November 2, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



569 



versity of St. Petersburg, delivered the Hux- 

 ley lecture at Charing Cross Hospital on 

 October 1. The function took place in the 

 out-patient hall of the hospital, which was 

 crowded with an enthusiastic audience. The 

 professor was welcomed on his arrival in a 

 small room adjoining the hall by an informal 

 reception committee, consisting of Lord Kil- 

 morey (chairman of the hospital). Sir A. 

 Hiicker, Professor Starling, Dr. Pavy, Pro- 

 fessor Gotch, Dr. W. V. Bayliss, Dr. Mott, 

 Mr. Waterhouse and Dr. Bosanquet. When 

 Professor Pawlow was conducted into the hall 

 by Lord Kihnorey, the reception accorded to 

 the eminent physiologist was so hearty that 

 it seemed to take him by surprise. In a few 

 words Lord Kilmorey introduced the lecturer 

 to the audience, and Professor Pawlow then 

 proceeded to deliver his address. He spoke 

 in German, and took for his subject the scien- 

 tific investigation of the psychical faculties 

 or processes in the higher animals. At the 

 conclusion of the address Sir A. Riicker, prin- 

 cipal of the University of London, moved a 

 vote of thanks to Professor Pawlow. He as- 

 sured him that the interest in his address was 

 not confined to the walls of Charing Cross 

 Hospital, but the University of London as a 

 whole was delighted to welcome so distin- 

 guished a representative of Russian science. 

 Professor Starling, in seconding the vote of 

 thanks, said that the address bore out the old 

 statement as to the close connection that ex- 

 isted between the advance of science and the 

 advance of methods at the disposal of scientific 

 investigators. Great strides had been made 

 in the science of physiology by the introduc- 

 tion of anesthetics which had abolished pain 

 from the physiological laboratory. The use 

 of anesthetics necessitated the introduction of 

 abnormal conditions into an experiment, but 

 Professor Pawlow had now taught them how 

 to experiment on the living animal in perfect 

 physiological condition without pain, without 

 anesthetics, and without even discomfort. 

 Lord Kilmorey formally expressed the thanks 

 of the meeting to Professor Pawlow, who re- 

 plied in a few words suitably acknowledging 

 the compliment. — The British Medical Journal. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 

 THE POTSDAM PHOTOMETRIC DUROHMUSTERUNG. 



Volume XVL of the Puhlihationen des 

 AstrophysiJcalischen Ohservatoriums zu Pots- 

 dam has just been issued. It contains the 

 fourth and last zone of the photometric Durch- 

 musterung, which has been carried on by 

 Miiller and Kempf during the last twenty 

 years, of which the first volume appeared in 

 1894. It includes all stars in the northern 

 heavens of the magnitude 7.5, and brighter, 

 and forms a most important addition to the 

 photometry of the stars. 



Although the great discordance among the 

 various estimates of brightness made some 

 sort of exact measurements a necessary step 

 in the advancement of astronomy, but little 

 progress had been made until a quarter of a 

 century ago. The first volume of the Harvard 

 photometry, begun in 1879, was published in 

 1884, and the Uranometria Oxoniensis ap- 

 peared in 1885. 



The Durchmusterung of Miiller and Kempf 

 comes opportunely, since it gives measure- 

 ments of great precision, and throws light on 

 the results obtained by earlier observers. It 

 is of the greatest importance, not only to 

 reduce the accidental errors as much as pos- 

 sible, a result which has probably been ac- 

 complished by Miiller and Kempf, but, espe- 

 cially, to show whether the systematic errors, 

 which are inseparable from such investiga- 

 tions, are so small as to make the results 

 trustworthy. 



The work of Pritchard at Oxford was car- 

 ried on with a wedge photometer; that of 

 Pickering at Harvard with polarization pho- 

 tometers in which a polar star is compared 

 directly with all the stars whose magnitudes 

 are to be determined; the observations of 

 Miiller and Kempf have been made with pho- 

 tometers of the Zollner type, in which, by 

 means of an artificial star, the stars to be 

 measured are compared indirectly with various 

 well-distributed standard stars whose mag- 

 nitudes have been determined with all possible 

 care. 



The work of the Potsdam astronomers was 

 arranged in four zones extending from the 

 equator to the north pole of the sky. The 



