
Oct. 12, 1871] 
NATURE 
479 

from Mr. Severn contains the following passage :—‘‘ My present 
motive is to draw your attention to the injustice done you in the 
m Argus business ; I have of course read all your letters in the 
Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. on the subject. You must not 
allow the Spectator, or Mr. Le Sueur, or any other man to deprive 
you of your discovery ; you have at least done, and that years ago, 
what the 4ft. Cassegranians and Mr. Le Sueur are claiming as 
their discovery. I can’t stand this, and therefore if you don’t 
defend yourself, by writing to our papers, I must. I send you a 
Leader with my paper in it, also another 7 7.” 
On reading these two extracts, which are dated about the same 
time, it will appear that the writer must have very suddenly 
changed his mind. 
In June 1869 I visited Melbourne for the purpose of seeing the 
new large reflecting telescope, and must confess to being much 
surprised on seeing the object 7 Argus in such a small field with 
so large an instrument. Mr, Le Sueur thought at the time that 
he saw a faint shadow of a lemniscate ; and what I saw was a 
dark path across the nebula, not unlike that portion of Eridanus, 
occupied by 188 and 198 1. C. and not far from the star Achernar. 
The object was only seen between passing clouds, and although 
the best speculum was in the instrument at the time, the definition 
was not good. 
In June 1862 I brought before this Society a copy of the 
drawing made from observations on that beautiful cluster of 
coloured stars known as « Crucis, the original drawing, &c., of 
which was at the time remitted to the Royal Astronomical 
Society, with notes on the variation of both colour and position 
when compared as eye drafts, with Sir John Herschel’s observa- 
tions made at the Capeof Good Hope. (Vide Monthly Notices, 
R.A.S., Vol. 23, p. 32.) 
As the instrument used at the Cape was in every respect 
different from the one used in Hobart Town, and the effect of 
colour varying, as it does, so much in different persons, I discon- 
tinued observing to allow time for other changes to become 
known, and have now waited nearly nine years, in order to compare 
the object with the previous drawing by the same optical means. 
Sir John Herschel estimated this cluster to be formed of from 
50 to 100 stars ; in the drawing of 1862, a copy of which now 
lies on the table, there were laid down 75 stars to which the 
colour of each was given. It is now known that certain altera- 
tions have taken place since 1862, but a series of cloudy nights 
has prevented the possibility of preparing a sequent to the former 
drawing in time for the present meeting. F, ABBOTT 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol, ix., 
Parts 1, 2, and 3; Vol. x., Part 1. We have in these first 
three parts the President’s Address and the papers read before 
the society during the session 1869-70. The papers are twelve 
in number, and embrace a variety of topics. Mr. Boyd Daw- 
kins gives an account of some explorations in the Denbighshire 
caves. In one of these a large quantity of human bones was 
found intermingled with remains of horse, goat, hare, rabbit, 
badger, large birds, wolves, wild cats, foxes, and Celtic short- 
horns, roe and red deer. He is of opinion that this cave has 
been used as a burial place at different times in the pre- 
Roman era. The skulls found belong to that type which 
Professor Huxley terms the ‘‘river bed skull,” and the tibize 
indicated the platycnemic character or the bandy-leggedness 
of the people to whom they belonged. There are other 
three papers on paleontological subjects— ‘‘ On a_Speci- 
men of ;Homalonotus Delphino-cephalus,” by Mr. Edward 
Holber; ‘‘On some Starfishes from the Rhenish Devonian 
Strata,” by Mr. J. Eccles, and “On two Species of Pro- 
ductus,” by the same author. To these may be added 
another by the president, Mr. J. Aitken, “‘On the Pholas- 
boring Cootroversy,” in which the author concludes, against the 
notion upheld by Mr. Macintosh, that the holes found in the 
faces of certain limestone rocks at many different levels, even as 
high as 1,435 feet above the sea, have been bored by pholades 
dunng a period of submergence. He inciines to the beliet that 
the holes have been formed by land moiluses, as originally 
suggested by Dr. Buckland. There are several papers «n 
physical geology, which will repay perusal. The longest of 
these is one by Mr. Spencer, *‘ On the Millstone-Grit Rocss” of 
Halifax, which will be of use as a guide to that locality. The 
author distinguishes four beds of grit separated by intervening 


