132 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 161. 



November and December periods were, how- 

 ever, unj)roductive this year. Dr. Elkin has 

 employed a considerable part of his time in the 

 measurement and discussion of the photographic 

 trails of the Perseids thus secured, now num- 

 bering 17 in all. So far, the results are not 

 very conclusive as to the character of the 

 radiant, but as each year will add to the data 

 there seems good reason to hope ultimately 

 for most valuable deductions. Mr. John E. 

 Lewis has rendered valuable cooperation in 

 this work, though he did not secure any trails 

 at Ansonia. During the winter a portion of 

 the work on the parallaxes of the ten first 

 magnitude stars in the northern hemisphere, 

 comprising the observations and reductions, 

 was passed through the press. Dr. Chase was 

 absent in Europe on leave from July, 1896, to 

 January, 1897. Since his return he has taken 

 up the Heliometer work on the parallaxes of 

 large proper motion stars. During his absence 

 the time service was under the care of Mr. 

 George K. Lawton until October, 1896, and 

 subsequently under that of Dr. B. W. Mc- 

 Farland. Dr. Palmer has been engaged in 

 computations, mainly of refraction corrections 

 and tables therefor. Miss Newton has been 

 occupied in preparing a series of references to 

 other catalogues in an interleaved copy of the 

 Bonn Durchmusterung. 



Me. T. Whitbuen, the President of the Guild- 

 ford Natural History and Microscopical Society, 

 writes to the London Times to say that on Au- 

 gust 23d he addressed a letter to the African 

 explorer and naturalist, Mr. P'. C. Selous (who 

 has a residence and museum near Guildford), in- 

 forming him of the proposed petition for the 

 preservation of Wolmer, and requesting his 

 support. He also inquired if Mr. Selous would 

 join the Society as an honorary member. The 

 reply of Mr. Selous is as follows : " Allan Line 

 Royal Mail Steamers. — Steamship Lauren tian, 

 Dec. 11, 1897. — Dear Sir. — I have been away 

 in the Rocky Mountains, and only received your 

 kind letter of August 23d the other day, on my 

 return to Canada, on my way home. Although 

 I have killed a great many wild animals, I have 

 never destroyed life wantonly, and I think that 

 I can fairly claim to be more of a naturalist 

 than a sportsman. Besides having secured some 



very fine specimens of African big game for the 

 South Kensington and South African Museums, 

 I have also made large collections of butterflies- 

 aud beetles (amongst which were many new 

 species), all of which are now in the South 

 African Museum at Cape Town. I trust that 

 your Society will be successful in securing 

 Wolmer Forest as a sanctuary for wild birds 

 and animals, and I shall be very pleased to have 

 my name added to your requisition. I shall also 

 consider it a great honor to be made an honorary 

 member of your Society, and will try and get in 

 touch with you as soon as I come to live at 

 "Worplesdon, as I shall do sooner or later. 

 Believe me, dear sir, yours very truly, F. C. 

 Selous." 



ACCOEDING to the Electrical World, the value 

 of the instruments and machinery during 1897 

 for scientific purposes exported from the United 

 States was $3,054,453, which was an increase of 

 half a million dollars as compared with the ex- 

 ports in 1896. 



A GENEEAL meeting of the Aeronautical 

 Society of Great Britain, at which Sir Charles 

 Warren presided, was held in the rooms of the 

 Society of Arts on December 16th, when several 

 forms of flying machines were exhibited and 

 described. The report in the London Times 

 states that Major Moore showed a machine in 

 which he aims at reproducing the motions of a 

 bird in flight, and Mr. S. Bruce explained how 

 his signalling balloons might be found useful to 

 Arctic explorers. The application of kites to 

 the preservation of life was illustrated by the 

 apparatus of Captain Spiers, who considers 

 that the simplest way of carrying a line from 

 a wrecked ship to the land is by means of a 

 kite. Captain Baden-Powell, the Secretary of 

 the Society, exhibited a specimen of the kites 

 he employs for man-lifting purposes. He said 

 that as a rule four or five kites 12 feet long 

 were sufiicient to lift a man, though in a very 

 strong wind he had been raised off" his feet by 

 one. In America kites had been used for 

 meteorological purposes, and experiments had 

 been made with them for military purposes. 

 He thought it a pity they had not been em- 

 ployed in the operations in India. Mr. Pilcher 

 showed one of his soaring machines in whicb 



