Oct. 12, 1882] 



NATURE 



583 



jr = r. [9-99521]. sin (f + 9 6 - 2) 

 y = r. [9-98774]- sin [v + 277 2-4) 

 1= r. [9 -44252]. sin (w+ 130 17-5) 

 r being the radius-vector, and v the true anomaly. 



[Mr. Gill writes on September 19 : "Yesterday and to- 

 day the comet is a brilliant daylight object, and was 

 observed on the meridian by myself with the Transit 

 Circle. We have a whole lot of Alt- Azimuth observations 

 which will be reduced as soon as possible. They were the 

 only kind of observations possible, as the comet was only 

 visible by glimpses through holes in the cloud between 

 September 8 and perihelion." 



In a letter addressed on the same day to the Astronomer 

 Royal (with a copy of which he has favoured us) Mr. Gill 

 says: "On Sunday, the 17th inst., the comet was followed 

 by two observers with separate instruments right up to the 

 sun's limb, where it suddenly disappeared at 4h. 50m. 58s. 

 Cape M.T."] 



NOTES 



Probably some of our readers may have heard that Mr. W. 

 Spottiswoode met with an accident recently. The fact is that 

 on September 30 last he broke his left humerus within the cap- 

 sule, through the overturning of the tricycle he was riding. He 

 has, we are glad to learn, been carefully attended, and is getting 

 on as well as possible. 



A private letter to this country conveys the intelligence of 

 the death, on September II, at Kandy, of Dr. Thwaites, F.R.S., 

 for many years director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peeade- 

 niya, Ceylon. We shall defer to a future issue some particulars 

 of his life. 



The death is announced, at the early age of forty-eight years, 

 of the well-known scientific photographer, Dr. D. Van Monck- 

 hoven. 



We are glad to learn that a memorial signed by Professors 

 Paget, Humphry, Hughes, Newton, and Moseley, Drs. Michael 

 Foster and S. H. Vines, and Messrs. G. H. Darwin, E. W. 

 Blore, Coutts Trotter, A. Sedgwick, and J. W. Clark, was pre- 

 sented to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University (Dr. 

 Porier) on the 4th inst., representing the desirability of esta- 

 blishing some memorial of the late Prof. Balfour in the Uni- 

 versity. The Vice-Chancellor, in accordance with this request, 

 has called a meeting of Members of the Senate and others for 

 October 21, at 4.30 p.m., in the Lecture-Room of Comparative 

 Anatomy, in the New Museums, "to take steps to establish in 

 the University a memorial of the late Prof. Balfour." 



Some forty eminent German botanists met at Eisenach on 

 September 16, under the presidency of Profe-sors Pringsheim, 

 Cramer, and Wi'lkomm, and founded a German Botanical 

 Society. The new society has its seat at Berlin, and its object 

 is to form an effective and supporting centre for all efforts in the 

 domain of scientific botany in Germany. 



As is well known, the French Institute is divided into five 

 classes, which meet together once every year. The president of 

 this reunion ii chosen in rotation from among the president of 

 each of the five sections. The chair will be occupied this year 

 by the president of the Academy of Sciences, who is styled 

 director, and who happens to be M. Dumas, one of the two per- 

 petual secretaries of the Academy of Sciences. M. Dumas will 

 deliver on this occasion an address which it is stated will be of 

 special importance. This meeting will take place on October 

 25 next. 



M. Dumas delivered at the sitting of the Academy of Sciences 

 of October 9 an address summarising the works of the Inter- 

 national Commission of Weights and Measures. He stated that 

 the commissioners had executed a comparison between the 



original meter and kilogramme deposited in the Archives, wit'i the 

 new standards. The difference had been proved to be o'ooooo6m. 

 for the nieter, and o-ooooi gram for the kilogramme. The con- 

 sequence is that a slight correction will be required for the 

 measures taken with the international meter as the comparison 

 between two measures of length can be executed with a precision 

 of one part in ten millions. The new international kilogramme 

 can be used without any correction at all. 



Two International Conferences will open in Paris on Monday 

 next. One of these is for the object of settling upon a plan for 

 the protection of sub-marine telegraph cables ; the other is to 

 establish throughout Europe the important desideratum of 

 technical uniformity in relation to electricity. England, France, 

 Germany, Austria, the United States, Spain, Denmark, Norway, 

 and Sweden will be represented. 



M. Gabriel de Mortillet, Professor of Archseology to the 

 School of Anthropology of Paris, has just published through 

 Reinwald a work under the title of " Le Praehistorique," which 

 may be considered as the first complete manual for the study of 

 the Archaeological Museum of St. Germain. M. Gabriel de 

 Mortillet has been attached to this establishment from its founda- 

 tion by Napoleon III. up to the present time, andisiadu;triou ly 

 engaged in its completion. The author, who is one of the few 

 living geologists who investigated the formation of glaciers in 

 Switzerland with Agassiz, attempts at the end of his volume to 

 determine how far distant is the epoch when Homo Sapiens 

 made his first appearance on the earth, by estimating the rate of 

 progression of blocks which were carried by former ice-fields, 

 and he cojaes to the conclusion that the space of time that 

 has elapsed since that event took place exceeds 200,000 years. 



The meteorological station on the summit of the Santis has 

 recently been opened, and this latest Swiss station promises to 

 be of importance with regard to the progress of meteorological 

 science. In its altitude of 2504 metres it is surpassed only by 

 the observatories on the Stelvio (2548 metres), the Pic du Midi 

 in the Pyrenees (2877 metres), and the station upon the Colorado 

 Peak (4340 metres). 



Tut Panama Star and Herald of September 14 gives details 

 of several earthquake shock; which had visited the isthmu; 

 during the preceding week, doing much damage, but, fortu- 

 nately, only cau-ing two death--. At 3.20 a.m. on Thursday, 

 the 7th, the inhabitants were aroused from their beds by one of 

 the longest and most severe earthquake shocks ever experienced 

 in the city. It was preceded by a hollow, rumbling noise. The 

 motion was wave like, and proceeded almost directly from north 

 to south. The first and most severe shock must have lasted at 

 least 30 seconds. Extreme damage was done to buildings. A 

 second and milder shock occurred about half an hour after the 

 first. The Pacific Mail steamship Clyde, arriving from San 

 Francisco, reported that the earthquake was severely felt on 

 board. Passengers declared that it appeared as if the ve 5 sel 

 were lifted bodily from the sea aud allowed to fall back. The 

 effects of the earthquake along the railroad were most marked. 

 The stone abutments of several of the bridges were cracked and 

 almost split, and the earthworks sank in half a dozen places. 

 In several places where the direct action of the shock appears 

 to have made itself most strongly felt, the rails were curved as 

 if they had been intentionally bent. The severe shock on the 

 morning of the 7th was followed during the day by several 

 others of less intensity, and at 11.30 p.m. a sharp shock 

 alarmed the whole city, and drove the people from their houses 

 to the squires. Another slighter shock occurred at about 

 three in the morning ; but, fortunately, neither it nor its 

 predecessor added further ruin to that already incurred 

 in the city. All the shocks were felt on the islands 

 in the bay, and some houses suffered at Taboga. On 

 (he morning of the 7th, at about 3. 15, the residents of Colon 



