164 



NATURE 



[Dec. 18, 1879 



The School of Mines Quarterly is the title of a journal published 

 under the auspices of the Chemical and Engineering Society of 

 the School of Wines, Columbia College, New York, the first 

 number of which has been sent us. It contains several good 

 articles on chemical and engineering subjects. There seems no 

 l<eeping pace with the scientific enterprise of our friends on the 

 other side of the water. 



Friedlander and Son, of Berlin, have sent us their new 

 Catalogue of Standard Publications in Astronomy and Geodesy, 

 brought up to the present time, 



A fourth edition has been published of Mr. Thomas Christy's 

 useful brochure on "Hydro-Incubation in Theory and Practice, 

 a Guide to Commercial Poultry Farming." We have referred 

 to the previous editions ; the whole of the matter in this edition 

 is stated to be new. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus erythrceus) from 

 India, presented by Mr. F. G. Lightfoot ; a Bonnet Monkey 

 (Macacus radiatus) from India, presented by the Rev. E. C. 

 Ince ; a Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur cat/a) from Madagascar, 

 presented by Mr. F. E. Colenso ; a Black-headed Jay (Cyauo- 

 corax nigriceps) from South America, two Brant Geese (Bcrnicla 

 inula), European, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Comet of 1652. — The observations of this comet made 

 by Hevelius between December 20, 1652, and January 8, 1653, 

 it is remarked by Pingre, were probably the most precise, and 

 certainly the most complete, of all ; generally the observations 

 were very rough. They were mostly collected, he adds, in a 

 short dissertation published at Padua in 1653, which would 

 appear to be that by Argoli, entitled " Andrea; Argoli Brevis 

 Dissertatio de comcta ami. 1652, l653etaliqua de meteorologicis 

 impressionibus." Halley's orbit, the only one for this comet 

 which figures in our catalogues, was calculated upon the obser- 

 vations of Heveliu<. 



Zach found another series of observations, which Pingre pro- 

 bably had not seen, and which upon reduction and discussion 

 may prove to be second only to those of the Dantzic astronomer 

 in merit ; indeed, he thought they might be even more precise. 

 These observations were made by an ecclesiastic residing at 

 Rome, an Englishman, one calling himself, or being called by 

 others, Riccardo dc Albis, a name which, Zach suggests, is 

 probably to be read Richard White, and he conjectures that he 

 was probably a Jesuit of the Anglican College, where we know 

 that another English Jesuit, LeMaire, Boscovich's assistant in 

 geodetic work, also observed. The observations were sent from 

 Rome in January, 1653, by a certain Raffaelo Magiotti to his good 

 friend Candido del buono at Florence, with a commission to 

 present them to Prince Leopold of Tuscany, brother of the 

 reigning Grand Duke Ferdinand II. Magiotti mentions that he 

 had procured the observations with difficulty since De Albis 

 himself intended to print them, con moltc puntualita. Whether 

 he did so or not does not appear ; his name is not mentioned 

 in the cometograpliies, and though Lalande enumerates some 

 twenty publications referring to the comet of 1652, there is none 

 under the name of De Albis. We are told that he observed with 

 a good quadrant, but there is no reference to telescopic sights, 

 though Zach .'ays, with two such opticians as Campani and Divini 

 at this time in Rome, it may well have been that he hal telescopic 

 aid. 



The observations in question appear in Angelo Fabroni's 

 little known "Lettere inedite di Uomini illustre," as a supple- 

 ment to his greater work published at Pisa in 1768. They were 

 made between December 21 and January 3, "bora 2 post 

 occasum solis," and consist of distances from conspicuous stars. 

 It may be of interest to reduce the observations of this scientific 

 Englishman, and to calculate an orbit upon them ; a strict copy 

 was given by Zacli in Lindenau and Bohnenberger's Zeitschrift 

 fiir Astronomic, vol. iv. 