thick shales. Lists of fossils are given, and these are not a 
meagre as one might have expected. Mr, J. Curry has a paper 
“On the Throw of the Pennine Fault,” which he thinks is not 
So great as is commonly believed. Some interesting ‘‘ Observa~ 
tions on the Temperatures at the Pendleton Colliery,” by Mr. J. 
Knowles, are sure to be frequently referred to. “On some of 
the Causes of the Different Modes of Working and Ventilating 
Coal Mines,” by Mr, Warburton, contain some wholesome 
criticism. He maintains ‘‘ that the systems of working coal, as 
at present practised, do not depend upon the nature or condition 
of either the coal or the roof, but upon the mining education of 
those who have the management.” Difficulties in the way of 
ventilation arise from ignorance and from the modes of working 
often interfering with well-known natural laws. Other papers 
in Vol. ix. are **On the Use of Gunpowder in Mines,” by Mr. 
Greenwell ; ‘‘On two Dykes in North Lancashire,” by Mr. 
Eccles ; and ‘‘ Observations on some Specimens of Silver Ore 
from United States,” by Mr. Fletcher. Part 1. of Vol. x. is 
occupied for the most part with the President’s address, in- 
augurating the session 1870-71. Mr. Aitken treats of our coal 
supply in its various aspects, and a number of other, chiefly 
palzontological, topics. The other communications in this 
part do not call for any special remark. They are three in 
number, viz., ‘The Spirorbis Limestone in the Forest of Wyre 
Coal Field,” by D. Jones ; ‘On Faults ia Drift,” by J. Aitken ; 
and ‘‘On the Underground Conveyance of Coals,” by G. C. 
Greenwell. We are glad to see from the report of the Council 
that the Society is flourishing, and that the number of contri- 
butors to the Transactions is increasing. 
Verhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstaltzu Wien. Nos. 
8 and 9 (1871). No.8 contains the usual short summaries of papers 
and reports, among which may be mentioned one on the last 
earthquake and the hotsprings and solfataras at Milo ; and another 
on the Tertiary Land-fauna of Central Italy, by E. Suess. The 
other papers are more of local interest, but a number of useful 
analyses of minerals is given. Among the notices of contempo- 
rary publications is one of a work by Dr. Prestel, on the Climatal 
and other Changes which the Coasts of the North Sea have 
undergone since Glacial Times. In No. 9 will be found a short 
account of a Coast Survey of the Adriatic Sea, The survey 
when completed will, it is expected, make the bed of this sea as 
well known as that of any other which has been explored. The 
bottom of the south basin of the Adriatic is covered throughout, 
it would seem, with a yellow sludge or slime, which is brought 
down by the large rivers of Albania. In this same area a re- 
markable rocky plateau rises up from the slimy sea-bed, at a depth 
of from 325 to 370 fathoms to within 100 fathoms of the surface. 
Some details of other parts of the sea bottom are given. Thenum- 
ber contains several other reports, among which we find some 
account of the Library of the Institute, which would appear to 
be ina flourishing condition, The usual literary notices and lists 
of books received conclude the number, 


— = 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LonboN 
Royal Microscopical Society, October 4.—Mr. W. Kitchen 
Parker, F.R.S., President in the chair. The first meeting of the 
session was held on Wednesday evening. Mr. Parker contributed 
a valuable paper ‘‘On the Development of the Facial Arches of 
the Embryo Salmon,” at the conclusion of which he expressed his 
opinion that the development of the brain case of the osseous fishes 
demonstrates that group to be much closer allied to the Sauro- 
psida, or Birds and Reptiles, than it is to that of the Batrachia, or 
Frog tribe. Mr. Parker highly eulogised the use of chromic 
acid as a medium for hardening without distorting the substance 
of the brain when required for seciions.—Dr. Spencer Cobbold 
handed in a report on some preparations of Eniozoa with accom- 
panying notes, forwarded to the Society by Mr. Morris, of Sydney, 
and made observations on some of the most interesting 
forms. Of the five species collected by Mr. Morris, Dr. 
Cobbold stated that by far the greatest amount of importance 
was to be attached to the discovery in Australia of Stepha- 
nurus a ntatus, This Entozoan was introduced to thescientific 
world as early as the year 1834 by Navtterer, who found 
it in large quantitics infesting the adipose tissues of a breed of 
Chinese pigs, on the Rio Negro in Brazil. Up to the year 
1870 nothing further was heard of this parasite, when Dr. Cob- 
bold received a communication from Prof, Fletcher, of New 
