Nov. 20, 1879] 



NATURE 



7i 



the electric light in the illumination of the saloons on hoard 

 their steamers. 



We are glad to be able to acknowledge the receipt of the 

 Report of the Sheffield meeting of the British Association. This 

 early publication is decidedly a mark of progress. 



For the first time in its history the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 has regular archives. More than seven hundred cases are filled 

 up with scientific memoirs and documents from the end of the 

 seventeenth century to the present time. Scientific papers left 

 by Reaumur and Ampere are a part of this unexampled col- 

 lection. 



The bequest of the late Mr. John Miers, F.R.S., to the 

 Brirish Museum, consists of his herbarium of South American 

 plants which he made during his long stay in that country > 

 original drawings and the manuscripts of his published works ; 

 and some unpublished manuscripts. Among the more impor- 

 tant of his unpublished manuscripts is a list of the native names 

 of the plants. The extent of the herbarium is about 20,000 

 sheets, on which the specimens are carefully mounted, and as it 

 includes the type specimens figured in Mr. Miers's publications, 

 the acquisition to the Museum is of great value. The cases in 

 which the collection was kept form part of the bequest. It was 

 only last year, when nearly ninety, that Mr. Miers published his 

 " Apocynacea: of South America," with general remarks on 

 the whole family. The work, which was of 277 quarto pages, 

 was illustrated by 3s plates. The " Contributions to Botany," 

 published in three volumes in 1S61, 1S69, and 1871, were illus- 

 trated by 153 plates, and contained 940 quarto pages of letter- 

 press. All the originals of these are included in the collection 

 sent to the British Museum. There are also a large number of 

 other drawings and sketches of dissections. 



On October 10 a large balloon fell on a farm in the 

 town of Milwaukee, U.S. The air-ship was picked up and 

 temporarily stored in a warehouse. On the nth an in- 

 spection of the canvas was made, to ascertain whether it 

 was the Pathfinder, a balloon in which Prof. Wyse had as- 

 cended some days previously in company of a gentleman, and 

 had not been heard of since. It Mas 1. roved that this balloon 

 had been liberated on Thursday, October 7, at six in the even- 

 ing, at Waukosha in Wisconsin, and had been wandering in 

 the atmosphere. Before being discovered in Milwaukee, it had 

 been seen coming from Lake Michigan in an opposite direction 

 to where Waukosha lies. The body of Prof. Wyse has not been 

 recovered, but the gentleman who had ascended with him was 

 found drowned and naked. It was supposed he had prepared 

 to escape by swimming, and precipitated himself into the water. 



The Manchester Field Naturalists and Archaeologists send us 

 an interesting and varied Report for 1S77. It contains an account 

 of the numerous excursions made and the papers read at the 

 Society's meetings. 



The several stations of meteorology which have been esta- 

 blished in several parts of Paris, according to a vote of the 

 Municipal Council, have been in complete operation for a few 

 months. Startling differences have been occasionally discovered 

 between the readings taken by the several observers at a distance 

 of a very few miles. 



The ttoge on M. Thiers was pronounced by M. Henry Martin 

 before the French Institute on November 13. M. Marmier 

 returned thanks in the name of the Academie Francaise. The 

 lecturer made allusion to the studies of M. Thiers in astronomy 

 under the guidance of M. Leverrier, and in chemistry, of M. 

 St. Claire Deville. It was stated that many experiments were 

 made by the late President of the French Republic in the la^t 

 years of Napoleon III.'s rule. These experiments were con- 

 ducted in the laboratory of the Ecole Normal Superieure, rue 

 d'Ulin. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Bonnet Monkey (Macacus radiatus) from 

 India, presented by Mr. L. H. Ruegg ; a Banded Ichneumon 

 (Herpeslis fascialus) from West Africa, presented by Mr. H. L. 

