November 13, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



721 



detic Commission, and gives an extended 

 trial series of observations whicli he has 

 made with it. The instrument is used like 

 an ordinary zenith telescope, except that 

 the stars are allowed to trail across a pho- 

 tographic plate in the focal plane, instead of 

 being bisected with the usual filar microm- 

 eter. The distance between the trails 

 can then be measured under a microscope. 

 For the determination of the scale-value 

 Dr. Marcuse uses Pleiades trails, and for 

 the Pleiades stars adopts places based on 

 the Yale triangulations of Elkin and the 

 photographic observations made at New 

 York by Eutherfurd. Dr. Marcuse finds 

 a,s the result of the whole research that the 

 photographic method is capable of about 

 the same precision as the visual method. 

 The output of work seems to be about the 

 same for the two methods also ; and in this 

 respect the zenith telescope would seem to 

 be an exception. For in most other appli- 

 cations of photographic astrometry the 

 great advantage of the photographic method 

 has been found to be the immense saving of 

 labor permitted by it. 



We have received the first volume of the 

 Annals of the Strassburg University Obser- 

 vatory. It is a large quarto containing 

 xcviii. and 340 pages. After a descrip- 

 tion of the new observatory, there follows 

 an elaborate investigation of the Repsold 

 meridian circle and the observations made 

 with it between 1882, March 15, and 1886, 

 September 9. The volume closes with a 

 series of plates illustrating the construc- 

 tion of the meridian observatory. The 

 next volume is stated to be in course of 

 publication, and will contain a definitive 

 catalogue of stars derived from the Strass- 

 burg meridian observations. - 



The Observatory of the University of 

 Virginia has issued Part 7 of its publica- 

 tions, containing observations of the nebula 

 in Orion, by Ormond Stone. 



The second part of the proceedings of 

 the 1895 meeting of the International Geo- 

 detic Commission has been issued. It con- 

 tains the usual reports upon the present 

 condition of geodetic work in Europe. 



H. J. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



M. Aug. Lucien Trecul, botanist, member 

 of the Paris Academy, died at Paris on October 

 15th, aged 78 years. 



We regret to notice, among other recent 

 deaths of men of science abroad, those of Dr. 

 E. E. Kerry, director of the bacteriological 

 laboratory of the Vienna Veterinary Institute, 

 at the age of 84; of Dr. Eugen Sell, associate 

 professor of chemistry in the University of Ber- 

 lin and director of the chemical laboratory of 

 the Imperial Health Office, on October 13th, at 

 the age of 54; of Dr. Julius Theodor WolflF, 

 astronomer at Bonn, on October 11th, at the 

 age of 70 years; of Dr. E. Czerkawski, formerly 

 professor of philosophy at Lemberg, on Sep- 

 tember 21st, at the age of 74, and of Dr. Saul 

 Kowner, formerly medical director of the 

 Njeschin District Hospital (Russia), author of a 

 work on the philosophy of Spinoza and of a 

 history of medicine, in three volumes, aged 58. 



We regret to record the death of Dr. H. 

 Newell Martin, which occurred at Burley, Eng- 

 land, on October 29th Martin was born, in 

 1848, in Newry, Ireland. He studied at Uni- 

 versity College, London, and received the de- 

 grees of B. S. in 1870, of M. B. in 1871, and of 

 D. Sc. in 1872. From the University of London 

 he went to Christ College, Cambridge, where 

 he took the degree of B. A. in 1874, and that 

 of M. A. in 1877. He became a fellow of 

 his college, and lecturer on natural history. 

 On the organization of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, in 1876, Martin, on the recom- 

 mendation of Huxley, was made professor of 

 biology, and retained this office till 1893, 

 when his health became impaired. Martin be- 

 longed to the faculty of the Johns Hopkins 

 University when its six or seven members gave 

 the University its great reputation and trained 

 a large part of the American students now en- 

 gaged in university teaching. Martin did his 



