JANUAEY 10, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



63 



Europe ; the other on the primitive flint im- 

 plements found in the gravels on the chalk 

 plateau of Kent. Although they both ap- 

 peared before, they have now been pub- 

 lished with additions. 



Their conclusions may be briefly stated., 

 The author thinks man probably lived on 

 the Thames and the Somme in pre-glacial 

 times, a period he would put at 30,000 to 

 50,000 years ago. The worked flints of the 

 plateau — generally small, extremely rude 

 and never ' compound ' (i. e., used with 

 handles) — he attributes to these early men. 

 !N"umerous illustrations of them are inserted, 

 from which their artificial character is evi- 

 dent. The author's discussion of the ques- 

 tions involved is able and satifying. 



D. G. Bkinton. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



ASTRONOMICAL. 



De. See, of the University of Chicago, an- 

 nounced in the Astronomical Journal of Novem- 

 ber 13th that the well-known binary star 70 

 Ophiuchi exhibited anomalies in its motion 

 which could only be explained on the supposi- 

 tion that there Is a nou-lumlnous perturbing 

 body in the system. This matter acquires 

 especial Interest from the fact that this star is 

 one of those binaries for which we possess a 

 really accurate orbit. The theory of this star's 

 motion published recently by Prof Schur in the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten Is perhaps the most 

 elaborate Investigation of a double star orbit yet 

 made. It was therefore very surprising to hear 

 that the mean of thirteen nights' observations 

 by three American observers gave the error of 

 Schur' s ephemerls as nearly five degrees in 

 position angle, although only three years had 

 elapsed since the computation of his orbit. The 

 matter cannot yet be regarded as settled, for 

 Prof Schur shows In the last number of the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten that the American ob- 

 servations are not In agreement with his own 

 most recent hellometer observations, which 

 agree very closely with his ephemerls. On the 

 other hand, they are supported by the most re- 

 cent observations at Paris by M. Callandreau, 



though these are In disaccord with those of 

 Herr Ebell at Berlin. It is to be hoped that 

 numerous observations of this most interesting 

 star will be made in the near future. H. J. 



PfiOF. E. C. Pickering announces in Circu- 

 lar No. 4 from the Harvard College Observa- 

 tory that a new star in the constellation Cen- 

 taurus was found by Mrs. Fleming on Decem- 

 ber 12, 1895, from an examination of the Dra- 

 per Memorial photographs. Its approximate 

 position for 1900 is in R. A. 13" 34" .3, Dec. 

 — 31° 8'. Attention was called to it from the pe- 

 culiarity of the spectrum on Plate B 14151, 

 taken at Arequlpa on July 18, 1895,- with the 

 Bache Telescope, exposure 52m. The spectrum 

 resembles that of the nebula surrounding 30 Do- 

 radus, and also that of the star A. G. C. 20937, 

 and is unlike that of an ordinary nebula or of 

 the new stars In Auriga, Norma and Carina. 

 This object is very near the nebula N. G. C. 

 5253, which follows 1^28, and is north 23". 

 No trace of it can be found on 55 plates taken 

 from May 21, 1889, to June 14, 1895, Inclusive. 

 On July 8, 1895, It appeared on a chart plate, 

 B 13965, and its magnitude was 7.2. On Plate 

 B 10472 taken July 10, 1895, its magnitude 

 was also 7.2. On December 16, 1895, a faint 

 photographic image of it, magnitude 10.9, was 

 obtained with the 11-inch Draper Telescope, al- 

 though it was very low, faint and near the sun. 

 On this date, and on December 19, it was also 

 seen by Mr. O. C. Wendell with the 15-lnch 

 Equatorial as a star of about the eleventh mag- 

 nitude. An examination with a prism showed 

 that the spectrum was monochromatic, and 

 closely resembled that of the adjacent nebula. 

 Although the spectrum is unlike those of the 

 new stars in Auriga, Norma and Carina, yet 

 this object is like them in other respects. All 

 were very faint or Invisible for several years 

 preceding their first known appearance. They 

 suddenly attained their full brightness and soon 

 began to fade. Like the new stars in Cygnus, 

 Auriga and Norma, this star appears to have 

 changed into a gaseous nebula. 



ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. 

 The Century for January contains an article 

 by Mr. Borchgrevink describing 'The First 

 Landing on the Antarctic Continent, ' which is 



