July 23, 



1 908 J 



NATURE 



281 



30), the experiments described being conceived with much 

 ingenuity. The reducing action of mercury upon a solu- 

 tion of gold chloride was relied upon for detecting the 

 extremely minute amounts of mercury involved, great 

 care being taken to eliminate disturbing influences. The 

 solvent action of water, benzene, nitrobenzene, and alcohol 

 on mercury is clearly proved, and it was also shown that 

 the effects observed could not be attributed to the formation 

 of an oxide or hydroxide of mercury. 



The Bio-Chemical Journal for June (iii., No. 5) is mainly 

 occupied with papers by Prof. P. W. Latham on the 

 svnthesis of protein. Taking the results of Schutzenberger, 

 obtained by the hydrolytic decomposition of egg-albumin 

 with baryta, the author analyses them and attempts to 

 reconstruct a formula for albumin. 



A TiiiUD edition of " Determination of Radicles in Carbon 

 Compounds," by Profs. H. Meyer and J. Bishop Tingle, 

 has been pi^lished by Messrs. John Wiley and Sons, of 

 New York. Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Ltd., publish the 

 book in this country at the price of 5s. fid. net. The new 

 matter, running to fifty-five pages, has been placed at 

 the end of the volume in the form of an appendix, and 

 copious cross-references have been provided. 



We have received a copy of a new periodical devoted 

 to scientific subjects, and entitled the Scientific Monthly, an 

 illustrated journal of science. There are contributions deal- 

 ing with electrical, astronomical, chemical, and micro- 

 scopical subjects, and numerous notes on scientific ques- 

 tions of current interest. The articles are of a general 

 informative character and are illustrated. The magazine, 

 the price of which is 3rf., is published by Mr. Arthur N. 

 Kemp, 26 Shaftesbury Avenue, London. 



We have received from Mr. Bernard Quarltch, of Grafton 

 Street, New Bond Street, London, W., copies of two of his 

 July catalogues of books. One deals with Oriental history, 

 languages, and literature, and includes works on Oriental 

 art and natural history ; the other gives particulars of a 

 large number of books printed during the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries, and is the first part of an illustrated 

 catalogue to be completed in about three parts. The first 

 part, now issued, contains some si.xty facsimiles, and com- 

 prises examples of xylography in the Low Countries and 

 Italy, and typography in Germany. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Lick Observatory Eclipse Expedition, January, 

 1908. — A very interesting account of the work done, and 

 the preliminary results obtained, by the Lick Observatory- 

 Crocker eclipse expedition to Flint Island, written by Dr. 

 Sebastian Albrecht, appears in No. 3, vol. ii., of the 

 Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 

 (pp. 115-131, May-June). 



After explaining the importance of the several items in 

 the programme prepared, and describing the various in- 

 struments, Dr. Albrecht gives an illustrated description of 

 the eclipse-camp site, and tells of the difficulties overcome 

 in transporting and setting up the several instruments. 

 Errors in the ephemeris-positions of the moon led to totality 

 commencing 27 sees, earlier than predicted, and the ob- 

 served times of beginning and ending of the total phase 

 were gh. 22m. 20s. and qh. 26m. 12s. G.M.T. 



The equipment included a coronagraph of ^^o-ft. focal 

 length, pointed directly at the eclipsed sun, and intended 

 to photograph the details of the inner corona, a shorter 

 instrument for photographing the coronal extensions, several 

 spectrographs, including one with quartz lenses and prisms, 

 two sets of four cameras for seeking any intra-mercurial 

 planet that may exist, polarigraphs, a photometer, and 

 Prof. Abbot's bolometric apparatus. 



