422 



NA TURE 



[August 22, 1907 



graphs, by Mr. ("■. J. ^\■illiams, of the face of the quarry 

 and of some of the footprints are reproduced in the report 

 of H.M. Inspector of Mines for llie Liverpool district for 

 iqof) (Cd. 3449, vi.). 



'I'liE Journal of Hygiene for July (vii.. No. 4) contains 

 a number of interesting articles. Among others, Castellani 

 shows that human yaws is transmissible to monkeys, and 

 that in the lesions, spleen, and glands 'the same spiro- 

 cha:te (S. pcrtenuis) is present as in man. 



An interesting account of the evolution of the steam 

 turbine and a sketch of the career of its inventor — the 

 Hon. C. A. Parsons, F.R.S.— by Mr. A. A. Campbell 

 Swinton, appears in the current issue of the World's 

 Hor/,'. Other articles of scientific interest in the nuinber 

 are " Lobster Farming," by Mr. F. A. Talbot, dealing 

 mainly with the work carried on at Mill Cove, Wickford, 

 Rhode Island, by Dr. A. D. Mead, and " Scientific 

 Taxidermy," by Mr. H. J. Shepstone. The two last- 

 named contributions are strikingly illustrated. 



We recently published a review of part i., vol. i., of 

 " Research in China," dealing with descriptive topo- 

 graphy and geology (N.ature, August 8), and have now 

 to record the receipt of part ii. of the same volume of the 

 work. The bulk of the section before us treats of petro- 

 graphy and zoology, and is the work of Mr. Eliot Black- 

 welder, but there is also a syllabary of Chinese sounds 

 by Dr. Friedrich Ilirth, professor of Chinese at Columbia 

 University. The work is issued by the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington. 



A SECOND edition of " Impianti Elettriii a Correnti 

 alternate semplici, bifasi e trifasi " has recently been 

 received from Mr. U. Hoepli, Milan. The book forms 

 one of the very practical series of Manuali Hoepli, and 

 will be of service to students and electrical engineers able 

 to read Italian. 



Messrs. A. and C. Black announce a book entitled 

 "The Norwegian Fjords," which is to be written and 

 illustrated by Mr. A. H. Cooper. The work will describe 

 the home life, domestic industries, religion, superstition, 

 and folk-lore of the peasants of Norway. 



The Patent Oftlce has just published a subject list of 

 works on military and naval arts, including marine 

 engineering, in the library of the Patent Office. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Daniel's Comet, igoyd.— This comet is now at its 

 ma.ximum brightness, and with a clear sky and good 

 horizon may be seen quite easily by the naked eye for 

 some time before sunrise. Its naked-eve magnitude on 

 August 12 was estimated to be equal to that of 

 M Geminorum, about 3-5. 



The comet rises about 25° north of east, in London, at 

 about 2 a.m., and on .August 22 will be some 12° 11' 

 directly south of Pollux. 



Two excellent photographs of this object were secured 

 by M. Ouenisset, at Juvisy, at 2 a.m. on Julv 10 and 20 

 respectively, and are reproduced in the .August number of 

 the Bulletin dc la Socic'tc astraiwmique de France. On 

 the former date the photograph showed five tail streamers, 

 biit on the latter seven were to be seen on the plate. 

 The longest tail extended some 4° from the nucleus, re- 

 presenting at least some 12,000,000 kilometres (7,500,000 

 miles) ; on July 20 the diameter of the nucleus was about 

 4 . or 173,000 kilometres (about 108,000 miles). 



Search-epiiemerides for Comets i8q4 IV. and iqoo III. 

 — No. 411)5 of the Aslronomische Nachrichlen (p. -510. 

 August 7) contains two sets of search-ephemeridcs, 'one 

 by Prof. Scares for the De Vico-E. Swift comet (1804 IV.) 

 di.scovered in 1804, but not seen on its return in iqoi, the 

 other by Herr Scharbe for Giacobini's comet, 1900 III. 



