Jan. 13, 1 88 1 J 



NATURE 



255 



Swift's Comet. — Mr. Co 



vith his reflector of three 



feet aperture at Ealing, has ob-erved this couiet for position as 

 late a- January 5, when it was not yet con-idcred the ixiremum 

 visible in the instrument. Accurate observations were made by 

 Mr. Lewis Boss at the Dudley Ob.servatory, Albany, U.S., on 

 October II, the night after disc )very, .so that there will be a 

 good extent of observation upon which to determine the orbit 

 at this appearance. 



Minima of Algol. — Tlie following e.iochs of geocentric 

 minima of Algol are deduced from Prof. .Schonfeld's elcuuents. 

 That very sensible perturbui > is have taken place during the last 

 few years is shown by a comparison of these elements with the 

 observatims of Prof Julius Schmidt of Athens ; thus the mean 

 errors since 1875 ^■'^. f'"" '875-76 - 4-8ra. ; 1S76-76 + I9-4m. ; 

 1877-73 + 40-8m. ; 187S-78 + 21 ■3m. The star is well de- 

 serving of atte.iti )n during the present year. 

 G.M.T 



G.M.T. 

 h. m. 

 16 54 



13 4j 

 10 32 



7 22 



January 21 18 20 February 13 



24 15 9 16 



27 II 58 19 



30 8 48 



February 2 5 37 



Cekaski's Variable km Cepheus. — A series of minima of 

 this star visible in Europe commences about January 13, con- 

 linuing until May. The period may be taken = 2'/\g2t)i^d. or 

 2d. iih. 49-795m., and if we reckon froai the second minimum 

 cjmplctely observed by Prof. Schmidt on October 18, iSSo, we 

 shall find a minimum on January 18 at I7h. 41m. G. M. T., 

 and successive visible epjchs may be inferred by adding 

 41. 23h. 39-S9m. 



ELONG.4.TIONS OF MiM.\s. — According to the elements pre- 

 viou 1/ adopted in this column for indicating approximately the 

 tijies of greatest elongations of this very difficult object, the 

 .satellite would be at the Hestern extremity of its apparent orbit 

 at the foUowinr Greenwich times : — 



January 19 



II 5 



9 42 

 8 19 



January 



6 56 

 5 33 



The elements upon which Prof. Newcomb's manuscript tables 

 adop'.ed in the American Efhemeris for 1882 and 1883 are 

 founded appear to give the times of the elongations later by 

 some forty minutes. 



The Academy of Scie.nces, Paris. — The recent election of 

 Dr. Warren De La Kue as Correspondent of the Academy of 

 Sciences of the Institute of France, Sectim of Astronomy, in 

 place of the lat>; Sir Thomas Maclear, nearly completes the usual 

 number of correspondents in this section, upon which several 

 vacancies had existed for some time. The roll i^ now as follows, 

 taking the naates in alphabetical order : — Adams (Cambridge), 

 Cayley (Cambridge), De La Rue (London), Gylden (Stockholm), 

 Hall (Washington), Hind (London), Huggins (London), Lockyer 

 (London), NcAfcomb (Washington), Oppolzer (Vienna), Planta 

 mour (.Geneva), Roche (Montpeilier), Schiap.arelli (Milan), 

 Stephan (Marseille^), and Struve (Pulkova). The Astro- 

 nomer- Royal is one of the eight Foreign Associates of the 

 Academy. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 We are glad to learn that the rumour of the murder of Herr 

 Hildebrandt in Madagascar is unfounded. 



The first number of the Tncnous (Zapiski) of the West 

 Siberian Branch of the Russi in Geographical Society contains 

 valuable papers by M. Kostroff on witches in the Government 

 Tomsk ; by M. Grigorovsky, on the peasantry in the Narym 



di.-trict ; by M. I'yevlzoff, on his journey through Djoungaria, 

 with a map ; and by M. Balkashin, on trade via the Ob River 

 with Europe during the years 1877 and 1878. 



