Oct. 30, 1884] 



NA TURE 



643 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Variable Stars. — Minima of the short-period variable S 

 Cancri may be expected about November 8, 9h. 5m. ; November 

 27, 8h. 21m. ; and December 16, 7h. 36m. The latest observa- 

 tions upon record were made by Schmidt in 1883 : he found 

 the star faint on March 12 at 7 - 2h. and March 31 at I2'8h. mean I 

 time at Athens. The star does not appear to have been much 

 observed of late years, and further observations are needed as I 

 a check upon the period An abstract of Prof. Schonfeld's I 

 discussion on the fluctuations of this variable will be found 

 in vol. ix. of the Viert,ljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesell- 

 sckaft, p. 226 ; he there gives as elements 



Minimum = 1S67 August 31, 14.I1. I2'24m. Paris M.T. + 

 (od.'nh. 3775m-) E - 

 The diminution of light appears to commence about Si hours 

 before the minimum ; about 13 hours after minimum the star 

 attains its usual brightness. It is therefore a variable of the 

 Algol type. The abstract of Prof. Schonfeld's memoir referred 

 to above is a pretty full one: the memoir itself is not to be 

 found in the libraries either of the Royal or Royal Astronomical 

 Societies. 



Considering the great loss which this branch of observational 

 astronomy sustained in the death of Prof. Schmidt, it is very 

 satisfactory to find that observations of variable stars are syste- 

 matically made at several Continental observatories, including 

 the important physical establishment at Potsdam, where Dr. 

 Wilsing is giving much attention to the subject. In the year 

 1883 he made upwards of 380 series of observations on 38 

 stars, including 24 of R Corona?, a star which has been too 

 much neglected. Prof. Safarik, Director of the Observatory at 

 Prague, made numerous determina'.ions of the brightness of 

 some fifty stars during the same year : he mentions two maxima 

 of U Geminorum, which we take to be a clerical error for minima. 

 He further stales that the companion of S Ononis 1011 m., 

 was invisible at the beginning of 18S3, and continued so until 

 April ; in August it was again visible, and slowly attained 

 109 m., so that it is variable to the extent of several magnitudes, 

 and Prof. Safarik adds, " moglicherweise alterniren seine Ersch- 

 einungen mit jenen von S Ononis." If there is reason to suspect 

 this, the star will obviously deserve close attention. The com- 

 panion precedes 2 '5s., and is south o''4. 



The positions of S Cancri and S Orionis for 1885 'o are : — 

 R.A. N.P.D. 



h. in. s. , 



S Cancri 8 37 22 70 33-1 



S Orionis ... .5 23 20 94 46-9 



Reference was made in a former column to the approaching 

 maximum of % Cygni about the middle of November. 



Wolf's Comet. — A circular of the Vienna Academy contains 

 elliptical elements of this comet by Dr. Zelbr, which confirm 

 generally the calculations of Prof. Krueger and Mr. S. C. 

 Chandler; the period of revolution is found to be 676 years, 

 the perihelion passage November 176739 Greenwich M.T. At 

 midnight on that date the comet will be in R.A. 341° 50', 

 N.P.D. 92 8, distant from the earth o'979. 



The Solar Eclipse of March 16, 1885. — The commence- 

 ment of this eclipse will be visible just before sunset on the 

 west coast of Iieland. So far as we are aware, the only astro- 

 nomical observatory at which it will be observable is that of Col. 

 Cooper at Markree, which is in charge of Mr. Marth. The 

 first contact takes place there at 5I1. 43m. 58s. Markree M.T. at 

 86° from north point towards west, for direct image. At Valen- 

 tia the eclipse begins at 5I1. 40m. 22s. local mean time, at S2 

 from north towards west. Particulars of the track of the annu- 

 lar eclipse across the United States and Canada have already 

 appeared in this column. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



An interesting pamphlet, on the systems of writing used by the 

 various races which inhabited or still inhabit the Philippine 

 Islands, has just been published by Seiior Pardo de Tavera 

 under the title '• Contribucion para el estudio de los Antiguos 

 Alfabetos Filipinos." It is illustrated with plates containing the 

 alphabets discussed, which include those of the Tagals, Visayas 

 or Bisayas, and the Battas. This archipelago offers a compara- 

 tively virgin field to students in almost every branch of inquiry. 



