March n, 1880] 



NATURE 



453 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



An Astronomical Bibliography. — We are somewhat late 

 in drawing attention to a prospectus of what must prove a very 

 important work in astronomical literature, if it is carried out 

 with the care and completeness of which there is every promise. 

 MM. Houzeau and Lancaster, respectively the director and 

 librarian of the Koyal Observatory, Brussels, have projected 

 a " Bibliographic generate de 1'Astronomie, ou Catalogue me- 

 thodique des Ouvrages, des Memoires et des Observations astro- 

 nomiques public's depuisl'Originede l'lmprimerie jusqu'en iSSo," 

 and it is clear from the particulars furnished in the prospectus 

 that the design has been thoroughly considered and formulated. 

 It is intended to divide the work into three sections : — (I.) 

 Ouvrages or separate publications; (II.) Memoirs; (III.) Observa- 

 tions. For the first section there are available the astronomical 

 bibliographies of Weidler, Scheibel, and Lalande referring to 

 what may be termed the ancient period. For the modern the 

 authors have made use of the catalogue (1S60) of the splendid 

 astronomical library of the Imperial Observatory of Pulkowa, 

 and the catalogues of other observatories ; more than a thousand 

 journals and catalogues of different countries have been consulted 

 for this division of the work. A list of the principal astronomical 

 manuscripts, not yet published, which are found in the inventories 

 of the various European libraries is added. Bibliographical 

 notes, as, for instance, notes upon changes made in successive 

 editions of a work are also appended, as well as a kind of analysis 

 of works of an encyclopaedic character. An alphabetical table 

 of the authors and a methodical table of analysed matters accom- 

 panies this part of the work. 



The second section, as forming a more immediate desideratum, 

 it is intended shall be the fir.-t published, and the first fasciculus 

 was about to be placed in the printer's hands, when the prospectus 

 was issued, the others to follow rapidly. All the collections 

 where astronomy could enter were consulted for this division, 

 either directly or through the catalogue of scientific papers issued 

 by the Royal Society or the Repcrlorium Commcntationum of 

 Reuss ; it is mentioned that recourse has been had to the publi- 

 cations of nearly three hundred scientific societies, and more 

 than a hundred and sixty reviews or journals. The authors 

 have exercised great care in the classification of the contents, 

 and in attributing each memoir to the sub-section to which it 

 appertains ; the collection where each memoir is found is indi- 

 cated by a system of abbreviations. An alphabetical table of 

 authors, briefly noting their different works for more ready 

 reference, accompanies this second part al.-o. In this division 

 astronomical physics are included, 



In the Section III., Observations, it has been proposed to 

 arrange a kind of general table of observations, nearly upon the 

 plan of the indexes to the Astronomische Nachrichtm, but rather 

 taking for a model the Repertoriuin dtr Comettn-Astronomit of 

 Carl. In this section are mentioned the sources for observations 

 of spots, facuke, and protuberances of the sun, in chronological 

 order from their respective discovery, observations of solar and 

 lunar eclipses, each separately, monographs of the asteroids, 

 bibliographical monographs of the comets, star catalogues, cal- 

 culations relating to the compound stars, and individual descrip- 

 tions of the variable stars and nebula;. The authors claim to 

 have analysed the publications of the different observatories with 

 the most scrupulous attention in order to render this part of their 

 work as complete and as useful as possible. 



The entire work will form three large octavo volumes in double 

 column, which will appear by fascicules of 300 to 400 page< ; 

 mens of the form of execution of the three divisions of this 

 laborious work are attached to the prospectus. It appears to be 

 intended to issue it in sheets of sixteen pages, or thirty-two 

 columns, at the price of three pence per sheet, payment to be 

 made for eacli fascicule. 



Every astronomer and astronomical student will applaud the 

 zeal evinced by MM. Houzeau and Lancaster in undertaking to 

 provide so valuable an addition to ihe literature of the science, 

 and will cordially wish them succe ; s in every way in their self- 

 imposed labours. 



The Great SOUTHERN Comet.— A private letter from Mr. 

 Gill, II. M. Astronomer at the Cape, furnishes some particulars 

 of his observations of the great comet up to the evening of the 

 9II1 all. Table Mountain interfering at fir.-.t with the view from 

 the Royal Observatory, Mr. Gill proceeded to Seapoint, on the 

 west side of the mountain, where, from the garden of Mr. II. 



