September 12, 1907] 



NA TURE 



505 



OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



September Meteors. — September has long been known 

 for the abundance of fireballs which it supplies, and 

 apparently the present month will justify this reputation. 

 On September 3 a large meteor was observed from Red- 

 ruth and Falmouth, in Cornwall, falling among the stars 

 in the south-east region of Pegasus. On September 7 two 

 fireballs were seen from near Bishop's Stortford. The 

 first of these was observed at 8h. 56m. descending almost 

 vertically a little to the right of the planet Saturn. The 

 other made its appearance at iih. 22m., but details are 

 wanting. 



Daniel's Comet, 19071^. — Numerous reports of observ- 

 ations and photographs of DaniePs comet are now coming 

 to hand, and show this object to be one of unusual 

 interest. 



The Comptes rcndiis for August 26 (No. q) contains a 

 preliminary description of spectrograms obtained by MM. 

 Deslandres and Bernard. The chief bands shown are 

 those typical of the hydrocarbons and of cyanogen, but 

 there are other, fainter bands which are unfamiliar. An 

 as yet inexplicable difference is noted between the spec- 

 trum of the comet's head and that of its tail. A multiple 

 tail 6° in length was shown on a photograph obtained 

 by Mr. Plaskett at the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, 

 on July 20. 



As reported in the Observatory for September (p. 364, 

 No. 387), Mr. Melotte photographed the comet with the 

 Greenwich 30-inch reflector on August 10, ii, 12, and 13, 

 and the photographs show a tail some 100' long with 

 fifteen to twenty streamers. On a small-scale photograph 

 secured with the Dailmeyer R.R. lens on August 13, the 

 tail can be traced for about 7° from the head, its general 

 direction being west. The streamers curve to the south 

 and spread out in a fan-like form. 



In No. 4198 of the Astrononiische Nachrichten, Herr 

 H. H. Kritzinger points out that the earth will, on 

 .September 12, pass through the straggling portions, if 

 there be any so far behind the main body of the comet, 

 and that any meteors occasioned by the collision will have 

 as their apparent radiant a = 23h. 8m., 5= +3°. 



Comet 1881 V. — .'\ note by Mr. Denning, published in 

 No. 387 (p. 363, September) of the Observatory, recalls 

 the fact that the return of the periodical comet discovered 

 by him on October 4, iSSx, is due this year. 



-According to Dr. Matthiessen's elements, the period is 

 S-68 years, and it therefore returned in iSgo and 1899, but 

 its position rendered it invisible. This year its position 

 indicates the same favourable conditions as obtained in 

 1881, when it was calculated to have been visible to the 

 naked eye in August, before its discovery. The comet is 

 of interest from the fact that at one point in its orbit it 

 approaches to within 3^ million miles of the earth. The 

 following is from a search-ephemeris calculated by Dr. 

 Smart on the assumption that perihelion passage will take 

 place on October 6 next : — 



Ephcmcris i2h. (G.M.T.) 

 1907 R.A. Dec. log A BriEht- 



From this it will be seen that the comet should now 

 (September 12) be about 21m. west of C Cancri, and should 

 rise, about 30° north of east, some 5 hours before the sun. 

 On October 3 it will pass a little to the north of Regulus. 



The Paris Observ.\tory. — The annual report, for 

 iqo6, of Prof. Loewy, the director of the Paris Observ- 

 atory, is full of interesting items, of which only a few may 

 be given here. After outlining the present state of the 

 Eros work, the director mentions some instrumental alter- 

 ations and improvements, and states how satisfactorily a 

 registering micrometer has been found to work used in 

 connection with the Cercle meridien du Jardin. Five 

 hundred and eighty plates of the moon were obtained with 



NO. 1976, VOL. 76] 



the large equatorial coude, . and a number of enlargements 

 of other plates have been made for the tenth section of 

 the Atlas photographique de la Lime.. A number of photo- 

 metric observations and experiments on atmospheric 

 absorption were carried on by M. Nordmann with interest- 

 ing and important results, whilst M. Bigourdan continued 

 his researches on the nebulje. The work on the Carte dti 

 Ciel proceeds steadily, and 116 enlargements for the chart 

 were prepared during the year ; forty-one of these were 

 from Paris, the others from Algiers, Bordeaux, and 

 Toulouse. 



The l.^te Prof, S. P. L.uxglev. — No. 1720 (vol. xlix.) 

 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections is devoted 

 to three interesting addresses delivered, respectively, by 

 M«ssrs. White, Pickering, and Chanute, at the memorial 

 meeting held on December 3, 1906, " to commemorate the 

 life and services of Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution from 1887 to 1906." Dr. 

 White's address dealt with Langley's work in general,. 

 dwelling especially upon his invaluable services to the 

 institution and his ever-readiness to promote the cause of 

 scientific research in every direction. In Prof. E. C. 

 Pickering's address one finds a brief resximi of Langley's 

 contributions to astronomy and astrophysics ; whilst 

 Mr. Chanute dealt with his work on aerial naviga- 

 tion. An apparently complete bibliography of Langley's 

 published works from 1S69 to 1905 is also included in 

 the publication. 



The Distribution and Control of Stand.^rd Time. — 

 A paper of general interest on the subject of time-control 

 is reproduced as an extract from the Bulletin astronomique 

 (vol. xxiv.) for May. In it M. Jean Mascart describes the 

 apparatus and method employed for this purpose at the 

 Paris Observatory, discussing each operation separately, 

 and illustrating the text by diagrams of various parts of 

 the system. The causes of accidents and the special 

 artifices adopted for eliminating their possibility form an 

 important part of the paper. 



GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 T^HE geographical section of the association met at 

 Leicester under particularly favourable conditions, 

 the quarters provided being the airy and spacious 

 assembly rooms in Hotel Street. The meetings were 

 generally w-ell attended, and only in a few cases was any 

 serious falling off in the audience noticeable. The papers 

 were, so far as possible, grouped under the broad sub- 

 divisions of the subject, but as some deviations from this 

 arrangement were necessary, in order to suit the con- 

 venience of the readers, it will be well here to disregard' 

 the strict order, and bring together the subjects of a more' 

 or less similar character. 



Besides the opening address of the president, Mr. G. G. 

 Chisholm, which has already been printed in full in these 

 pages, several papers dealt with the specially human and 

 economic aspects of geography, which it had been felt 

 desirable to emphasise as suiting well with the industriaf 

 activities of the place of meeting. Communications had 

 been received from distinguished exponents of this side of 

 geography both in France and Germany. Prof. Vidaf 

 de la Blache. of Paris, whose writings are noteworthy 

 for the admirable way in which they apply the geo- 

 graphical method to the consideration of human rela- 

 tions, was unfortunately unable to be present in person, 

 but his paper, on the geographical evolution of com- 

 munications, was read in his absence. Starting from 

 the earliest devices evolved by primitive man as aids in 

 the movement of loads, it traced their gradual improve- 

 ment under varying conditions of local environment, and 

 especially through the adaptation of animal power to 

 purposes of transport : showing how the vast open plains 

 of Central Eurasia, with the peculiar facilities they offered 

 for the employment of the horse and wheeled vehicle, 

 encouraged the movements of peoples, and brought about 

 the development of long-distance traffic, in which the 

 internal commerce of modern States may be said to have 

 itself originated. While the early beginnings of com- 

 mercial activity were especially dealt with in this paper, 



