May 16, 1912] 
NATURE 
277 
it rarely (if ever) occurs except in the special case of 
oxidation. These facts are of considerable importance, 
as they throw doubt on the assumption, which is 
almost universally made, that a substituent group 
normally enters the same position as the atom or 
linkage which it displaces. 
Tue seventy-eighth annual report of the Natural 
History, Literary, and Polytechnic Society of Bootham 
School, York, for 1912, is noteworthy as providing 
evidence of the enthusiasm for scientific worlk which 
can be developed among schoolboys when qualified 
masters of a boarding-school are willing to devote 
part of their leisure hours to what is nearly always 
entirely a labour of love. The Natural History 
Society has some eleven sections, each devoted to a 
separate science, and excellent practical work was 
done in them all during the year under review. 
A CONVENIENT card for hanging in offices, entitled 
“Standard Metric Equivalent Tables, comprising 
Weights, Measures, and Prices in Franes and Marks,” 
has been published by the Central Translations Insti- 
tute, Eastcheap, London. The equivalent prices in 
francs and marks per foot, yard, square yard, cubic 
foot, gallon, and similar British units will be very 
handy for merchants. The price of the card is Is. 2d. 
post free. 
A new and cheaper edition of *“The Grouse in 
Health and in Disease”’ is in the press, and will be 
published in July next by Messrs. Smith, Elder and 
Co. In the absence of Dr. E. A. Wilson in the 
Antarctic, the book has been edited by Mr. A. S. 
Leslie and Dr. E. A. Shipley, and Lord Lovat has 
contributed an introduction. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
RepPoRTED Discovery or A NEw Comet.—We learn, 
from The Daily Mail of May 14, that the following 
telegram has been received at the Greenwich Observa- 
tory :—‘A comet-like object with a tail has been 
observed by Mr. Hansen at Praestoe, Denmark. It 
is of intense magnitude, and its position, given on 
May to at two o’clock, was R.A. 20h. 53m. 20s. ; 
deel. 31° 24! N.? 
Probably the first statement of the second sentence 
should read, ‘It is of the tenth magnitude,” for we 
are told that it is not visible to the naked eye. The 
position given lies about half-way between ¢ and e 
Cygni, and is on the meridian at about 5 a.m.; that 
is to say, it is above our horizon during all the hours 
of darkness. 
The origin of the above telegram is not stated, and, 
so far, we have received no intimation’ of the dis- 
covery from the Kiel Centralstelle. 
Tue Roration or Uranus.—When the axis about 
which a planet revolves makes a considerable angle 
with the observer’s line of sight, the rotational motion 
can be detected, or even measured, spectroscopically, 
because as the planet rotates some regions of its limb 
must be travelling towards the observer, while others 
are travelling away from him. At the present epoch | 
the orientation of Uranus is favourable to such an 
investigation, and spectrograms giving a measure of 
the planet’s rotational velocity, secured at the Lowell 
Observatory, were exhibited and explained by Prof. 
NO. 2220, VOL. 89] 
Lowell at the recent meeting of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society. On these spectrograms the lines 
are inclined because the slit was so placed that at the 
top was the approaching limb, while at the bottom 
was the receding limb. Thus, in accordance with 
Doppler’s principle, the extremities of the lines were 
displaced towards the violet and the red respectively, 
that is to say, they are inclined to the normal lines 
of the comparison spectrum photographed on the 
same plate. Measures of the inclination of a number 
of these lines, on different photographs, indicate that 
the planet makes one complete rotation in about 
1oh, 45m. 
Tue Recent Sorar Eciipse.—A large number of 
communications describing the observations made 
during the solar eclipse of April 17 are published in 
No. 4571 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. 
Observations of the bright-line spectrum were made 
by Drs. Eberhard and Ludendorff at Berlin, and, like 
Prof. Fowler at South Kensington, and Prof. Ifiguez, 
Prof. Eberhard found that he was able to study the 
bright lines for quite half an hour. Dr. Kempf found 
that the first and last contacts took place o'4m. earlier 
than predicted by the Berliner Jahrbuch, while at 
Lemberg, Dr. Grabowski found they were, respec- 
tively, o'3m. and o'6m. earlier. Quite a number of 
observers remark on the unexpected darkness of the 
eclipse and its observed effect on various flowers 
(especially tulips), beasts, and birds. 
M. Felix de Roy gives a very interesting account of 
the observations made by the mission organised by 
the Antwerp Astronomical Society, and located at 
Silenrieux (Hainaut, Belgium), where a true annular 
eclipse was seen. The inner corona was seen by one 
observer only, and the chromosphere and prominences 
were looked for in vain. Among the observers of 
contacts at the Kiel Observatory was Prince Henry 
of Prussia. 
THe OriciIns oF THE BricHt Lines In Nov 
Spectra.—At the meeting of the Royal Astronomical 
Society, reported in the current number of The 
Observatory (No. 448), a number of spectra of Nova 
Geminorum were exhibited on the screen and after- 
wards discussed. Prof. Fowler, after remarking on 
the unfavourable weather experienced at South Ken- 
sington, exhibited two small-dispersion spectra 
obtained on March 15 and 29 respectively, and stated 
that as regards the origins of the lines, those assigned 
by Sir Norman Lockyer to the lines observed in the 
spectrum of Nova Persei (1901) would probably serve. 
The bright lines appearing in nove also appear in 
the chromosphere and solar prominences, and are 
mainly those of the enhanced iron spectrum. Prof. 
Newall also agreed that many of the bright lines may 
be identified as enhanced lines of iron. 
Dr. R. H. Curtiss describes the early spectra secured 
at the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Observatory, in No. 3, vol. 
xxxv., of The Astrophysical Journal. Five photo- 
graphs taken on March 13 show a_ continuous 
spectrum similar in general appearance to that of 
Altair, but differing in the positions of the lines. Few 
narrow dark lines were seen, and all the prominent 
lines of the Fs type, e.g. 44481 and A4549, appear to 
be absent. Hs, Hy, and H& are all strong lines and 
very complex, both absorption and emission being 
represented ; lines at Aso16, 44922, and A4472, and the 
H and K lines of calcium have similar character- 
istics, the sharp reversals in the latter indicating. a 
velocity of +5 km. +2 km. On a photograph taken 
on March 22 many of the maxima of emission on 
March 13 were maxima of absorption, and wice versa, 
and no certain trace of the nebula lines was to be 
seen. 
