for the year 1872 Ixv 



great objects of the whole community, as well for this as for 

 the coming generation." Baron Von Mueller, I am glad to 

 say, intends shortly to issue some popular works on 

 Australian botany ; the first, I believe, is to be devoted to 

 the ferns, and it is intended to illustrate it by photo-litho- 

 graphy. I have been also informed that Count Castlenau, 

 the well-known zoologist, has prepared a descriptive essay 

 on the fishes of Victoria, which is to be issued with the 

 report of the Acclimatisation Society. 1 refer to these 

 points, although they do not belong to our past year's 

 history, because they indicate scientific vitality and progress ; 

 and although the fruition may belong to anotlier year of 

 this Society, the work evidently belongs to this. 



In our Observatory one of the most interesting results of 

 the past 3^ear's work is the establishment of the fact that the 

 nebula in Eta Argus has not only undergone marked 

 change since the time it was observed and drawn by the 

 late Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope, but has 

 also exhibited notable change since the erection of the great 

 telescope at Melbourne. Drawings of it made at intervals 

 of only a few months, as was pointed out by Mr. MacGeorge 

 in the paper he read before you at our October meeting, 

 present such differences that we can now hardly escape from 

 the conclusion that observable changes in this nebulse take 

 place very rapidly. 



Several observers in the southern hemisphere have 

 devoted a good deal of attention and observation to this 

 celestial object — notably, Mr. F. Abbott, of Hobart Town ; 

 Mr. H. C. Russell, director of the Sydney Observatory ; Mr. 

 Tebbutt, of Windsor, New South Wales ; and Lieut. 

 Herschel, of India. Mr. Abbott, I believe, was the first to 

 draw attention to the fact that it no longer appeared as 

 drawn by Sir John Herschel. Mr. Eussell made a very 

 careful drawing of the nebula as seen with the Sydney 74in. 



F 



