43 2 



NATURE 



[August 28, 1 ! 



star of 1604, where none has been since observed. It was of 

 course desirable to clear up this difficulty, and Mr. Herbert 

 Sadler appears to have done so effectually. He has remarked 

 that in the part of the Chart No. 52, where the place of Kepler's 

 star falls, the positions of a number of the brighter stars are in- 

 correctly laid down for the professed epoch of the Chart, 1855 

 January I, their right ascensions being uniformly in defect of 

 the true ones ; and he notes that, when the assigned place of 

 Chacornac's star is corrected in right ascension to about the 

 amount that several known stars in the vicinity require, it falls 

 into the place of No. 16872 of Oeltzen's Argelander, so that, 

 in Mr. Sadler's view, the stars are identical, and there can be no 

 reasonable doubt that he is correct. It is very satisfactory to 

 have eliminated the difficulty with regard to Chacornac's star, 

 particularly as the place of Kepler's star can hardly be said to be 

 comparable in accuracy with that of Tycho's star of I57 2 * 



The following are places of three of Argelander's stars for 

 1S55 'o, on comparing which with the positions assigned on 

 Chacornac's Chart No. 52, its distortion will be evident : — 



Oeltzen 16S4S 



16S16 



,, 16782 



R.A. 17 21 19-6 

 „ 17 19 37'4 

 » 17 18 3'3 



N.P.D. 112 49 47 



,, no 50 13 



in 16 54 



The Yale College Observatory, U.S. — The fine helio- 

 meter of this Observatory is now in active charge of Dr. W. L. 

 Elkin, who had given special study to the theory of this instru- 

 ment at Strasburg, and subsequently had two years' valuable 

 experience in the use of it, in conjunction with Dr. Gill, H.M. 

 Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope. From the Report to 

 the Board of Managers in June last, it appears that the expenses 

 attending the use of the heliometer have been guaranteed for a 

 period of three years by ten subscribers ; and Dr. Elkin, who 

 took charge of it on January 15, is already able to report upon 

 work accomplished, though time is necessarily occupied in the 

 general investigations of the instrument, as scale determinations, 

 &c. A triangulation of the Pleiades has been commenced, with 

 the view to comparison with Bessel's measures of this group, 

 made with the Konigsberg heliometer nearly half a century ago, 

 as well as with the later observations of M. Wolf at the Ob- 

 servatory of Paris ; about one-third of the proposed measures 

 had been completed before the stars were lost in the sun's rays in 

 the spring, and it is hoped to complete the work during the last 

 four months of the present year. A considerable amount of 

 time has been devoted to determination of places of the moon 

 relative to stars within measuring-distance of the ^heliometer, 

 with the view to determining the parallactic inequality in the 

 moon's motion, the deduction of which from meridian and other 

 observations is, as Dr. Elkin remarks, attended with some diffi- 

 culty. Measures of the diameter of Venus near her inferior 

 conjunction have also been secured. There cannot be a doubt 

 that, in Dr. Elkin's hands, most valuable results will accrue 

 from the regular employment of the powerful measuring-instru- 

 ment of Yale College Observatory. On the Board of Managers 

 of the Institution we remark the well-known names of Profs. 

 Elias Loomis and H. A. Newton. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, August 18.— M. Rolland, President, 

 in the chair. — Obituary discourses pronounced at the obsequies 

 of M. Paul Thenard, by MM. Bouley and Fremy. — Observations 

 of the small planets made with the great meridian instrument of 

 the Paris Observatory during the second quarter of the present 

 year, by M. Mouchez. — Essays in stellar photography, with a 

 view to the construction of maps of the heavenly bodies, by MM. 

