554 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 67. 



catalogues. It has been known for sometime 

 that the right ascensions of faint stars differ 

 systematically from those of the brighter stars, 

 on account of a peculiar form of personal error 

 in making the observations. Prof. Newcomb 

 now determines the amount of this personality 

 per magnitude for twelve of the principlal cata- 

 logues. 



It was not possible to treat the observations 

 of each observer separately, but each catalogue 

 was dealt with as if it were the work of a single 

 observer. The catalogues were compared in 

 pairs. Sixteen such pairs were treated, and 

 for each pair the relative variation of right as- 

 cension per magnitude was computed. The 

 results so obtained were adjusted so as to get 

 the variation per magnitude for each catalogue 

 relatively to the great Paris catalogue. The 

 latter was adopted as a standard of reference 

 because it occurs in a majority of the pairs of 

 catalogues treated. 



The relation of the Paris catalogue to the 

 truth could be determined by the aid of the 

 results previously obtained by Gill, Kiistner, 

 Boss and Becker. The following remarkable 

 result was reached : 



The variation per magnitude of the right as- 

 cension averaged very nearly one-hundredth of 

 a second of time, no matter whether the obser- 

 vations were made by the eye and ear method 

 or by means of the chronograph. 



H. J. 



GENERAL. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette that 

 plans for the Hull Botanical Laboratory of the 

 University of Chicago have been completed. 

 The building, of four stories and in addition a 

 large roof greenhouse, will include a library, 

 lecture rooms, laboratories and private research 

 rooms for morphology, physiology and taxon- 

 omy. As already stated in this Journal, Prof. 

 John M. Coulter, senior editor of The Botanical 

 Gazette, has accepted the head professorship of 

 botany. As, however, the building will not be 

 completed before April, 1897, the botanical 

 staff will not be fully organized until the fol- 

 lowing autumn. With the present issue the 

 Gazette passes into the possession of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. The same editors will remain 



in charge and the general plan of the journal 

 will be the same. The editors "wish it to be 

 clearly understood that the Gazette is not to be 

 the organ of the botanical department of any 

 university, but that it belongs to all botanists 

 everywhere. Its relation to the University of 

 Chicago is simply to bring it that permanence 

 and possibility of development which the pres- 

 ent condition of botanical science demands." 



The annual report of the Secretary of the 

 Geological Society of Washington states that 

 there were held during the year 1895 fourteen 

 meetings of the Society, with an average at- 

 tendance of 35, exclusive of the meeting at 

 which the annual address of the President, 

 Mr. G. K. Gilbert, was given. 38 communica- 

 tions have been presented during the year, 29 

 of them being announced upon the programs 

 of the meetings and 9 being offered in the in- 

 formal half hour. The various communications 

 were presented by 27 different members. There 

 are now 111 active members and 38 correspond- 

 ing members in the Society. 



The Fort Pitt Street Railway Company of 

 Pittsburg has given $100,000 for a zoological 

 garden at Highland Park. 



The bill reported from the Committee on 

 Coinage, Weights and Measures of the House 

 of Representatives adopting the metric system 

 of weights and measures as the legal standard 

 in the United States has been defeated in a pre- 

 liminary vote, which stood 80 to 65. 



Prof. Ramsay has in preparation a book 

 which will shortly be published by Macmillan 

 & Co., treating the gases in atmospheric air 

 and especially the discovery and svibsequent in- 

 vestigation of Argon. 



The Berlin Academy of Science has elected 

 as corresponding members, M. Poincare, pro- 

 fessor of mathematical physics in Paris, and 

 Dr. G. Neumayer, director of the German 

 Seeivarte. 



The Director of the Lick Observatory has re- 

 cently received from the Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs of the United States of Venezuela the 

 diploma and decoration of the order of Bolivar, 

 the Liberator. This order was founded in 1825 

 by Peru and adopted in 1854 by Venezuela. 



