Quelle ne fut ma surprise en m'apercevant de 

 l'identite entre cette variable et la I9 e de Sufi ? " 



This identification, however, is hardly so certain as may at 

 first sight appear. Schmidt's star is in the Greenwich Catalogue 

 for 1S72, which gives its position for i88o'o — 



Right Ascension 202° 4' "4 Declination - 12° 35''9 



Ptolemy professes to have reduced his catalogue to the first 

 year of Antoninus, a.d. 138, though it is well known that his 

 longitudes are in defect to the amount of about 1° for that epoch. 

 Unfortunately, for the 19th star of Virgo, though the longi- 

 tudes agree, the latitudes given in the various editions of the 

 Almagest and by Sufi are materially different. Baily has it 

 — 3° o', with a note that in the Venice edition in Latin by 

 Liechtenstein, in 15 15, it is + o° 20', which he thought might 

 arise, as regards the difference in amount, from mistaking 7 for y. 

 While in the two manuscript copies of Sufi (who adopted the 

 positions of the Almagest, adding 12° 42' to the longitudes) the 

 latitude is - 1° 20'. 



To reduce the Greenwich position for 1S80 to the year a.d. 

 138, we have in the usual notation — 



A = i6S° 47' - 3 ... A' = 191° o' - 8 ... 8 = 9° 4o'-6 ; 



with which the position for Ptolemy's epoch is found to be — 



Right Ascension ... 179° 36''o Declination ... - 3°5'4", 

 and assuming the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 4i''8, we 

 have — 



Longitude ... 180° 53' Latitude ... - 2° 59' 



The longitude of the 19th of Virgo is apparently 178° in all the 

 editions of the Almagest, and the latitude differs 1° 39' from that 

 assigned in the manuscripts used by Schjellerup. 



