854 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 233. 



A TELEGEAM was received at the Harvard 

 College Observatory on June 12th from Pro- 

 fessor E. Keeler, at Lick Observatory, stating 

 that comet Holmes was observed by Perrine 

 June 10". 9644 Greenwich Mean Time in R. A. 

 l" IS" 31^6 and December + 17° 29' 39" Faint. 

 This comet was originally discovered by Holmes 

 in London, November 6, 1892, and has a period 

 of about seven years. By January 12, 1893, 

 it had become very faint, but on January 16th it 

 was found to have undergone a remarkable 

 change, an outburst of light having occurred. 

 It resembled a bright planetary nebula of about 

 the seventh magnitude, the nucleus being at 

 first very hazy, but afterwards becoming 

 sharper and about as bright as a star of the 

 eighth magnitude. On January 1, 1894, it 

 could not be found with the 26-ineh refractor of 

 the Washington Observatory, being then fainter 

 than the magnitude 14. 



Popular Astronomy gives an interesting state- 

 ment of the progress which is being made in the 

 new reduction of the Piazzi star observations. 

 Dr. H. S. Davis, who recently resigned from 

 the Columbia University staff, in order to de- 

 vote himself more exclusively to this work, is 

 to be congratulated upon the cooperation which 

 his zeal has obtained. Professor Porro and Dr. 

 Balbi, of Turin, will reduce the transit right-as- 

 cension observations, and Dr. Gill, of the Cape 

 of Good Hope Observatory, will reobserve the 

 southern Piazzi stars. All the Piazzi stars are 

 being redetermined for 1900. Miss Flora Harp- 

 ham is aiding most efBciently in the computa- 

 tion, while Miss Catharine W. Bruce places as- 

 tronomy under still greater obligations of 

 gratitude by generously contributing to remove 

 the financial obstacles. In the twenty years 

 about 1800 Piazzi made some 125,000 observa- 

 tions. When Dr. Davis has reduced these with 

 modern accuracy they will afford a valuable 

 catalogue of some 8,000 stars for the beginning 

 of the century now closing. 



At a meeting of the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, on May 29th, a paper was read by Dr. 

 Francisco P. Moreno on ' Explorations in Pata- 

 gonia.' According to the report in the London 

 Times he pointed out that up to quite recent 

 times the geography of the southern part of the 



New World had been in a very backward state. 

 Having recounted his own travels, he remarked 

 that Patagonia did not merit the bad reputation 

 given to it, but, on the contrary, a vast field 

 for human initiative existed there, with a 

 healthy soil capable of supporting a large popu- 

 lation. It was evident to him that they had in 

 Patagonia a portion of the Antarctic Continent, 

 the permanency of which, in so far as as its 

 main characteristics were concerned, dated from 

 very recent times. So, then, the history of the 

 Patagonian plateau was connected with the 

 problem of the southern continent, which to so 

 great an extent had disappeared. He had 

 handed to the staff of the British Museum 

 duplicates of the extinct and present animal 

 remains of Patagonia and of its flora, as well as 

 of those obtained by the La Plata Museum, of 

 which he was Director ; and he trusted that, 

 with such competent collaboratian, it would 

 soon be easy to give an exact idea of Patagonian 

 biology. 



At the annual meeting and conversazione of 

 Selbourue Society, on May 31st, Sir John Lub- 

 bock, the President, spoke of the advantages of 

 of the Wild Birds' Protection Act and pointed 

 out the importance of the enclosing of the un- 

 enclosed area of the New Forest. 



At a meeting of the Accademia Medica di 

 Roma, held on April 30th, Drs. G. Bastianelli 

 and Bignami read a summary of the results of 

 their investigations on the Cycle of Life of the 

 Parasites of Tertian Fever in the Anopheles 

 Claviger. They are, according to The British 

 Medical Journal, as follows : The large pig- 

 mented forms of the Tertian parasites, incapable 

 of multiplying in man, may be distinguished 

 morphologically into two categories ; some, 

 with a large vesicular nucleus and little chro- 

 matin, represent the female (macrogameti) ; 

 others, richer in chromatin, the male (micro- 

 gametociti of zoologists). In the middle intes- 

 tine of the male Anopheles Claviger six micro- 

 gamete (flagella) generally protrude, one of 

 which fecundates a macrogamete after the 

 chromatin of the latter has undergone a 

 process of reduction. The fecundated mac- 

 rogameti penetrates into the middle intes- 

 tine of the Anopheles, where it develops, 



