Feb. 7, 1884] 



NATURE 



345 



which has been made to a knowledge of Japan and its people ; 

 tlie translation seems to us to be well done. 



The next evening lecture of the Society for the Encouragement 



f the Fine Arts will be delivered by Mr. Lennox Browne, at the 



rooms of the Society in Conduit Street, on February 14. It will 



lie entitled " Science and Singing," ani will be elucid;ited by 



xocal and other illustrations. 



'^■RDt.l <Ctie Addaide Express and Telegraph of December 31, 

 1883, we learn that Mr. Clement L. Wragge was about to start 

 an astronomical and meteorological observatory on his own 

 account on the banks of the Torrens. Observations of the usual 

 meteorological elements were to be commenced on Jan. i, 1884. 

 The meteorological instruments comprise mercurial barometers, a 

 barograph, numerous self-registering and other thermometers by 

 the lie>t makers and Kew verified ; besides rain-gauges, ozone 

 tests, rain-band spectroscope, and other appliances used by Mr. 

 Wmgge at the Ben Nevis Oliservatory. He hopes to train an 

 assistant, who will carry on the work during any prolonged 

 absence. The house is to be called the Torrens Observatory, 

 and is admirably situated on Stephens Terrace, Gilberton, two 

 miles from Adelaide. 



O.N the proposal of M. de Lesseps, the Paris Geographical 

 Society has decided to publish the biographies of all the French 

 travellers of the present century. 



The jfoitrnal of the Society of Arts for February i contains 

 two papers of special interest. One by Mr. J. G. Colmer, the 

 .'-iecretary to the Canadian High Commissioner, tells what the 

 British Association will find in Canada on its visit in August 

 ne.xt ; the other is a paper of much practical value, by Mr. 

 Thomas Fletcher, on coal-gas as a labour-saving agent in 

 mechanical trades. 



We learn from a communic.ition from Orkney that on January 

 27 at 3 a.m. the barometer fell to 27508, and that the tide was 

 unusiinlly high. At Dundee the lowest record was 27'3S2 at 

 10.30 p.m. on the 26th, while the velocity of the wind is given 

 at from fifty to sixty-five miles per hour. In Orkney a velocity 

 of eighty-eight miles was recorded by the anemograph. 



It appears from the researches of M. Sokoloff that the water 

 of the Neva at St. Petersburg, at a depth of 9 feet, is very pure 

 when compared with the water supplied to other large citie-. 

 The matter in suspension in I cubic metre of water (in September 

 and October) does not exceed S"5 grm., and sometimes it is so 

 small as to be less than 0'02 grm. The mineral matter dissolved 

 varies from 31 'o to 38'! grm., and the organic matters reach but 

 l8'7 to 22'5grm. The average for August and .September is 

 20"4 grm. of organic matter and 31 '6 of inorganic ; for October, 

 21 '7 and 33*9 grm. respectively. 



Cap TAIN Stub, Corresponding Member of the Society of Arts 

 It Smyrna, writes to Mr. Hyde Clarke that " the cold wave 

 uhich was passing over America reached here last Sunday, 

 January 21, and for Smyrna the cold was intense. I am told in 

 cXj osed positions the thermometer went down to 10° below zero. 

 At the point near the railway station I saw ice one inch thick. 

 On the 24th the weather became milder." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past w eek include a Macaque Monkey [Macaciis cynomolgus) from 

 India, presented by Dr. Harrison Branthwaite; a Bonnet Monkey 

 (Matticiis si/iicus i ) from India, presented by Mr. E. F. Shortt; 

 a Quebec Marmot {AreliDiiys tnonax) from Virginia, U.S.A., 

 presented by Mr. G. S. White; a Long-eared Owl {Asia otiis) 

 from Germany, presented by Master Owen Dallmeyer ; a Water 

 Rail [A'a/tiis ai/iialiciis), British, presented by Mr. T. E. Gunn ; 

