396 



NATURE 



\Fcb. z\, 1881 



(680) ; popular works, almanacs, 657 (642) ; fine arts, steno- 

 graphy, 627 {5S4) ; commerce, 5S3 (577) ; classical and oriental 

 languages, archaeology, mythology, 533 (481) ; modern lau- 

 guages, old German literatm-e, 506 (485) ; agriculture, 433 (421) ; 

 miscellaneous writings, 423 (378) ; architecture, railways, engi- 

 neering, mines, and navigation, 403 (384) ; bibliography, ency- 

 clopedias, 377 (27S) ; geography, travels, 356 (306) ; war, 353 

 (337); maps, 30: (300); mathematics, astroncmy, 201(158); 

 philosophy, 125 (139); forests and game, 112 (103); free- 

 masonry, 20 (21). 



Messrs. Macmillan and Co. have in preparation, and will 

 publish this year, " A Course of Instruction in Zootomy (Verte- 

 brata)," by T. Jeffery Parker, B.Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology 

 in the University of Otago. The work will consist of full direc- 

 tions for the dissection of the Lamprey, Skate, Cod, Lizard, 

 Pigeon, and Rabbit, and will be illustrated by numerous wood- 

 cuts from the author's original drawings. 



The death is announced of Count Ale.xander Erdody, a 

 Member of the Pesth Academy of Sciences, vice-president of 

 the Society for Plastic Art, and a liberal patron of science and 

 art. His death occurred on January 24 at Vep (Hungary) ; he 

 was eighty years of age. We regret also to announce the 

 death of Herr Gabriel Koch, a Frankfort tradesman and an 

 eminent lepidopterist, whose " Schmetterlingsbuch " has a wide 

 reputation in Germany. He died at Frankfort-on-Main on 

 January 22, aged eighty. On February 2 died Prof. Gorini at 

 Lodi, well known by his works on volcanic phenomena. He 

 was a teacher at the Lodi High School, and one of the warmest 

 advocates of cremation in Italy. 



Earthquakes contiaue at Berne. A new shock, directed 

 from east to west, was felt in the north of the town on February 

 8, at 5.25 p.m. Shocks of earthquake are leported from Braila 

 on February 11 at 7h. I5ra. a.m., and from Galatz at the same 

 time. 



It was not difficult to foresee that the warm weather which 

 prevails now in the Alpine region, together with immense quan- 

 tities of snow fallen during the previous days, would occasion 

 several avalanches. On February 13 a terrible one descended 

 from the slopes of Mont Pourri, and covered with a mass 

 of snow, thirty feet deep, the village of Brevieres, in the 

 Tignes commune. Thirty-two persons were buried under the 

 SQow, and uo less than three hundred peasants from the neigh- 

 bourhood were engaged in sinking pits to reach the buried 

 houses. Of the buried, twenty-five were found alive, four 

 were dead, and three are not yet discovered. Two days later, 

 another avalanche descended from the same mountain, and 

 covered a space 10,000 metres wide, with a mass of snow 

 fifteen to twenty metres deep. The pressure of air displaced 

 by the avalanche was so great that all the windows of the 

 village were broken within a few seconds. The quantity of 

 snow fallen during the previous days was so great that all 

 communication was broken up between Brevieres village and 

 the bottom of the valley ; a peasant from Tignes took thirteen 

 hours to reach the next town, Bourg-Satnt-Maurice, travelling in 

 the snow more than one metre deep. 



The provincial governments of Navarre and I.ogroiio (Spain) 

 have received the royal sanction to the necessary outlay for 

 constructing and maintaining meteorological stations in these 

 provinces. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Encke's Comet in iSSi. — So far as can be judged without 



the calculation of the perturbations since 1878 this comet will 



again arrive at perihelion^abjut November 8 in the present year. 



