Dec. n, 1879] 



NATURE 



141 



connected with the Roman Catholic mission establishment at 

 Sikawei, near Shanghai, has good reason to suppose, after a careful 

 study of the typhoon of July 31, that the Chinese typhoons, like 

 the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal, do not have their centre eight 

 points to the right from the direction of the wind (the face being 

 turned against the latter), as is generally supposed, but from 

 nine to ten points. It is certainly of the utmost importance to 

 navigators that this conclusion of Pere Dechevrens should be 

 carefully investigated, to which end the cooperation of ship- 

 masters is invited. They should forward observations of the 

 barometer and thermometer, force and direction of the wind, 

 mentioning the latitude, longitude, and height above the sea- 

 level of the spot where their observations have been taken, the 

 description of instruments used, whether the thermometer is 

 attached to the barometer, and what corrections, if any, are to 



be applied, with general description of weather, &c. 



We have received the seventh edition (November, 1S79) of 



Prof. E. Morren's " Correspondance Botanique." There is no 

 alteration this year in the plan or scope of this useful botanical 

 directory for the whole world ; but the necessary corrections and 

 additions seem very carefully made up to the date of issue. The 



only noteworthy additions to the list of names for each country 



are in the case of France, which requires two extra pages, and 



Italy, which takes one page more than la-t year. 



THE Associated Soiree of the Literary, Scientific, and Art 



Societies of Liverpool was held in St. George's Hall yesterday. 



The programme was of a varied character, both literature, 



science, and art, being well represented upon it. The idea of 



thus uniting the various classes of societies in a large town is a 



happy one, and deserves imitation. 



We notice from the November number of the University 



College of Wales Magazine that numerous important additions 



have been made to the museum of that institution, which now 



contains collections of very varied character. 



Science Gossip for December publishes a useful list of natu- 

 ralists who are willing gratuitously to assist learners of natural 

 history and others, personally when practicable, otherwise 

 through the post. 



Prof. Newberry has reprinted his article on the "Geological 

 Survey of the Fortieth Parallel" (New York, Appleton) from 

 the Popular Science Monthly. We have at various times referred 

 to the volumes of this magnificent work; Prof. Newberry's 

 paper gives a good resume' of the whole. 



The Colonies and India calls attention to the fact that a small 

 quantity of flax grown in West Australia, which recently fell 

 into the hands of an English manufacturing firm, was found to 

 be of such excellent quality that a large demand has suddenly 

 sprung up in the colony for both indigenous and cultivated Sax. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include three Tin-tailed Whydah Birds (Vidua princi- 

 palis) from Africa, presented by Capt. T. II. Bowyer Bower; 

 two Common Chameleons (Chamaleon vulgaris) from North 

 Africa, presented by Capt. Burke ; a Mississippi Alligator 

 (Alligator mississippiensis) from the Mississippi River, presented 

 by Mr. W. G. Marshall ; a Slow-worm (Anguisfragilis), Euro- 

 pean, presented by Mr. W. A. H. Bernard Smith ; two Red 

 River Hogs (Potamocluzrus pcnicillata) from West Africa, two 

 Elliot's Guinea Fowls (Xumida ellioti) from East Africa, an 

 Elephantine Tortoise [Testudo ilcphantina) from the Aldabra 

 Island, deposited ; two Prong-horn Antelopes (Antilocapra 

 cmericana) from North America, a Slow Loris (Nycticebus tardi- 

 gradus) from Malacca, a Laughing Falcon (Ilerpetothcres cachin- 

 nans) from Brazil, a Bar-tailed Godvvit (Limosa lapponica), a 

 Common Curlew (JVumenius arquaius), two Pomatorhine Skuas 

 (Stercorarius pomatorhinus), European, purchased. > j 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Orbits of Binary Stars.— In addition to elements of O. 2. 

 235, which apppear in the recently-published "Handbook of 

 Double Stars," Dr. Doberck has lately investigated orbits for 

 the binaries 4 Aquarii and /x- Herculis, stars for which no similar 

 computation had been previously made. He assigns a period of 

 129 S years for the former, the passage of the penastre at 

 1881S0, and for the latter a period of 54-25 years, the penastre 

 at 1877-13. The elements give the following angles and 

 distances : — 



4 Aquarii. 



H* Herculis. 



