230 
alluvial plain, on the banks of the river Guayas, and 
is frequented by ocean-going vessels up to 28 ft. in 
draught. The absence of a proper system of water 
supply, combined with ineffective drainage, has mili- 
tated hitherto against the development of the town, 
but now that the Government has taken both these 
matters in hand there is every prospect, despite certain 
climatic disadvantages, of the attainment of a very 
serviceable degree of civic sanitation. The total esti- 
mated outlay is in the neighbourhood of 2,000,000l., 
and the work is being carried out progressively, in 
instalments. A fresh system of water mains is already 
laid, and a storage reservoir of 6,600,000 gallons capa- 
city is nearing completion. It has not yet been de- 
finitely decided whether the source of supply shall be 
the Daule river, with an intake some twenty miles 
upstream, or a group of mountain streams in the 
forests of the Cordillera de los Andes, some sixty miles 
distant from Guayaquil. The drawbacks in the former 
case are the pollution arising from settlements along 
the banks of the river, the high percentage of suspended 
matter in the water, and the low gradient, which would 
necessitate pumping. The mountain streams would 
readily admit of a gravitation supply, and are less 
likely to be polluted, but the construction of the pipe- 
line would be a heavy initial expense. The Govern- 
ment has both schemes under consideration, and data 
and statistics are being obtained with a view to an 
early decision. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
Tue Leonips oF i1916.—With the parent comet 
(1866 I, Tempel) near aphelion an abundant shower of 
Leonids was not expected, but it was important to 
ascertain whether the display returned even in a 
minor character. Mr. Denning writes that on the 
morning of November 15 he saw only one Leonid in a 
watch of about an hour between 4 and 5.30 a.m. The 
next morning was overcast, but on November 17, be- 
tween 3 and 6.15 a.m., notwithstanding wintry condi- 
tions and one of the keenest north-easterly winds 
experienced in recent years, Mrs. Fiammetta Wilson, 
of Totteridge, recorded fifteen meteors, including some 
brilliant objects. There were seven Leonids from a 
radiant point very sharply defined at 150°+22°. This 
position appears to be identical with that usually found 
on the mornings of November 14 and 15, and appar- 
ently favours the view that there is no perceptible 
change in the place of radiation. But more exhaustive 
data are required in settlement of this interesting 
feature. 
The brightest meteor seen by Mrs. Wilson was at 
3h. 33m. a.m. (November 17). It was equal to Venus, 
and shot from 215°+58° to 245°+574°—evidently a 
fine Leonid. Bright meteors of the same shower were 
seen at gh. 50m. and sh. 42m. At 3h. 16m. a large 
Taurid, comparable with Jupiter, travelled from 
1883°+57° to 204°+48°. If duplicate observations of 
any of these objects were obtained at other stations, 
the records would be valuable for comparison. 
Tne Sorar APEX DETERMINED BY MEANS OF BINARY 
Stars.—The method of ‘determining the solar apex 
proposed by Bravais in 1843 has until lately not been 
used by any other investigator, no doubt because it 
assumes the distances of the stars to be known, and 
nobody has been inclined to follow Bravais in making 
them all equal. Some years ago Weersma applied the 
method to 3616 stars, taking the distances from Kap- 
teyn’s tables of mean parallaxes.° His result, 267-7°+ 
314°, was in good accordance with the best previous 
determinations, though the velocity, 14-9 km., was 
smaller than the spectroscopic result. In a paper 
recently published in the Proceedings (Oversigt) of the 
NO. 2456, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 
[NovEMBER 23, 1916 
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, M. Luplau 
Janssen has applied the method to 180 double stars, 
the proper motions of which are given in the Pre- 
liminary General Catalogue of “Boss. Assuming the 
mass of a binary star equal to that of the sun, well- 
known formule give a value of the parallax called 
the ‘‘ hypothetical. parallax.’’ Hertzsprung has shown 
(Astronomische Nachrichten 4543) that where the 
annual change of position angle and distance is 
known, it is possible to find a minimum value of 
this hypothetical parallax of a binary star. From a 
comparison of thirty-six values of parallaxes actually 
measured with the computed values of the minimum 
hypothetical parallax M. Janssen finds that the latter 
may be put equal to half the real parallax. On this 
assumption he finds the apex to be 264-5°+ 261°, and 
the velocity equal to 17-15 km. per sec. This result 
is in surprisingly good accordance with the best recent 
determinations, and this shows at any rate that the 
hypothetical minimum parallax is a quantity which 
‘is not without some value where there is no satis- 
factory value of the parallax resulting from measures. . 
SPECTRUM OF THE NEBULA ABOUT RHo OpxHiucnt.—At 
the Lowell Observatory, Dr. V. M. Slipher has lately 
attempted to photograph the spectrum of the remark- 
able nebula in the region-of p Ophiuchi (Popular Astro- 
nomy, vol, xxiv., p. 542). A single-prism spectrograph 
of high light-power was used, and an image was formed 
on the slit by a simple lens of 20 cm, focal length. 
The total exposure, on four nights, was twenty hours, 
and by comparison with the exposures for direct photo- 
graphs given by Barnard, it was estimated that this 
would give a good record of the spectrum if of the 
bright-line type, or would give a weak impression 
if the spectrum were continuous. The plate obtained 
was of the latter type, the spectrum of the nebula 
appearing faintly on either side of that of the star. 
So far as can be judged from the photograph, the 
spectrum is like that of the star about which the 
nebula clusters, and Dr. Slipher regards this as an 
indication that the nebula shines by reflected light, as 
he previously found reason to believe to be the case 
with the nebulz in the Pleiades. In both these re- 
gions of the sky faint stars are conspicuously deficient 
in number, and it is suggested that their apparent 
scarcity may be due to their obscuration by nebulze 
which may be otherwise invisible. 
BRITISH INDUSTRY AND THE WAR. 
HE advice of a recent ex-Minister of State that 
we might well leave after-the-war conditions to 
take care of themselves finds little response in the world 
of industry, whether in regard of employers or em- 
ployed, who are alike viewing with deep concern the 
industrial and commercial problems that will surely 
arise on the advent of peace. This finds clear expres- 
sion in a valuable memorandum issued in June last by 
the Garton Foundation entitled ‘‘ The Industrial Situa- 
tion after the War,” which is fully and sympathetic uly 
further considered in the Quarterly Review for October 
by a member of the group which prepared it. This 
highly important memorandum has been drawn up by 
a group of men representative of the capitalist and 
employing classes, of organised labour, as well as by 
men familiar with finance, economics, and adminis- 
tration. It has further been circulated to, and dis- 
cussed in draft by, large employers, trade union 
officials, and experts on social and economic questions 
with a view to their criticisms and suggestions. It is 
now published in the hope of stirring both employers 
and employed to action. The industrial problem, it 
declares, was with us before the war. The dangers of 
labour unrest and the cry for increased efficiency are 
