March 26, 190S] 



NA TURE 



497 



the fourth editioji of the l:ite Miss Agnes M. Clirkc's 

 " History of Astrononiv in the Nineteenth Century." 



The Bibliographischen Institut of Leipzig and \'ionna 

 has sent us the first part of a second revised and enlarged 

 edition of Dr. M. W. Meyer's popular work on general 

 astronomy entitled " Das WeltgebJiude." The edition will 

 be completed in fourteen part--, to be published at the 

 price of one mark each. 



It is announced tliat papers on parasitology, which 

 have hitherto appeared in the Journal of Hygiene, will in 

 the future be published in a separate volume to be entitled 

 Parasitology, a Siippleiiiciil to the Journal of Hygiene. 

 The publication will be edited by Prof. Nuttall and Mr. 

 Shipley. 



A THIRD edition of Mr. Douglas English's " Wee 

 Tim'rous Bcasties " has been published by Messrs. Cassell 

 and Co., Ltd. These studies of animal life and character 

 were reviewed in the issue of Nature for December 24, 

 1903 (vol. Ixix., p. 176), on which occasion we reproduced 

 one of the excellent illustrations with which the volume is 

 plentifully supplied. 



We have rece'vcd a copy of an interesting and fairly 

 complete international catalogue of the more important 

 periodical publications of the world, which has been com- 

 piled by Prof. Eniile Guarini, and published in Paris by 

 MM. H. Dunod and E. Pinat. The price is 3 francs, and 

 the catalogue gives the address, publisher, and price of 

 4063 reviews and journals classified according to countries. 



Messrs. Pawson and Brailsford, of Sheffield, have 

 published a third edition of Mr. J. Simpson's " The Wild 

 Rabbit in a New Aspect, or Rabbit Warrens combined 

 with Poultry Farming and Fruit Culture." The bool< has 

 been revised and enlarged, contains several illustrations, 

 and will probably assist the encouragement of rabbit 

 warrens and rabbit farming, whether conducted for sport 

 or profit. 



Another volume has been added to the series dealing 

 with the fauna of British India, including Ceylon and 

 Burma, edited by Lieut. -Colonel C. T. Bingham, and pub- 

 lished under the authority of the Secretary of State for 

 India by Messrs. Taylor and Francis. The new volume 

 continues the consideration of the Coleoptera, and is con- 

 cerned with a portion of the family Chrysomelida?. It is 

 the work of the late Mr. Martin Jacoby. In a short pre- 

 face the editor expresses the hope that the book will direct 

 the attention of collectors in India to this somewhat 

 neglected but important group of phytophagous beetles, 

 and prove of assistance to them in their study. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Water Vapour ix the Martian Atmosphere.^ — A glance 

 at a print from a series of spectrograms taken by Mr. 

 Slipher on January 15, which Prof. Lowell has kindly sent 

 to -Sir Norman Lockyer, leaves but little doubt that water 

 vapour is present in the atmosphere of Mars. This print 

 includes two spectra of the moon and one of Mars, and 

 whilst the a band is absent from the former, it is quite a 

 TTiarked feature of the latter spectrum. The exposure for 

 the spectrum of Mars was from 5h. 35m. to 8h. 30m., the 

 mean altitude of the planet being 43°, whilst those for 

 the moon were made at ijh. 26m., the altitude being 30° ; 

 the aqueous vapour per cubic foot of air, during the ex- 

 posures, was found to be 1-25 grains. 



The Dispersion of Light in Interstellar Space. — In 

 No. 6 (February 10, p. 266) of the Comptes rcndus Dr. 

 C. Nordmann described a method whereby the dispersion 

 of light in interstellar space might possiblv be determined. 

