Jan. 17, 1884] 



NA TURE 



Hy Gil! 



by the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of MelbDurne ; a 

 Dorsal Squirrel {Sciunis hypopyirhus) from Central America, a 

 Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacaliia galeiila) from 

 Australia, twenty-five Indian Crocodiles (Crocodihis palnstris) 

 from India, deposited. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Parallaxes OF Southern Stars. — We learn from Mr. Gill, 

 II. M. Astronomer at the Cape, that he has completed a memoir 

 on the parallax of some of the principal southern stars, founded 

 upon observations by himself and Dr. Elkin ; the memoir con- 

 tains investigations on parallax of 



( o Centauri (two series with different comparison- 

 1 stars) ; Sirius ; € Indi ; Lacaille 9352 (Gould's star 

 J with proper motion of 7") ; 0- Eridaui, and j8 Cen- 

 ( tauri. 



( a Centauri (two series with different comparison- 

 By Elkin \ stars from Gill's) ; Sirius ; € Indi (also with different 

 ( stars) ; f Tucani ; e Eridani and Canopus. 



Mr. Gill's important memoir has been communicated to the 

 Royal Astronomical Society, and its publication will doubtless 

 be awaited with much interest by astronomers. 



The laige proper motion of Lacaille 9352 was detected by 

 Dr. Gould, and announced in No. 2377 of the Astronomische 

 Nachrichten. The annual P.M. in arc of great circle is 6"'96 

 in the direction 79°2. It is a star of 7'5 m. in Piscis Au-trinus : 

 Mr. Stone's place for iSSo'o is in 



R.A. 22h. 58m. 5-43S., N.P.D. 126° 32' 4o"o. 



In only one instance has the existence of a larger proper 

 motion been discovered, viz. in that of the well known 6'7m. 

 Grooiubridge 1830 in Ursa Major, where the amount is 7"'o5. 

 £• Eridani, 44 m., is in R.A. 3h. 15m. 8i6s., N.P.D. 133° 31' 

 46" 8 for 1880, according to Stone, who attributes to it an 

 annual proper motion of 3"'o in the direction 75^'S. f Tucani, 

 a fourth magnitude, is in R.A. oh. 13m. 48'6os., N.P.D. 155° 

 34' 49"'o for 1880, with an annual proper motion of 4"'35 o" ^" 

 angle of 74° 'S, by Stone's values. 



Mr. Gill expects to be in England early in February, to super- 

 intend a lar^e amount of official printing, for which he brings 

 copy with him. 



Po.\s' Comet. — For a few evenings this comet will form a 

 pretty conspicuous object as it descends in the south-western sl.y ; 

 after it cea-es to be visible in Europe observations may be con- 

 tinued at the observatories of the other hemisphere for several 

 months. On March 26 the theoretical intensity of light will be 

 ten times, and a month later, five limes, greater than at the 

 beginning of September, when the comet was discovered through 

 the diligent scrutiny of the heavens, followed up by Mr. Brooks, 

 who found it considerably beyond the limits of the sweeping 

 ephemerides then in the possession of observers. Mr. S. C. 

 Chandler has conjectured that a meteor-stream may be connected 

 with this comet. MM. Schulhof and Bossert's orbit for 1884 

 gives the radiant in R.A. I97°'8, Decl. + (>T"i- 



The Minor Planets. — The Birliner Astronomischcs Jahr- 

 buck for 1886 contains elements and approximate ephemerides 

 for the present year of 231 of the known members of this 

 extensive group, only four therefore being omitted in the absence 

 of the necessary data. In addition there are twenty-six accurate 

 opposition-ephemerides. Four of these small planets approach 

 the earth, within her mean distance from the sun, in 18S4. At 

 the end of December No. 132 .Etkra, situate in the vicinity of 

 a Orionis, will approach the earth within O'Sf, and shining as a 

 star of the ninth magnitude, will afford another favourable 

 opportunity for the investigation of solar parallax, on the method 

 advocated by Mr. Gill. 



SCIENCE IN RUSSIA ' 

 'l''HE Memoirs (Zapiski) of the Novorossian Society of 

 A^atitra/ists, at the University of Odessa, founded only 

 in 1873, have already reached their eighth volume, and contain 

 a good deal of valuable work. Confining our analysis to the 

 last three volumes, we notice in them the following papers : — 

 In the domain of geology Prof. Sintsoff contributes several 

 » Memoirs 0/ the Novorossian Society of Natnratists {Zapiski Novo- 

 rossiyslcago Obscliestra Esfcshoispylotetey^, vols, vi., vii., .-ind vHi. 