In 1848, when the comet passed this point of its orbit on 



November 26, it was detected with ihe 15-inch refractor at 

 Cambridge, U.S., on August 27, as "a misty patch of light, 

 famt and without concentration : its light coarsely granulated, so 

 that were it not for its motion it might be mistaken for a group 

 of stars of the 21st magnitude" (Bond). The theoretical intensity 

 of light at this time was o-2i, and we find that, assunsing the 

 perihelion passage to occur on November 8, the comet should have 

 this degree of bi-ightness soon after the middle of Augu-t next, so 

 that it may be an icipated observations will be practicable with 

 the waning moon about the 20th of that month. The last peri- 

 helion passage took place on July 26, 1878, the period of revo- 

 lution at that time being I200'58 days accordin ; to the late Dr. 

 von Asten. The aphelion distance is 4x879, the perihelion 

 distance o'3335, and the minor semi-axis I'i675 (the earth's 

 mean distance from the sun =1). The approach to the orbit of 

 the planet Mercury is still very close (0"03i) in about I26°"5 

 helioi;cnlric longitude. The nearest approximation of the two 

 bodies that has occurred since the discovery of the comet's 

 periodicity took place on November 22, 1848, when their dis- 

 tance was only o'038. It is known that from his investigations 

 on the motion of Lncke's comet, von Asten inferred a much 

 smaller value for the ma^s of Mercury than had been previously 



assigned, viz. — . 



7636440 



Cincinnati Measures of Double Stars. — Mr. Ormond 

 Stone has issued an important series of meaures of double stars 

 made at the Observatory of Cincinnati, which is under his 

 superintendence, between January i, 1878, and September i, 

 1879. The number of stars measured is 1054, of which 622 are 

 south, and 432 north of the celestial equator : 560 belong to 

 Struve's catalogue, 171 were discovered by the Herschels, 162 

 by Mr. Burnham, and 85 were found with the Cincinnati re- 

 fractor, which has an aperture of eleven inches. The measures 

 of the southern stars have a special interest, as there are com- 

 paratively few previous ones upon recjrd. In his introduction 

 Mr. Stone points out the most notable differences between the 

 Cincinnati measures of angle and distance, and those of Struve, 

 Sir John Herschel, and others ; we shall refer to several of these 

 cases iii a future column. The volume is published by the Board 

 of Directors of the University of Ciucinna'i, and will be a 

 necessary addition to the libraries of those who are making the 

 double stars their special study. Mr. Stone acknowledges his 

 obligation to the Manual of Double Stars lately jjublished by 

 Messrs. Crossley, Gledhill, and WUsOn, and M. Flammarion's 

 "Catalogue des E'oUes Doubles et Multiples en Mouvement 

 relatif certain." 



The Minor Planets in 1881. — The usual supplement to 

 \^z Berliner astronomisches fahrbuch (18S3), containing its spe- 

 cialty, elements aud ephemerides of the small planets for the 

 present year, has been issued. We have in it approximate 

 epheaierides for every twentieth day throughout" the year of 210 

 planets, the latest being No. 217, and accurate opposition 

 ephe.-nerides of 58. Three planets are omitted for want-of propel 

 data for computation, viz. No. 99 Dike, No. 155 Scylia, and 

 No. 206 Hcrsilia. A glance at this long series of ephemerides 

 shows how wide a range over the heavens the apparent tracks ot 

 these small bodies present : thus we find Eiiphrosyne in opposition 

 in 524° south declination, in the constellation Indus, and Niobe 

 in the vicinity of ^^ersei, with 43° north declination. A favour- 

 able opportunity for repeating observation^ for determination of 

 the solar parallax would have been afifjrded if, in the first place, 

 the actual position of No. 132 CEthra were pretty accurately 

 known, and if Mr. Gill were able to utili-e his heliojieter at the 

 Cape of Good Hope : this planet on February 28 being distant 

 from the earth less than o'84 of the earth's mean distance fi-om 

 the sun, with 47° south declinatim and rather greater brightness 

 ihau a star of the ninth magnitude. 



CHEMICAL NOTES 



Hautefeuille and Chappuis state (Comptes rendiis) that 

 when a high tension spark is passed through a mixture of nitrogen 

 and oxygen, ozone and "pirnitric acid" are produced, but the 

 latter compound is readily decomposed « ith production of a less 

 oxygenated bjcly and oxygen. When the electric discharge is 

 passed through air in presence of ^^■ater vapour very noticeable 

 quantities of nitric acid are fjrmed. The same observers have 

 examined the absorption-spectrum of oz me and have recognised 

 certain bands which they state are also fouud in the solar 



