546 



NA TURE 



[September 26, 1907 



,it the same time suggesting reasons for this fact more 

 or less similar to those advanced by Prof. Sayce ; but 

 the discoverer is by no means convinced that Dr. Smith 

 is right at all. Since penning my article in the Graphic 

 I have received a letter from Mr. Davis, giving his 

 reasons for his sturdy belief, in the same terms as one 

 received by Prof. Sayce, who communicates its gist to 

 the Times as follows : — " Immediately after the opening 

 of the tomb he had the mummy examined by Dr. Pollock, 

 of Luxor, ' and a prominent American obstetrician. . . . 

 In the presence of the doctor and surgeon, Mr. Ayrton, 

 and one or two other persons, the mummy was opened 

 and the bones exposed. In fact, the mummy had absorbed 

 so much moisture that it could not be unwrapped, but it 

 yielded to the touch and disintegrated to such an extent 

 that there was no difficulty in exposing the bones from 

 end to end. The pelvis was admitted to be the criterion 

 of the sex. Both doctor and surgeon instantly agreed 

 that it was the pelvis of a woman. The surgeon made 

 a most thorough examination, and explained to us why 

 it was a woman's pelvis, and what the difference is 

 between the pelvis of a man and a woman. He practically 

 stated that the ' greater breadth of the pelvic arch gives 

 one of the most easily appreciable points of contrast 

 between the male and female pelvis ; the pelvic arch in 

 the female forms an angle of from qo° to ioo°, while in 

 the male it averages from 70° to 75°.' " To me Mr. 

 Davis writes : — " In any event, I shall exhaust the ques- 

 tion of the se.x of the pelvis before conceding Dr. Smith's 

 opinion." 



If, however, Dr. Elliot Smith is really right, and the 

 body is that of a man, the fact does not in any way 

 affect the discovery. The tomb, catafalque, coffin, canopic 

 jars, diadem, &c., are those of Tii, and the bones found 

 were in some way substituted for hers. They cannot be 

 those of .Akhenaten, as he must have been a middle- 

 aged man when he died. H. R. Hall. 



Use of the Word " Telephotography." 



NATtJRE of .August 20 Contained an article by Dr. 

 Shelford Bidwell entitled "Practical Telephotography." 

 May I enter a protest against the use of the word 

 " telephotography " to describe the method of trans- 

 mitting pictures to a distance? Without wishing to go 

 into the merit of the term, I would point out that it has 

 been applied for years to photography by means of a 

 lens consisting of a negative as well as a positive element, 

 as in the well-known " telephoto " lens of Dallmeyer. 

 There is already an extensive literature in which the 

 term " telephotography " is used with this meaning, and 

 to employ it now to describe something totally different 

 can only ultimately result in confusion. Would it not be 

 better to employ the term customarily employed, viz. 

 "phototelegraphy"? R. Child Bayley. 



20 Tudor Street, London, September 7. 



I believe that the word " telephotography " was coined 

 by myself, and first appeared at the head of an article 

 published in Nature on February 10, 1881, in which an 

 account was given of the earliest attempt to transmit 

 photographic pictures by electrical means. The term was 

 at the time generally adopted by the Press, and has found 

 its way into several books of reference. In the " Century 

 Dictionary " (1900) telephotography is defined as " the 

 art (not yet attained) of producing a photograph, distant 

 and invisible from the camera, by means of electrical 

 connections with a suitable apparatus near the object." 

 No other meaning is given. 



The word was not employed in the sense in which it 

 appears to be now current among photographers until at 

 least ten years later, the date of Mr. Dallmeyer's invention 

 being 1891 ; but I have no great affection for my 

 neologism, and propose in future to write " telegraphic 

 photography," thus avoiding the possibilitv of confusion, 

 "r r °[°"^''^^'''''P'^^ " ' '^''^ '° '"^^" signalling by flashes 

 of light, as in heliographv. Shelford Bidwell. 



Bcechmead. Oatlands Chase, Weybridge, 

 September 13. 



NO. 1978, VOL. 76] 



DOUBLE STARS.' 



PROF. BURNHAM tells us in the preface to the 

 first mentioned of these works that when he was 

 attracted to the subject of double stars he had to 

 draw the main part of his information from an early 

 edition of Webb's " Celestial Objects." A useful 

 book, no doubt, and one which has given many an 

 amateur his first insight into a fascinating study, 

 but its modest dimensions compared with those of 

 the ponderous tomes the titles of which appear at the 

 foot of this column may serve to remind us of the 

 progress that has been made since that book occu- 

 pied a prominent place as a recognised authority. It 

 is in no small measure due to the difiiculties arising 

 from this scantiness of information that Prof. 

 Burnham experienced in his early days that we owe 

 this magnificent compilation. In those far-away 

 times it was necessary to collect the history of double 

 stars, to make manuscript copies of all the catalogues 

 that could be obtainrd, to note carefully all that was 

 published; and though this necessity may no longer 

 e.xist, these manuscript catalogues have been kept 

 posted up to date, and it is the final and complete 

 outcome of this long-continued work that has now 

 found its way into the printers' hands. We there- 

 fore get the results of accumulated experience in the 

 form that the author has found most useful. 



The catalogue gives the approximate coordinates 

 of 13,665 stars, the position angle and distance at 

 a given epoch, the magnitude of the components, and 

 such other information as can be pressed into a single 

 line. The value of such a work consists in its com- 

 pleteness. It may be confidently assumed that some 

 information concerning every star recognised as 

 double within the area under review previous to 1906, 

 will be found here. .All who have worked with in- 

 complete or disconnected catalogues will know how 

 to appreciate the usefulness of this compilation. In 

 no department of astronomical research is the litera- 

 ture more scattered. Amateurs have contributed 

 much to double-star measurement, and their observa- 

 tions are necessarily distributed through many 

 channels. To collect and make available these many 

 sources of information is a task of no common diffi- 

 culty, and is perhaps only possible to one who has 

 narrowly watched the growth of the material and 

 sifted the details .ts the observations appeared. Alert- 

 ness, industry and a keen interest in the subject were 

 as necessary as access to publications or orderly 

 method of arrangement. No one was better equipped 

 for the task than Prof. Burnham, and we may be 

 grateful that he has accomplished it. 

 • The notes to the catalogue will be of greater in- 

 terest to those who are concerned in the attainment 

 of astronomical results than is the catalogue itself. 

 Here are recorded a sufficient number of measures to 

 show the motion where there has been any relative 

 change, and so far as possible its character and 

 amount, or to exhibit the unchanged relation of the 

 components where no motion has been detected. 

 References to the original places of publication, 

 which would be used In subsequent calculations, are 

 given for each star. The author gratefully acknow- 

 ledges that he has been given a free hand in the 

 selection of observations and comments, and he adds 

 that he " has omitted nothing that in his judgment 

 would be worth giving." Here the author assumes 

 the position of a critic, a position for which he is 

 admirably fitted by his long training and close study. 

 Many will be prepared to surrender their judgment 



1 "A General Tatalocne of Dnuble Stars within rii° of ihe North Pole." 

 By S. W. Burnham. Pn. lv + 256 (Wa.shington, D.C. : Published by the 

 Carnegie Institution. igo6.) 



"A General Caialoeue of Double Stars." Part ii. Notps to the Cata- 

 logue. Pp. viii+257-1086. (Published by the Carnegie Institution, 1906.) 



