Dec. 23, 1869] 
NATURE 2 
bo 
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point was somewhere within the sickle of Leo, but I am not sure 
as to its exact position. Most of the meteors shot westward 
along the ecliptic, through Gemini and Taurus, but others in all 
directions. ‘Lhe trains of light and the nuclei were generally 
white, with a slight tinge of green, but all the prismatic colours 
were seen. The time of duration of the flight was from the 
fraction of a second up to 6 seconds, and the longest trains about 
40°. At one time gleams of light of various forms appeared in 
Leo. I had a smal! hand-spectroscope, but the times of duration 
were too short for using it.” 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
The Moniteur Scientifique for December 1 contains a transla- 
tion of Dr. Williamson’s memoir of the late Professor Graham, 
which appeared in the first number of NATURE, a review of con- 
temporary physics and astronomy, a long notice of M. Paul 
Champion’s work on the ancient and modern industry of China, 
and the usual accounts of new patents and meetings of scientific 
societies. The number for December 15 completes the volume 
for 1869, and gives elaborate tables of contents. The remaining 
space is devoted to reports of the proceedings of the Academy of 
Sciences, abstracts of papers, notices of new publications, and an 
account of the new development of the trade in false autographs. 
The Revue des Cours Scientifigues for December 11 contains a 
translation of an essay by Helmholtz on Goethe as a naturalist 
and a physicist, an article on the boring of Mont Cenis by M. A. 
Cazin, and a translation of Professor Williamson’s memoir of 
Graham, contributed to our first number. The greater portion 
cf the number for December 18 is occupied by a translation of a 
faper on the Centenary of Humboldt, read before the Boston 
Natural History Society by Professor Agassiz. It also contains 
lectures on Paleeontology by M. A. Gaudry, and an important 
paper on the Mortality of Women in Labour, by Professor 
Lorain. 
In the Philosophical Magazine for this month, Mr. C. Tomlin- 
son, F.R.S., gives an account of Van der Meusbrugghe’s im- 
portant treatise on the Superficial Tension of Liquids, in which 
the movements of camphor on the surface of water are shown to 
form a particular case of a general theory. Mr. W. H. Preece 
contributes a proof of the Parallelogram of Forces, and Dr. 
Odling a note on Condensed Ammonia Compounds. Pro- 
fessor Kengott’s Microscopical Investigation of the Knyahynia 
Meteorite, and M. Abich’s paper on LIlailstorms in Russian 
Georgia (both of which are accompanied by plates), are well 
deserving of attention. 
In the Chemical News for December 17, Mr. Edwin Smith 
describes an interesting series of experiments on the Electrical 
Phenomena of Plants, suggested by a chapter in Hecquerel’s 
treatise. A paper read before the Glasgow Philosophical 
Society by Mr. R. R. Tatlock, F.C.S., on the Estimation of 
fodine and Bromine, with special reference to the Analysis of 
Kelp, is reproduced. Mr We. T. Suffolk; F2R2M.S., 
continues his useful articles on Microscopical Manipulation ; 
and Mr. HH. C. Sorby, F.R.S., describes the ayplication 
of the Spectrum Microscope to the Valuation of Wines. 
fn a paper on the Constitution of the Compounds of Sodium, 
Mr. J. A. Wanklyn, F.C.S., adduces new arguments in support 
cf his opinion that the metal sodium had a polyvalent character. 
he books noticed in this number are Dr. Bence Jones’s Memoir 
of Faraday, and a treatise on the Leclanché Battery. Corre- 
spondence from Dr. Mennier and Dr. J. H. Gladstone, and 
t penical Notices from Foreign Journals, make up the rest of the 
number. 
A Paper by M. Felix Plateau, on the Flight of the Coleop- 
tora, read before the Physical and Natural History Society of 
Geneva, in September last, has just been published in the 
Pibliothéque Universelle et Revue Suisse. The conclusions arrived 
at are as follows :—(1), The difference of flexibility between the 
two edges of the wing are not sufficient to account completely for 
the phenomena of flight. (2), The wing makes a wide angle with 
the plane in whichit moves. (3), It is deflected more rapidly than 
it is elevated. (4), The extent of surface of the wing is greater 
i1 the movement of deflection than in the movement of elevation. 