 a West African Python {PytJwn seba) from West Africa, pre- 

 sented by Capt. J. Grant Elliott ; five European Tree Frogs 



(Hyla arborea) from France, presented by Miss E. Brunton; a 

 European Tree Frog {Hyla arborea). South European, presented 

 by the Kev. J. Stapledon Webber ; a Rhesus Monkey {Macacus 

 rhesm) from India, a Common Wolf {Canis lupus), European, 

 a Fallow Deer (Daina vulgaris 9 ), ^British, two Chattering 

 Lories {Lurius garruliis) from Moluccas, two Vieillot's Firebacks 

 (Euplocainus vicilloti i 9 ) from Malacca, deposited ; a Sykes's 

 Monkey [Ccrcopilhccus albigularis), a Gray-cheeked Mangabey 

 {Cercocebus albigeiia ¥ ) from West Africa, two Spotted Hysenas 

 {Hyiena crocuta £9) from South Africa, a Red-vented Parrot 

 {Pioiius lucnstruus) from Brazil, a Golden Eagle {Aquila chry- 

 saelos), a Tawny Eagle {Aquila ncevioides), a White-tailed Eagle 

 {Halia&us albicilla), a Cinereous Vulture {Vultur moimchus), 

 seven Knots {Tringa canutus), European, a Temminck's Snapper 

 (Macroclemiuys temmincki) from North America, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Comet of 1664, — " Cette comete de 1664," remarks 

 Pingre, in introducing the description of it given in his 

 " ConieLographie," " a singulierenient exerce les presses des Im- 

 primeurs," and that this statement was ju.-tified will be evident 

 to any om who may consult Lalande's "Bibliographic," the 

 catalogue of the library in the Observatory of Pulkowa, or the 

 " Reperturium der Cometen- Astronomic," by Dr. Carl of 

 Munich ; in the latter will be found references to some eighty 

 works, either ti'eating specially upon this comet, or in which it 

 is noticed in more or less detail. And further, as Madler ob- 

 serves : " Lubienietsky hat iiber ihn allein eiiren ganzen Quart- 

 band geschrieben, der freilich fiir unsere Zwecke sich auf einige 

 Seiten reducirt ; " the volume here referred to is the first of the 

 " Theatrum Cometicum." 



Thii comet appears to have been discovered in Spain as early 

 as November 17. Huyghens observed it at Leyden on December 

 2, 'while the observations of Hevelius at Dantzic, which have 

 been used exclusively in the determination of the orbit, com- 

 mencetl on Decembtr 14, and it was generally observed in 

 France and Italy ab3ut the same time. ^Observations properly 

 so-called do not appear to have been made in this country, and 

 on scanning the long list of publications enumerated by Carl we 

 find, in addition to a notice by J. Ray in the P/ii.'osophical Trans- 

 actions for 1707, only two works named as having been printed 

 here : (l) " An Astronomical description of a comet as it ap- 

 peared ii new Ingland, in the year 1664;" and (2) "The 

 blazing star, or a discourse of Comets. In a letter from J. B. 

 to T. C. c.incerning the late comet." Flam^teed was then an 

 ailing youth, and though given to astronomical exercises he has 

 no reference to the comet in question. Indeed, in his account 

 of his early life we read : "1 had now completed eighteen years, 

 when the w-inter (that of 1664-1665 ) came on and thrust me 

 again into the chimney, whence the heat and the dryness of the 

 preceding sunnirer had happily once before withdrawn me ;" and 

 he thus attended rather to calculation from Street's "Caroline 

 Table-, " which he had just procured, than to observations. 



The comet was not suffered to remain without notice by 

 Samuel Pepys, and we find several references to it in his " Diary," 

 which it may not be quite without interest to examine. Pepys 

 records the old style dates, but we reduce them to the present 

 reckoning. The first notice of the comet is on December 27, 

 and nins thus : "Mighty talk there is of this comet that is seen 

 a' nights ; and the King and Queene did sit up last night to see 

 it, and did it seems. An J to-night I thought to have done so too ; 

 but it is cloudy, and so no stars appear. But I will endeavour it." 

 On the night of December 26 the comet would rise in London 

 just bef jre eleveii o'clock, and would be on the meridian at 

 two o'clock at an altitude of less than nine degrees, in R.A. 

 I26'"4, and declination 3o°'o s lUth, distant from the earth o'i93. 

 The apparent length of the tail (37°) men'.ioned by Carl, assigns 

 a real lenglh of 43,000,000 miles, if it were in the line of the 

 radius-vector. On December 31 we read : " My Lord .Sandwich 

 this day wi'ites me word that he hath seen (at Portsmouth) the 

 comet, and says it is the most extraordinary thing he ever saw." 

 On January 3 Pepys says: "I saw the comet, which is now, 

 whether worn away or no I know not, but appears not with a 

 tail, but only is larger and duller than any other star, and is come to 

 rise betimes, and to make a great arch, and is gone to quite a new 

 place in the heavens than it was befjre ; but I hope in a clearer 



