July 3, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



19 



of uniformity in the various astronomical 

 ephemerides. 



The French ephemeris was represented by 

 MM. Faye and Loewy ; the British by Dr. Down- 

 ing and Dr. Gill ; the German by Prof. Bausch- 

 inger, and the American by Prof. Newcomb 

 and Dr. Backlund, director of the Russian Na- 

 tional observatory. Dr. Bakhuyzen and M, 

 Trepied acted as Secretaries. 



The delegates succeeded in deciding upon 

 definitive constants of nutation, aberration and 

 the solar parallax. The values adopted for 

 these constants are those deduced by Dr. Gill 

 fi'om heliometer observation of the minor 

 planets Victoria, Sappho and Iris. 



The determination of the constant of preces- 

 sion and the formation of a catalogue of 

 standard stars was left to Prof. Newcomb. 



There can be no doubt that the introduction 

 of uniformity in the four great national astro- 

 nomical ephemerides will bring about a great 

 improvement in the reduction of astronomical 

 observations in general, and will do away with 

 a great deal of confusion which now exists. 



H. J. 



THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. 



We learn from the London Times that the 

 Astronomer Eoyal, Mr. H. M. Christie, has pre- 

 sented his annual report to the Board of Visi- 

 tors. The most important event of the year 

 has been the completion of the north wing and 

 central octagon tower of the new Physical Ob- 

 servatory and the reerection upon this tower of 

 the Lassell dome. When finished it will consist 

 of a central octagon tower surmounted by a 

 dome, from which will radiate four wings run- 

 ning due north, south, east and west, built of 

 red brick faced with terra cotta. The comple- 

 tion of the east and west wings has now been 

 sanctioned, and provision has been made in the 

 estimates for commencing the work during the 

 present year. Within the dome upon this 

 handsome new building will eventually be placed 

 the 26-inch photographic telescope presented to 

 the Royal Observatory by Sir Henry Thompson, 

 and now nearly finished and ready for inspec- 

 tion at Sir Howard Grubb's works in Dublin. 

 As a guiding telescope the old Merz 12f-inch 

 telescope, which used to be called the Great 



Equatorial, and that not many years ago, will be 

 remounted, and in place of a counterpoise on 

 the other side of the declination axis will be 

 mounted a Cassegrain reflecting telescope of 

 30-inch aperture, also the gift of Sir Henry 

 Thompson, for which Dr. Common has under- 

 taken to figure the mirrors and to supervise 

 the construction. Another handsome new 

 building also built of red brick and terra cotta, 

 with its dome, was completed early in January, 

 and houses the altazimuth, or universal transit 

 circle, which will very shortly be ready for use. 

 The lighting of this dome, as well as that of 

 the old Lassell dome, by a series of port hole 

 windows clearly points to the Argus-eyed char- 

 acter of the instruments within. 



The report contains important details regard- 

 ing the management and scientific work of the 

 observatory. In concluding his report the 

 Astronomer Royal says : ' ' The reorganization 

 of the staff of the Observatory which has been 

 referred to in the two last reports, and which 

 has now been approved, will provide the much 

 needed increase in the permanent staff of 

 trained observers and in the supervising power 

 by the appointment of an additional chief as- 

 sistant. The benefit of this increase of perma- 

 nent staff will, it is hoped, be felt in the future, 

 but during the past year the work of the Ob- 

 servatory has had to be carried on by a reduced 

 staff, there being three vacancies in the staff of 

 five second-class assistants which could not be 

 filled up, as under the scheme now sanctioned 

 six established computers are to be appointed 

 in lieu of three second-class assistants. Under 

 these diflficult circumstances (aggravated by the 

 inconvenience arising from the building opera- 

 tions in progress) it is highly creditable to the 

 assistants and computers that the record of 

 work for the past year compares so well with 

 that of any previous year, and I take this 

 opportunity of acknowledging the zeal and 

 energy with which the whole staff has worked 

 to maintain the credit of the Observatory." 



general. 



Prof. W. L. Elkin, of Yale University, has 

 been elected by the Yale Corporation director 

 of the observatory. 



The division of ornithology and mammalogy 



