SEPTEMBER 18, 1902] 
NATURE 
515 
Comet 1902 6.—Circular No. 51 from Kiel gives the sub- 
joined elements and ephemeris, as calculated by Herr Elis 
Strémgren from the observations made at Lick on September 1, 
at Urania on September 2, and at Copenhagen on September 4, 
for the comet discovered by Perrine at Lick on September I. 
Elements. 
T=1902 Nov. 23°315 Berlin. 
w=153 53°2) 
Q2= 50 10°6 ;1902°0 
ZS 7, 8-2) 
log g=9 "60094. 
Ephemeris. 
1902. a app. & app. 
h. m. s. ° ‘ 
Sept. 6 3 11 48 +37 03 
10 3 4 26 +39 104 
14 2 52 59 +40 514 
18 2 34 47 +45 1372 
22 2 4 19 +49 23°3 
26 r) LOWse +54 33 
Perrine describes the comet as ‘‘slightly elongated, mean 
diameter 4’, magnitude =9, tolerably well-defined nucleus, 
possesses a tail.” Struve, observing at Konigsberg on September 
2, 10h. 41m.*2 (Kénigsberg), saw a sharply defined nucleus of 
the 11th magnitude. 
New Arcot VArRIABLE.—Mr. A. Stanley Williams an- 
nounces in the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3811, the 
discovery of a new Algol variable (13, 1902 Lyrz), the position 
of which he gives as 
a=I9gh. tom. 48s.°7. 5= + 32° 10’'r (1855). 
This object is the most following, and normally the brightest, 
of the three stars forming a small triangle south of the 91 mag. 
star B.D. +32°°3377- On the scale used, its normal magnitude 
is 10°98, whilst at minimum it is only just visible with the 6°5- 
inch reflector, z.c. its magnitude is about 12°8. 
The star remains at its normal brightness for about 3d. 6h. 
22m., and the increase and decrease each occupy about 4 hours ; 
there is no apparent interval at minimum, and the observations, 
so far, have not indicated the presence of any secondary 
minimum. 
Subjoined is an extract from an ephemeris, calculated for 
every fifth minimum by Mr. Williams. 
1902. G.M.T. 
h. m. 
Sept. 21 Ir 28 
Oct. 9 II 20 
Oct. 27 Tle 
Nov. 14 1 4 
Dec. 2 10 56 
Dec. 20 
Prof. E, Hartwig observed this variable from gh. 22m. to 
ith. 19m. (Bamberg M.T.) on August 16, and found that, 
during that period, its light decreased by 1-3 magnitudes ; cloud 
and strong moonshine prevented the observations from being 
carried on throughout the minimum. 
Srr Davip GILL’s New THEORY OF STELLAR MOVE- 
MENT.—Mr. Carpenter has recently been examining the 
measures of the stellar photographs obtained at Oxford during 
the last seven or eight years, in order to see if they indicate any 
such movement of the brighter stars as a whole, with respect to 
the fainter stars as a whole, as was recently suggested by Sir 
David Gill. Although this was too great a task for Mr. 
Carpenter to finish during his holiday, he got far enough to find 
indications which supported Gill’s hypothesis. 
This result was considered so important that the whole of the 
Oxford staff was deputed to examine the photographic measures 
for a belt of stars about Dec. + 26°, and the result indicates 
that there zs an apparent movement as suggested amounting to, 
about Os.“002 per magnitude per year. This corresponds in 
magnitude to the quantity found by Gill, ‘‘dut zts sign zs oppo- 
site to that found by him.” If this sign is found on further 
revision to be correct, then it is difficult to imagine that the 
movement is simply one of rotation, and further investigation 
must be made before any definite theory may be accepted 
(The Observatory, September, 1902). 
NO. 1716, VOL. 66] 
ONIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Dr. W. H. MILts, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, has 
been appointed head of the chemical department of the Northern 
Polytechnic Institute in succession to Mr. H. C. L. Bloxam. 
Mr. H. W. Matcoim, B.Sc., has been appointed lecturer 
and demonstrator in physics at University College, Bristol, in 
the place of Mr. L. N. Tyack. 
Mr. W. R. KELSEY, late of the Bradford Technical College 
and of the South-West London Polytechnic, has been appointed 
principal of the Taunton Municipal Technical Institute. 
THE University of Nebraska has this year added a course 
of study in forestry to its curriculum. The course will extend 
over a period of four years. 
THE sum of 1000/7. has been placed by Sir Conan Doyle at 
the disposal of the senatus of Edinburgh University for the 
purpose of instituting a bursary in the faculty of medicine, 
available only for students from South Africa. The bursary is 
to be administered in detail as the University may direct. 
Science for September 5 publishes for the fifth year in succes- 
sion statistics of the conferment of the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy by American universities. In the present year, 
some 214 doctorates have been conferred by twenty-seven insti- 
tutions, as against 253 in 1901, 233 in 1900, 224 in 1899 and 
234 in 1898. The largest numbers of degrees conferred were 
in the subjects of chemistry, zoology, physics and botany, the 
numbers being respectively 24, 16, 12 and II. 
Sir HENRY CRAIk’s report for the year 1902 on secondary 
education in Scotland shows that there has been a large increase 
in the number of schools presenting candidates in science 
subjects at the leaving certificate examination, and also in the 
total number of candidates presented. In many cases there has 
been a distinct advance in the quality of the work done as com- 
pared with former years. It is satisfactory to know that in the 
examinations of Scottish secondary schools great prominence is 
given to oral and practical methods of testing the work, and the 
examinations in the case of each school are shaped by the 
curriculum of that school. 
THE educational announcements for the session 1902-3 of the 
Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, make an imposing volume 
of some 200 pages. Classes will be provided in a large number of 
technological and trade subjects, but students who require instruc- 
tion in literary or commercial subjects must go to one of the other 
City polytechnics, for the Northampton Institute is primarily 
intended to teach technology. Very properly, great attention is 
given to subjects which directly assist the industries of the 
immediate neighbourhood. The courses of instruction fall into 
two distinct sections, the engineering day classes for students 
willing to give the whole of their time for one or more years to 
a systematic training in some branch of engineering, and the 
evening classes in a variety of subjects for working men engaged 
during the day. 
THE new regulations of the University of Oxford School of 
Geography show that admission is not confined to members of 
the University, but all applicants must give satisfactory evidence 
of sufficient general education to prcefit by the teaching. A 
course of instruction in the subjects required for the University 
diploma in geography begins in October and extends over one aca- 
demic year. Weekly lectures are delivered by all the members of 
the staff, six in number, and practical instruction is given on at 
least four days in each week, and includes position-finding, topo- 
graphical surveying and map-projection. A scholarship of the 
value of 60/. is offered annually for competition among members 
of the University who have taken honours in one of the final 
schools of the University. During 1901-2 the lectures were 
attended by 208 students, of whom 163 were men from twenty- 
one colleges, and forty-five women from five colleges or halls. 
IN urging the necessity for a more extensive and_ highly 
developed system of technical education in this country, English 
men of science often refer to the provisions made in the United 
States of America to equip American workers with a practical 
education of a technical kind so as to fit them to take a useful 
place in the industries of their country. A recent address, by Prof. 
V. C. Alderson, Dean of the Armour Institute of Technology 
at Chicago, on ‘* Technical Education an Economic Necessity,” 
shows some imperfections in the American system. Prof. 
Alderson is of opinion that up to the present the existing admir- 
able technical institutions in the United States have concerned. 
