ISO 



NA TURE 



[ynne 25, 1874 



I have assumed the intensity of light on June 13 = i. 

 The orbit of the comet makes a very close approach to 

 that of the planet Vciuis. My last elements indicate for 

 least distance of orbits . . o'oii. 



For calculation of places after July 15 the following ex- 

 pressions for the comet's heliocentric co-ordinates 

 referred to the equator, will be useful, in conjunction with 

 X, Y, Z, of the NaHtical Almanac. 



X = ;• [977402] sin (z^ + 26^ S'-j) 

 y = ^ [9'9S665] sin (w + 276 i7''i) 

 2 = r [9'924oSJ sin {v + 176^ S4'-s) 



J. R. Hind 

 Mr. Bishop's Observatory, Twickenham, June 23 



The following additional information is taken from a 

 letter by Mr. Hind in yesterday's 1 imcs : — 



" The comet will be nearest to the earth on the night 

 of July 22, its distance being then less than 03. 



"Last night at 11.30, the moon being yet above the 

 horizon, the comet appeared to be in the least degree 

 fainter than the star Upsilon, Ursiu Majoris, which 

 Argelander estimates rather higher than the fourth mag- 

 nitude. In the strongly illuminated sky of these mid- 

 summer nights it was very sensibly brighter than the 

 neighbouring stars 42 and 43 Camelopardi. By measures 

 of the nucleus taken with the filar-microniL-ter, it appeared 

 to be rather more than 4,000 miles in diameter, and the 

 tail, assuming it to be projected from the nucleus in 

 the line of the radius-vector, would be 4,oco,ooo miles 

 in length. 



" During the first fortnight in July the comet will un- 

 doubtedly be a pretty conspicuous object in the constel- 

 lation Lynx, where there are few bright stars. 



" At the end of September its brightness, by theory, 

 should be the same as on the night of discovery (April 

 17), and it will then be well observed in the southern 

 hemisphere, in the neighbourhood of the star Alpha Cha- 

 majleontis." 



Mr. Hind, in a letter with which he has favoured me, 

 lays great stress upon the star-like appearance of the nu- 

 cleus of the comet now visible, as seen in a telecope ; and 

 M. Rayet has already, in a communication to the Paris 

 Academy, shown that its spectrum is continuous, that of 

 the coma giving the three ordinary cometary bands. 

 On Monday evening last the comet was bright enough, in 

 spite of the moonlight, to enable me to observe this 

 continuous spectrum with my 6} inch Cooke and a pocket 

 spectroscope. It struck me that the spectrum was short, 

 i.i\ that it was deficient in blue rays ; and as one saw in 

 the telescope a fan-like structure above the nucleus (as 

 seen in an inverting telescope), so also in the spectroscope, 

 the continuous spectrum sparkled as if many short bright 

 lines or bands were superposed upon it. I shall be glad 

 to learn that other observers witk more powerful instru- 

 ments have had their attention directed to these two 

 points. J. Norman Lockyer 



NOTES 



On the 3rJ inst. the comer stone of the American Museum 

 of Natural History in New York was laid by the President of 

 the United States, 'fhe ground belonging to the Museum 

 measures about eighteen acres, and the building when completed 

 according to plan will be larger than the Brilisli Museum. The 

 object of the Museum is twofold : — First to interest and instruct 

 the masses ; and secondly, and specially, to render all possible 

 assistance to specialisls. The library presented to the Museum 

 by Miss Wolfe, willi a large collection of shells, also donated by 

 Miss Wolfe to the Musluid in memory of litr father, who was 

 its first Piesident, was purchased by her at a cost of 35, 000 dels. 

 The other collections at present in the temporary Museum are 

 valued at 250,000 dols. A rare and newly complete seiies of 



American birds, and mJiny fine birds of Paradise and pheasants, 

 now in the collection formerly belonging to M-. D. G. HUiott, 

 will be added. The Trustees have purchased the coUecUon of 

 Prince Maximilian, of Neuwied, on the Rhine, and a large 

 number of specimens belonging to the late Edward Verreaux, of 

 Paris. Lar^e donations of shells, corals, and minerals, have been 

 received, as also a collection of 20,000 insects. The collections 

 will be bought and cared for by moneys contributed by the 

 Trustees individually and the public, but the building now in 

 progress will be erected at the expense of the city, which has 

 already appropriated 500,000 dols. for this purpose. 



Prof. Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution gave" an 

 address on the above occasion, in which he spoke as follows on 

 the necessity of endowing scientific research: — "The develop- 

 ment of the institution would not be completed were it furnished 

 with .ill the appliances I have mentioned. There fs another 

 duty which this city owes to itself and to the civilisation of the 

 world. I allude to an endowment for the support of a college 

 of discoverers and a number of men capable not only of ex- 

 pounding established and known truths, but of interrogating 

 nature and discovering new facts, new phenomena, and new 

 principles. The blindness of the public to the value of the 

 abstract sciences and the matter of endowments of colleges for 

 their support is remarkable. It is not everyone, however well 

 educated he may be, that is capable of becoming a first-class 

 scientist. Like poets, discoverers are born, not made, and when 

 one of this class has been found he should be cherished, liberally 

 jn-ovided with the means of subsistence, fully supplied with all the 

 implements of information, and his life consecrated to the high 

 and holy office of penetrating the mysteries of nature. What 

 has been achieved in the knowledge of the forces in operation 

 in nature, and the uses to which it is applied in controlling and 

 directing these forces to useful purposes, constitutes the highest 

 claim to the glory of our race.' 



The Duke of Devonshire, speaking at the banquet at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, on the 17th inst., said it had fallen to his 

 lot during the last three or four years, while acting on a Royal 

 Commission for inquiring into Scientific Education and the 

 Advancement of Science, to become acquainted with the deve- 

 lopment and extension of scientific teaching in the several 

 Universities of the kingdom, and of learning the views of those 

 be;t qu.ilified to express an opinion as to the requirements 

 remaining to be supplied. The result of the inquiry had been 

 satisfactory, inasmuch as it showed tliat a great deal had been 

 done in the direction indicated, and that University authorities 

 had manifested a strong desire that the Universities should be 

 provided with all appliances necessary not only for centres of 

 scientific education, but as centres also of general intellectu.al 

 activity and of original research. This latter point was strongly 

 insisted on in the evidence before the commissioners, and 

 received their concurrence. A University which recognised the 

 advancement and extension of knowledge as one of the main 

 purposes of its existence was surely to be regarded as of a higher 

 and nobler type than one which was satisfied with the position 

 of a mere educitional body. There was nothing ant.igonistic in 

 these two obiects ; on the contrary, gre.it advantage might be 

 derived from their combination. 



The Emperor of Austria has been pleased to confer upon 

 Mr. Robert H. Scott, F.R.S., the Director of the Meteorologi- 

 cal Office, the Order of the Iron Crown, Third Class. 



Dr. Tolozan, physician to the Shah of Persia, h.is been 

 elected a corresponding member of the French Academy in the 

 section of Medicine and Surgery, and M. Studer of Berne in that 

 of Geology. The latter is a veteran of 79 years. 



The organisation' of the French National Observatory will 



