re oe =. ae 
+ 
June 9, 1923] | 
NA TURE 
785 
ee 
Street, Strand, London, W.C.2. A wide range of ‘and Boyd, Edinburgh, under the title of ‘ Fossil 
direct-vision pocket spectroscopes, some with and 
some without comparison prisms and micrometer 
scales, is included, together with larger portable sizes 
fitted with collimators. Among the table spectro- 
meters manufactured by the firm is one of an auto- 
collimating type in which the telescope has an object- 
glass of 1 in. diameter and 9g in. focal length. The 
circle is 5 in. in diameter with two verniers reading 
to 1’. Other instruments described are stereoscopes, 
prismatic compasses, prismatic field and opera 
glasses, and there is also included a short, light- 
weight telescope having a Porro prism erecting 
system and fitted with a revolving adapter carrying 
two eyepieces giving magnifications of to and 15 
. 
> 
: 
: 
: 
or naturalist. Simple explanatory notes describing 
the construction, use, and adjustment of the various 
instruments increase the usefulness of the catalogue. 




























TuHE latest catalogue (No. 444) of Mr. F. Edwards, 
83 High Street, Marylebone, W.1, is devoted to 
biography and history. It contains a short list of 
lives of men of science, reasonably priced. 
A TRANSLATION, by Jessie Elliot Ritchie and 
Dr. J. Ritchie, of Prof. H. Boule’s ‘‘ Les Hommes 
Fossiles ’’ is to be published shortly by Messrs. Oliver 
June Mereoric Disprays.—Mr. W. F. Denning 
writes: ‘‘ Sometimes a fair number of meteors are to 
be seen during the short nights of June, and there are 
many radiants visible, but they are so feeble that 
unless the observer maintains long vigils he will not 
gather sufficient paths to indicate the places of 
_ radiation accurately. 
“Some of the chief radiants at midsummer are : 
213°+53° 245°+64° 252° - 13° 252° -23° 
260° - 12° 260° - 22° 261°+ 5° 280° - 13° 
mege 108° = 282°-24° = 354°-+ 40° 355° +77" 
Considering that the twilight is strong and persistent 
during the whole of the night and that therefore the 
‘conditions are not favourable, the meteors are often 
more in evidence than would have been expected. 
The nights of June are also so agreeable for outdoor 
_ work that this particular time of the year is an attract- 
_ ive one to the student of meteors. It is true that 
what may be termed the real opening of the meteoric 
_ Season occurs at the middle of July, but June antici- 
-pates a few of the advantages of the former month 
im a minor degree. 
“The Perseids possibly commence to display the 
vanguard of their coming host at the end of June, 
and this question needs further attention. A few 
meteors exhibiting all the characteristics of the 
' Perseids have been recorded so early as June 25-26 
and with conformable directions, but it is just pos- 
sible that other showers may have been responsible. 
To ascertain the truth two observations at distant 
“Stations are required, and observers should make 
eo a efforts to obtain them during the last week in 
une and first week in July. If this endeavour were 
thoroughly carried out we should soon acquire the 
necessary evidence and discover the opening date of 
the great Perseid shower. It is by far the finest 
NO. 2797, VOL. 111] 
respectively ; this should prove useful to the tourist 
‘Men: Elements of Human Paleontology.” The 
work has been brought up-to-date by the addition 
of notes by the author. 
_ As many of the works on natural history published 
by the Trustees of the British Museum (Natural 
History) are out-of-print and difficult to obtain, a list 
of the volumes on sale by Messrs. Wheldon and 
Wesley, Ltd., 2 Arthur Street, W.C.2, should be of 
interest to many readers of NatuRE. The catalogue, 
classified according to subjects, is New Series, No. 7. 
It can be had upon application to the publishers. 
_ Tur Cambridge University Press is to publish this 
summer, under the title of ‘‘ The Domain of Natural 
Science,’ the Gifford Lectures delivered by Prof. 
E. W. Hobson in the University of Aberdeen in 1921 
and 1922. The work is an attempt to settle the 
telation of ‘‘ that complex of knowledge and ideas 
which is denoted by the term natural science” to 
religion and philosophy at the present day. To 
attain this object the author has examined the his- 
torical development, aims, and true characteristics 
of the various departments of natural science. Vol. 
xviii., Q-S, of the Royal Society of London Catalogue 
‘of Scientific Papers, Fourth Series, will be issued by 
the same house immediately. 
Our Astronomical Column. 
annual display exhibited in the heavens and lasts for 
a longer period than any other stream, for late 
Perseids are seen until about September 5 and 6, 
when the radiant is at 90° +57° on the N.E. boundaries 
of Auriga.” 
THE CoRONA OF 1908 AND SOLAR PROMINENCES.— 
In the Memoirs of the Kodaikanal Observatory (vol. 
I, Pt. ii. p. 67) Mr. Evershed referred to the corona 
of 1908 as affording a test of the relationship of 
rominences to coronal streamers, because the 
odaikanal photographs of prominences showed 
considerable activity over the sun’s south polar 
region and an almost complete absence over the 
Morth pole. In Mon. Not. R.A.S. vol. 83, p. 153, 
he returns to this subject because, as he says, 
“ the corona, as drawn by the late Mr. Wesley from 
photographs obtained at Flint Island by Mr, McClean, 
Shows the opposite distribution as regards the 
coronal streamers, which are more conspicuous over 
the north polar region than over the south, and thus 
the test in this instance appears to fail, although 
from previous eclipses there seemed to be a close 
correspondence between the coronal streamers and 
the principal zones of prominence activity.”” Mr. 
Evershed was therefore led to re-examine the orienta- 
tion of the Flint Island photographs in relation to 
his own prominence photographs and Dr. Campbell’s 
Bublished photographs of the corona. He has now 
come to the conclusion that the north and south points 
on Mr. Wesley’s drawings should be interchanged. 
Mr. Evershed concludes that ‘“‘ Dr. Campbell’s 
orientation is correct and that the corona of 1908 
is not an exceptional case, but, on the contrary, 
adds weight to the evidence previously found for a 
close relationship between prominences and coronal 
streamers as advocated by Major Lockyer in his 
recent and also his earlier paper.” 