Solomon, in which Sir Thomas Maclear observed Donati's come 

 in 185S, he sketched the position of the tail amongst the stars on 

 several evenings before the nucleus had withdrawn sufficiently 

 from the sun's place to be visible. The nucleus was first seen 

 on February S, and then only for a few minutes through cloud ; 

 Mr. Gill thought it might have been visible the preceding even- 

 ing, but haze near the sea horizon rendered it very difficult to 

 say where the tail ended. He describes it as "a very poor 

 affair, a faint nebulous thing not at all worthy of so fine a tail." 

 Attempts were made to fix its position at the Royal Observatory 

 on February 9, but only a glimpse with an opera-glass through 

 cloud was obtained. The nucleus was "a little N. and E. of 

 B Sculptoris ; " in a tracing accompanying the letter in question, 

 however, the nucleus is shown a little south and east of the star, 

 and midway between two stars, which from Gould's " Urano- 

 metria Argentina," appear to be Lacaille 6 and 34, so that the 

 place referred to the epoch of the " Uranometria," lS75'o would 

 be in about right ascension 2° 20' with 37° 50' south declination, 

 which is far from the position given by the elements telegraphed 

 from Rio de Janeiro (to which reference was made last week) 

 whether the heliocentric motion be assumed direct or retrograde ; 

 probably the orbit has been vitiated in transmission. Ou 

 February 6 the tail appears to have been traceable nearly to 

 Canopus. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 



On Certain Remarkable Phenomena presented by 

 the Coloured Blood- Corpuscles of the Frog. — Repeated 

 observations tend to show that the structure of the coloured blood- 

 corpuscle is by no means so simple as is usually assumed : and from 

 this point of view the observations made by J. Gaule in Prof. Lud- 

 wig's laboratory at Leipzig {Anhiv fiir Physiologic, v. Du Bois- 

 Reymond, 1SS0) are of singular interest. On diluting the fresh 

 blood from a vigorous frog with 0"6 salt solution, and exposing it 

 after rapid defibrination to a temperature of 32°-36° C. on the 

 hot stage of the microscope, the escape of a peculiar body may be 

 observed in many of the corpuscles. The bodies thus evolved 

 simulate worms so closely by their form and wriggling movements, 

 that Gaule styles them "Wurmchen," which may be translated 

 vermiclcs. However, he concludes from several reasons that 

 they are simply protoplasmic portions of the corpuscles, which, 

 under these special conditions, separate for a short independent 

 life. He makes no reference to previous workers in the same 

 field ; but it would seem not improbable that his " Wurmchen " 

 correspond with the macula 1 , which Prof. Roberts of Manchester 

 revealed seventeen years ago by treating the corpuscles with 

 tannin or magenta, reagents which would of course prevent any 

 further signs of life in the objects. The " vermicles " are about 

 half the length of the red corpuscle, pointed at either end, but 

 more in front, and containing one or two vesicles or droplets. 

 Their singular movements deserve a rather full description. 

 After wriggling out of the corpuscle, in which it makes its 

 appearance as a rod-like body beside the nucleus, the "ver- 

 micle " moves on, trailing the corpuscle behind by a iong thread. 

 On meeting a second corpuscle it bores into it, withdraws, 

 pushes it aside, and goes on carrying this too in its train ; and 

 though the threads finally give way, " vermicles " may be seen 

 dragging three, four, or more corpuscles after them. The cor- 

 puscles,°quitted or attacked in this way, undergo in a short time 

 changes of form and colour leading to complete disorganisation, 

 which otherwise, under similar conditions, require hours for 

 their accomplishment. Finally the " vermicle " also undergoes 

 disorganisation. While the conditions given above are found 

 on the whole most successful in bringing about these results, 

 Gaule indicates limits of temperature and dilution within which 

 they often occur, usually with -light modifications. It is this 

 variation with the conditions of the experiment that supplies 

 one of his strongest arguments against the previous individual 

 existence of these bodies. 



The Human Retina. — In a recent note to the Vienna 

 Academy Herr Salzer offers an estimate (based on numeration) 

 of the probable number of optic nerve-fibres and of retinal cones 

 in a human eve. The number of the former he supposes to be 

 about 438,000, that of the latter 3,360,000. This gives seven 

 or eight cones for each nerve-fibre, supposing all fibres of the 

 optic nerve to be connected with cones and equally distributed 

 among them. 