In the same communication will be found some observations 

 by a Roman patrician, one Arcieri, with "a good telescope of 

 9 palms, by Eustachio Divini." He saw the comet for the first 

 time on December 19, "instar nubecula.- rotundata; et candi- 



cantis, e cujus centro quiddam subricundum instar prunse emi- 

 cabat, ejusque diameter visiva erat 10 circiter minutorum." On 

 December 21, its diameter was fifteen minutes. It seems to 

 have been well seen on the following night, when we read 

 "Porro cauda illius (qua; rarissima quidem erat, tenuissimaque) 

 in oriente vergens, sequabat Iongitudine spatium pene 8 graduum, 

 et dimetiens visiva excreverat jam ad 20 fere minuta." On 

 December 23 it appeared much more obscure, but on December 

 24 at the fourth hour of the night the tail was brightest, the head 

 being one degree from the Pleiades. Five nights later it was 

 distant "circiter 30 minutis a capite Medusa; versus Plejadas, 

 multum imminutus obscuratusque, nullumque cauda; vestigium 

 apparebat." On January 1 it was as bright as a star of the 

 fourth magnitude, and two nights later was hardly equal to one of 

 the fifth. 



Pingre remarks that in the judgment of Hevelius and Comiers 

 this comet almost equalled the moon in size. It was nearest to 

 the earth on December 19, when its distance was o"I3 of the 

 earth's mean distance from the sun, so that it approached our 

 globe as close as its orbit admits. 



Meteors on October 19. — M. E. Block, of Odessa, records 

 a notable shower of meteors on the morning of October 19, 

 between 3I1. and 5I1. ; he says he had not previously seen so 

 many meteors. In an interval of ten minutes he counted fourteen 

 which passed through the field of his comet-seeker, two degrees 

 in diameter ; the radiant was at /3 Auriga;, or in about R. A. SS", 

 Deck 45°. This radiant agrees nearly with No. 92 in Major 

 Tupman's list. 



GEOLOGICAL NOTES 



Upter Devonian Rocks of the North of France. — In a 

 recent communication to the Geological Society of the North of 

 France, Prof. Gosselet has brought forward some important new- 

 data, obtained from some fresh railway-cuttings between Feron 

 and Semeries, as to the classification and palaeontology of the 

 Upper Devonian rocks. Arranging the Upper Devonian into 

 an inferior group — the Frasnien comprising the zone of Rhyn- 

 chonella cuboides and that of Cardium palmatum, and a superior 

 group — the Famennien, in which are placed the Schistes de 

 Famenne, the Psammites de Condros, and the Calcaire d'Etrce- 

 ungt, he proceeds to show that in sections exposed in the rail- 

 way-cuttings with a perfect conformable succession of strata 

 and of fossils, the zone of the Psammites de Condros, so well 

 marked elsewhere in the north of France and Belgium, is absent, 

 lie regards this arenaceous series to be represented in the district 

 between Avesnes and Fourmies by argillaceous shales. It is 

 easy to recognise at least an upper and lower member in the 

 Famennian group. The former is distinguished by the preva- 

 lence of Carboniferous forms, particularly Spirifcr laminosus, 

 the latter by the rarity of Carboniferous forms and by the 

 abundance of Cyrtia Alurchisoniana. Every fresh section 

 which tends to elucidate the relations of the Devonian rocks to 

 the formations below and above them possesses a special interest 

 for British geologists. 



Tertiary Quartzites of the Ardennes. — Dr. Charles 

 Barrois has laid before the same Society an interesting paper 

 on the extension of the Lower Tertiary beds of the Paris basin 

 across to the Palaeozoic plateau of the Ardennes. He shows 

 that the lower members, consisting of sandstones and con- 

 glomerates, can be traced by their fragments for a long distance 

 to the north-east, and that these fragments, like our own Grey 

 Wethers or Sarsen stones, are portions of deposits which have 

 been gradually broken up and weathered in place. The existence 

 of these boulders has long been recognised and they have been 

 variously explained, being sometimes considered as drifted 

 blocks. Dr. Barrois, however, demonstrates their true origin 

 by tracing them step by step to their source in the Gres Landc- 

 niens. He makes some suggestive remarks regarding the super- 

 ficial alteration of some of these rocks. In the centre they are 

 undoubted sandstones, but towards the exterior they become 

 progressively harder till they pass into true quartzite. lie even 

 obtained specimens of sandstone covered with a mere coating of 

 quartzite two centimetres in thickness. He observed that in 

 proportion as they are traced eastward, that is, into tracts where 

 they must have been longer exposed to atmospheric influences, 

 the alteration penetrates further into them. A microscopic 

 examination failed to afford him any clue to the process of 

 alteration. The quartzite when examined in thin sections 



