1833.] Progress of European Science. 49 
Captain Kine, R. N. also is mentioned as proceeding to New South Wales, pro- 
vided with superior instruments for his own use. 
Here is a goodly list of the astronomical emissaries from our own island, and 
yet it is doubtless full of omissions: for the amateurs must be more numer- 
ous in this than in any other science. Nothing of course was yet known in Eng- 
land of the appointment of Captain HERBERT as astronomer to the Kine of Oude. 
From the magnificence conspicuous in all oriental undertakings, we may safely 
prognosticate, that the Lucknow Observatory will become a richly endowed esta- 
blishment, if the life of the founder be spared to complete it. We cannot pause to 
follow the list of illustrious observers enumerated in Great Britain itself, at Cam- 
bridge, Dublin, Greenwich, Kew, London, and Edinburgh : nor of those on the con- 
tinent, where the activity of the new observatories of Brussels, Cadiz, Cracow, and 
Geneva, are stated to be already rivalling the older establishments of Paris, Berlin, 
Moscow, Florence, and Vienna. Now let us see what has been produced at these rival 
observatories, for that is the best way to judge of their relative and positive merits. 
The Greenwich Observatory has lately issued a catalogue of 720 stars : selected and 
reduced from the catalogue formerly published by the Astronomical Society. This 
fundamental catalogue has now reached a degree of accuracy unexampled in astro- 
nomical history, and bids fair to preserve the credit of “ the British Catalogue’ of 
the good old times of FLAMSTEAD. 
The Paris Observatory seems to have been dormant for along time. A new 
transit and a splendid equatorial by Gambey have once more set it in activity, and 
an excellent rule of the Institute has imposed upon the superintendent the necessity 
of never being more than a year behind hand in publishing the results of his labours. 
Professor BEssEL has been employed upon pendulum investigations, and has come 
to the mortifying conclusion, that the corrections employed by British experimen- 
talists are by no means correct! Mr. Francis Baity alsohas demonstrated the ex- 
istence of certain imperfections in the apparatus which point out the necessity of 
fresh inquiries before the standards of weights and measures, upon which such care 
has already been spent, can be considered as finally settled ! 
Professor ENcKE has entitled himself as much to the gratitude of astronomers in 
general, as to the medal so justly awarded him by the Astronomical Society, for the 
Berlin Ephemeris, which bears his name. While the Nautical Almanac has been 
gradually retrograding, and the Connoissance des tems stationary, the Berlin Almanac 
has suddenly stept inadvance of both, and so full are its contents, and so excellent its 
arrangement, that, as Mr. Sours says, ‘‘ with itan observatory scarcely wants a sin- 
gle book ; without it, every one.’”’” The new Nautical Almanac will be one of the 
fruits for which we are indebted to EncKn’s example, and we hope it may prove, 
according to the President’s promise, “ as superior to ENcKE's, as ENCKE’s is now 
superior to it.” 
The Royal Academy at Berlin has carried into complete effect its plan for a mi- 
nute survey of the heaven, and for the formation of a new set of celestial charts. 
Three portions of this useful and valuable undertaking are already published : viz, . 
the 10th hour in AR by professor Géget of Coburg, the 14th hour by the Rey. T. J. 
Hussey of Chisleburst, and the 18th hour by Padre Giovanni INGHIRAMI of 
Florence, and M. Capocct of Naples. The catalogues contain a list of all the stars 
(reduced to the year 1800) within 15% of the equator down to the 10th magnitude ; 
and when complete, will be a most valuable acquisition to the practical astronomer. 
Of the labours of one member of our own Royal Observatory, we must take a fuller 
review : we allude to those of Mr. RicHarpson on the constant of aberration. 
H 