Prof. Blumentritt of Leitmeritz has devoted much study and 

 research to the early history of the Spanish occupation of Luzon, 

 and to the settlements of the Chinese and Japanese there during 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but since the publica- 

 tion of Jagor's work nearly thirty years ago little that is generally 

 known in Europe has been done to solve the various problems 

 which the languages, races, and geography of the islands present. 

 In Spain there exists an important literature, chiefly of the last 

 century, on the subject, and the works of Fray Caspar, Argen- 

 sola, Bravo, and others should be a mine for the modern student. 

 The ethnology of the Negritos of the Philippines has been dis- 

 cussed in Germany by Dr. Mundt-Lauf ; but of the wild mountain 

 tribes of the interior, and of those who are in a state of chronic 

 war with the Spaniards to the south of Iloilo, hardly anything is 

 known. There is a vague surmise that some of them (the 

 Igorrotes of Luzon, for example) are descendants of Chinese 

 pirates of the latter end of the sixteenth century, who having 

 attacked the Spanish settlements were defeated, and fled to the 

 mountains, where they took themselves wives of the natives and 

 became the progenitors of a new race. 



The last number of the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur 

 Erdkunde zu Berlin contains a long paper by Prof. Blumentritt 

 on the Island of Mindanao, the second largest of the Philippine 

 Islands, accompanied by an excellent map, based on numerous 

 Spanish maps. The writer enters at length into the geography 

 and ethnology of the island, dealing in successive sections with 

 the mountains, hydrography, political divisions, population, and 

 the eighteen tribes which inhabit it. With regard to the last 

 section of his subject, Prof. Blumentritt says that if we omit the 

 few Europeans, Creoles, Mestizos, and Chinese, the natives of 

 Mindanao may be divided into Negritos and Malays. The 

 former are subdivided into Mamanuas and Atas, while the latter 

 are composed of a series of tribes which may be approximately 

 placed according to their religion under three heads: (t) the 

 Visayas, or "Old Christians"; (2) the mountain tribes, who 

 are either Pagans or Conquistas ; (3) the Moros (Moors), who 

 are Mohammedans. The Visayas and Moors are late-comers ; 

 the former arrived within the period of Spanish rule in the island 

 from the archipelago lying to the north, which at present bears 

 the name of the Visaya Islands ; the Moros also came recently 

 from Borneo and Ternate. Our knowledge of the mountain 

 tribes, says Prof. Blumentritt, is not sufficient to enable us to 

 state definitely what relation they bear to the Visayas, or to the 

 head-hunters of Borneo and Luzon. In the following sections 

 of his paper the writer gives all the information available respect- 

 ing these tribes, his sources being chiefly the reports of Spanish 

 missionaries. In many cases this information is of the vaguest 

 possible description. In addition to the eighteen tribes here 

 mentioned, there are no fewer than fourteen States with inde- 

 pendent Sultans amongst the Moros of Mindanao. 



The same number of the Zeitschrift also contains a paper 

 (with a uiap) on the Loochoo Islands, by Herr Muller-Beeck. 

 It appcnis to be wholly taken from reports furnished to the 

 Japanese Government by an official who visited the archipelago 

 several times for the purpose of investigation. The paper adds 

 little to our knowledge of the islands, because there is probably 

 not a great deal to know about them geographically. By the 

 way, Herr Muller-Beeck is in error in attributing the name 

 Linschoten, as applied to the seven islands of the northern 

 group called Shichi-to, to the English. This corruption is due 

 to the Dutch, and like many similar corruptions still retains its 

 place in our Admiralty charts as the name by which the islands 

 are known to European navigators. 



M. Brau de Saint-Pol Lias, who, as recently mentioned 

 in Nature, has been commissioned by the French Minister of 

 Public Instruction to make a natural history collection in Sumatra 

 and Java, is an experienced traveller in those regions. Not long 

 since he published a work on Perak, in the Malay Peninsula, 

 and the tribes inhabiting it. He has now issued another small 

 volume on the Acheenese, under the title of "Chez Ies Atches- 

 Lohong " (Paris, Plon). Having made friends with the head- 

 man of Lohong, he was able to travel freely in that portion of 

 Sumatra, and to observe the customs of the natives. Not long 

 before, two of his countrymen were murdered in neighbouring 

 territory, through which, however, M. Lias was allowed to pass. 

 He appears also to have travelled near the now notorious 

 Tenom, where the unfortunate crew of the Nisero were so long 

 confined, and on the whole to have enjoyed advantages for 

 obtaining information about this little-known region— although 