‘The influence of the elytra, their form and mode of action, as 
well as some other considerations, are reserved for a memoir 
which the author hopes to publish shortly. 
ASTRONOMY 
Oppolzer communicates to the Astronomische Nachrichten the 
following elements of Comet I1., 1869 :— 
7 = Oct. 9°266 Berlin mean time. 
 — 13902 1! 13” 
Q = 311° 27’ 51” 
DP = SUBm Poy 7lo\ 
log. q = o'0g014° 
Professor C. H. IF. Peters, of Clinton, N.Y., has discovered 
still another new planet, 9°7 mag., the elements of which are as 
follows :— 
Mean Eq. 1869-70. 
z= 1869, Oct. oo Berlin mean time, 
M = 338 ¥ 47°7" 
m= 53. 8 20°8” 
Q = 5° 3f 52:27 
t— 8 9'59°4" 
p = 16° 43 30°2" 
p = 808'32 
log. a 07428281 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Astronomical Society, December 10. — Second 
Meeting of Session. Admiral Manners, president, in the chair 
during the early part of the meeting; afterwards (the president 
finding his health not sufficiently restored to enable him to re- 
main), Mr. De la Rue, I.R.S., vice-president, took the chair. 
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, and 
thirty-two presents announced, including a magnificent represen- 
tation of the solar spectrum from France (showing the part be- 
yond the violet end), presented by Mr. Ladd. Mr. Williams, 
the assistant secretary, then read a series of extracts from an 
elaborate work on Chinese Astronomy, upon which he has been 
engaged during the last three years. He exhibited in a very 
complete and lucid manner the Chinese mode of reckoning 
time by cycles of sixty years, the several years of each cycle 
being indicated by certain characters called Kea Tsze. He 
then showed how any year in ordinary chronology, whether 
B.C. or A.D., can be represented in the proper cycle, and in 
its right place in that cycle. He described the division of the 
heavens into thirty-one parts; three, called “Yuen,” of large 
size; the remainder, called “Suh,” representing lunar houses, and 
very irregular in extent, both from east to west and from north to 
south. While one, for instance, extended north and south from 
Perseus to Canopus, another consisted mainly of a few stars in 
the head of Orion Other extracts exhibited the correctness of 
the positions assigned by the Chinese to the equinoxes and the 
solstices, and the evidence their estimates give respecting the 
date at which their observations were made. He mentioned 
inter alia that the Metonic Cycle had been known to the Chinese 
astronomers 2,cco0 years before Meton’s day. ‘Ihe occurrence 
of the names of our modern asterisms in Chinese records must 
not be held to indicate the antiquity of our constellation-figures, 
because it cannot be doubted that the Jesuits taught the Chinese 
these new names. In fact, the Chinese were led to remodel 
their system of astronomy according to the instructions of the 
Jesuits—a misfortune, perhaps, since, al hough the old system of 
astronomy had had the disadvantage of being inexact and scarcely 
intelligible, the chan; e destroyed many of the clues by which we 
mg xt have found clearer ideas as to what the Chinese astronomers 
reaily meant to record.—The Astronomer Royal indicated his 
high opinion of the value of such researches as those in which 
Mr. Williams had been engaged. Astronomy is the science 
which of all others brings niost together the past, the present, 
and the future, and, therefore, all studies cf long past eras, even 
though the astronomical observations then made were compara- 
tively inexact, cannot but have ahigh value. Mr. Stone, F.R.S., 
called attention to the general value of the matter brought before 
the society’s notice by Mr. Williams, but expressed his regret 
that the Chinese records named only the day on which any 
phenomenon was observed. Mr. De la Rue then mentioned 
that the greater part, if not all, of Mr. Williams’s work, would be 
printed in the Society’s Memoirs.—The Astronomer Royal de- 
scribed an arrangement for correcting atmospheric chromatic 
dispersion, even simpler than those he had before devised. It 
had occurred simultaneously to himself and to Mr, Simms, the 
