206 



NA TURE 



\_Dec. 30, 1880 



by the Academy of Sciences to admit him as Member of thnt 

 l)ody. The Russian Chemical and Physical Society, wliile 

 electing hiin Hunorary Member, has presented him with an 

 address in which it is slated that the Society considers him " to 

 be a chemist who has no equal among Russian chemists." Many 

 scientific bodies, as the Uuiver.-ity of Kieff, the Society of 

 Hygiene, &c., have elected him Honorary Member or President. 

 A public subscription has been opened for the institution of a 

 ]irize bearing his name, and a great dinner was given in his 

 honour by the St. Petersburg saraiits, among whom we notice 

 the most eminent Russian Members of the Academy of Sciences. 

 It is worthy of notice that Professors Korkin and SetchenolT, ns 

 well as the late M. Ililferding, the PansKavist explorer of 

 Slavonian literature, met at the hands of the Academy of 

 Sciences the same fate as M. Mendeleeff. 



The law for the isolation of the French National Library has 

 lieen adopted by both Houses of the French Parliament, and 

 tlie necessary expropriation for the great work will begin imme- 

 diately. 



At a recent sitting the Municipal Council of Paris voted a 

 sum of 400/. for the establi hment of a School of Chemistry. 

 It will he opened free to the pupils of the several Municipal 

 schools who are de irous of practice in chemical in lustrie . 



The French Government is to establish in Egypt a school of 

 I'-gyptol igy, which will be directed by M. Maspero, now Pro- 

 fessor of Egyptology to I he College of France. This creation 

 will be the third school established abroad at the expense of the 

 French Budget. The two otliers are one at Rome and the other 

 at Athens. 



The Thirteenth Annual Report of the Eastbourne Natural 

 History Society testifies to the Society's continued prosperity. 

 At the meeting of November 19 Dr. Royston Pigott read an 

 interesting paper on " The Limits of Human Vi-ion." 



The Prowiiiings of the Belfast Natural History and Philo- 

 sophical Society for 1878-So contains, besides several general 

 papers, a few natural history papers of local interest, includiii,' 

 one (with illustrations) on Irish Spider.s, by Mr. Thomas 

 Workman. 



A liAl.NEOLOGicAL and a folent-i rotection exhibition wl le 

 held at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1881. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Variaisle Stars.— Amongst the stars which, from a com- 

 parison of the various catalogues, exhibit more or less strongly 

 signs of variability, may be mentioned the following, which we 

 take in order of right ascension ; the positions are tor the year 

 iSSo : — 



1. Lalande 2037-8. R.A. ih. 3 n. 24s., N.P.P. 38° 30' 5. 

 On September 29, 1790, Lalande rated this star lom., ai.d on 

 December 27 following, 8-9; the B.D. (by which letters we 

 refer to the lionn Ditrchmustaung) has 70. Harding marks it 

 a ninth. 



2. 40 Cas-iopea\ R.A. ih. 2Sm. 573., N.P.n 

 Lalmde calls this star 4m. in September, 17S9, and 6 i 



1790. In Argelander's zone No. 167 on January l„, 184?, i 

 was estimated 7, yet in the B.D. it is 5-2. In the first Radcfifte 

 catalogue, where great attention was given to the magnitudes, it 

 IS 47 ; Piazzi has 6, Groombrid^e 56, and Heis the Tame. 



3. Lalande 4864-5. R.A. 2h. 32m. 15s., N.P.D. 40° 57-4. 

 Estimated 9 m September, 1790, and 7.J in lanuary following ; 

 but It has smce been discerned with the naked e)e, Heis calling 

 It 67. The B.D. has 67. It is not in Houzeau. 



4. Bradley 396. K.A. 2h. 5301. 13s., N.P.D. 8° 59' S. 

 Lalande rated this .star 4-5 in November, 17S9, and 7 in March, 

 1790. Groombridge, who made six observations for position, 

 estimated it 7, Heis and Carringlon 6, while it is 5-5 in the 



5. 35 Camelopardi. We h .ve already referred to Oie marked 



discordances in the estimates of tbe m'.gnitude of this star in the 

 various catalogues. Dembowski has directed attention to the 

 probable variability of the principal component, and the star 

 certainly deerves more regular aitentiim at the hands of obser- 

 vers than it has yet received. R.A. 5h. 54m. 5SS., N.P.D. 

 38° 25''5. The estimateil magnitudes vary from 5'5 to 8. 



6. Attention may be once more directed to the st.ir which 

 Rumker compared with Encke's comet at Paramatta, N.S.W., 

 on June 19, 1S22, and wi ich he rated at the time 4-5. Whether 

 it really .attains this decree of brightness is not yet certain ; it is 

 however 6'0 in the Uranomdria Argentina, and was observed as 

 low as 8m. in 1873. The B.D. says 6-5. Its light is a full 

 yellow. K.A. 7h. 23m. 15s., N.P.D. 91° 39''S. 