 Paul and Prosper Henry, by M. Mouchez. The results so far 

 obtained have been secured by means of an objective with a 

 diameter of o - i6m. and 2-iom. focal distance. They represent 

 on a surface of rather less than a square decimetre a section of 

 the Milky Way of 3° of right ascension, and 2° declination, 

 showing 1500 stars from the sixth to the twelfth magnitude. The 

 images of these stars have a diameter nearly proportioned to 

 their brilliancy, except the yellow stars, which appear somewhat 

 fainter. These encouraging results have induced MM. Henry, 

 who are skilful opticians as well as experienced observers, to 

 undertake the construction of a much larger objective with a 

 diameter of 0-34 m., specially adapted for photographing the 

 celestial orbs. — Note on a new method of representing graphi- 



cally the speed of railway trains, by M. Leon Lalanne. — Report 

 on various communications relating to the cholera, by the Com- 

 missioners, MM. Vulpian, Marey, Richet, Bert, Pasteur, Bouley, 

 and Gosselin. Thirty fresh communications received by the Aca- 

 demy during the month of August have been examined with practi- 

 cally no results. Even Dr. Peyrusson's views regarding the efficacy 

 of borax and boric acid are purely theoretic, unsupported by any 

 practical tests. — Account of a new balloon capable of being 

 guided in any direction and kept under control, by MM. Ch. 

 Renard and A. Krebs. The authors claim to have solved the 

 problem of aerial navigation by means of a new balloon of elon- 

 gated form, and provided with a screw and helm, which was 

 successfully tried at Chalais on August 9. After a trip of nearly 

 five miles, it returned to the starting point, obeying the helm, anil 

 executing a series of manoeuvres with a precision comparable to 

 that of a screw steamship in the water. Chief dimensions : 

 length 5°'42 m., diameter 8'40 m., volume 1864 m., total weight 

 2000 kilos. — Observations of the Barnard comet made at the 

 Observatory of Nice, by M. Perrotin. — Observations on the solar 

 spots and volcanic eruptions during the year 1883, by M. P. 

 Tacchini. — Note on a fixed astronomical telescope, by M. G. 

 Hermite. — Note on the freezing-point of saline solutions, by M. 

 F. M. Raoult. — On the combinations of telluric acid with the 

 salts of the bioxide of tellurium, by M. D. Klein. — Researches 

 on the modifications produced in the nutrition of the nervous 

 system by mania, lypemania, and epilepsy, by M. A. Mairet. — 

 Researches on the microbe of typhoid fever in man ; its cultiva- 

 tion, and inoculation of the virus in rabbits, guinea-pigs, poultry, 

 pigeons, pigs, and other animals, by M. Tayon. — Note on the 

 slow period of latent excitation in the muscles of invertebrate 

 animals, by M. H. de Varigny. — Account of a new variety of 

 Rhizopod found on the Arcachon coast, south of Bordeaux, by 

 M. J. Kunstler. — Note on a relation between the temperatures 

 of fusion of simple bodies and their atomic weights, by M. Chapel. 

 The same author presented a paper on the coincidence of seismic 

 and meteorological phenomena with the return of the August 

 meteoric showers. 



CONTENTS page 



The " Encyclopaedia Britannica " 405 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Electric Light for Lighthouses. — J. Munro . . 406 



The Cholera Germ. — Henry B. Baker 407 



School Museums. — Rev. George Henslow ; W. 



Hewitt 407 



The Permanency of Continents. — Rev. George 



Henslow 407 



Carnivorous Wasps. — Rev. George Henslow ; Rev. 

 W. Clement Ley; H. N. Dixon; William 

 White; Thomas Edward ; E. F. Bates . . 407 



Fireballs.— W. G. Smith 408 



A Cannibal Snake.— Dr. C. F. Crehore 408 



Water Bells. (Illustrated) 408 



Science and the Sandhurst Examinations .... 409 

 The British Association : — 



Inaugural Address by the Right Hon. Lord 

 Rayleigh, M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., 

 F.R.G.S. , Professor of Experimental Physics in 



the University of Cambridge, President 410 



Section A — Mathematical and Physical Science — 

 Opening Address by Prof. Sir William Thom- 

 son, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.SS.L. & E., 

 F.R.A.S., President of the Section— " Steps 

 towards a Kinetic Theory of Matter. " (Illus- 

 trated) 417 



Section B — Chemical Science — Opening Address "by 

 Prof. Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, Ph.D., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., F.C.S., President of the Section 421 

 Section D — Biology — Opening Address by H. N. 

 Moseley, M.A., F.R.S., Linacre Professor of 

 Human and Comparative Anatomy in the University 



of Oxford, President of the Section 421; 



Notes 429 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Comet 1884 b (Barnard, July 16) 431 



Kepler's Nova of 1604 431 



The Yale College Observatory, U.S 432 



Societies and Academies 432 



