,-'8 



NA TURE 



[I'EBKLAKY 6, I 908 



In a note published in the AWi dei Lined (vol. xxvi., 

 2. P- 7'7) under the title " The Origin of Stereo- 

 theniistry," Prof. E. Patern6 points out that in i86g, five 

 vears prior to the publication by Le Bel and van 't Hoff 

 of the doctrine of the asymmetric carbon atom, he sug- 

 "jested that if thfee isomeric forms- of the compound 

 C.HjBr, actually existed, the fact could be explained by 

 assuming the four affinities of the carbon atom to be 

 directed towards the corners of a tetrahedron. This was 

 the first occasion on which the hypothesis of the tetra- 

 hedral ' configuration of the carbon atom was definitely 

 formulated. Although the validity of Prof. Palerno's claim 

 has already been admitted in some quarters, it is not 

 generally' known to chemists that tlie conception of a 

 tetrahedra! carbon atom, the basis of modern stereo- 

 chemistry, had been proposed earlier than the year 1874, 

 when it was brought forward simultaneously by Le Bel 

 and van t Hoff. 



mathematical and physical library of 



Herschel, K.R.S., and , also works 



F. Moore, author of 



The whole of th 

 the late Prof. .\. 

 from the library of the late Mr 

 books on the Lepidoptera of India and Ceylon, ar 

 eluded in a catalogue just issued by Mr. T. Thorp, < 

 ford, Surrev, who offers the books for sale. 



ild- 



.\n enlargement by four di;imeters of a photograph of 

 the moon taken by Mr. W. Rice with a (ioerz telephoto 

 lens, the exposure being three-fifths of a second, has been 

 sent to us by Messrs. G. Philip and Son, Ltd. The photo- 

 gra;«Ji was taken twelve hours before the moon was full, 

 and though the enlargement, which is 6 inches in diameter, 

 is not remarkable for any details it shows of .lunar 

 features, it gives a real impression of our satellite as a 

 ball in space, this appearance of relief being accentuated 

 by the bright streaks radiating from the crater Tycho 

 near the south lunar pole. 



At the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society on 

 November 30 last. Lord Dunedin bewailed the fact that 

 few men of science make any attempt to describe their 



.. ,.. . , ... , J . , riomique," Chauss6e de Turnhout, 142, Borgerhout, Ant 



investigations in language which can be understood by Z, ■ Jt • » 



men of culture without special scientific knowledge. This 

 speech, as was pointed out in Nature (vol. Ix.wii., p. iii), 

 gave rise to a correspondence in the Times, in which the 

 advantage of increasing interest in scientific work by 

 making the results as widely known as possible was 

 insisted upon in many quarters. .A similar necessity has 

 been recognised in America, and an attempt is being made 

 at Columbia University to provide literature of the kind 

 required. The Columbia University Press has arranged 

 to publish in the form of pamphlets a series of twentv- 

 two descriptive lectures in non-technical language of the 

 achievements of science and modern scholarship. We have 

 received copies of the first two pamphlets ; the first, on 

 mathematics, is by Prof. C. J.- Keyser, and the second, 

 on physics,- by Prof. E. F. Nichols. A doubt may be 

 expressed as to whether the language of these lectures 

 will be simple enough for the public for whom they are 

 intended. The pamphlets partake largely of the character 

 of the Royal Institution lectures, reprints of which are 

 hften available in this country, and contain terms and ideas- 

 which, though simple enough to the reader with some 

 training in science, present difficulty to the student whose 

 education has been chiefly on literary lines. It will be 

 "interesting to learn later the extent of the encouragement 

 received by the Columbia University Press. The price of 

 the pamphlets is in every case to be 25 cents. 

 NO. iqQ7, VOL. 77] 



OUK ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Distortion of Photograpmtc Films in Stellar 

 Work. — In No. i, vol. i., of the Publications of 

 the Allegheny Observatory (Pennsylvania), Dr. Franli 

 Schlesinger discusses the possibilities of error introduced 

 into photographic star-measures by reason of the distortion 

 undergone by the film during the process of development. 

 He further describes some experiments and measures he 

 has made in order to determine the magnitude of this 

 error. By developing, drying, and measuring a negative 

 in the ordinary way, and afterwards putting it through 

 the developing, fixing, washing, drying, and measuring 

 processes again, he has obtained the data from which he 

 draws his conclusions. Briefly, he finds that this error is 

 much smaller than the error of bisection for good star 

 images, being of the order of one one-thousandth of a 

 millimetre for the kind of plate employed. 



Two Hundred New Double Stars. — Lick Observatory" 

 Bulletin No. 125 contains a list, and measures, of 200 

 double stars discovered by Prof. Aitken. This is th'- 

 eleventh list of its kind, and the stars now announctd 

 bring the total of Prof. Aitken's published discoveries up 

 to 1700. Nine fainter companions to previously known 

 pairs are included in the present list, which also contains 

 measures of the unusually bright and close pairs k Urs^ 

 Majoris and v" Bootis (.Aitken, 1585 and 1634) as 

 follows : — 



n.-ite Angle 

 *f Ursse Majoris... I907*83 ... 283°-2 

 1-2 Bootis I907'55 - ^Sy'^o 



A New Astronomical Journal. — ^The members of the 

 progressive astronomical society of Antwerp having ex- 

 pressed a (j'esire for a publication which would give the 

 various ephemerides, and a simple account of the astro- 

 nomical phenomena to be observed from time to time, the 

 council of the society has commenced the publication of 

 the Gazette astronomique, which is to appear monthly, and 

 is designed to fill the gap indicated ; popular articles on 

 astronomical subjects are also to appear. No. i 

 (January 4) contains various ephemerides, notes on pheno- 

 mena occurring during January, accounts of the recent 

 transit of Mercury, and a series of notes dealing, re- 

 spectively, with the planets, asteroids, meteors, comets, 

 &c. The annual subscription for this useful publication 

 is three francs, post free in all countries, and all com- 

 munications should be addressed to *' Gazette astro- 



,verp, Belgium. 



4 The Study of Meteor Trains. — The Monthly Weather 

 Review (U.S. .A.), vol. x.xxv., No. 9, contains a suggestive 

 article by Prof. Trowbridge on the utility of the precise 

 observations of meteor-train drifts for the determination 

 of atmospheric currents at altitudes otherwise inaccessible. 

 This altitude, of meteor trains seen at night, ranges from 

 forty-five to sixty-five miles, and Prof. Trowbridge believes 

 that the conditions of pressure and temperature at about 

 fifty-five miles above the earth's sui lace ai<; p..)ssibly 

 peculiarly suitable for the production of trains ; careful 

 study may enlighten us as to these conditions. Several 

 recorded trains are illustrated in the article and fully dis- 

 cussed, and the author suggests that valuable results may 

 follow from an organised series of careful observations. 



The Accuracy of Double-star Measures. — A paper by 

 Prof. Doberck, appearing in No. 4229 of the Astrononiische 

 Nachrichten (p. 65, January 21), should appeal to double- 

 star observers. In it the author gives the probable con-, 

 stant errors, and the residuals after applying these 

 constant, or the mean, errors to the observations, in 

 position-angle and distance for some fifty past and present 

 observers. The probable errors are based on the compari- 

 son of the results of the various observations with the 

 positions calculated from the orbits of thirty double stars 

 recently determined by Prof. Doberck. The effects of 

 difference of colour, which, as Prof. Doberck remarks, 

 must be considerable, are not discussed in the present 

 paper, but the same worker expects to deal with them 

 later. The variations of the probable errors caused by 

 increase of the distance between the compo.nents, and by 



