July 22, 1909J 



NA TURE 



1 1 1 



The Yerkes Observatory. — From the University of 

 Chicago we have received a brochure in which Prof. E. B. 

 Frost gives a brief, detailed account of the establishment, 

 equipment, and work of the Yerkes Observatory. Four- 

 teen excellent reproductions of photographs of instruments, 

 spectroheliograms, nebulae, &c., illustrate the twenty-four 

 pages of the booklet, and give the reader a very fair idea 

 of the enormous activities and possibilities of the institu- 

 tion. One point which attracts our attention is Prof. 

 Frost's emphasis of the necessity for having, in a modern 

 astronomical observatory, well-equipped workshops wherein 

 repairs and modifications of existing instruments may be 

 executed, and new instruments constructed. 



Prominence Observations. — No. 6, vol. xxxviii., of the 

 Memorie della Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani con- 

 tains Prof. Ricco's periodical summary of the Catania 

 prominence observations, dealing with the first six months 

 of igoS. Prominences were observed on ninety-three days 

 during the six months, and 170 in the northern, and 247 

 in the southern, hemisphere were measured. The mean 

 latitude for the two hemispheres was 275°, but, dividing 

 the latitude, N. and S., into 10° steps, there were two 

 maxima (lat. io°-2o° and .i;o°-6o°) in the northern hemi- 

 sphere and only one (20°-30°) in the southern. 



SCIENTIFIC WORK IN INDIA. 

 ^HE annual report of the Board of Scientific Advice for 

 India for the year 1907-8 has lately been issued by 

 the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta. 

 The Board was constituted in 1902, and consisted origin- 

 ally of the heads of the meteorological, geological, 

 botanical, forest, survey, agricultural, and veterinary 

 departments, but the Government of India invites from 

 time to time to serve upon it other men of science in the 

 service of the imperial and provincial Governments. The 

 Board is a central authority for the coordination of official 

 scientific inquiry, intended to ensure that the work of re- 

 search is distributed to the best advantage and the preven- 

 tion of useless duplication of inquiries and lack of inter- 

 departmental cooperation. The advice of the Board is 

 given with the view of aiding the Government of India 

 in prosecuting practical research into questions of economic 

 and applied science on the solution of which the pro- 

 gressive prosperity of the country depends. The Board dis- 

 cusses annually the proposals of the head of each of the 

 great departments in regard to the programme of investi- 

 gation in his department, and submits each year a general 

 programme of research to the Government. Its reports 

 and programmes are communicated through the Secretary 

 of State for India to the Royal Society, which has 

 appointed an advisory committee to consider them. 



The present report opens with a summary of the pro- 

 ceedings at the three meetings held during 1908, two at 

 Calcutta and one at Simla. As indicative of the scope 

 of the labours of the Board, some of the subjects discussed 

 at the first meeting may be mentioned. The Board h.ad 

 under consideration the remarks of the Roval Society com- 

 mittee on the Board's report for 1905-6 and its programme 

 for 1907-8. The subjects discussed included, among many 

 others, the preparation of a hand-list of the species of the 

 flora of India, economic and industrial chemistry, and the 

 limits of the imperial mycologist's research work, the 

 relations of the zoological section of the Indian Museum 

 to other departments engaged in zoological research, and 

 proposals for a special report on the progress of the 

 Geological Survey. 



The conclusions arrived at by the Board in these matters 

 were as follows : — that, as regards the preparation of a 

 hand-list of the flora of India, although its importance 

 was recognised, lack of staff and the existence of more 

 immediately necessary work precluded its preparation 

 forthwith ; that the consideration of economic and indus- 

 trial chemistry and the work of the imperial mycologist 

 should await the results of the discussion of the subjects 

 by the Board of .Agriculture for India; that reference 

 should be made, so far as possible, to the zoological section 

 of the Indian Museum by other departments engaged in 

 zoological research ; and that no officer was available for 

 the increase of work that the preparation of a special 



NO. 2073, VOL, 81] 



report on the progress of the Geological Survey of India 

 would necessitate. 



