566 
NATURE 
[AuGUST I, 1912’ 
Messrs. Schneider for the Peruvian Government. The 
Ferre was shipped in the Kanguroo in Toulon Har- 
bour on June 28 last, and is now on her way to 
Callao. 
Mr. Henry FROWDE will shortly publish as a per- 
manent memorial of the recent celebration of the 250th 
anniversary of the Royal Society a volume of collotype 
facsimiles of the signatures of the founders, patrons, 
and fellows of the society recorded in its first journal- 
book and the charter-book from 1660 to the present 
time. The work will contain a preface by Sir Archi- 
bald Geilie, the president. The same publisher has 
just issued the third edition, revised and rearranged, 
of ‘The Record of the Royal aces of London.” 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES FOR AUGUST : 
August 2. 8h. om. Jupiter stationary. 
7. 4h. 58m. Saturn in conjunction with the 
Moon (Saturn 6° o! S.). 
10. I4h. 39m. Neptune in 9 conjunction with 
the Moon (Neptune Geez! 
13. oh. 31m. Venus in conjunction with the 
Moon (Venus 2° 13! S.). 
5, 3h. 54m. Mercury in conjunction with 
the Moon (Mercury So gull (SE) 
14. 3h. 50m. Mars in conjunction with the 
Moon (Mars 1° 32! S.). 
20. th. 1om. Jupiter in conjunction with the 
Moon (Jupiter 4° 44! N.). 
21. 22h. om. Mercury in inferior conjunction 
with the Sun. 
24. oh. 50m. Uranus in conjunction with the 
Moon (Uranus 4° 26! N.). 
26. 23h. om. Saturn at quadrature to the 
Sun. 
30. oh. om. Jupiter at quadrature to the Sun. 
,, 19h. om. Mercury stationary. 
OBSERVATIONS OF NEw Stars.—A paper, full of im- 
portant observations and suggestions, is published by 
Prof. Barnard in No. 8, vol. Ixxii., of the Monthly 
Notices, in which he discusses his observations of 
Nova Lacerte, Nova Geminorum (No. 2) and some 
other stars. 
After dealing with the position and brightness of 
Nova Lacertz, he describes the focal peculiarities pre- 
sented by the star, at different epochs, in the field of 
the 4o-in. refractor. At first, January, 1911, there was 
a normal image at the normal stellar focus, but 9 mm. 
beyond that there was also a well-defined crimson 
image produced by the very strong hydrogen, Ha, 
radiation. This crimson image was short-lived, and 
had certainly disappeared by April 9, probably earlier. 
Then the focus of the nova became longer, finally 
corresponding to that of a nebula. The stage where 
there existed the abnormal crimson image was also 
observed in Nova Geminorum (No. 2) on March 22 
of this year, the difference of focus between the 
normal and abnormal images being 9.3 mm. Prof. 
Barnard suggests that it should be possible to discover 
nove during this stage by sweeping for them, as one 
does for comets, the criterion being the focal peculiarity 
produced by the excessive brightness of Ha. He also 
suggests that, with the 4o-in. telescope, there are 
probably hundreds of past novee which might now 
be recognised by their presenting the second condition 
of longer focus and ill-defined appearance; examples 
of this class are Nova Cygni (1876), Nova Aurigze 
(1891), and Nova Sagittarii (1898). 
Prof. Barnard also presents some results of focal 
NO. 2231, VOL. 89] 
measures of several stars of different types, in 
which the normal image presented no peculiarities, 
although in several cases, e.g. P Cygni, he found 
abnormal images at some distance from the ordinary 
focus. Discussing the theories concerning nove, he 
inclines to the one in which the outburst of the star 
is supposed to be produced by physical forces inherent 
in a single body. 
THE SpEecrroscopic DETERMINATION OF AQUEOUS 
VAPOUR IN THE ATMOSPHERE.—The determination of 
the amount of water vapour existing in the earth’s 
atmosphere between the observer and observed body 
is a matter which enters into several important astro- 
nomical problems, and therefore the paper by Mr. 
F. E. Fowle in No. 3, vol. xxxv., of The Astrophysical 
Journal, is of considerable importance astronomically. 
Mr. Fowle passed the radiations from a Nernst lamp 
through long columns of air, of which the quan- 
tity of aqueous-vapour content and the physical condi- 
tions were strictly recorded, and then, with a spectro- 
bolometer, found the absorption produced by this 
aqueous vapour in the region of the two bands at 
Ari3 # and A1‘47x. In the laboratory experiments it 
was not feasible to work beyond an amount of aqueous 
vapour corresponding to a depth of 05 cm. of pre- 
cipitable water, but by incorporating the results of 
bolographs secured for high and low sun at Mount 
Wilson the curves are carried well beyond any amount 
of aqueous vapour likely to be met with in practice. 
In subsequent papers Mr. Fowle proposes to give 
applications of his method. 
Personat Errors 1x TRANSIT OBSERVATIONS.—In 
his address, as retiring president, to the Royal Society 
of South Africa, Mr. S. S. Hough gave some most 
interesting particulars concerning the progressive 
elimination of personal error from the transit observa- 
tions made at the Cape Observatory. After describing 
the eye-and-ear and the chronographic methods, Mr. 
Hough stated that the differences between two experi- 
enced observers not uncommonly amounted to o’25s., 
a varying quantity fatal to the researches calling 
for great accuracy. Then the Repsold hand-driven 
travelling-wire apparatus was adapted, and when six 
observers used this regularly, in 1908-9, the personal 
discordances were very greatly reduced, so that the 
extreme discordance, for all the observers, was only 
o'o6s. On the Repsold method being used, in 1911, 
with the mechanically-driven web, this extreme dis- 
cordance, for seven observers, was further reduced to 
less than o'02s. 
THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 
gpk eightieth annual meeting of the British Medi- 
cal Association was held in Liverpool on July 
19 to 27. The first four days were devoted to the 
representative meeting, at which the representatives 
of the branches and divisions of the United Kingdom 
and the Colonies discussed various matters affecting 
the association, the most important being the question 
whether the association should make further repre- 
sentations to the Government in respect of the dis- 
favour with which the Insurance Act is regarded by 
members of the association. After prolonged discus- 
sion, in the course of which the ill opinion of the Act 
entertained by the medical profession was freely ex- 
pressed, it was decided by 181 votes to 21 to break off 
negotiations with the Government. In most cases the 
representatives had already been instructed as to their 
vote by meetings of the local divisions, at which reso- 
lutions directed against further conferences with the 
Government had been passed unanimously or by large 
majorities. It may here be observed that the medical 
