2 8o 



NA TURE 



[July 23, 1896 



(Band Ixx. p. 21 ), by Max Buchner, and in Ihe folk-lore contained 

 in P. Ehmann's paper on " Popular Notions in Japan," in the 

 current volume of (Estcrrcich. IMonatsschr. fi'ir den Orient, p. 58. 



Dr. F. Sosset has published in the Revne de t Universiti de 

 Brnxelles (vol. i. p. 481) a painstaking account of weaving in 

 Ancient Greece, and has employed various representations from 

 Greek vases and other sources to illustrate the accounts given 

 by the classical writers. Those who are interested in the 

 development of the industrial arts should consult his memoir. 



The contemporaneity of Man with the Gigantic Fossil Sloth 

 Megalonyx appears to be now established, Mr. H. C. Mercer 

 having recently obtained distinct evidence on this point in the 

 Big Bone Cave, Van Buren County, Tennessee. The full report, 

 which will be published by the Architological Department of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, will be awaited with interest, as 

 it should provide data towards the solution of the problem of the 

 length of time man has existed in the New World. 



The British Museum possesses several very beautiful and 

 valuable examples of Ancient Mexican mosaic work. These, 

 together with examples in other European museums, have been 

 figured and described by Mr. A. Oppel in Globus {'^a.nd. Ixx. p. 4). 

 The most important material of these mosaics is turquoise ; in 

 none is it wanting, and on one shield in Vienna it is the only 

 stone employed, tessera; of shell (white, light red, and purple- 

 red), nacre, malachite, gold, obsidian, and other materials are 

 also employed. The masks, head-dresses, shields, and other 

 objects which were decorated in this sumptuous manner, were 

 evidently employed in the ancient religious ceremonies. 



Under the title of " Common Sense in Chess," an abstract 

 of twelve lectures delivered by Mr. Lasker in London last year, 

 has been published by Messrs. Bellairs and Co. As an exposition 

 of the methods of this brilliant player, this pamphlet will be 

 read with much interest, more especially since, instead of the 

 exhaustive variations of the openings customary in works of this 

 class, an attempt is made to base the conduct of the game upon 

 a few simple general principles. These principles are advanced 

 in the opening chapter as empirical rules, to which the games 

 worked out in the subsequent chapters supply the proof. 



We are glad to be able to report a considerable step in ad- 

 vance made by the Observatory at Athens by the publication, 

 from the 4th ult., of a daily weather report containing twenty-five 

 stations in Greece, and about double that number of exterior 

 stations. The report is accompanied by two charts, one show- 

 ing the isobars and general meteorological conditions at 8 a.m. 

 over a large part of Europe, and one showing wind and 

 temperature over Greece and adjacent islands. Observations 

 have been made regularly at the Athens Observatory since 1858, 

 some of which have been published and discussed : but we are 

 not aware that the issue of synchronous charts, in the form 

 adopted by other countries, has been before attempted. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Squirrel Monkey [Chrysothrix sciurea) from 

 Guiana, presented by Mrs. Turner-Turner ; a Huanaco [Lama 

 hiianacos, S ) from Bolivia, presented by Mr. J. F. Schwann ; a 

 Passerine Owl {Glaucidium passerinum), European, presented 

 by Miss Bloxam; four Rough-keeled Snakes [Dasypeltis scahra), 

 a Lineated Boodon [Boodon linealus), a Rhomb-marked Snake 

 (Psammophylax rhombealiis), a Delaland's Lizard {Nucras 

 delalandii) from South Africa, presented by Mr. Frederick A. 

 Story; an Agile Wallaby {Halmaliirus agilis, 9 ) from Australia, 

 an Indian Python (Pytkoii molurus) from India, seven Peruvian 



Snakes (Tachymenis peruviana), nine Lizards (Liolamus 



sp. inc.), five Gay's Frogs (Calyploeep/ialiis gayi), six Bibron's 

 NO. 1395, VOL. 54] 



Frogs (Pahidiiola bibroni] from Chili, deposited ; a Braz.za's 

 Monkey (Cercopilheciis hrazza, 9 ) from French Congoland, a 

 Tayra \Galictis harbara) from South America, a Patagonian 

 Conure (Coniiriis patagonus) from La Plata, purchased. 



