306 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



mum sun spots. Hot summers follow after a period of maximum sun spots. 

 Destructive cyclones on the Indian Oceaii and around the .West Indies, it has 

 been observed, are greater in the years of maximum sun spots. At the time of 

 many sun spots there was seen a comparatively large number of comets around 

 the sun. The speaker thought it not improbable that the periodicity of sun spots 

 was produced in some way by meteoric streams whose orbits approached the sun 

 at the times of the frequent sun spots. The address was discussed learnedly, and 

 further light was thrown on the subject by Profs. Balfour Stewart and W. Lant 

 Carpenter, who took up the matter of short periods common to solar and terres- 

 trial phenomena, and a report was submitted on meteoric dust. Other matters 

 discussed were the measurement of solar radiation and recent progress in photo- 

 graphing the solar spectrum. The Earl of Rosse epxlained an electrical control 

 for equatorial driving clocks. 



An interesting address before the chemical section was by D. W. H. Perkin, 

 Ph. D., F. R. S,, of Sudbury. He turned the room into a laboratory, and gave 

 a most exhaustive address on coal tar coloring matters, which was illustrated by 

 numerous experiments. The beautiful colors obtained from the various products 

 of coal tar distillation were exhibited, the methods of manufacture and applica- 

 tion explained, and reference was made to the discoveries of new ways of pro- 

 ducing cheaply and abundantly the substances used in making the most brilliant 

 dyes. The speaker colored strips of yarn, washed them, fixed the colors, and 

 then exhibited them all in full view of the audience. 



"There is a hurrying to and fro, and the great scientists are getting ready 

 to depart in various directions. One might as well try to eat a buffalo for break- 

 fast, or drink the water that tumbles down Montmorency Falls, as to report the 

 British Association of Science. I have only tried to give a few glimpses of the 

 workings of this vast organization which formulates the best scientific thought of 

 the British Empire." 



ASTRONOMY. 



SUN AND PLANETS FOR OCTOBER, 1884. 



W. DAVi^SON, SPICELAND, IND. 



The earth in its revolution round the Sun moves nearly one degree a day, 

 and this gives the Sun an apparent motion eastward to the same extent, equal to 

 about four minutes of time. So the Sun's R. A. (distance east of Vernal Equi- 

 nox on celestial equator) increases nearly four minutes every day, and about two 

 hours a month. On the ist of October it is i2h. 33m., and on the 31st i4h. 



