Dec. 



?.So] 



NA TURE 



183 



year?, and he finds from these three orbits the following residual 

 errors for the second normal place : — 



Longitude. Latitude. 



Parabola - i'\ + 257 



ll-year ellipse — 0'6 + I2'9 



5i-year ellipse - 0"3 + 4'i 



Mr . Chandler finds that an attempt to reduce these errors in latitude 

 on the assumption of a parabolic orbit or an elliptic orbit of II 

 years' period, will only lead to intolerable discordances in the longi- 

 tudes, and he considers tliat for both the.-e hypotheses the residuals 

 are far in excess of the probable error of the normal position. 

 For the thorter period, on the contrary, the residuals seem well 

 within reasonable limits of error, and his conclusion therefore is 

 that the comet will be found to revolve in about 54 years. His 

 ellipse v.ith this assumed period is as follows, and will be found 

 in clo-e agreement with that obtained on a similar hypothesis 

 from the observations of the present year, by MM. Schulhof and 

 Bossert, which we gave last week : — 

 Perilielion passage, 1869, November iS'59702 Washington i\I.T. 



Longitude of perihelion 



,, ascending node 



Inclination 



Excentricity 



Semi-axis major 



Log. perihelion distance ... 



42 5S 53|M.Eq. 

 296 46 2 j iS69'o 



5 23 44 

 0-6581359 

 3-10971 

 0-026572S 



It appears that the comet was observed at Harvard College until 

 January 3, 1S70, or three days later than at any other observa- 

 tory, and Prof. Pickering has had these late observations very 

 carefully reduced. 



At the actual appearance a communication from Mr. Lewis 

 Boss, Director of the Ditdley Observatory at Albany, N.V. , 

 shows that the comet was micrometrically referred to a star, 

 with the 13-inch refractor of that e.stablishment, on the evening 

 of October 11, but the declination of the comparison-star 

 (B.D. -t- i7'-46li) needs further examination; it mi;3lit be 

 referrei to Bessel's star 38s. following and about 6y north. If 

 good observations can be obtained to\^■ards the end of the 

 present month the elliptic orbit may admit of pretty close 

 determination from the observations of 18S0 alone. The fol- 

 lowing ephemeris is calculated from MM. Schulhof and Bossert's 

 ellipse of 5^ years : — 



At Grccmvich midnight 



R.A. Decl. N. Log. i. 



A New Comet. — A small, pretty bright comet was discovered 

 by Dr. Pechiile at Copenhagen on the evening of December 16, 

 in R.A. iSh. 49m., Decl. -V 10° 30'. Daily motion, -f 5m. and 

 -f 40'. 



OccuLTATiON (?) OF 73 PisciuM BY JuPiTER. — On February 

 3, 1S81, according to Leverrier's Tables of the planet Jupiter 

 and the position of the star 73 Piscium (rated 6-om. in the 

 Durchniustenin') brought up from the Greenwich Catalogue of 

 1872, the star should be occulted by the planet about 2h. Sm. 

 G.M.T. Very small change however in the place or semi- 

 diameter of the jilanet, might suffice to bring about merely an 

 appulse. The facts of the case may be veil ascertained in 

 easterly longitudes, as at Madras, where the conjunction in Right 

 Ascension appears to occur when the planet is 3h. 26m. past the 

 meridian, about 7h. 29m. mean time. The apparent place of 

 the star on February 3 is in R.A. oh. 58m. 43-53S., Decl. 

 -f 5° r lo"-2. The polar semi-diimeter of the planet, according 

 to the value of mean semi-diameter now adopted in the Nautical 

 Almana:, will be l7"-2, and allowing for parallax, this seems to 

 place the slar a lictlc over 2'' within the planet's northern limb. 



