OCTOBKE 7, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



461 



flight of the meteor. The trails broke up 

 into knots. Invariably the trails moved 

 eastward among the stars. Mr. E. S. King 

 referred to the accidental photograph of the 

 spectrum of a meteor in the prismatic 

 camera. Professor Hale regarded the pho- 

 tographic spectra of meteors as obtained at 

 the Harvard College Observatory as of the 

 highest value. 



Professor Edward C. Pickering, as chair- 

 man of the committee appointed at the 

 previous conference to secure the republica- 

 tion of the Durehmusterung charts, reported 

 a list of some forty odd subscribers in 

 America, and stated that the charts would 

 shortly be published. Father Hagen stated 

 that Doctor Kiistner has written that nu- 

 merous errors were being corrected, the 

 largest list of these being furnished by Pro- 

 fessor Pickering. 



General plans for observing the total 

 eclipse of the sun on May 28, 1900, were 

 briefly discussed, and it was agreed by the 

 Conference that unity in the methods of 

 observation could be best attained by ap- 

 pointing a committee to consider the whole 

 question and report on plans at the next 

 conference. The Conference appointed as 

 the committee, Pickering, Comstock and 

 Barnard. 



The matter of better organization of the 

 United States Naval Observatory was 

 brought before the Conference, and on mo- 

 tion a committee was appointed to solicit 

 an expression of opinion on this subject 

 from members of the Conference and other 

 astronomers, the committee also to co- 

 operate with similar committees from other 

 scientific bodies in considering the general 

 question of the reorganization of the scien- 

 tific departments of the government. The 

 Conference, by ballot, selected Professors 

 Pickering, Hale and Comstock as the com- 

 mittee. 



One of the most important questions 

 brought before the Conference was the crea- 



tion of a permanent astronomical and astro- 

 physical society. It was formally resolved 

 that it was desirable to form such a society, 

 and a committee, consisting of Professors 

 Hale, Comstock, Pickering, Newcomb and 

 Morley, was appointed to report to the 

 Conference on the subject. Subsequently 

 the same committee reported a general 

 plan, and was continued as a council 

 further to consider the organization of the 

 society and make arrangements for the time 

 and place of the next meeting of the Con- 

 ference. 



A number of interesting instruments, 

 apart from those developed and used in 

 the complex work of the Harvard Observa- 

 tory, were exhibited, and among them a 

 zenith sector made by Rittenhouse, and a 

 transit instrument and quadrant, all used 

 by Andrew Ellicott in the last century. 

 The exhibit of chronographs represented : 

 The first Bond chronograph ; the last 

 chronograph made by the inventor, Rich- 

 ard F. Bond, and still capable of determin- 

 ing time to within a few thousandths of a 

 second ; a new form of electrically con- 

 trolled chronograph of Professor A. Gr. 

 Webster ; and a Hough's Printing Chrono- 

 graph, made by Edmund Kandler, of Chi- 

 cago, for the Philadelphia Observatory. 

 The latter instrument prints the minute, 

 second and hundredth of the second. "W. 

 C. Bond «& Sons, of Boston, also exhibited a 

 break-circuit chromometer, and Professor 

 Pickering an ingenious instrument for de- 

 termining periods of periodic variations. 



The following ninety-two persons were 

 present at the Conference : C. G. Abbot, W. 

 H. Attwill, S. I. Bailey, E. E. Barnard, 

 N. E. Bennett, H. H. Brackett, Henry 

 S. Carhart, F. L. Chase, H. Helm Clay- 

 ton, W. H. Collins, H. R. Colson, G. 

 C. Comstock, Charles R. Cross, A. E. Dol- 

 bear, Miss H. R. Donaghe, Charles L. Doo- 

 little, H. W. Dubois, John A. Dunne, J. R. 

 Eastman, Mrs. I. W. Eddy, W. S. Eichel- 



