October 16, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



565 



one of the fundamental constants of as- 

 tronomy. While therefore we give to the 

 present research very high praise, we do 

 not doubt that Prof. Comstock himself 

 would make not a few changes, if he had 

 the work to do over again. 



Among the things which might perhaps 

 with justice be subjected to criticism is the 

 insufficient manner in which the ther- 

 mometers and the determination of the 

 temperature of the air have been treated. 

 ' This is, of course, a matter of vital impor- 

 tance when the constant of refraction is to 

 be determined. Yet the thermometers 

 from whose indications the refractions were 

 computed were simply compared with a 

 standard thermometer for the determina- 

 tion of their division errors, as well as their 

 other errors. The standard thermometer 

 itself was examined at the Signal Office in 

 Washington, but no details are given as to 

 the method used in the examination. In a 

 research involving the fundamental astrono- 

 mical constants all such details should be 

 published. As a matter of fact, Prof. Com- 

 stock should have used only standard ther- 

 mometers, and he should have determined 

 their division errors and their fundamental 

 points himself. He makes no statement as 

 to his method of comparing his thermome- 

 ters with the standard, and this very im- 

 portant omission leaves us entirely in the 

 dark as to the possible uncertainty of the 

 temperature determinations. 



Another rather unusual thing is the 

 manner in which Mr. Flint's observations 

 have been treated. All of these observa- 

 tions which differed more than 1" from the 

 mean of Mr. Comstock's own observations 

 were rejected, and the others were given 

 half weight. This was done because it ap- 

 peared ' from an inspection of his (Mr. 

 Flint's) individual results that they are 

 peculiarly subject to large accidental er- 

 rors.' It would probably have been better 

 to have rejected all Mr. Flint's observa- 



tions, especially as their number was not 

 very large in comparison with Mr. Com- 

 stock's. The retaining of these observa- 

 tions will probably diminish somewhat the 

 confidence felt by astronomers in the result 

 of the research regarded as a fundamental 

 constant. Yet they have probably had but 

 very little effect on the final values obtained 

 for the refraction and aberration, in view of 

 the unusual method of weighting used. 



The Astronomische Gesellschaft has just 

 published the eleventh part of its great star 

 catalogue. It gives the positions of 9,789 

 stars in the zone from 15° to 20° North de- 

 clination, observed at Berlin by Prof. 

 Auwers. This brings the total number of 

 stars in those parts of the Gesellschaft cat- 

 alogue already published up to 72,951 . The 

 published zones now cover all the sky be- 

 tween the equator and 80° North declina- 

 tion, with the exception of the zones 5° to 

 15°, 25° to 40°, and 70° to 80°. The Cam- 

 bridge (England) zone, 25° to 30°, is an- 

 nounced as in press, so that its publication 

 may be expected during 1897. 



We note the appearance of the 1896 

 volume of the Anuario publicado pelo Obser- 

 vatorio do Rio de Janeiro, and of the 1890 

 volume of the Washington Observations. 

 The latter contains as an appendix the new 

 catalogue of stars derived from the zone 

 observations made at Santiago de Chile by 

 the U. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition 

 under Lieut. J. M. Gilliss, in the years 

 1849 to 1852. The catalogue gives the 

 place of 16,748 southern stars. 



The Cape of Good Hope Meridian Obser- 

 vations for the years 1888 to 1891 have also 

 appeared, as well as the volume of Green- 

 wich Observations for 1893. H. J. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 FIELD WORK OP THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



The field work of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey is still going actively on in all 



