74 Scientific Intelligence. 
It may further be added that nearly all the earlier insects were 
large, many of them gigantic in size; and further, that there is a 
striking similarity between the Carboniferous insect fauna of 
Europe and North America, 
IV. Astronomy. 
a; strong of = Terrestrial Spheroid.—-In the Astron. Nach., 
r Li 
No. Professor Listine gives the oo , results of his 
repack of aoe constants of the earth’s figure 
a@ = 6,377,377" 1, == 990-9948™™- 
b = 6,355,270": [* = 993°5721™™ 
de == 6,377,000" Ff = 996-1405=™' 
Q, = 10,017,560": Jy = 9780728" 
= 9°806165™° 
i g' = 9°831603™"° 
Also in general, f = 990°9948 + 5°1547 sin?g, 
= 9°780728 + 0:050875 sin? g. 
In these expressions a = equatorial rad., 6 = polar rad.,. R= 
(a?d\4, - mean ra = = equatorial quadrant, Q= meri 
quadrant; w>a~+(a— 'b), 0 or eccentricity of merid. section; — 
BET) a y are the lengths of the second’s pendulum at the equa 
tor, 45°, and pole; g,, g* and g’, the force of gravity at the equa 
tor, 45° and seh and Z and g the corresponding — at any 
latitu @ « A. N. 
light also prevented the recording of faint meteors after N oven 
ber 29th. During the seventeen hours or more of watching, only 
translated from ssian by Dr. Gate j in 1850, has boon foe 
near thirty yea sipneer d work for the subjects passat in it. 
It is devoted eae to the instruments and processes _ 
