—: 
Nov. 10, 1881] 
NATURE 
43 
tion is very simple in plan. Application is made for the in- 
spection of a house, and the inspection is made personally by 
both the chief sanitary officer and the surveyor, who supply a 
detailed report on the sanitary condition of the property, together 
with a specification of the work necessary to put it into a condi- 
tion satisfactory to the Association, While this work is in pro- 
gress it is supervised by these officers, and on its completion the 
Council grant a certificate guaranteeing the sanitary condition of 
the property, subject to an annual inspection by the officers of 
the Association. 
AT an examination held by the Sanitary Institute of Great 
Britain on November 3 and 4, eight candidates presented them- 
selves, and the Institute’s Certificate of Competency as Local 
Surveyor was not awarded, but the Institute’s Certificate of 
Competency as Inspector of Nuisances was awarded to J. 
Horrocks, W. Sortwell, and J. W. Witts. 
THE Linnean Society of New South Wales has had the enter- 
prise to organise a course of lectures on zoology, open to all who 
care to take advantage of them. They begin on October 4, and 
are to extend to December 9, about two lectures being given each 
week. The lecturer is Mr. W. A. Haswell, M.A., B.Sc. 
It is announced, we learn from the Zawncet, that the three 
volumes of the Zyansactions of the International Medical Con- 
gress will be published and ready for distribution at the beginning 
of December. To non-members the price of the work will be 
30s, and the volumes can each be bought separately. The first 
volume will contain the list of members, accounts of the general 
meetings, the general addresses, the description of the specimens 
exhibited in the museum, and the transactions of the sections of 
anatomy, physiology, pathology, and materia medica and phar- 
macology. Volume II. will contain the transactions of the 
sections of medicine, surgery, State medicine, military medicine 
and surgery, obstetric medicine and surgery, and diseases of 
children. Volume III. will contain similarly the transactions 
of the sections of ophthalmology, mental diseases, diseases of 
the skin, diseases of the throat, diseases of the ear, and diseases 
of the teeth. Orders for the work will be received by J. W. 
Kolckmann of Langham Place. 
BULLETIN No. 6 of the United States Entomological Com- 
mission consists of a General Index and Supplement to the nine 
Reports on the Insects of Missouri, by Prof. C. V. Riley, forming 
in itself a volume of 177 pages. Itis very complete. All the 
descriptions of new species described in the Reports are repro- 
duced, with such alterations indicated as time may have rendered 
necessary. It is carefully analytical, and one heading will strike 
many as introducing a comparatively new term, z.¢. the ‘‘ List 
of descriptions of the adolescent states.” 
WE have already referred to the Smithsonian Report for 1879. 
Mr. O. J. Mason’s bibliography of Anthropological Investiga. 
tions, which appears in the Report, has been separately reprinted 
and will be found useful by those interested in the subject. 
Dr. OTTo FinscH, whose scientific journey in Polynesia we 
have repeatedly referred to, arrived at Wellington, New Zealand, 
in June last, and now intends returning soon vi@ Sydney. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Tiger (Felis tigvis 2? ) from Assam, presented 
by Col. Owen Williams, M.P., F.Z.S.; a Black Bear (Ursus 
americanus) from North America, presented by Capt. McPherson, 
barque Ocean Nymph ; two Common Polecats (Mustela putorius) 
from France, presented by M. P. Pichot; a Young Ostrich 
(Struthio camelus) from Africa, presented by Mr. William 
Jewam; a Great Eagle Owl (Budo maximus), European, de- 
posited ; three Common Curlews (Mwmenius arquata), two Red- 
throated Divers (Colymébus septentrionalis), European, received 
on approval, 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
DovuBLE-STARS,—An important series of observations of 
double-stars has been recently issued from the United States 
Naval Observatory at Washington. It includes all the measures 
made by Prof. Hall with the 26-inch refractor from 1875 to 
1880, and a few in the year 1863 with the 9°6-inch equatorial. 
