September 28, 1S83.] 



SCIENCE. 



449 



lead a nomadic life in tlieir boats, each boat contain- 

 ing an entire household. The Sulus are divided into 

 coast Sulus and the OraiigGuraber, living among the 

 hills, and they are much above the Bajaws in char- 

 acter. The latter are stronger in physique, but timid 

 and treacherous. On the coast-line of Borneo is an 

 extraordinary mixture. At Melapi, sixty miles up 

 the Kina Batangan, are Sundyaks, Malays, Javanese, 

 Sulus, Bajaws, Bugis, Chinese, Arabs, Klings, and 

 many others ; while of the Buludupies, the indige- 

 nous inhabitants, there are hardly any of pure blood 



left. These indigenes are an interesting people, 

 their ancestry showing distinct signs of a Caucasian 

 type. The rest of north-eastern Borneo is inhabited 

 by tribes of the race styled Eriaans, Dusuns, or Sun- 

 dyaks, who are of Dyak blood, with perhaps an infu- 

 sion of Chinese. The Chinese language, dress, etc., 

 are entirely lost, however. Slavery of a clan or feudal 

 type is universal, and the Mohammedan religion pre- 

 vails. The Sundyaks are divided into many tribes, 

 some of whicli are gaining in power. O". i. 552. — 

 {Proc. roy. geogr. soc, v. 90.) j. w. p. [288 



INTELLIGENCE FR03I AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 

 Dudley observatory, Albany, N.T. 

 Comet 6, 18SS ( Brooks). — By means of observations 

 secured at the Dudley observatory on Sept. 5, 9, and 

 18, I derived on the 19th the following parabolic 

 elements, marked I. The remarkable similarity of 

 these elements to those given by Schulhof and Bos- 

 sert for the Pons comet of 1S12 pointed unmistakably 

 to their identity. The elliptic elements of the Pons 

 comet (here marked II.) are transcribed from the 

 memoir of Schulhof and Bossert (p. l.")0), except lliat 

 they are reduced to the mean ecliptic and equinox of 

 188;j.O, and a value of 2', derived from observations 

 of the present apparition, is substituted. 



I. 



11. 



7"= 1884, Jan., 25.788 (G.M.T.). ! r= 1884, Jan., 25.696 (G.M.T.)- 



Node 254° ly.O Node 254° 8'.8 



Node lo perihelion . 199 14 .4 Node to perihelion . 199 12 .9 

 Inclination .... 74 47 .1 Inclination .... 74 03 .3 



Log.?. ■ 9.87944 I Log. y 9.88930 



Eccentricity . . . 0.95527 



The value of T in II. was determined by approxi- 

 mation from the observation of Sept. 5. The re- 

 maining observations do not indicate any important 

 change in its value. The following ephemeris results 

 from elements II. The geocentric positions are re- 

 ferred to the mean equinox of ISSo.O. 



Greenwlcb, 12 hours. 



Sept. 2 I 16 36 37 



65 03.0 



64 13.9 



63 23.0 



62 31.1 



61 38.3 



CO 45.2 



59 52.4 



58 59.6 



58 07.5 



52 33.3 



51 49.6 



51 06.0 



50 22.4 



49 37.0 I 



48 49.4 



47 67.1 



46 58.1 



45 43.(2 



Log. A Light. 



).34O0 

 ).3310 

 ).3215 

 ).3H5 

 ).3009 

 ).2897 

 ).2779 

 ).2653 

 ).2518 



0.1803 

 0.1708 

 0.1512 

 0.1302 



In the light scale, .19 corresponds to that of dis- 

 covery in 1812, and 1.00 to the time when the comet 

 was reported as visible to the naked eye in the appari- 

 tion of 1812. The places of the above ephemeris 

 represent the observations already made within about 

 30" in each co-ordinate, and with a very uniform 

 minus value of 'c-o' throughout. This seems to be 

 the fault of the elliptic elements. Any considerable 

 change in the time of perihelion passage diminishes 

 the discrepancy in one co-ordinate at the expense of 

 the otlier. 



It is remarkable that the present comet should liave 

 been picked up when its light ratio was sis times as 

 small as it was at discovery, in 1812. It was then 

 regarded as a faint object. Were it not for the over- 

 whelming testimony frotn olhcr sources, one might 

 doubt, on the ground of brightness, the identity be- 

 tween the present comet and that of 1812. The fol- 

 lowing rough ephemeris may be of interest: — 



The identity of the Pons comet of 1812 with comet 

 6, 1883, was announced in an ' associated press ' de- 

 spatch from the Dudley observatory on tlie evening 

 of Sept. 19. Lewis Boss. 



Sept. 21, 1883. 



Uassaohusetts institnte of teclmology, Boston, Usss, 



Kxteimon of the course in biolurpj. — Advantage is 

 at once to be taken of the extension in the building 

 accommodations, and the iTnprovemei>t in the fiiian- ' 

 cial resources of the institute, to greatly enlarge the 

 space heretofore given to biological work, and to in- 

 crease the instructing staff of this department of the 

 school. 



The removal of the physical laboratory to the new 

 building on Clarendon Street affords the long-desired 

 opportunity for the expansion of the biological labora- 

 tory, heretofore confined to a single small room in llie 