Very full reports upon the work of the various scientific 

 departments during the year 1907-8 then follow. Dr. 

 J. W. Leather and Mr. D. Hooper deal with the work 

 on industrial and agricultural chemistry, and Mr. Puran 

 Singh with forest chemistry; Dr. G. T. Walker, F.R.S., 

 with solar physics, meteorologv, and terrestrial magnetism ; 

 Sir Thomas H. Holland, F.R.S., with geology; Colonel 

 S. G. Burrard, F.R.S., with geodosy and geography; 

 Messrs. W. W. Smith, A. Howard, E. J. Butler, and 

 R. S. Hole with various branches of botany ; Mr. 

 A. M. F. Caccia and A. J. Gibson with forestry ; Dr. 

 N. Annandale and Messrs. H. Maxwell-Lefroy and E. P. 

 Stebbing with zoological subjects ; and Colonel H. T. 

 Pease with veterinary science. 



The programmes of work of the various scientific depart- 

 ments for the year 1908-9, as approved by the Board,, 

 constitute the next section of the volume, which concludes 

 with an appendix by Dr. W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., director 

 of the Imperial Institute, describing the economic investi- 

 gations conducted for India at the Imperial Institute- 

 during the year ended September 30, 1908. 



The detailed programmes of work teem with particulars, 

 of inv-estigations of great interest, but since the bare 

 enumeration of the researches to be undertaken runs to 

 twenty-seven large pages, it is possible here only to give 

 an example or two. In meteorological work, a special' 

 endeavour is being made this year to secure meteorograph 

 records of temperature and humidity up to great heights 

 by means of small balloons. At four nearly equidistant 

 periods between April and December batches of register- 

 ing balloons have been, and are to be, liberated at some 

 place in the west of the Punjab, and organised efforts 

 made to recover as many as possible on descent. Each- 

 batch was to comprise, perhaps, ten complete units, the 

 adjustment and liberation of which takes between a week 

 and ten days. It was hoped to reach heights of 25,000- 

 feet in the earlier experiments, and later in the year it 

 is hoped to increase the heights at which the balloons 

 are caused to descend until 50,000 feet has been reached. 

 It is important to reach this height in order to see whether 

 the isothermal zbne, which has been almost invariably- 

 found at or near that level by sounding balloons in Europe, 

 is to be encountered over India. 



The new work to be undertaken by the Geological 

 Survey provides another typical instance of the activity 

 of scientific workers in India. The mapping of previously 

 unsurveyed areas in the Amherst district of Lower Burma 

 is being proceeded with, the geological map of the Rani- 

 ganj coalfield is being revised in conjunction with a com- 

 mittee appointed by the Mining and Geological Institute of 

 India, and the following pieces of work are in hand : — a 

 survey of the ossiferous deposits of the Siwaliks and the 

 Salt Range ; an examination of copper-ore and associated 

 sulphide-ore deposits in Sikkim ; a survey of certain 

 glaciers in Sikkim ; and a study of the paleontology of 

 (a) the Cretaceous rocks of Tibet, (b) the fossil fishes of 

 the East Coast Gondwanas. 



POSITION FINDING WITHOUT AN HORIZON. 

 ■\yHEN about three years ago the first Gordon-Bennett 

 '^ balloon race was held, and several of the aeronauts 

 descended precipitately on the north coast of France^ 

 believing they were approaching the Bay of Biscay, it 

 seemed to me worth while to consider the possibility of 

 designing an instrument by the aid of which observations 

 could be taken so as to obtain even a rough idea of 

 position. For this purpose the observation of the altitude 

 and azimuth at any moment of a single star or of the sun 

 will be sufficient to establish the locality, or the altitudes 

 of two stars not in the same vertical plane with the 

 observer will do as well. 



If the observation is such that the error is as great as 

 the diameter of the sun or moon, the resulting uncertainty 

 of position will be a little more than thirty miles, and so- 

 in proportion. The observer will be, of course, on a circle 

 on the earth described round the point where the star 

 is in the zenith, the radius of which in nautical miles is 