There are observations of double-stars selected by M. Otto 
Struve for the comparison of micrometrical measurements by 
different astronomers, which remain for discussion when those 
of other observers are published. In addition, in order to apply 
a geometrical test to the observations, Prof. Hall has carefully 
measured the multiple stars = 2703 and 311, and the stars in the 
trapezium of Orion. The observations have been made with 
the filar-micrometer by A. Clark and Sons, which is commonly 
used with the large equatorial. Then follow measures of objects 
chiefly taken from the catalogues of the Struves, with a few 
others mostly discovered by Mr. Burnham. % 2 was not separ- 
ated with power 888 in 1879. Of y? Andromedz we find the 
angle 1o1°’o distance 0”*358 for 1878°21 ; 40 Eridani (B.C.), 
125°'0, 3'°515 for 1879°18. A great change is shown in O.3. 82; 
we have 230°°8, 1°08 for 1848°67, while Prof, Hall’s measures 
give 182°°25, 0”°765 for 1879°16, Mr. Marth’s faint com- 
panion of Sirius, estimated 13m., was at 114°°9, 717"4, at the 
epoch 1847°47, which, compared with the particulars at p. 38 
of Memoirs R.A.S., vol. 36, indicates fixity. Piof. Hall 
remarks on the supposed companions of Procyon, ‘‘I have 
never been able to see any of these companions that would stand 
the test of sliding and changing the eyepiece, turning the micro- 
meter, &c,, and am therefore doubtful of their existence. This 
is an interesting star for the powerful telescopes of the future.” 
Six nights’ measures of 25 Canum Venat. give 157°°5, 0” "507 for 
1879°49; Dr. Doberck has calculated elements for this star, 
period 124% years. ‘y Coronz Borealis was single in 1875-76 
and 1879. 72 Ophiuchi was examined in 1876 and 1879, but no 
close companion was visible: it may be remembered that at the 
epoch 1859°61 Secchi saw and measured the close star, and 
recorded it as ‘‘ dene separata,” and Otto Struve has measures of 
it in 1842, 1847, 1851, and 1876, those in the latter year corre- 
sponding almost precisely to the date of the Washington exa- 
minations, which seems to point to optical illusion, unless rapid 
variability is admitted. At the epoch 1879°77 5 Equulei was 
thought to be elongated at 150°, but Prof. Hall was not certain 
of its duplicity. Many of the more interesting binaries are 
included in this series of measures. The observations of the 
companion of Sirius made at Washington from 1866 to 1879 
are given in a collective form, and we have observations of the 
faint stars near the annular nebula in Lyra, of which the following 
results possess value ; @ is the brightest of these stars and the 
one near the following end of the nebula; the angles and 
distances are referred to it except in the case of the companion 
of the triple star 4 which are referred to fitself :— 
Pos. Dist. Magnitudes. 
aand d 1877'582 ... 225°50 ... 93°90 ... ro and 14 
oy ex S775 O20e. 208;00),.-. LNGtSAy wa. Io ,, 13-14 
Ba Si7725920e 280:90) nee 138,59) --< Io ,, 12-13 
Danae CHES Teg O20-<91292,00))...0\ 22:90 N--- LOus gle 
Pe ff SIP sen BUGTHO Sou SEC) cop Io ,, 13-14 
iy PPM PRED ao, Aeneas YES ee Moyers sic’ 
F x0 A 1877°592 .-. 25330 .-- 396... 13-14 5, 13-14 
Fi 35> fa 1877°502).-. $4;80'... 17-32... 13>14 9559 4S 
To connect the nebula with the stars the following estimates 
were made :— 
(1) The right line a to 4 is 11” outside of the nebula. t 
(2) “6 »»  @ 5, € very nearly bisects the darker, interior 
part of the nebula. 
(3) oe » @,,/ is very nearly tangent to the nebula. 
(4) . Ki », ¢ is nearly tangent to the nebula. 
It is added that during these observations no star was seen inside 
the above ring of stars, nor any star within the nebula itself. 
Afterwards it was thought that a star was seen within the nebula, 
but Prof. Hall was not able to measure it. 
GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
THE twenty-third and twenty-fourth parts of the A/s/thed/ungen 
der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Natur und Volkerkunde Ostasiens 
contain an article by Dr. L. Déderlein on Oshima, one of the 