METEOROLOGICAL NOTES 



From an able and temperately-worded article in the Nevv- ^-ork 

 Nation on the Signal-Service Succession, it is plain that meteor- 

 ology is in a critical position in the United States at the present 

 moment. The whole question of the future of meteorology in that 

 country practically turns on the sort of man w-ho is to be appointed 

 to succeed the late lamented Gen. Myer. As regards the bearing 

 of the que-tion on the promotion of the great financial, com- 

 mercial, and educational concerns of the country, the writer of 

 the article well puts it when he states that "it depends altogether 

 on the future management of the office whether its activity shall 

 be confined to a lifeless routine without any attempt to make 

 new discoveries or introduce improved methods, or whether it 

 shall be animated by that progressive spirit which will not be 

 satisfied until every man within reach can be informed of coming 

 meteorological changes as long in advance as it is possible for 

 them to be foreseen." To accomplish this end much more is 

 needed than a most diligent discharge of the daily duties of the 

 office, such as will put the public in possession of forecasts 

 drawn up on the lines that have hitherto been followed in fore- 

 casting the weather. It was an essential feature of General 

 Myer's procedure that in framing the forecasts in the office he 

 confined himself simply to making the best rise of what was 

 already known of meteorology. But whilst this continued the 

 practice of his office, he had the genius to see that if the sy.stem 

 of forecasting weather is to make way it is absolutely indis-pens- 

 able to strike out entirely new lines of observation with the view 

 of arriving at some positive knowledge of the great movements 

 of the atmosphere and their determining causes. Hence his 

 great scheme of International Meteorology, by which was 

 secured one daily observation at the fame physical instant, 

 where possible, over the globe, and the regular publication 

 of the monthly results in the U.S. Weather Maps, with 

 which our readers are familiar. These admirable maps, to- 

 gether with the Weather Maps of the States themselves, 

 published at intervals of eight hours through a period of ten 

 years, now furnish a mass of material the value of which it is 

 not possible to overestimate ; and the adequate discussion ot 

 which, it may be very safely said, is the next great step to be 

 taken by meteorology. This step it is in the power of the 

 United States to take, and whether it be taken or not depends 

 almost wholly on the character of the man who may be called to 

 fill the place so suddenly left vacant by General Myer's pre- 

 mature decease. What, above all, is imperatively required, 

 is a sympathy with science and workers in science, so strong 

 and so decided that he will, without fail, enlist in the service of 

 his country some of the be^t intellects who will give their time 

 and their energies to work out the great [iroblem of weather 

 prognosis. 



The American mails inform us that a frost of unusual severity 

 for the season set in over Canada and the middle States on 

 November 19. It came so suddenly and with such intensity 

 that vessels of every description were frozen up and fixed, in 

 many cases in mid-stream. The cold was greatest all along the 

 St. Lawrence, where the thermometer ranged from zero to 

 — lo°-o. Several ocean steamers, even, were placed in a very 

 precarious position, and altogether it is estimated that Soo 

 vessels laden with grain, potatoes, fruit, and other produce were 

 frozen up ; and many deaths have occurred in consequence of 

 the frost. So early and intense a frost has not been experienced 

 in Canada since 1873. Closely following it occurred a remark- 

 able depression of temperature in the British Islands, which as 

 regards certain districts in North Britain was unprecedented at 

 so early a period in the winter months. It was an accompani- 

 ment of a wide-spread area of high pressure which appeared off 

 the north-west of Scotland on the 20th as shown by the English 

 and German daily weather maps. On this day temperatures 

 fell low for the season, particularly along the west from Corn- 

 wall to Shetland. On the 21st the high-pressure area had ad- 

 vanced a considerable way towards the southeast, and under the 

 clear skies and light winds which characterised it, the tempera- 

 ture fell in many places in Scotland to a degree w hich would 

 have been noteworthy in the depth of winter. The protected 

 thermometer fell at Aboyne Castle on Deeside to zero, and to 

 l°-o at several places, viz., at Lanark in Clydesdale, at Stobo 

 Castle near the head of the Tweed, and at Thirlestane Castle on 

 the Leader. These low temperatures were approximated to at 

 a considerable number of the other stations of the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society situated in the larger valleys in in- 