 Cocksedge ; a Mace's Sea Eagle (dfaliacttts leucoryphus) from 

 India, presented by Capt. Butler ; a Pomatorhine Skua (Ster- 

 corins pomatorhinus), British, presented by Mr. F. L. Smith; a 

 Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), British, presented by Mr. J- 

 Pollard ; a King Penguin (ApUnodytes pennanti) from theStaten 

 Islands, Cape Horn, a Cinereous Vulture ( Vultur monachus), 

 Europe, a Downy Owl {Pitlsatrix torqitata) from South 

 America, deposited ; a Water Rail (Ra'.tus aquatiais), British, 

 an Anaconda {Eunectcs murium) from South America, pur- 

 chased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Biela Comet Meteors. — Assuming, as some astro- 

 nomers will probably be inclined to do, that Biela's comet has 

 now lost the cometary form in which it presented itself to us 

 from 1772 to 1S52, and that its constitutuent particles, or whatever 

 we may term them, are drawn out into a stream or band, beyond 

 the circumstance of a great aggregation having been encountered 

 by the earth on the evening of November 27, 1872, we are 

 ignorant of the position of any other centre or centres of con- 

 densation that may exist, and even of the real extent of that 

 which has been observed, along the comet's track ; and hence it 

 is desirable that a watch for the Biela meteors should be main- 

 tained during the whole of the last week in the present month. 

 We are not assuming as a consequence of the disruption of 

 Biela's comet before it was generally observed in 1846, that such 

 is the actual condition of its constituent parts ; Mr. Pogson's 

 observations of a cometary body at Madras in December, 1872, 

 require that such an assumption should be taken at present cum 

 grane, hut under any circumstances observations about the time 

 when the earth approaches nearest to the orbit of the comet this 

 year, will possess great interest, and we hope there may be an 

 effective organisation of observers. In 1852, when the comet 

 was la^t observed, its period of revolution, in the instantaneous 

 ellipse at perihelion, was 2,4175 days; the effect of planetary 

 perturbation thence tended to increase the period, so that in 

 January, 1866, the latest time to which the calculations have 

 been carried, the revolution extended to 2,445 days, according to 

 Michez and Clausen. If this were about the period of the 

 meteoric mass which the earth encountered on November 27, 

 1S72, it is very doubtful if we shall be in proximity to it again 

 during the present century ; nevertheless, as above remarked, we 

 do not know its extent along the orbit, and other aggregations 

 may exist. A body moving in the orbit of Biela, and approaching 

 the earth at this date, would be at a distance of about I '4 from 

 the planet Jupiter in September, 1S7S, and there might be very 

 sensible effect upon the period of revolution. 



A New Nebula. — Dr. Tempel states that on September 19 

 he found a new nebula which, from his description, appears to 

 be nearly as bright as an average second-class of Sir W. Ilerschel, 

 and is therefore deserving of attention en the score of possible 

 variability, since in the-e days we hardly expect to meet with 

 many unknown second-class nebula: visible in European latitudes. 

 Dr. Tempel mentions that there is a central glimmer as from very 

 minute stars : it is about one minute in diameter, and its position 

 for the beginning of the present year is in R.A. 22h. 41m. 25s., 

 N.P.D. 102" 27''! : it is very little fainter than the nebula 

 II. 744. He adds that he has often sought for the nebula 

 No. 49 of Auwers, which should be near the new one, but has 

 only found in its assigned po ilion a star of 12m., which has a 

 very faint companion. Auwers 49 is the object observed as a 

 star 1 1 '5m. on October 8, 1S55, in one of the Markree zones, and 

 called "nebulous; " position for 1850 in R.A. 22b. 52m. 35s., 

 N.P.D. 101° i9' - 9. The late Mr. Edward Cooper had so un- 

 favourable an opinion of the climate in his locality for astrono- 

 mical purposes (perhaps from long experience of the skies of 

 Italy), that probably he would not have been surprised at the 

 discovery of any number of " nebulous " objects at Markree; 

 but the four volumes of positions of small stars for which 

 astronomers are indebted to him, sufficiently illustrate the good 

 work that may be effected by well-directed energy and skilful 

 arrangement, even in such a climate as we remember to have 

 heard him describe that of Sligi. Pons expressed his fear that 



