36 



SCIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 210. 



from the varyingefFectsof shadows which make 

 the study of the moon itself possible only to 

 specialists. With the advance which has taken 

 place in the interpretation of topographic forms 

 in the last twenty years, it seems not too much 

 to hope, now that this model has been made ac- 

 cessible to students of science, that its study 

 will bring to light new facts regarding the 

 nature and history of our satellite.. 



Oliver C. Faeeington. 

 Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. 



LEHMANN and HANSEN ON ' THE TELEPATHIC 

 PROBLEM.' 



To THE Editoe of SCIENCE : I Can assure 

 Professor James that I do not knowingly leave 

 unread anything that he or Professor Sidgwick 

 writes. I carefully considered the two papers 

 to which he refers, at the time of their appear- 

 ance, and have recently turned to them again. 

 I am afraid, however7 that I cannot make the 

 admission that Professor James expects. Even 

 if I granted all the contentions of criticism and 

 report I should still see no reason to change 

 the wording of my reference to Lehmann and 

 Hansen. But there is a great deal that I can- 

 not grant. While, like Stevenson's Silver, ' I 

 wouldn't set no limits to what a virtuous char- 

 acter might consider argument,' I must confess 

 that, in the present instance, the grounds for 

 such consideration have not seldom escaped me. 



Professor James rules that the Fhil. Studien 

 article is 'exploded.' I have tried to take up 

 the position of an impartial onlooker; and, 

 from that position, I have seen Professor James 

 and Professor Sidgwick and Herr Parish hand- 

 ling the fuse, but I have not yet heard the 

 detonation. 



E. B. Titchenek. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 

 THE NOVEMBEE METEOES. 



Eepoets of meteor observations made this 

 year between the 11th and 16th have been 

 published from England, France and the United 

 States. These are sufficient to show the char- 

 acteristics of the display and to furnish hints 

 as to the methods which should be followed 

 in future years. The greatest number of 

 meteors was noted on the morning of the 



15th (civil reckoning), when the rate reached 

 two each minute at some stations in the United 

 States. A single observer could count forty or 

 more per hour. It is probable that the max- 

 imum had alreadj' passed, as more meteors 

 were noted on the preceding than on the fol- 

 lowing night at the few stations where the skies 

 were clear on those nights. On the 14th a 

 single observer at Lyons, France, noted 134 

 between 1:04 a. m. and 4:05 a. m. On account 

 of the cloudy weather at Paris M. Janssen 

 made a balloon ascension and observed above 

 the clouds. We are told that this plan of se- 

 curing clear skies will be used more extensively 

 next year. The number observed this year is 

 fully ten times as great as those observed in 

 1897 and is about the same as that noted at 

 Grenwich in 1865, the year preceding the great 

 shower of 1866. This augurs well for the year 

 1899. 



Observers report several interesting facts : 

 (1) Many meteors with the characteristics of 

 the Leonids did not proceed from the radiant 

 area within the 'Sickle of Leo.' The discrep- 

 ancies in locating the radiant point are not to 

 be wholly explained by the errors to which all 

 eye estimates of meteor tracks are liable, but 

 are in part real. (2) The radiant area has for 

 its center a point which is farther south than 

 that calculated from the observations of 1866, 

 which was R A. 10 h. min., Decl. + 22°. 9. 

 The records this year, as far as known, range 

 between 9 h. 50 min. and 10 h. 20 min. in R. A. 

 and + 18° to 22° in Decl. A preliminary de- 

 termination from the photographed trails of 

 four meteors made at Harvard Observatory 

 gives 10 h. 6.8 min., Decl. + 22°16'. (3) There 

 were very few brilliant meteors compared with 

 the total number. At Providence fourteen only 

 out of nearly five hundred were brighter than 

 the first magnitude. 



The practicability of the photographic method 

 of studying meteors needed no demonstration, 

 but its possibilities are greater than was sup- 

 posed. An ordinary camera, such as those in 

 use by amateurs, will photograph the brighter 

 meteors. Thus one with an aperture of only 

 one inch and focal length of nine inches, if care- 

 fully focussed, will give trails of meteors as 

 bright as the magnitude. The camera need 



