382 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE 



used. In the paper of Professor Bessel, above referred to, are given 

 the analytical formulae, perhaps the most perfect yet furnished, for the 

 reduction of observations of a solar eclipse for geographical purposes. 

 In Dr Peters's paper, Bessel's method has been applied to the European 

 observations of this eclipse ; below will be given the result of an ap- 

 plication of the same to the American observations, by Mr Walker. 

 The committee notice, with pleasure, the adoption of these formulae, 

 in making announcements of solar eclipses, in the Berliner Jahrbuch 

 for 1840, by which nearly one half the labour of an isolated compu- 

 tation will be saved. The committee have also to acknowledge, 

 on behalf of the Society, the receipt, through the attentions of Mr 

 A. D. Bache, of a valuable paper on the solar eclipse of the 3d and 

 4th of March 1840, by Mr C. Rumker, director of the Hamburg ob- 

 servatory. This present was accompanied with a circular, requesting 

 a communication of the American observations of the solar eclipse of 

 May 14, 1836, of which the European ones had been already reduced 

 by that distinguished astronomer, and published in No. 319 of the 

 Astr. Nachr. 



A copy of the American observations was furnished to Mr Rumker, 

 through Mr John Vaughan, by a member of this committee. In re- 

 turn for this, the Society has received from Mr Rumker the paper read 

 at their last meeting, which the committee recommend for publication 

 among the documents connected with this eclipse. 



It would have been highly acceptable to the committee, had Mr 

 Rumker resolved the equations of condition, which he has obtained, 

 in order to afford to the Society all the advantages which this eclipse 

 is capable of furnishing, for geographical purposes. In the absence of 

 such a result, the committee have appended the computations of Mr 

 Walker, in which the longitudes derived from Rumker's equa- 

 tions of condition are compared with those formerly obtained by Mr 

 Walker, from the same observations, reduced by Bessel's method, using 

 chiefly Peters's co-ordinates and corrections of the tabular elements. 

 The circumstance noticed by Mr Rumker, that the coefficients of the 

 corrections of the moon's latitude and parallax, are aflfected with op- 

 posite signs in the European and American observations, is one of 

 great importance, inasmuch as it facilitates the determination of the 

 latter, and thus affords a rare comparison with the results of meridian 



