November 23, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



683 



degrees less than the figure given by Dr. Fisk as the 

 mean of four years' observation at Augusta. As fur- 

 ther proof of ilic dryness of the atmosphere of Aiken. 

 I would direct attention to the absence of mould 

 on boots and shoes, and to the fact that guns, and 

 even delicate surgical instruments, may be e.xposed to 

 air for months at a time witliout rusting. There are 

 many other differences between the climates of Aiken 

 and Auijusta; but the above is sufficient to show tliat 

 Dr. Fisk has indulged in an inference, when, with 

 a little trouble, he could have obtained facts, the 

 meteorological data for Aiken being on file at the of- 

 fice of the chief signal-office, I'. S. A., since the estab- 

 lishment of that bureau, and prior to that time at 

 the Smithsonian institution, not to speak of various 

 ptiblications on the climate of Aiken, which have 

 appeared in the different medical journals of the 

 country. 



W. H. Geddings. 



Aiken, S.C., Nov. 5, 1883. 



On the possible connection of the Pons- 

 Brooks comet ^vith a meteor-stream. 



I desire to call attention to some slight evidence of 

 the existence of a meteor-stream wliicli may possi- 

 bly stand in some sort of connection with the Pons- 

 Brooks comet. From an examination of all the 

 available material of published meteor-tracks in the 

 interval Dec. .5-8, I find, that .after excluding those 

 manifestly emanating from the well-known and ac- 

 tive radiants in Andromeda. Gemini, and Taurus, 

 there remain twenty-three meteors observed by Heis 

 on Dec. S, — about two-thirds of them in 1S47, and the 

 rest in 185.5. 1857, .and 1867, — and ten meteors ob- 

 served at Vienna, Dec. 7, 1868; all of which indicate 

 a strongly marked radiant in Draco. From these data 

 I have carefully determined the position of this radi- 

 ant, as follows: — 



10 meteors on Dec. 7, 

 23 meteors on Dec. 8, 



R.A. 



198.0* 

 190.0 



and from these I derive the following orbits, to which 

 I add for comparison that of the Pons-Brooks comet. 



node are, of course, of no significance in the compari- 

 son. The descending node of the comet's orbit lies 

 at the distance 0.2i)0 inside the earth's path, and the 

 difference of the perihelion distance of the comet and 

 the meteors is about 0.1.5. There is nothing in our 

 present knowledge of the dimensions of meteor- 

 streams, or of the nature of their reKations to comets, 

 definite enough to render such a breadth as is here 

 implied evidence against a pos-sible connection. On 

 the^whole, therefore, it appears desirable that meteor- 

 observers should give close attention to the radiant 

 in ([uestion about the date of the earth's passage 

 through the plane of the comet's orbit, Dec. 5 to Dec. 

 7. Observations this ye.ar are likely to prove espe- 

 cially instructive on account of the proximity of the 

 comet, which passes the node only a few weeks later. 

 S. C. C'HANDLEn, Jun. 



Harvard college observatory, 



Xov. l-J, 1SS3. 



Prize-essays on the experimeutal method in 

 science. 



Dr. Maurizio Bufalini, .an Italian savant who died 

 nearly ten years ago, left provision in his will for the 

 payment of a prize to the person presenting the best 

 essay on the subject of ' the experimental method in 

 science ' to the section of medicine and surgery of the 

 Koyal institute of higher studies at Florence. The es- 

 say must be written in Latin or Italian, and be pre- 

 sented to the chancellor of the section of medicine 

 and surgery on or before the 31st of October, 1884. 

 The prize is five thousand francs. 



The institute has declared that all persons are at 

 liberty to compete for this prize; and accordingly the 

 representative of the Italian government, acting un- 

 der instructions from that government, forwarded to 

 our Department of state a programme giving in de- 

 tail the subject proposed for the essay, and the condi- 

 tions to be followed by the competitors, with a request 

 that it be bronglit to the attention of Americans. 

 The programme has been forwarded to the Bureau of 

 education by the Department of state, .and will be 

 published as a bulletin as soon as practicable. In 

 the mean time, such information, relative to the mat- 

 ter, as the Bureau of education possesses, may be 

 obtained by addressing Gen. Eaton, commissioner of 

 education, Washington, D.C. 



Chaui-es Wakhen. 



T = Perihelion paHsagc. 

 Long, of perihelion 

 T.ong. of node . . . 



Inclination 



T-iog. per. di-st. . . . 

 Eccentricity . . . . 



44.&° 

 256.1 

 68.5 

 9.9600 



65.1* 

 2.'i6.3 

 72.7 

 9.9784 



1884. 



Jan. 25.82. 



93° 21' 



The resemblance is thns not sufficient to give any 

 consiiler.able prob.ability to the hypothesis of an inti- 

 mate relation. On the other hand, the position of 

 the radiant from present data is too uncertain to 

 en.able us to pronounce .against that hypothesis. 



The diflerences in inclination and longitude of 

 perihelion are not greater than are due to uncer- 

 tainty in the observed radiant points : the T and the 



The model of Architeuttais at the Fisheries 

 exhibition. 



In the number of Science for Nov. 9, you have 

 copied without correction a photograph of part of 

 the London International fisheries exhibition, which 

 shows my model of Arch i tenth is wrongly put togetlier. 

 For convenience of packing, the tentacular arms were 

 made to take ap.art in three pieces ; but, when the 

 model was set up, the b.asal .and terminal, pieces were 

 put together, making the tentacles ten feet too short. 

 The man who had charge of the work, not knowing 

 what to do with tlie remaining pieces, stuck them In 

 at the sides of the month, thinking that he might find 

 in some other box a pair of terminal clubs to put on 

 them. In this way the model was left at the open- 

 ing of the exhibition, until some visitor happened to 

 notice the mistake, when, I believe, the extra pair of 

 arms was taken out, leaving the tentacles still too 

 short. 



J. 11. Emerton. 

 New Haven, Nov. 11, 1883. 