NO. 1973, ■V<^I" 76] 



The former was referred to in these columns on 

 .\ugust I, and the comet's brightness on August 25, 

 according to the cphemerides, will be either o-6i or 0.86, 

 its brightness when its magnitude was 13-1 (November 21, 

 1894) being taken as unity. 



Ten alternative ephemerides are given for comet 

 1900 III. 



Mars. — In a telegram published in No. 4195 of the 

 Astrononiische Nachrichten (p. 323, August 7), Prof. 

 Lowell announces that the Martian double canal Gihon 

 has been photographed as double both by Mr. Lampland 

 and himself. 



In Bulletin No. 30 of the Lowell Observatory the same 

 observer discusses the results of the observations of the 

 North Polar Cap of Mars during the period March-June, 

 1907. It appears that the cap commenced quite suddenly 

 and in an extensive manner just as it did in 1903 and 

 1905, and on practically the same date, the Martian 

 August 22-2J. Further, the first frost melted again on 

 the succeeding days and was followed by another fall a 

 little later, again as it did in 1903 and 1905. 



This striking fact led Prof. Lowell to investigate mathe- 

 matically the problem of the daily insolation upon a 

 planet, and he shows that the Martian phenomenon is in 

 accordance with his deductions. 



.\mong other points he demonstrates the existence of an 

 atmosphere sufficient 10 retard the genera! deposition of 

 frost by some nineteen days. He also states that the 

 arctic and antarctic regions of Mars are actually warmer 

 in the Martian summer than are ours, although the mean 

 temperature of the planet, 48° F., is .some twelve degrees 

 less than the mean temperature of the earth. 



The Total Eclipse of January, 1908. — I'rom No. 114 

 (p. i()7, vol. xix., June 10) of the Publications of the 

 ."istronomical Society of the Pacific we learn that arrange- 

 ments have been made for an expedition from the Lick 

 Observatory to observe the total solar eclipse of January 3, 

 1908. 



Only two islands are crossed by the shadow-path, and 

 of these the Lick expedition has selected Flint Island 

 (long. 151° 48' W., lat. 11° 26' S.), which lies in the 

 central Pacific Ocean some 390 miles north-west of 

 Tahiti. 



Under the existing conditions the eclipse will occur at 

 nh. i8m. (local mean time), 'w-ith the sun 15° from the 

 zenith. The duration of totality, according to the 

 .\merican ephemeris. will be 4m. 6s. 



The expedition, the sending of which has been made 

 possible by the generosity of Mr. W'illiam H. Crocker, will 

 leave San Francisco on November 22, journeying thence 

 to Tahiti, and will be conveyed from the latter island 

 by a L'.S. gunboal. 



At the instigation of Prof. Campbell, Prof. .Abbot, of 

 the .Smithsonian Institution, will accompany the Lick 

 expedition in order to secure bolometric observations of 

 the corona. The two expeditions will be independent 

 scientifically, but will be united in the travelling and 

 subsistence arrangements. 



In the August number of the Observatory (p. 333, No. 

 3S6) it is tentatively suggested that it may be possible 

 for some European astronomer, who could not otherwise 

 see the eclipse, to obtain some assistance from the Lick 

 expedition. 



The Leeds .\strono.mical Society. — The fourteenth 

 annual Journal and Transactions of the Leeds Astro- 

 nomical Society contains some interesting papers com- 

 municated by the members during 1906. 



An ob.servatory, in connection with the University and 

 the city council, was opened on May 4, 1906, on Wood- 

 house Xloor, and contains an i8J-inch Newtonian reflector 

 .'md .1 transit instrument. These instruments are to be 

 used by members of the University staff, certain university 

 students, teachers and selected students from the Educa- 

 tion Committee's schools and by members of the astro- 

 nomical societies. 



.Among the papers published in the Journal, one may 

 mention a discussion of the existence of an intra-Mercurial 

 planet, an illustrated description of the immense Jai Singh 

 observatories located at Benares, Delhi, and Jaipur, and 

 a lengthy discussion of Tennyson's astronomy. 