The photographs "taken with the 40-ft. camera show 



NO. 2021, VOL. 78] 



about thirtv streamers extending to a distance of more 

 than one solar diameter, and about half that number ex- 

 tending to I5 diameters; excellent negatives, eight in 

 number, were obtained with the smaller coronagraph. Four 

 good negatives, on which the linear dispersion is such 

 that from A 3700 to A. 5300 is thirteen inches, were ob- 

 tained with the large inoving-plato spectrograph, and on 

 the one taken at the end of totality there are hundreds 

 of bright lines, the study of which should afford a wealth 

 of information concerning the structure and composition 

 of the sun's higher atmosphere. From one of the smaller- 

 scale spectrograms the wave-length of the green corona 

 line has been determined as 5301-4. Both on these and 

 on the spectrograms obtained with the quartz spectro- 

 graph, the shifting of the great intensity of the continuous 

 spectrum towards the red indicates the lower temperature 

 of the corona as compared with that of the photosphere. 

 About twenty-five sharp lines are shown on the coronal 

 spectrograms taken with the quartz instrument, two of 

 which appear to be new. Dr. Perrine's examination of 

 the photographs taken leads to the conclusion that no 

 intra-mercurial planet of sufficient magnitude to account 

 for the Mercury perturbation anomalies exists. Two of 

 the photographs illustrating Dr. .Mbrecht's article are of 

 the corona. 



The Approaching Return of Halley's Comet. — Popular 

 Astronomy for May contains an article of general interest 

 on Halley's comet, written by Prof. H. C. Wilson. After 

 describing the comet's appearance at various returns since 

 1066, the writer compares the approximate elements, re- 

 duced to the equinox of 1910, of the orbit at the recorded 

 apparitions from 451 a.d. onwards, and shows that those 

 for 1910 indicate similar conditions to those obtaining in 

 1066, when the comet was an object of remarkable 

 grandeur. At present the comet appears to be just beyond 

 the orbit of Jupiter, which it should traverse about March i, 

 1909, and mav possibly be discovered photographically 

 during the coming winter. 



The Orbit of Algol. — No. 5, vol. i., of the Publications 

 of the Alleghcnv Observatory is devoted to a discussion 

 of the orbit of Algol, based on observations made in 

 iqo6 and 190T with the Mellon spectrograph ; the measur- 

 able portion of the spectra extends from \ •:92- to X 4750, 

 and is 21 mm. in length. In this region eight lines, due 

 respectively to'Ca, He, H, Si, and Mg were selected for 

 measurement bv Dr. Schlesinger, and were measured by 

 him and Dr. Curtiss independently, adjusted wave-lengths 

 being emploved by the latter observer. An apparent change 

 of velocity (about — 10 km.) between the observations of 

 1006 and those of 1907 may be due, possibly, to a change 

 of camera lens, but it is not impossible that it is a real 

 change in the star such as was suspected by Belopolsky. 

 The elements and the light-curve obtained by each observer 

 are given, and the results indicate that the light minimum 

 lags about one and a half or two hours behind the time 

 demanded by the velocity determinations. 



The Path of the Minor Planet (279) Thule.— An ex- 

 haustive mathematical discussion of the orbit of the minor 

 planet (279) Thule, by Dr. A. Wedemeyer, occupies the 

 fifty-six pages of No." 2, vol. xxxi., of the Archiv der 

 deutschen Sccwarte. The special perturbations are deter- 

 mined bv Oppolzer's method and tabulated, and the cor- 

 rections 'derived are applied for each observed opposition 

 of the planet from 1888 to 1906. 



An Amateur's Meridian Instrument. — In the July 

 number of the Bulletin de la Societi astronomique de 

 France M. E. Souli(5 describes a simple and inexpensive 

 apparatus which enables amateur observers to determine 

 the meridian with very fair exactitude. It consists of a 

 flat plate of heavy material, so supported that it hangs 

 vertically like a plumb-line. Using the plane of this sheet 

 to direct the line of sight, the plate is oriented to Polaris 

 some minutes before f Ursa; Majoris, or 5 Cassiopeia;, 

 crosses the sight-line. By fine adjustments, the instant 

 when Polaris and one of these stars, preferably the latter, 

 are in the plane of the plate together is noted, and then 

 the plate is made to follow Polaris for exactly six minutes. 

 At the end of this interval it is in the meridian, and may 

 afterwards be used to observe transits or to determine local 

 noon, &c. 