0-5 Pos. lSS-2 Dist. 632 

 5'5 „ 242-0 ,, - 22 

 °'5 >. 2 95'9 » °'3 2 



iS79'5 Pos. 241-1 Dist. 105 

 iSSo-5 ,, 247-1 „ 1-04 

 iSSi-5 „ 253-4 „ foi 

 iSS2-5 ,, 260-1 ,, 0-97 

 The extent of Dr. Doberck's investigations relative to the 

 orbits of the revolving double-stars will be seen from the fol- 

 lowing nearly complete list of objects, for which we are indebted 

 to him for the best systems of elements yet in our possession :— 

 23121, *t 2 Hercules, 0.2. 298, a Centauri, y Corona; Borealis, 

 f Scorpii, 2 3062, a Leonis, / Eridani, 2 1768, | Bootis, 

 4 Aquarii, t Ophiuchi, tj Cassiopea:, \ Ophiuchi, 44 Bootis, 

 o' Bootis, 36 Andromedce, 7 Leonis, a Corona: Borealis, 

 a Geminorum, ( Aquarii, O.2. 235. It must be borne m mind, 

 in order to appreciate the amount of labour involved in these 

 researches, that in the majority of cases the orbits are not the 

 results of rough or graphical approximations, but have been 

 worked out with a degree of refinement, which exhausts the 

 data actually at Dr. Doberck's command. He has made this 

 subject as much his own as Prof. Julius Schmidt has in his case 

 that of the variable stars. 



Errors of the Lunar Tables.— Prof. Winnecke publishes 

 observations of the moon made by Dr. Schur at the provisional 

 observatory of the University of Strassburg in the year 1878, and 

 the corrections required by Hansen's tables, and by the same 

 tables as improved by Prof. Newcomb, who showed the large 

 and increasing deviation of the tables would almost wholly dis- 

 appear if, for the empirical term, an empirical alteration of the 

 other term due to the action of Venus is substituted, and suitable 

 alterations made in the elements of mean motion. The advan- 

 tage derived by the introduction of Newcomb s corrections is 

 seen to be very considerable, the signs alternating m the course 

 of the year, and the corrections being generally small, while 

 with Hansen unaltered there is a larger and uniformly negative 

 correction throughout. 



From the same observations there is deduced a correction to 

 the mean semi-diameter adopted in Hansen's tables amounting 

 to -l"-29 Soon after the appearance of these tables, Ur. 

 Oudemanns, by a careful discussion of occupations and direct 

 heliometric measures, inferred a correction of - I 'OQ. It the 

 mean of these values be adopted, we shall have for the moon s 

 mean semi-diameter, 15' 3 2"-i6. Dr. Oudemanns paper will be 

 found in vol. xxvi. of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society. 



Re Discussion of Ancient Solar EcxirsES.— The publi- 

 cation of recent investigations on the motion of the moon, 

 appearing to render a new discussion of the ancient eclipses oi 

 the sun desirable, the work has been commenced under the 

 auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, by Mr. D. P. Todd, ot 

 the American Nautical Almanac Office. The computations so 

 far relate to the eclipses of Thales, Larissa, Enmus, Agalhocles, 

 and Stiklastad, and to the two eclipses of the thirteenth century, 

 which have formed the subject of an important memoir by 

 Celoria, of the observatory at Milan. It is proposed to extern! 

 the original scope of the research to include a large number ot 

 eclipticdates, and great facilities are expected from the use ot 

 Newcomb's Tables of Eclipses, which have recently appeared. 

 We shall allude further to these tables in a future column. It 

 will be seen that this interesting research is in excellent hands. 



The Solar Parallax— Mr. Downing, of the Royal Obser- 

 vatory, Greenwich, has made a determination of the sun s mean 

 parallax from observations of Mars in declination at the obser- 

 vatories of Leyden and Melbourne, during the very favourable 

 opposition in lS 77> the same comparison-stars having been u ed 

 at both stations. The observations were made between Jul 

 and October, but Mr. Downing has only ^"f*!"™ 

 those days when planet and stars were observed at Leyden and 