 Odessa. 



papers. One of them is an elaborate monograph on the sponges 

 from the chalk of Saratoff. Revising his former work on the 

 same subject, and taking advantage of the well-known work of 

 Prof. Zittel, as well as of new extensive collections, M. Sintsoff 

 creates a number of new species and four new genera : Mtcan- 

 droptychiuHi, which he proposes to substitute for those of Cello- 

 ptychium, Elhcridgia, and Tremabolites ; Laiyriitt/wlites, closely 

 allied to Plocoscyphia ; Polyscyphia, akin to the preceding ; 

 and Zittelispoiii^ia. The author describes (with figures) seven 

 species of the first, four species of the second and the third, and 

 one species of the fourth, as well as the following species : — 

 Cucttlispoiii^ia triloba, Trautschold, Craticularia cylindrica, 

 Mischl. ; two species of Ventriculites, two species of Coscino- 

 pora, Leptophragma simplex, T. Smith, Actiitosiphonia radiata, 

 Fisch , and the new species Hallirhoa peskowi and Isoraphinia 

 cavata. — The same author contributes a seco.id paper on Meso- 

 zoic fossils from Simbirsk and Saratoff (the first paper having 

 appeared in vol. iv. ), and describes the following species : — 

 Ammonites longispinus and culetanns, Scalaria dupiniatia, var. 

 rhodani, Astarte bcaumontii, Panopcea iteocomiensis, and as 

 new species Aporrhais striata-carinata, Niicula siibarduen- 

 nensis, and Lucina neutralis. — A third paper by the same 

 author contains a description of the following Tertiary fossils of 

 Novorossia : — Dreissena rostriforinis, Desh., Hydrobia niathildie- 

 f or mis, Fuchs, If. dimidiata, Eichw. , Valvata variabilis, 

 Fuchs, Neritina danubialis, Pfeif., var. liturata, Eichw., TV. 

 prevostricina, Partsch., and N. capillacea, Brusina, from the 

 Pliocene ; Trochus rollandianus, d'Orb., P/iasianel'a kischi- 

 ncrviie, d'Orb., and as new species Trochus ininutus, semi- 

 striatus, and elegantulus, Hydrobia substriatula, Amnicola 

 cyclostomoides, and Valvata pseudo adeorbis, from the Miocene. 

 All these fossils are represented in the plates. — M. Prendel con- 

 tributes a paper on the geological structure of the districts of 

 Elizabethgiad and .^le.tandria, in the government of Kherson. 

 The rocks are granites, mostly as schists, and considered by 

 the late Barbot-de-Marny as a product of metamorphism of sedi- 

 mentary rucks, and very siall patches of Iluronian schists, 

 covered with numerous isolated islanrls of Eocene. The whole 

 is covered with the "White Sands," where M. Prendel has 

 found a stem of Cuprcssonoxylum scvirzovi, Merklin (Miocene ?), 

 and with loe.sp, which contains, besides the usual fossils, remains 

 of Arctomys bobac, which does nut now extend in Russia south 

 of 52''-54^ N. lat. — The same author contributes (vol. viii.) 

 another paper on Ih,; crystalline rocks on the Bazavlouk and 

 Saksagan Rivers, right tributaries of the Lower Dnieper. The 

 paper is accompanied by a map of coloured sections of micro- 

 scopic specimens of crystalline rocks. 



The chief papers in these Memoirs are however devoted 

 to comparative anatomy and zoology. Without attempting to 

 summarise their varied contents, we can merely enumerate 

 most of them. All are profusely illustrated with plates. In 

 the sixth volume we notice a preliminary communication by 

 Madame Olga Mechnikoff, on the anatomy of cartilaginous 

 fishes ; and a note, by Prof. H. Mechnikoff, on the larva of the 

 Anisoplia. — M. Repyakoff contributes an elaborate paper on 

 the morphology of the Bryozoa. Without attempting to determine 

 the place that the Bryozoa; ought to occupy in systematic classi- 

 fication, the author devotes his special attention to the relations 

 between the tno great subdivisions of the Endopr..ct and Ecto- 

 proct Bryozoa;, and his paper is a valuable contribution to the 

 work undertaken by Nitsche, Hatschek, Joliet, and Barrois. — 

 M. Zabarinsky contributes a paper on the morphology of the 

 Hydra. — In vol. vii. M. Buchinsky publi-hes a paper on the 

 development of the earthworm, devoting his special attention 

 to the devel ipment of its mesoderm and of its nervoiLS system. 

 — In vol. viii. M. Krasilschik contributes an elaborate paper on 

 the development of the Polytrema, and the place it occupies with 

 regard to other Flagellatre ; M. Repyakoff publishes a note on 

 the larv.e of the Polygordius flavocapitalus ; M. Depp, on the 

 life of the Macropodes ; and M. A. Kovalevsky, on the deve- 

 lopment of the Chiton. — In physiology we notice the researches, 

 by M. Spiro, into the development of bile, being the result of 

 various experiments, and accompanied with tables showing the 

 dependence of its amount upon the food. 



In botany we find the researches by M. Rishavi on the de- 

 velopment of the organs of reproduction in Dasya elegans 

 (vok vi.) ; a list of lichens collected on Mount Castel in the 

 Crimea, and determined by Dr. Brutann in Dorpat (vol. vii.) ; 

 and a work, by M. Kojernikoff, on the anatomical structure of 

 'he cn:-il'a in flowers. The author has extended his researches 



