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SCIENCI::. 



IVoi.. II., No. 41. 



growing scarcer, more labor is reijuired to get them, 

 aud tlie ainouiit of dead material which has to be 

 handled is largely increased. 



— The Pons comet, now approaching the sun, may- 

 be expected to be visible to the naked eye about the 

 first of December; but it is not likely to attain a 

 brightness comparable with tliat of the conspicuous 

 comets of the last decade, unless it shall have under- 

 gone material change since its last reappearance, in 

 1812. The intensity of its light will be three times 

 greater on Nov. 21 than it was on Oct. IC; and it will 

 increase until about the middle of January, when it 

 may be anticipated that its light will be about equal 

 to that of a star of the third magnitude. 



— The announcement of the publication of the 

 Berlin catalogue of zonal stars will have, according 

 to Nature, the effect of postponing the publication 

 of the French catalogue, for which a credit of four 

 hundred thousand francs had been asked from the 

 budget commission. 



— Dr. B. A. Gould passed through London early in 

 October, en route for South America. The printing 

 of the second volume of the Cordoba zones is nearly 

 completed (in London); and Dr. Gould's attention 

 will soon be turned to the publication of another great 

 work iindertaken by him at the Argentine national 

 observatory, viz., the Cordoba general catalogue of 

 stars. 



— Ensigns H. G. Dresel and A. A. Ackerraan, who 

 were detached from the National museum for duty in 

 connection with the recent Greely relief expedition, 

 in spite of unfavorable circumstances, succeeded in 

 collecting some interesting zoological and minera- 

 logical specimens. Among them are some of the so- 

 called meteorites of Ovifas. 



— Regarding Flamsteed and Morin, Mr. W. T. Lynn 

 writes to the editor of the Observatory (August, 

 1883): "Probably few anecdotes in the history of 

 astronomy are better known to general readers 

 than that related by Flamsteed, respecting the foun- 

 dation of the Royal observatory being hastened, if 

 not occasioned, by the apijlication of the Sieur de St. 

 Pierre to Charles IL (througli the Duchess of Ports- 

 mouth) for a reward for discovering a method of 

 finding the longitude at sea, and Flamsteed's own 

 decision on its imiiracticability until the motions of 

 the moon and the places of the fixed stars had been 

 determined with much greater accuracy than was 

 then possible. But it is not easy to understand 

 the exact meaning of one of Flamsteed's expressions 

 to St. Pierre. He says that he told him, after first 

 proving to him how incompetent a calculator he 

 was, and pointing out, that, independently of this, 

 his method was inapplicable in practice, to go to 

 his own countryman Morin, who would instruct 

 him in a better method than his own, and not to 

 return to the king of England until he had done so. 

 Of course, the general force of this recommendation 

 was, in vulgar English, to bid him go to Jericho. 

 But surely Flamsteed could hardly have been igno- 

 rant (though he does not refer to it) that Morin 

 had, in 1634 (forty-one years before the applica- 

 tion of St. Pierre to Charles II.), submitted a plan 



similar in jirinciple to Canliiuil Richelieu, and that a 

 committee appointed by the latter came to the same 

 decision as Flamsteed concerning St. Pierre's propo- 

 sal ; that such a method was of no practical use in the 

 existing state of astronomical knowledge. To me, It 

 seems exceedingly likely that St. Pierre was aware of 

 what had taken place with regard to Morin ; that, in 

 fact, he had stolen the principle from the latter (who, 

 although he deserves all the contempt that Madler 

 pours upon him for prostituting astronomy to the 

 purposes of that mass of imposture and delusion 

 which lias robbed our science of its more appropriate 

 name of astrology, was a good mathematician for 

 those times), and interpreted Flamsteed's last remark 

 into the imputation that he was in point of fact 

 found out. Flamsteed says that he heard no more of 

 him afterwards ; but he certainly did not go to Morin, 

 for the best of all reasons, — Morin having died more 

 than eighteen years before, on the 6th of November. 

 1656." 



— In a paper on the germ-theory of disease from 

 a natural history point of view, before the British 

 association, Dr. Carpenter stated that many of the 

 existing genera and species of animals and plants 

 were altogether uncertain ; that as fresh knowledge 

 was gained, so it was found necessary to modify our 

 accepted views — this especially holds good with gen- 

 era which have great power of adapting themselves 

 to various circumstances, and which consequently 

 produce numerous variations. This power of modi- 

 fication, the author stated, was much more marked 

 in the lower than in the higher forms of either king- 

 dom, and was especially found in bacteria. The 

 author then cited the case of the germ producing 

 small-pox, in which he stated the germ had undergone 

 such a modification, that whereas two centuries ago 

 tlie disease was very severe, and known as ' black- 

 pox,' it now existed only as a mild disease. During 

 the last siege of Paris, however, the conditions were 

 such that the germ reverted to its original form, and 

 produced the same severe disease as two centuries 

 ago. Many facts were brought forward to confirm 

 tills view. 



— In a paper by Professor Hull before the Bi-ilish 

 association, upon the geological age of the North 

 Atlantic Ocean, »he author made use of three lead- 

 ing formations as factors in his inquiry; viz., the ar- 

 cheau (orLaurentian), the Silurian (chiefly the lower 

 Silurian), and the carboniferous. He considers that 

 throughout the archean (or Laurentian), the lower 

 Silurian, and the carboniferous epochs, the regions 

 of North America, on the one hand, and of ijie Brit- 

 ish Isles and western Kurope, were submerged, while 

 a large part of the North Atlantic area existed as 

 dry land, from the waste of which these great forma- 

 tions had been built up; and. he urged, that, if such 

 were the case, the doctrine of the permanency of 

 oceans and continents, as tested by the case of the 

 North Atlantic, falls to the ground. 



— The meteorological observatory established upon 

 the top of Ben Nevis by the Scottish meteorological 

 society was formally opened on Oct. 17 with interest- 

 ing ceremonies. A party of ninety, including many 