At one of its recent ineetings the Russian Geographical So- 

 ciety discu^.sed tlie proposal of Mr. Fleming, transmitted to the 

 Society by the Governor-General of Canada, as to the adoption 

 of a universal time and of a universal first meridian. As to the 

 suggest! in to have a cosmopolitan noon at the same moment 

 over tlie surface of our globe, the Society thinks that it would 

 meet with a masi of difficulties as to its application in daily 

 life ; but the advantages which a universal time would afford 

 bein^ very great, the Society expresses the wish that the whole 

 question I.e earnestly dis -ussed and studied by learned socie- 

 ties. As to the first meridian, the Society, which already dis- 

 cussed the question in 1870, maintains its former resolution, 

 namely, that the meridian of Greenwich, or at least that of 

 Behring .strait, 180° distant from that of Greenwich, should be 

 accepted by the whole civilised world as a first meridian. 



We have received the annual reports for 1879 of the Siberian, 

 Orenburg, and Caucasian branches of the Russian Geographical 

 Society, which has had the happy idea to publish all the reports 

 together in one volume, thus rendering accessible for the general 

 reader \\ho knows Russian this most valuable geographical 

 information, formerly disseminated in local publications. The 

 olde?t of the-e branches, the East Siberian, has endured 

 heavy losses during the great fire at Irkoutsk. Its rich zoo- 

 logical, Ij itanical, geological, and ethnographical collections 

 were all destri>yei.l by fire : the beautiful head of a 

 R/iinmcros ticlioi hiniis, just received from Verkhoyansk, the 

 rare collection of samples of gold from all the gold-mines of 

 Eastern .Siberia, pahTjontological collections not yet described, 

 and so on, as well as the 10,230 volumes of its rich library, and 

 collections of old records, were all destroyed by fire. Several 

 scientific bodies, Russian and foreign, have already sent their 

 publications and duplicates from their libraries, so that the 

 museum and library already are in way of reconstitution. 



The third volume of the "Rajputana Gazetteer" has just 

 been issitcd from the Government press at Simla. The various 

 sections into which it is divided are contributed by Capt. C. E. 

 Yate, Major C. A. Baylay, and Major P. \V. Powlett, and treat 

 of general topography, history, population, trade, towns, &c. 

 Mr. J. F. Baness, the chief draughtsman in the geographical and 

 drawing branch of the Survey of India, has in the press at 

 Calcutta a work entitled " Index Geographicus Indicus." It 

 will be published in one volume, with eight coloured maps, and 

 will comprise a list, alphabetically arranged, of the principal 

 places in our Indian Empire, accompanied by much statistical, 

 political, and descriptive information. 



A series of papers is commenced in last week's issue of Les 

 Missions Catholiqnes, on the manners, customs, and religion of 

 the races of the Caucasus. 



The new number of the Bulletin of the Commercial Geo- 

 graphical Society of Bordeaux contains a useful paper on Japan, 

 by M. E. Labroue. 



TuEPale.^tine Exploration Society have decided to undertake 

 the exploration of Palestine east of the Jordan. 



OBSERVATIONS ON ANTS, BEES, AND 

 WASPS ' 

 Pffioer of Communication by something approaching to Language. 

 T N my previous papers many experiments have been recorded, 

 -'■ in which I have endeavoured to throw some light on the 

 power of communication possessed by ants. It is unquestionable 

 that if an ant or a bee discovers a store of food her comrades 

 soon flock to the treasures, although, as I have shown, this is by 

 no means alivays the case. But it may be argued that this fact 

 taken alone does not prove any pjwei of communication at all. 

 An ant oberving a friend bringing food home might infer, with- 

 out being told, that by accompanying the friend on the return 

 journey she might al-o partici|:iate in the good things. 1 have 

 endeavoured to meet this argument in my third paper (Linn. 

 Joiirn. vol. xii. p. 466) by showing that there was a marked 



■ Bv Sir John Lubbock, B.irt, M.P., F.R.S., F.L.S., D.C.L., LL.D., 

 Vic'-Chancelbr of tlie University of London. Rtad at the Linnean 

 Soc.ety, Ju-ei7 Abstract. 



