70 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 29. 



telescopes being at the other extremities. The main 

 axis of the Ohserratory, which is some 300 feet in 

 length, \d\\ run east and west ; in this mil be situated 

 the Library and the lecture rooms, laboratories for 

 physical, chemical and photographic work, computing 

 rooms, oifices of the astronomers, etc. Tlie building 

 will be made of the most durable material and will 

 be substantially fire-proof. The internal furnishing 

 will include the best modern facilities for heating and 

 lighting, so that the Yerkes Observatory, with its 

 powerful and delicate instruments, will constitute 

 an admirable material equiqment for astronomical 

 research." 



The mounting of the great telescope by 

 Warner and Swasey, it will be remembered, 

 was exhibited at the Chicago Exposition. 

 AU the motions of the instrument are ef- 

 fected by electric motors. Mr. Alvan G. 

 Clark has recently stated that work on the 

 object glass is progi-essing satisfactorilj'. 

 The objective is 40 inches in diameter, with 

 a focal length of nearly 64 feet. The largest 

 objective hitherto made by Mr. Clark was 

 that for the Lick Observatory, 36 inches in 

 diameter. Mr. Clark believes that the 

 power of the telescope increases in propor- 

 tion to the size of the lens and that the 

 limit has not yet been reached. 



THE EOYAL ASTEOJS^OMICAL SOCIETY. 



According to the London Times the last 

 meeting of the present session was held on 

 June 4th, Dr. A. A. Common, president, in 

 the chair. For the first time in the history 

 of the Society', a paper was read before it 

 by a lady. Miss Alice Everett, dealing with 

 the orbit of the double star Iota Leonis. 

 Four photographs presented by American 

 astronomers were shown. The first of 

 these was a representation of ' the old moon 

 in the new moon's arms,' i. e., of the earth- 

 lit portion of the new moon. An exposure 

 of 30 sec. showed very distinctly the chief 

 formations of the part in earth-shine. The 

 second and third photographs were, like 

 the first, by Professor E. E. Barnard, and 

 revealed a most extensive nebula embracing 

 the main portions of the constellation Scor- 



pio. The fourth photograph, by Professor 

 Keeler, showed a portion of the spectrum 

 of Saturn and its rings, and by the different 

 displacements of the lines in different parts 

 of the rings proved that the inner particles 

 of the rings were moving faster than the 

 outer particles — in other words, that the 

 rings are composed of swarms of minute 

 satellites moving in separate orbits, and are 

 not solid, continuous bodies. Professor C. 

 Michie Smith, director of the Madras Ob- 

 servatorj^, described the work which he had 

 to undertake since the death of the late 

 director, Mr. Pogson — viz., the preparation 

 and publication of some 30 years' arrears 

 of observations. This had now been fin- 

 ished, and only the catalogue waited com- 

 pletion. He also described the new obser- 

 vatorjr which the Indian Government was 

 buUding at Kodai Kanal, on the Pulney 

 Hills, at a height of 7,700 feet above sea 

 level. Amongst other papers read during 

 the evening was one by Mr. Lewis on meas- 

 ures made of the diameter of Jupiter and 

 its satellites at the Greenwich Observatory, 

 measures which by then- accuracy afibrded 

 a gratifying evidence of the efficiency of the 

 great telescope of 28 inches' aperture re- 

 cently installed there. 



GENERAL. 



M. Berthelot announced, at the meeting 

 of the Academy of Science of Paris on June 

 17th, that he had caused argon to enter in- 

 to combination with the elements of carbon 

 disulphide. 



Professor Cope will publish shortly a 

 work in which he will adduce the evidence 

 in favor of the ISTeo-Lamarckian view that 

 variations of character are the effect of 

 physical causes and that such variations 

 are inherited. He will aim especially to 

 coordinate the facts of evolution with those 

 of systematic biology. 



Mr. Arthur "Winslow requests us to 

 state that he has for distribution and will 



