180 
NATURE 
[ Dec. 21, 1882 
some (and whose existence is denied by others) which 
have been seen on Mercury and Venus in transit, when 
they have completely passed on to the disc. 
S. P. LANGLEY, 
Director of the Observatory 
Allegheny Observatory, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, 
December 6 
THE transit was observed here in a cloudless sky 
up to sunset, but the low position and great atmo- 
spheric disturbance rendered measurements and observa- 
tions of contact unreliable. 
When Venus was half in on the sun, I distinctly per- 
ceived a fine curved thread of subdued light on the 
south-eastern edge outside the sun, and not reaching to | 
the latter, nor extending far on any side. With three- 
fourths on, the thread of light reached round the remain- 
ing fourth outside, and completed the periphery. The 
segment of light disjoined, as when first observed, would 
seem to indicate a superior refractive power of the planet’s 
atmosphere in the locality at the time. 
A short time before complete ingress, the solar cusps 
appeared to project out from the disc in double concave 
forms to join the aureole. The aureole disappeared after 
complete ingress, but the outer portion of the planet 
seemed much less dark than the central, which was per- 
fectly black within a dark brown ring of from 5” to 10” 
in breadth. I saw no trace of the black drop or ligament, 
and, indeed, I should imagine that the aureole crossing 
the position of the ligament would prevent its appear- 
ance. I found nothing like a satellite. I thought the 
micrometer showed a diameter of the planet rather 
greater from east to west than from north to south, but 
the 4oz/ing of the limbs prevented any measures that 
could be depended on. I remarked no distortion of the 
planet as recorded by observers of the previous transit. 
JOHN BIRMINGHAM 
Millbrook, Tuam, December 8 
IN a published letter, dated ‘Palermo, December 13, 
1882,”’ Signor Cacciatore, Director of the Royal Obser- 
vatory there, writes as follows :—‘“ The observations of 
the transit of Venus, effected at our Observatory, 
present results, both as regards the direct observa- 
tions and the spectroscopic, to which the attention 
of astronomers and physicists may fairly be invited. 
Prof. Ricco, with the spectroscope, when the planet was 
on the sun’s disc, and her image entered upon and left 
the slit, observed near the spectral line B of the more 
refrangible side, a very weak absorption band, and also 
near the line C he saw traces of obscuration, but much 
more weak and uncertain. The same phenomenon, P. 
Tacchini writes me, was observed by him at Rome. 
Moreover, my direct observations yielded an indication of 
the ingress of the atmosphere of Venus upon the sun, as, 
from those of Prof. Millosevich in Rome, this indica- 
tion was obtained on the external portion of the planet. 
The agreement of such observations made in different 
places is of no little importance for determination of the 
existence and the constitution of the atmosphere of 
Venus.” 
NOTES 
M. BERTRAND, perpetual secretary of the Paris Academy of 
Sciences, intimates that the French Government is anxious to 
collect any information relating to Fermat, whose statue will be 
unveiled very shortly at Toulouse. Those who pos-ess any 
documents relating to Fermat are requested to communicate with 
the secretary of the Institute. 
amount of important scientific, as well as other information, con- 
cerning the work of that institution, which is rapidly developing 
| tasteful pattern of 600-candle power. 
TuHeE Johns Hopkins University Circulars contain a great | 
into one of the most comprehensive and efficient institutions 
for research and education anywhere. In the number for 
November, for example, we have notes on the papers read by 
members of the University at their various societies as well as — 
elsewhere, in mathematics, physics, philology, biology, &c., 
synopses of recent American scientific journals (mostly issued 
from the University), besides abstracts of lectures, critical notes 
on various subjects, and much other information. From the 
seventh Annual Report moreover, it is evident that the University 
has taken a strong hold on the American people, and that both 
in the spirit and the letter it is amply fulfilling the intentions of 
the founder. The list of the academical staff alone, professors, 
associates, lecturers, instructors and assistants, fills three pages, 
while the account of work in the various departments shows 
that research has become a part of the everyday life of the 
institution, 
Pror. TYNDALL will on Thursday next (December 28), at 
the Royal Institution, at three o’clock, give the first of a course 
of six lectures (adapted to a juvenile auditory) on Light and 
the Eye. 
THE death is announced of Dr. Theod. Lud. Wilh. von 
Bischoff, formerly Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at 
Munich University, as well as keeper of the Anatomical Institute 
in that city. He died on December 5 last, aged seventy-five. 
On December 1 the Agricultural Museum of Berlin was 
opened to the public. The curator, Herr Settegast, has arranged 
the zootechnical division in a commendable manner. Numerous 
paintings and sketches illustrate German domestic animals in 
their agricultural aspect. In the zoological division there are a 
number of interesting skeletons and skulls, amongst them a 
human skull from the shell-tombs at Santos (Brazil). 
THE French official journal ; ublishes a report on oyster culture, 
which is in favour of the Portuguese oyster. It appears that 
100 grammes of the flesh of this mollusc contains about I-roth 
gramme of iodine, bromine, and chlorine, just twice as much as 
the common oyster. 
Messrs, FOSTER AND MARTIN, of Melbourne, have sent us a 
graceful photograph of the comet, about which we have had so 
much correspondence. The photograph was taken with a 3-inch 
euryscope of 24 inch focus on an ordinary camera, not equa- 
torially mounted, which doubtles:ly accounts for the elongation 
of the nucleus. The paotograph is creditable to Messrs. Foster 
and Martin, though it is not the first time a comet has been 
photographed ; more than a year ago we reproduced the photo- 
graph of the comet of the period, taken by Dr, Janssen of Paris. 
Acta Mathematica is the name of a new mathematical journal 
which wll appear this month, simultaneously published in 
Stockholm, Berlin, and Paris. The editor in chief is Prof, J. 
Mittag-Leffler, of Stockholm, and the publication has been 
promised the support of the most distinguished mathematicians 
of Scandinavia, Germany, and France. 
Last week the Crystal Palace Company inaugurated an Exhi- 
| bition of Electricity and Gas which gives even greater promise 
of succe-s than that in which electricity was the sole object of 
attraction. Gas at present occupies the largest display. Exhi- 
bitors demonstrate the utilisation of gas, and there are many 
practical illustrations going on. The South Nave contains a 
great collection of all the best systems of improved gas lighting, 
Sugg’s stand being distinguished by an immense standard lamp 
of 1000 candle power and a series of suspended lanterns of 
There are similar great 
gas lights by Bray, Siemens, and others, which are submitted as 
competitors against the electric arc lights. In the North Nave 
there are numerous stands of electric apparatus and material. 