In our report of the celebration of the Kelvin jubilee, on 

 p. 177 of our issue of June 25, Prof. Cleveland Abbe was in- 

 advertently credited with being the "head of the Meteorological 

 Office, Washington." To prevent misapprehension, it may be 

 desirable to state that the responsible position of Chief of the 

 U.S. Weather Bureau is actually filled by Prof. Willis L. 

 Moore. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 Double Star Orbits. — In the .-Is/ronomiial Journal, 

 No. 378, Dr. See gives the complete list of the various double 

 star orbits that he has computed and published in various 

 journals. This is a useful compilation, and testifies to a con- 

 siderable amount of industry, and exhibits his great interest ii> 

 the subject. The " probable uncertainty" which he has attached 

 to some of the elements is, however, very different from " the 

 probable error," which is an arithmetical result, and has a 

 definite meaning. The " limits of uncertainty " attached to the 

 period and excentricity, give Dr. See's estimate of the degree of 

 success with which he has handled incorrect and inadequate 

 measures. Almost simultaneously with the appearance of Dr. 

 See's paper comes, in Ast. Nach., No. 3364, Dr. Doberck's 

 results of his investigation of the orbit of y X'irginis, and it is 

 scarcely necessary to remark, that he has had under review 

 precisely the same observations that Dr. See has used. If Dr. 

 Doberck is able to add one or two more recent observations, 

 they have been made at a time when the companion is near 

 aphelion, and have little influence on the orbit. Nevertheless, 

 the period and excentricity differ more from the values that Dr. 

 See has obtained than his assigned values of uncertainty. If, 

 then, the treatment of the same observations, by ex|>erls in this 

 class of computation, lead to sensibly different orbits, it is to be 

 feared that new material, arising from the continued observation 

 of stars that have been much less frequently measured thai* 

 7 Virginis, will lead to still wider discrepancies. 



Rotation Period of Jupiter. — The movements of the 

 various spots, &c. , on the surface of Jupiter have been employed 

 since the time of Schrceter (1787) for observing the period of 

 rotation of the planet. During the last opposition two very 

 marked spots have been specially persistent, and by means of 

 one of them, the " Garnet " spot. Prof. A. A. Rambaut has made 

 a new determination of the period {Seien. Proc. Roy. Dublin 

 Soc, vol. viii. p. 389). All the values hitherto found have 

 demonstrated that the various parts of the surface rotate at 

 different speeds, so this new value simply refers to the zone in 

 which the spot is situated. This is the one having a zeno- 

 graphical latitude of -1-13°, the previously accepted period of 

 which was gh. 55m. 33 'Qs. The time was measured by taking 

 the intervals between the transits of the spot over the fixed wire 

 of the micrometer on the "South" equatorial. The time of 

 central transit was taken as the mean of the preceding contact, 

 bisection, and following contact of the spot. Corrections were 

 applied for three sources of error which affect the result, viz. : 

 (l) Parallax, (2) velocity of light, (t,) phase. The final value of 

 the rotation of this spot is gh. 55m. 33 '36 + 0'53s. , which agrees 

 within one-fifth of a second with Schneter's value. 



Telluric Lines. — Prof. Ricco has been investigating the 

 relative behaviour of the chief atmospheric lines of the solar 

 spectrum under various observing conditions (Mem. del .'toe. 

 Spettroseopisli Italiani, vol. xxv. pp. 127-134, 1S96). The 

 lines particularly under discussion were 6868 (/8), 6517, 627S 

 (o), 5943 (rainband), and 5800 (S). Observing the spectrum 

 with a direct vision spectroscope, the relative intensities of these 

 lines* were measured in three districts, Etna, Nicolosi, and 

 Catania, with the sun at varying altitudes at each station. From 

 the measured altitudes, the thickness of the absorbing stratum of 

 air traversed was calculated for each observation. The tension 

 of the aqueous vapour in the air was also recorded at the time 

 each line was measured. On plotting the results graphically,, 

 and summing up the measures at each station, the general con- 



