368 



NA TURE 



\_Fcb. 14, 1884 



Hence the period of revolution in 1812 has been shortened by 

 perlurbation to the extent of 445 '49 days. The orbital velocity 

 of the comet at perihelion is 29'2 miles in a second, at aphelion 

 it is 3550 feet in the same time. 



The Glasgow Catalogue of Stars. — Prof. Grant has just 

 issued the important catalogue of stars which has been for some 

 time in active j reparation at the Observatory of Glasgow, and 

 towards the publication of which the Royal Society has largely 

 contribute.l from the Government Grant Fund. Its appearance 

 is too recent to allow of a description of the contents in tlie 

 present column. 



The Variable Star U Geminorum. — Mr. G. Knott, 

 writing from Cuckfield on the 4th inst., sends observations of a 

 recent maximum of this star ; his estimates are : — 



Jan. 24, S 10 



26, 9 50 



27, 8 S3 



i3"3m 

 9-6 



97 



Clouds prevented observation on January 2S, but it is quite 

 possible that the maximum may have been attained on that day, 

 since in 1877 the star increased from I3'2 m. to 9'S m. between 

 February 20, Sh. lom., and February 21, loh. 30m. The last 

 previous maximum observed by Mr, Knott fell on January 30, 

 1883, the date also assigned by the observations of M. Safarik 

 [Astro/!. Nach. No. 2S0S). 



The period which best represented the observations in the 

 years immediately following the discovery of the star's variability 

 by Mr. Hind (in December 185s) was 97 days, but there has 

 been subsequently great irregularity, and according to Mr. Knott 

 it has fluctuated between 71 and 126 days, though the values on 

 the whole cluster about a mean of from 90 to 100 days ; the 

 limits of variation being about \i,\ and 9^ of Argelander's scale. 

 These inferences are drawn from thirty-four maxima, observed 

 partly by Mr. Knott and partly by Mr. Baxendell (see the 

 Ol'servij/oiy, April, 1S82). 



The Late J. F. Julius Schmidt. — Practical astronomy has 

 sustained a serious loss in the sudden death of the well-known 

 Prof JuHus Schmidt, who has been for many years Director of 

 the Observatory at Athens. According to a Renter's telegram 

 his funeral, which took place on the Sth inst., was of a public 

 character, the King and Queen of Greece being present at the 

 Observatory during the delivery of the funeral oration. A 

 notice of Prof. .Schmidt's long-continued astronomical labours 

 must be deferred to another week. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 

 A T the meeting of this Society on the 4th inst., the Pre ident, 

 ■^ Lord Moncreiff, delivered an address on "The Past 

 Hundred Years' History of the Society." Regarding this long 

 interval. Lord Moncreitf said: "From the watch-tower of the 

 Royal Society I can trace within the century a revolution more 

 wonderful and more extensive than monarchs, or empires, or 

 republics can display. Since this Socitty held its first meeting, 

 how great to the community has been the fruit gathered from 

 those branches of knowledge which it was incorporated to 

 prosecute ! During that interval, what has science not done for 

 human comfort and happiness? What interest so great, what 

 dwelling so humble, as not to have felt its beneficent influence ? 

 Since the invention of the art of piinting, no such advance in 

 material comfort, prosperity, and intelligence has ever been made 

 within a similar period as this century has w itnes-ed. Its triumphs 

 have not been confined to the more abstruse fields of thought and 

 study, but have come straight to the world of every-day life. 