7. 65 li- Geminorum. R.A. 7h. 22m. 21s., N.P.D. 6i°5o''3, 

 Lalande rated this star ,as low as 8^ in March, 1794, but calls it 

 5* in February following. Bessel estimated it 7 ; all other 

 observers say 5 or 5 '6. 



8. 16 Leonis .\linoris. R.A. gh. 42m. Jis., N.P.D.49°48'7. 

 D'Agelet has 5 and 7-8, Lalande 6J, Piazzi 8, the first Radcliffe 

 Catalogue 6"6, Be.-sel, Taylor, and the B.D. 7, Houzeau 56, but 

 neither Argelander nor Heis included it amongst the stars 



, viible to the naked eye. 



9. Lalande 19034. R.A. 9h. 341T1. 49s., N.P.D. 113° 2'7. 

 It appears strange that a star i olated as this is should not have 



, been more frequently observed on the meridian, if always as 



1 bright as say 5m. D'Agelet and Piazzi have not got it ; Lalande 



calls it 4i on March 21, 1797 ; Argelander has 6 on March 6, 



1850, 4 on February 16, 1851, and 5 on March 8, 1852 ; Heis and 



Houzeau call it 5, and Gould 5'2. 



If we may rely upon the observations of Kirch early in the 

 last century there would appear to be sensible changes in the 

 relative brightness of (3 and 5 Scorpii ; on January 17, 1704, he 

 writes: ")3und S erschienen fast im gleicher Grosse, jedoch 8 

 ein wenig heller (^etzt ist 3 2, 5 3 gro-.se)," while on .\pril i 

 following he records "Smerklich gro-ser als &." Argelander 

 and Heis estimate /3 and 5 re pectively 2 a'.d 2"3 ; Gould has 

 no sensible difference. 



to. Lalande 3S405. R.A. 20b. om. 165., N.P.D. 94° 45' '4. 

 This star was rated 6 on |uly 15, 1794, 7 on August 15, 8 on 

 -August 20, and 74 on August 30 of the following year. It is & 

 in Be-sel, 7 in Wolfer's map, one of the series of the Berlin 

 Academy, and 67 in Heis and Houzeau. Gould does not give 

 it. It mi^ht be in'erred from Lalandc's observations that the 

 period is not very long. 



11. 33 Capricorni. Chacornac says of this star : "Observee 

 tantot plus brillan'e, tantot miins qu'une etoile de 7""^ grandeur 

 dont elle est voisine : " the seventh magnitude alluded to being, it 

 may be presumed, O.A. 213S6, which follows 2m. 12s., 9''4 to 

 the south. 33 Capricorni is 5'6 in Argelander, 6'5 in Heis .?nd 

 Behrmann, and 57 in Gould ; it is one of Chacornac's red stars, 

 Gould also calls it red. The evidence of variability in this case 

 seems to rest with Chacornac. R.A. 2ih. 17m. 2ls., N.P.D. 

 iii°2i'-5. 



12. 17 1 Andromedse, a star previously noted in this column 

 a^ variable. In the " British Catalogue" it is rated 4 ; Br.adley 

 and Piazzi cal) it 7 ; Lalande's ihree estimates are 5, 5 and 4 ; 

 I J'.\gelet has 3'4 and 6 ; the first Radcliffe catalogue 3'9, and 

 the B.D. 42 ; etimates from 4 to 7 are therefore .sufficiently 

 confirmed ; the variation may be slow, but the star certainly 

 deserves attenti m. K.A. 23?!. 3211. 15s., N.P.D. 47° 24''i. 



The Comet 1873 VII. — The co-net discovered by Coggia at 

 Marseilles on November 10 and by Winnecke on Novemherr 11 

 was soon lost in Europe from its rai.id southerly motion : indeed 

 the observations extend over less than a week. The elements 

 exhibited a similarity to thoe which had been assigneel to a 

 comet detcted by Pons in February, iSiS, but very imperfectly 

 observed, and Prof. Weiss, the present director of the Imperial 

 Observatory at Vienna, was at the trouble of examining the 

 question of possible iilentity as closely as the data permitted. He 

 formed three normal posiiiuns from the small number of observa- 

 tions — for November 11, 13, and 15 — and under the condition 

 that the fint and third normaL should be exactly repre-ented he 

 a certained how the sec-md one was represented on the assump- 

 tion (I) that the orbit was parabolic ; (2) that the period of revo- 

 lution corresponded tj the interval between the perihelion- 

 pas ages in iSiS and 1873, or 55'S2 years; and (3) that the 

 comet had completed eight revolutions in this interval, or that 

 the period extends only to 6"977 years. As a matter of figures 

 the agreement was found to be slightly closer for hypothesis (3) 

 than for the other two, the parabola shDwing the laigest differ- 



