“ty 
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450 : 
to be attracting wide attention in the Capital, and to have drawn 
‘large audiences. 
livered ; the first by Dr. Edkins, the well-known Sinologist, on 
astronomy, and the second by Dr. Dudgeon, head of the Mission- 
ary Hospital at Peking, on the heart and circulation of the 
blood. Both lectures were copiously illustrated by the magic 
lantern. It is gratifying to find the missionaries, who are 
among the small number of people capable of teaching the 
Chinese in their own language, working thus for the spread of 
elementary western knowledge amongst the Chinese. 
Ar the ordinary meeting of the Meteorological Society, to be 
held at 25, Great George Street, Westminster, on Wednesday, 
the 15th inst., at 7 p.m., there will be an Exhibition of Anemo- 
first constructed since the last Fxhibition. During the evening 
the President, Mr. J. K. Laughton, M.A,, F.R.A.S., will give 
a historical sketch of the different classes of Anemometers, and 
will also describe such forms as are exhibited. 
ACCORDING to the Annales del’ Extréme Orient, at the com- 
mencement of the year there were in Japan 3929 miles of tele- 
graph line with 9345 miles of wire. The telegrams sent during 
the year numbered 1,272,756, of which about 96 per cent. were 
in Japanese, while there were 22,695 international messages. A 
school of telegraphy has been founded in the capital, the pupils 
receiving a practical knowledge of English and French, During 
the year this institution sent 227 young men out to the various 
telegraph offices, The average cost of sending twenty words in 
Japanese for a distance of sixty miles is about three sez, or one 
penny, taking as a basis of calculation the line from Tokio to 
Nagasaki. The average for shorter distances is much greater, 
being about seven sez from Yokohama to Tokio, a distance of 
only twenty miles, There were 112 offices open to the public, 
and 70 attached to departments of State, the police, &c. ; 53 
remained open night and day ; 848 Morse instruments were in 
use at the end of the year, and 29 Bell’s telephones. 
A VIOLENT earthquake is reported from Tongatabu in the 
Pacific on November 24 last. The whole island was so shaken 
that it was almost impossible to remain standing erect. A strong 
earthquake shock, which lasted twenty seconds, was felt at 
Bellinzoni, Olivone, and other parts of the Canton of Lesser, 
Switzerland, on February 27. 
THE Russian botanist, M. Smirnoff, who is now in Turkestan, 
writes to the Russian Geographical Society that the vineyards of 
the country are quite destroyed by the small parasitic fungus 
Erysiple. He says that he never saw such a dreadful and widely- 
spread destruction of vineyards as he witnessed in Turkestan. 
It can only be compared with the destruction by a heavy hail- 
storm. 
HERR HAKONSON-HANSEN draws attention to a remarkable 
phenomenon due to refraction, observed by him at Trondhjem, 
on January 17, and similar in all respects to one witnessed by 
him at the same place on November 15, 1881. On both occa- 
sions, at 2.50 to 3 p.m. in the day, a rose-coloured stripe was 
seen to stretch across the sky from about north-west to east. 
From the middle of this rose a vertical column of a somewhat 
lighter red colour, and inclining on its western side to a shade of 
yellow, the whole being intensely luminous. After remaining 
visible for about ten minutes, the bright reds and yellows gradu- 
ally faded away, leaving: nothing but a blackish gray streak 
across the heavens. The sudden and striking apparition of this 
vertical column recalled, as Herr Hansen otserves, the descrip- 
tions given in past ages of bloody crosses seen in the heavens, 
and regarded as prophetic of coming wars and pestilence, and 
he remarks that if it had been seen at a later period of the day, 
it might have been taken to be a specially brilliant aurora, 
nn EE EEIEnIETE=ItE Ean 
NATURE 
STEAMERs recently arrived at New York report that they — 
Two of the course have already been de-'| encountered immense fields of ice in lat. 45° 48’ N., long. 47° 
48’ W. The Circassian had to steer south two days to clear 
them, and the S¢. Germain was fast for seventeen hours in the — 
same pack. as 
M. SALIGNAC, one of the most active electricians of Paris, has . 
discovered a new regulator which will be one of the curiosities 
of the next ovande soirée given at the Observatoire on the 13th — 
inst. 
These two rods 
being placed horizontally, are pushed by a spring, and the spark 
is lighted between them. But between the two glass rods 
| there isa glass stopper which is warmed by the light in such pro- 
meters and of such new instruments as have been invented and | 
portion that the rods yield gradually to the pressure of the 
springs, and the carbons can approach each other, as is required” 
for the constancy of illumination. Our correspondert witnessed 
preliminary experiments which he states have been a wonderful 
success. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynomolgus 8) — 
from India, presented by Mr. G. Richardson; 2 Common Pea- 
fowl (avo cristatus) from India, presented by Mrs. Walter 
Crane ; a Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) 
from Australia, presented by Mr. S. Sidney; a Common Jay 
(Garrulus glandarius, white var.), British, presented by Lieut.- 
Col. Birch Reynardson; twelve Pink-lipped Snails (Helix 
hemastoma) from Point de Galle, Ceylon, a nest of Cocoons 
from Kadur District, Mysore, presented by Mr. J. Wood 
Mason; a Four-horned Antelope (Zvtraceres qguadricornis 2), 
born in the Gardens, 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
THE VARIABLE STAR U GEMINORUM.—The following inter- 
esting note upon a recent maximum of this apparently capricious 
variable, is by Mr. G. Knett, who writes from Cuckfield on 
March 6 :—-‘‘ On February 20 I noted it 13°7m. At intervals it 
seemed to flash out brighter, and there was every indication of a 
probable rise to maximum. Clouded skies night after night pre- 
vented my observing again till March 1, when in a clear interval 
of short duration I found U, 9°7 mag. Dusk large and ill- 
defined, I have observed it since as under :— 
March 2 9°9m. Light rather unsteady. Colour, white 
or bluish white. 
»» 3 +. Io'Im. Bluish white. 
ae ei.) . 1o°5m. 
T suppose we may take the maximum to have fallen xo? later 
than February 28, : 
The previous maximum observed by me fell on April 3, 1881, 
the interval in days being 331, which would give 110 days as the 
period, if we suppose three maxima to have occurred in the 
interval. The period appears to vary between 75 and 126 days. 
The star appears to form a kind of connecting link between the 
ordinary variable and the so-called wew stars, and as the causes 
which presumably underlie the phenomena are f/ysical rather 
than geometric, perhaps we ought not to be surprised that the 
period has a wide and somewhat irregular range. Ze star is @ 
most interesting one. 
It is due to Mr. Knott to add that so far as the published ob- 
servations of variable stars elsewhere enable us to judge, he has 
been much more successful than other observers in following the 
maxima of this difficult variable of late years; such success 
could only result from very assiduous and careful observation. 
THE ToTAL SOLAR Ectipse or May.—By way of reply to 
several inquiries as to the most probable track of the central line 
in the eclipse of May 16, we subjoin the following points which 
have been interpolated down from those given for five-minute 
intervals in the ‘‘ American Ephemeris.” As already remarked 
in this column, the difference in the place of the moon employed 
in that work, from Hansen's place, happens, on this occasion, to 
correspond very closely with the amount of Prof, Newcomb’s 
empirical correction of Hansen’s Tables, and hence the path 
Each of the two carbons is supplied with a parallel rod of 
| glass, to which it is attached in a solid manner. 
