42 



ISCIENCE. 



I Vol,. I., No. 2. 



have added, that, before this time, there is a 

 long line of Assj'riau kings, for manj- of whom 

 the date can be fixed at least approximatelj'. 

 The author informs us that it has been sup- 

 posed that the person kissing the foot of 

 Shalmaneser on the blacli obelisk maj- be 

 Jehu, king of Israel, whose name, he tells 

 us, is mentioned in the inscription (p. 278). 

 The Israelitish face of the kneeling figure, and 

 the fact that the name Jehu (Assyr., Ta-u-a 

 mar Hu-um-ri-i = Jehu the son of Omri ) 

 stands immediatelj' above the picture, ought 

 to allow of no doubt in the matter. The state- 

 ment (p. 285) that Shalmaneser, the predeces- 

 sor of Sargon, is not once mentioned in the 

 cuneiform inscriptions, is incorrect ; for he is 

 named in the Eponym canon (III. R. 1. col. 

 V. 1),^ and at least one other time (of. George 

 Smith: The Assj-rian canon, p. 84). The 



1 R. is the usual way of representing tlie great collection of 

 Assyrian texts called ' The cuneiform inscriptions of Western 

 Asia,* of which Sir Henry Rawlineon is editor. The Roman 

 numeral preceding indicates the volume; the following numerals 

 refer to the page, column, and line. 



author give* the conflicting • opinions of Le- 

 normant and Masp^ro, as to the fate of the 

 rebellious brother of Assurbanipal (p. 301). 

 Assurbanipal's own statement is explicit to the 

 eflect that his brother was burned, though the 

 gods are represented as having performed 

 the work (V. R. 4. 46 ff.). It is misleading to 

 sa}- (p. 275) that the Assyrian kings never 

 tried to hold by mild government their con- 

 quered provinces ; for the later kings at least 

 often bestowed favors on captive princes, not 

 seldom replacing them on the throne. Such 

 cases of inaccuracy and uncertaintj' might be 

 multiplied. The writer knows too little of 

 recent work in Assyriology, and does not hesi- 

 tate to express his scepticism as to the way in 

 which Assyrian students I'ead proper names 

 (pp. 271, 301). One who has not studied the 

 language for himself can, of coarse, not yet 

 write a history of Assyria and Babylonia. 

 The book has the credit of brevitj', ancl gives 

 verj- well a general impression, but c.a-nnot be 

 relied upon in detail. 



WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



ASTRONOMY. 



Transit of Venus observations at Heidelberg, 

 N.Y. — Mr. R. H. Tucker, jun., of the Dudley obser- 

 vatory, gave a detailed account of the arrangements 

 for, and results of, his observation of the transit of 

 Venus, at a station established for the purpose on the 

 Heidelberg table-land, about thirteen miles we!>tward 

 from the city of Albany. The site chosen was the 

 U.S. coast and geodetic survey, and the N.Y. state 

 survey station, Helderberg; lat. 42° 3T 38", lone 74° 

 00' 39"; allitude, 1,823 feet. The cloudiness which 

 prevented the observation of either contact at the 

 Dudley observatory was but partial at the Helderberg 

 station, and a satisfactory view of the second con- 

 tact was realized. An estimate was also made of the 

 time of the first contact, based upon a comparison 

 of the phase first seen a few minutes later, with dia- 

 grams constructed in connection with preliminary 

 l^ractice. 



The errors of the chronometers were obtained by 

 heliotrope signals, and powder-flashes from the Dud- 

 ley observatory, and by sextant observations of the 

 sun. — (Albany innt. ; meelinrj Jan. 2.) [80 



Transit of Venus observations at New 

 Haven. — Prof. H. A. Newton described his tempo- 

 rary mounting by which he used the eight-inch Grubb 

 object-glass of the observatory to observe the contacts. 

 Dr. L. Waldo referred to the preliminary drill with tlie 

 Yale heliometer which the five observers and assist- 

 ants with that instrument had undergone, and said 

 that the results were extremely satisfactory. The 

 definition was good most of the day, and the instru- 

 ment and dome was- manipulated quickly with no 

 waste of time. He gave the following summary : 

 24 half sets of 4 pointings each, 10 whole sets of S 

 pointings each, 20 single pointings on Venus for its 

 diameter, 10 position measures at ingress, and 6 posi- 

 tion measures at egress, with time observations, of 



tlie four contacts. Mr. Willson described an arrange- 

 ment by which he had put a cast-iron cylindrical 

 plate-holder in the eye end of the Grubb telescope, 

 and had projected a mercury horizontal surface, 

 together with the reticule glass lines on each of the 

 hundred and fifty or more photographs he had reason 

 to think would develop well. He also described a 

 ten-foot rod caliper he had used in measuring the 

 plate distance from the object-glass. He used a sim- 

 ple crown lens of about one inch and a quarter aper- 

 ture, and ten feet focal length. 



Mr. Sherman, throtigb the courtesy of the scientific 

 school, used the nine-inch equatorial, and obtained 

 about eighty-seven sals of transits of Venus and the 

 sun's limbs across a system of inclined lines ruled on 

 glass. Professors Van Vleck, Lyman, Wright, and 

 Brewer took part in the discussion following the 

 above papers; and, after describing their own contact 

 observations, referred to the atmosphere of Venus, 

 and in general regarded the want of intense blackness 

 of Venus' s disc as an effect of contrast witli the stin. 

 — (Conn. acad. arts sc; meeting Dec. 20.) [81 



MATHEMATICS. 



Septic transformation. — Mr. Ely has obtained 

 the modular equatioti for the septic transformation 

 by a piu-ely algebraical process. Aside from the 

 result directly arrived at, the paper is valuable as 

 affording a clew .as to the (algebraical) methods of 

 procedure to be followed in obtaining the odd prime 

 transformations of higher orders. — (Proc. Lond. 

 math. HOC., 1S82.) T. c. [82 



Transformation of elliptic functions. — This 

 paper, by Professor Smith of Oxford, is too important 

 for a brief abstract. On its completion, a proper 

 review will be given of its contents. — (Mess, math.., 

 1882. ) T. c. [83 



Curves of any deficiency. — Mr. Buchheim ex- 



