530 
and Astronomical Ephemeris.” The Commissioners did 
more ; they ordered the printing of the Tables of the 
Moon, left by Tobias Mayer, according to which the lunar 
distances were to be calculated. At the same time par- 
liament voted a sum of 3,000/, to the widow of the astro- 
nomer of Gottingen, and a sum of 300/. to Euler, for 
having furnished to Mayer the theorems which he used 
to construct his theory.* 
The first volume of the “ Nautical Almanac” is con- 
cerned with the year 1767, and appeared in 1766. Although 
infinitely superior to the ‘‘ Connaissance des Temps” for 
1767, this publication is far from the perfection which it 
has since attained. Its object is two-fold, but not well- 
defined ; it contains much information useless to the 
astronomer, and many things besides which the mariner 
could dispense with. There is first a calendar with the 
aspects of the planets ; then a solar table giving for each 
day the longitude of the sun at noon, calculated to 745 of 
a second ; the right ascension of the sun in time to ,}, of 
a second, his declination to a second, and the equation of 
the time; next follow the eclipses of the four first 
satellites of Jupiter ; then tables of the planets, giving the 
longitude (to a second) and the latitude (to a minute), 
heliocentric and geocentric, the declination (to a second), 
the hour of the passage of the meridian (to a minute), 
every third day for Mercury, and every sixth day for the 
other planets. The table following gives, for every day 
from noon to midnight, the longitude (to the 74, of a 
second) and the latitude (to a second) of the moon, her 
right ascension and declination from noon to midnight, 
as well as her apparent semi-diameter and horizontal 
parallax. Then follow the distances calculated for every 
three hours, of the moon from the sun and from a certain 
number of stars of the first magnitude, and lastly the 
configuration of the satellites of Jupiter for every day in 
the year, at 5.30 P.M. The work is completed by 
detailed and well-written instructions, telling the signi- 
fication and use of the various tables contained in the 
volume. 
The calculations are, moreover, made with an amount 
of care far greater, according to Lalande, than was ever 
bestowed on the “ Ephémérides.” Each article was cal- 
culated separately by two persons and verified by a third 
calculator. In the case of the longitudes, latitudes, right 
ascension, declination, semi-diameter, and parallax of the 
moon, these were calculated by one person for noon and 
another for midnight, and afterwards verified by the mean 
of the differences which were carried as far as the fourth 
order. 
Some years later, in 1772, three English astronomers, 
Lyons, Parkinson, and Williams, published some exceed- 
ingly convenient tables, entitled, ‘‘ Tables for correcting 
the apparent Distance of the Moon and a Star from the 
Effects of Refraction and Parallax” (Cambridge, 1772), 
by the aid of which ten minutes sufficed to calculate an 
observation of distance between the moon and a star, and 
therefrom to deduce the longitude. The use of the lunar 
distances became from that time a great convenience. It 
was in the same year, 1772, that Lalande transferred into 
the “ Connaissance des Temps” for 1774 the calculations 
of the lunar distances copied in the “‘ Nautical Almanac,” 
“not having,” said he, “either the leisure to do it my- 
self, nor the means which the Commission of Longitude 
of London furnished to the Astronomer-Royal Maskelyne, 
for maintaining calculators, whose work he had only to 
superintend and verify.” The introduction of these lunar 
distances doubled the value of the “Connaissance des 
Temps,” which became a work useful at once to astrono- 
mers and mariners. 
IV. Foundation 
of the Berlin “ Astronomisches 
Jahrbuch” 
This same year, 1774, witnessed the appearance of a 
* Fifty years later, another parliament authorised the printing of the new 
lunar tables of Hansen, his compatriot, and awarded to that illustrious 
astronomer a sum of 1,000/. by way of national recompense. 
NATURE 
[ Oct. 23, 1873 
great number of publications analogous to the Conmais- 
sance des Temps and the Nautical Almanac,all intended to 
regulate the publication of the Ephemerides, which in 
nearly all countries astronomers published at different 
times. Of these we shall mention the “Jahrbuch” of © 
Berlin, the ‘“‘ Ephemerides” of Vienna, and those of Milan. 
The idea of the “ Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch ” 
originated with Lambert. Born August 29, 1728, at Mul- 
house, then a free town of Alsace, of parents who kept a 
small tailor’s shop, Lambert received a very incomplete 
elementary education, which he afterwards supplemented 
by assiduous labour and persevering determination. In 
1748 Count Pierre de Solis entrusted Lambert with the 
education of his children; this was an opportunity of 
which he’knew how to take advantage. He found in the 
Chateau of Coire, the abode of this nobleman, an exceed- 
ingly rich library, by means of which he not only com- 
pleted his imperfect education, but from which he drew 
the elements of one of his finest works, the “ Dissertation 
on the remarkable Properties of Light.” Shortly after, in 
1763, the restraints to which Protestants were subjected 
in France, and in particular the law which prohibited 
them from exercising any public functions, induced him 
to yield to the invitations of Frederick the Great ; Lam- 
bert went to live at Berlin, and became, in 1764, a fen- 
stonnaire of the Royal Academy of Prussia. France thus 
lost one of her scientific glories; for, not only was 
Lambert a distinguished astronomer,{ but pre-eminently 
remarkable for the universality and extent of his attain- 
ments.* 
Long before the time to which we refer there had ap- 
peared at Berlin Astronomical Ephemerides ; the first, 
due to the astronomer Grischow, date from 1749 ; it is the 
“Calendarium ad annum 1749 pro meridianum Beroli- 
nense cum approbatione Academicz regize Scientiarum et 
elegantiarum litterarum Borussiz.” They were carried 
on by Grischow until 1754, and suffered afterwards many 
interruptions. It was these Ephemerides which Lambert 
undertook to revive. According to the plan which he 
proposed to the Academy of Berlin, each volume of the 
“Jahrbuch” would appear two years in advance and 
consist of two parts. One part was devoted to the 
astronomical ephemerides (Prussia not then having any 
marine, Lambert had not to trouble himself with nautical 
ephemerides) and so disposed that it could easily serve 
for a place of different latitude; the other forming a 
collection of all the news concerning the astronomical 
sciences (observations, remarks, and problems), Lambert 
also proposed to collect, in another work, all the tables 
serving either for the calculation of the ephemerides or 
for other astronomical calculations. ‘ 
The proposal of Lambert having been adopted, an 
astronomer who was afterwards director of the Berlin 
observatory, and whose reputation became universal, J. 
El. Bode, was entrusted, under the direction of Lambert 
and the nominal superintendence of the Academy, with 
the numerous calculations which the publication of these 
Ephemerides necessitated. The first volume appeared in 
1774, under the title of “ Berliner astonomisches Jahrbuch 
fiir 1776, unter aufsicht und mit Genehmhaltung der 
k6niglichen Academie der Wischenschaften verfertigt 
und zum Drucke beférdert.” 
Lambert had the direction of the “ Jahrbuch” for only 
a very short time; death came soon after to deprive 
Science of one of her most ardent worshippers. Never- 
theless his initiative, though of short duration, was 
successful, and from its first appearance, the work which 
he founded progressed more notably than those which 
preceded it. 
At the same time also appeared the Ephemerides of 
Milan,—“ Effemeridi artronomiche per l’anno 1775, cal- 
culate pol meridiano di Milano, del abbe Angelo de 
* His most important astronomical work is entitled ‘‘ Insigniores Orbits 
Cometarum Proprietates.” 