 One homely illustration meets me on the threshold of the open- 

 ing night, and homely things go deep into the foundations of 

 human life. I picture to myself our founders wending their way 

 to the College Library, through close and wynd, in mid-winter 

 1783, while flickering oil lamps made the darkness vL-ible with- 

 out, and a detestable tallow candle made the student miserable 

 within doors. Those who cannot recollect the universal reign of 

 tall )W candles and their sufferers, cannot appreciate how much 

 the sum of human enjoyment ha; been enhanced, and the tran- 

 quillity of human temper increased, by the transmutation — partial, 

 we must .admit — of darl<ness into light. There has been, I believe, 

 no more potent agent in humani.-ing the denizens of our large 

 cities than the flood of light wh-ch chemical science has in our 

 day poured into their recesses. Prophets tell us ihat, before the 



end of the century which we now begin, gaslight will pr.jbably 

 have followed the tallow candle into the same unlameiited 

 obscurity ; but, even should this be so, history will carry to its 

 credit the vast amount of public utility, and the many hours of 

 useful employment or comfort in the factory, the study, or the 

 sick-room, which this simple application of chemical science 

 gained in its day for the n'neteenth century. But the dispersion 

 of material darkness is but a slender illustration of the triumphs 

 of scientific discovery. Tmie and space are m longer the tyrants 

 they were hi 1783. I rather think that when our fimnders first 

 met ihey could hardly hope to hear by post from London unt'er 

 ten days, as Palmer's mail-coaches had not bei;un to run until 

 17S9. It would be an interesting inquiry, if my limits permilted, 

 to trace the moral and social effects of the change from the days 

 when a London letter took even three days to reach Edinburgh, 

 and cost I3^d. — the pre-Macadamite days, when twenty miles a 

 day was a fair posting rate on any roads but the main thorough- 

 fares. Lord Cockl urn lamented over the prospect of Lon ion 

 being within fifteen hours of Edinburgh, as endangering the 

 characteristics of our social community. His sagacity was not 

 altogether at fault, but even that time has been reduced by a 

 third, and I rather think we and the world are all the better for 

 the change. But although larger victories were in store for the 

 century, they came slowly. Both Boulton and James Watt "ere 

 original members of the Royal Society, but it was more than 

 thirty years before steam navigation became general, and more 

 than fifty before the first passenger railway train ran in Scotland. 

 No doubt, in 1791, Erasmus Darwin, in his 'Botanic Garden,' 

 a poem too little read, had exclaimed in the well-known 

 lines : — 



' Socn shall thy arm, unconqucred steam, afar. 

 Drag the slow barge, and urge the flying car.' 



Godwin, too, looked forward with confidence to the ultimate 

 victories of steam. Now, the locomotive carries mankind to all 

 ends of the earth ; their sanguine suggestions have been all but 

 realised. There has been during this interval a still more power- 

 ful magician at work. To this audience I need not dwell on the 

 triumphs of the future ruler of the world of science — electricity. 

 But one illustration I may be permitted. Franklin was one of the 

 first of the non-resident members elected by the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, How little he thought when, many years before, 

 he drew the electric spark from the cloud, that, before 100 years 

 had sped, his experiment, but slightly modified, might convey a 

 message from a meeting of the Society in Edinburgh to ore of 

 its fellows in New York, and bring back an answer before the 

 meeting separated. In slightly alluding to this scientific revolu- 

 tion, my object has been partly to illustrate the surroundings of 

 1783, and also to remind my hearers that, of all the changes the 

 century has seen, far the most important and the deepest have 

 been the work of .science. Increased facilities for inter-com- 

 munication carry with them a complete change in the economical 

 and social condition of the communities they affect. New wants, 

 new customs, new ambitions, new possibilities, follow in their 

 train by the operation of inevitable laws. By this talisman we 

 have seen, perhaps sometimes without due appreciation, many a 

 social problem solved which had before seemed hopeless ; and 

 although in the process of transition some period of adaptation 

 may be necessary, and some temporary hardships endured, the 

 result in all casts must be beneficent, and is, at all events, beyond 

 the pow-er of lawgivers to control or to resist. 



"The Edinburgh Royal Society sprung partly out of the 

 example of the Royal Society of London. But its immediate 

 antecedent w-as the Philosophical Society, which had been 

 founded nearly fifty years before by the celebrated McLaurin, 

 and contained many distinguished names. Lord Karnes became 

 its president, and raised it to considerable distinction, both in 

 science and literature, although that vigorous and versatile 

 tl.inkf r and writtr did not live to witness the commencement of 

 the new institutian. Dr. Robertson's plan was to- absorb this 

 Srcie y and all its members in a new institute, on the model of 

 the Berlin Academy of Sciences, for the prosecudon both of 

 physical science and of literature. The charter, however, was 

 not obtained without some controversy, for, even as Romulus 

 and Remus quarrelled over the boundaries of unbuilt Rome, so 

 did the Philoso,hic.il and the Antiquaries squabble over the 

 charter of the Royal Society. The Antiquaries wanted a charter 

 of their own; Dr. Robertson thought Scotland not wide enough 

 for two such institutions ; the feud ran high, and great was the 

 "dusf," as Prof. Dalzel calls it, which was raised by Lord 

 Buchan on the occasion. Some notice of this dispite will be 



