Maech 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



461 



■was, would become very sensible. I recommend 

 it therefore to the society, as opportunity shall 

 offer, to procure the experiments to be made of 

 the present degree of saltness of the Ocean, and 

 of as many of these lakes as can be come at, that 

 they may stand upon record for the benefit of 

 future ages. 



If it be objected that the water of the Ocean, and 

 perhaps of some of these lakes, might at the first 

 beginning of things, in some measure contain salt, 

 so as to disturb the proportionality of the in- 

 crease of saltness in them, I will not dispute it: 

 but shall observe that such a supposition would 

 by so much contract the age of the world, within 

 the date to be derived from the foregoing argu- 

 ment, which is chiefly intended to refute the 

 ancient notion, some have of late entertained, of 

 the eternity of all things; though perhaps by it 

 the world may be found much older than many 

 have hitherto imagined. 



George F. Becker 



THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY: THE COMPLE- 

 TION OF TEE CATALOGUE OF THE 

 WASHINGTON ZONES OF lS.',6-52 

 Shortly after the founding of the Naval 

 Observatory, the superintendent, Lieutenant 

 M. F. Maury, TJ. S. N., in the spring of 1846 

 directed the observers on the mural circle, the 

 meridian circle and the transit instrument, 

 •when these instruments were not otherwise 

 employed, to determine the positions of all 

 the stars culminating above the horizon at 

 Washington and visible with these instru- 

 ments, beginning at the southern horizon and 

 working northward. In three years 41,700 

 observations had been made, covering about 

 30° in declination. JSTo observations seem to 

 have been made during the next two years, 

 but with the installation of the chronograph 

 observing was resumed and 3,200 observations 

 were made during 1851-2. The total number 

 of observations discussed in forming the cata- 

 logue is 44,900. 



In 1860 was published the first volume of 

 the zones, those observed with the meridian 

 circle in 1846. Shortly thereafter an appro- 

 priation was secured from congress for the 

 reduction of the zone observations and Dr. B. 

 A. Gould, of Cambridge, Mass., was secured 

 to take charge of the work. The observations 



made in 1846-9, except those already pub- 

 lished and two books of 3,400 observations 

 which had been mislaid, were copied from the 

 observing books on reduction sheets which 

 were sent to Dr. Gould. The reductions were 

 promptly made and the printer's copy re- 

 turned. Several years later, 1872-3, the re- 

 sults sent by Dr. Gould were published under 

 the direction of Professor Asaph Hall, TJ. S. 

 N., in three volumes, as appendices to the 

 Washington observations. 



In order to facilitate the cataloguing of 

 these zones, a list of stars to serve as zero 

 stars was selected and added to the observing 

 list of the 8.5-inch transit circle by Professor 

 J. R. Eastman, U. S. N., who also had the 

 individual observations in the four volumes 

 previously mentioned copied on cards. The 

 copying on one card of all the observations of 

 the same star was commenced when work was 

 again stopped. 



This was the state of the work in 1901 when 

 cataloguing was undertaken by the writer. A 

 complete rereduction of the observations has 

 not been attempted, but a systematic search 

 has been made for all appreciable errors. In 

 this work have been utilized a manuscript list 

 of 2,200 corrections by Professor J. C. Kap- 

 teyn and another of 500 by Dr. F. Eistenpart,, 

 and an effort has been made to identify each 

 star observed but once with one in the " Cape 

 Photographic Durchmusterung," the " Cor- 

 doba Durchmusterung " or the " Bonn Durch- 

 musterung." All single observations not thus 

 identified are being looked up with one of the 

 equatorials at the observatory. 



The 3,400 unpublished observations of 

 1847-8 and the 3,200 of 1851-2 were reduced 

 under the direction of Professor P. B. Littell, 

 U. S. N., in the same manner as that used in 

 reducing the published results. 



The published observations, corrected as a 

 result of the above-mentioned comparisons,, 

 together with the unpublished ones, were com- 

 pared with the positions of the " Cordoba 

 General Catalogue " and zone corrections 

 were determined for each night's work to re- , 

 duce the Washington observations to the sys- 

 tem of the " Cordoba General Catalogue." 



