March 27, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



475 



posed flowers in the same patch, the bees par- 

 ticularly pushing their way beneath the obsta- 

 cles to reach them, though not always with 

 success. Plateau concludes that they are guided 

 far more by their perception of odors than by 

 their vision of bright and contrasted colors. 



In a second communication to the same Acad- 

 emy Plateau gives the details of another set 

 of experiments to determine whether a wide- 

 meshed net presents any obstacle to the passage 

 of a flying insect which, as far as room was con- 

 cerned, could easily pass in flight through the 

 interstices. He finds that, while such nets do 

 not absolutely prevent passage on the wing, in- 

 sects almost invariably act before one they wish 

 to pass as if they oould not distinguish the aper- 

 ture, ending by alighting on the mesh and crawl- 

 ing through. He reasons that through the lack 

 of distinct and sharp vision the threads of the 

 net produce the illusion of a continuous surface, 

 as for us the hatchures of an engraving, seen at 

 a distance. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The Royal Astronomical Society have intro- 

 duced an innovation in their method of issuing 

 the ' Monthly Notices. ' These are now to ap- 

 pear In parts, whenever it seems desirable that 

 this should be done. Heretofore the Notices 

 have appeared once each month, so that it has 

 not always been possible to avoid delay in the 

 publication of important papers. It is not in- 

 tended that there shall be more than one num- 

 ber each month in the future, but this number 

 will be divided, and issued in parts, when nec- 

 essary. 



The Astronomical Journal of March 11, con- 

 tains an article by Dr. G. W. Hill, on the per- 

 turbations of the planet Ceres by Jupiter and 

 the derivation of the mean elements of Ceres. 



The last number of the Astronomische Nach- 

 richten, dated February 29th, contains the an- 

 nouncement from Dr. Belopolsky of Pulkowa 

 that he has obtained a series of good measures 

 of the motion in the line of sight of the brighter 

 component of 61 Cygni. The observations were 

 made with the 30-inch telescope. The motion 

 relatively to the sun is found to be — 7.3 geo- 

 graphical miles. Assuming a parallax of 0".5 

 and a proper motion of 5. "2, allowing for that 



of the sun, Dr. Belopolsky finds that the actual 

 motion of the star is at the rate of 7.6 geograph- 

 ical miles per second. The direction of the 

 motion in space has a position angle of 61° 

 and makes an angle of 140° with the line of 

 sight. H. J. 



We have received from the Huxley Mem- 

 orial Committee a second donation list contain- 

 ing further subscriptions amounting to £761. 

 The total amount is now £2,300. A sufiicient 

 sum being thus guaranteed for the fulfillment 

 of the two first objects of the Committee, 

 ' Statue ' and ' Medal ' Sub-Committees have 

 been appointed to carry on the details, and de- 

 signs are now being prepared. For the third 

 object, the foundation of Exhibitions, Scholar- 

 ships or Lectureships has been proposed. For 

 this a considerable sum will be required, and 

 the efforts of the Committee to raise it are being- 

 promoted by the organization of Local Com- 

 mittees in all parts of the world. 



A BRANCH of the International Committee to 

 erect the monument to Pasteur has been formed 

 in Washington, under the presidency of Dr. D. 

 E. Salmon, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. Among the members are Secre- 

 tary Langley, Surgeons-General Try on, Stern- 

 berg and Wyman, Dr. G. Brown Goode and a 

 representative to be appointed by each of the 

 scientific societies. 



The series of Saturday lectures, complimen- 

 tary to the citizens of Washington, will be con- 

 tinued during the season of 1896, under the 

 auspices of the Joint Commission, and under 

 the direction of a committee consisting of W J 

 McGee, G. Brown Goode and J. Stanley Brown. 

 The addresses will be delivered in the lecture 

 hall of the National Museum, 4:20 to 5:30 p. 

 m., on the dates specified. The series of lec- 

 tures for 1896 has been arranged with the view 

 of illustrating the relations of life to environ- 

 ment, especially on this continent; and two 

 courses have been provided, the first pertain- 

 ing chiefly to vegetal and animal life, the sec- 

 ond chiefly to human life in its relations to 

 lower organisms as well as to the inorganic 

 world. The first course is as follows (the sec- 

 ond will be announced later) : 