 Briefly, the method consists in making photometric observa- 



NO. 2004, VOL. 77] 



tions of quickly changing variable stars, the light of the 

 star, being first passed through different coloured screens 

 for each observation. If all radiations traverse space with 

 equal velocities, such observations should give light-curves 

 agreeing in phase among themselves and with those deter- 

 mined in the ordinary method; but if some radiations are 

 relatively retarded, then the light-curves so determined 

 should c.xhibit marked deviations of phase. Three liquid 

 screens transmitting only radiations of AX = 5900 to the 

 extreme red, 5900 to 4900 and 4900 to the ultra-violet, 

 respectively, were prepared, and Dr. Nordmann 's pre- 

 liminary results are published in No. 8 (February 24, 

 p. 383) of the Comptes rendus. 



Algol and A Tauri were the stars examined, and in both 

 cases it was found that, whilst the light-curves obtained 

 when the several screens were successively employed agree 

 in amplitude and form with the ordinary light-curves, there 

 is a measurable difference in the epoch of any specific 

 phase. With Algol the difference in time for the red and 

 blue screens amounted to sixteen minutes, whilst for the 

 red and green screens the difference was nine minijtes ; 

 these preliminary values are probably correct to within 

 about three mimites. The difference between red and blue 

 for X Tauri was about forty to sixty minutes, i.e. approxi- 

 mately three times the analogous difference in the case ot 

 Algol'; that is to say, the parallax of X Tauri is, pre- 

 sumably, about one-third that of Algol. Combining these 

 results with Pritchard's value for the parallax of Algol, 

 o"-0556, it follows, assuming space to be homogeneous, 

 that the difference between the velocities of the extreme 

 ends of the visible spectrum amounts to something of the 

 order of 150m. per second. 



Dr. Nordmann points out that this method of investiga- 

 tion offers great possibilities in several lines of research, 

 among which the determination of the parallaxes of 

 variable stars and the gauging of space for dark absorb- 

 ing material would not be the least interesting from a 

 cosmological point of view. 



The Moving Object near Jupiter. — Some revised Green- 

 wich positions for the suspected new Jovian satellite are 

 given in No. 4239 of the Astronomische Nachrichten 

 (p. 235). This object was observed by Prof. .Mbrecht at 

 the Lick Observatory on March 8, and its visual magni- 

 tude was recorded by Prof. Aitken as 150. 



Distribution of Standard Time in Egypt. — The 

 February number of the Cairo Scientific Journal (vol. ii.. 

 No. 17, p. 50) contains a very interesting account, by 

 Captain H. G. Lyons, of the methods of determining and 

 distributing standard civil time in Egypt. The standard 

 now used is the East Europe Time of the thirtieth meridian 

 E. of Greenwich, and Captain Lyons 's history of the long 

 sequence of events which led to its adoption is of great 

 interest. The organisation for the distribution appears now 

 to be efficient, and is described and illustrated in the article 

 under notice. 



Observations of Algol Variables. — The results of a 

 systematic investigation of the light-changes of ten Algol 

 variables are published by Dr. K. Graff in No. 11 of the 

 Mitteilungen der Hamburger Sternioarte. The observa- 

 tions were made during the years 1905, 1906, and 1907, and 

 Dr. Graff, in addition to giving the observational and 

 derived values and the method of reduction, gives charts 

 of the regions surrounding the variables, and a light-curve 

 for each. The stars observed were W Delphini, SW, SY, 

 UW, VW, and WW Cygni, U Sagitta:-, Z Persei, 

 Z Draconis, and RW Tauri. 



Nebul.^ and Nebulosities observed by Prof. Barnard. 

 — The purity of the atmosphere at the Mount Wilson 

 Observatory is once more emphasised by some results de- 

 scribed bv Prof. Barnard in No. 4239 of the Astronomische 

 Nachrichten (p. 231, March 17). Nebulosities suspected on 

 earlier photographs are shown unmistakably on those taken 

 during Prof. Barnard's sojourn at Mount Wilson ; con- 

 siderable extensions are shown on others. Messier 8, 16, 

 17, and 20 are amongst those now described, and in the 

 case of the last-named, the Trifid nebula, extensions appear 

 which have not been seen before by Prof. Barnard ; the 

 greatest diameter is 36' long, in a S.E. and N.W. direc- 

 tion, and the numerous black lanes, which have made this 

 nebula celebrated, are beautifully shown. 



