Dec. 28, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



653 



development of the kidneys will remind comparative 

 anatomists of the details of structure to which we point. 

 We should have expected that natural selection, working 

 through untold ages, would by this time have simplified 

 the course of development, finding out short cuts to 

 avoid waste of tissue and waste of time in the assump- 

 tion step by step of the permanent organisation of the 

 body. But purposeless embryonic arrangements, which 

 point to Annelid ancestors, are still preserved, to the 

 conspicuous advantage, we must gratefully acknowledge, 

 of the biologist, who thus finds some of the most difficult 

 channels of phylogeny buoyed for his guidance. The 

 succession of life on the earth follows no law of capri- 

 cious change. The English constitution has been said to 

 owe its remarkable character to the circumstance that 

 Englishmen have never changed their institutions, except 

 to remove a practical grievance, and only to just such an 

 extent as the grievance required. It seems to be a some- 

 what analogous law of nature that anomalies and vestiges 

 of an antiquated state of things are tolerated and pre- 

 served so long as they do not cost time or substance 

 which can ill be spared. But to the student who has 

 some hazy idea of what geological time means, the 

 mention of structures inherited by existing sharks from 

 pre-Silurian invertebrate ancestors loses none of its 

 strangeness by reflection ; and it is only the sheer 

 impossibility of finding a less difficult solution which 

 forces him to accept such an explanation of the recorded 

 facts. 



THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF JANUARY 1. 



THE total solar eclipse, which will occur on January 

 1, 1889, although it will not be seen in our hemi- 

 sphere, will be an event of great astronomical import- 

 ance. It will be fully visible in the Pacific States of the 

 Western Continent, and the Americans are preparing to 

 observe it. It is extremely rare for a year to open with 

 a total eclipse. It has not occurred since 1683 (new 

 style), and will not occur again till 2 161. The coincidence 

 has also happened in 1162, 660, and 641 b.c. and 865 

 and 1405 a.d., the two latter dates being of the Julian 

 calendar. The path of totality, or complete obscurity, 

 will cross Nevada and California over an area favourable 

 for observation. The best places for observation in 

 California are Point Arena, Ukiah, Bartlett Springs, 

 Willows, Chico, Quincy, Loyalton, Oneida, Long 

 Valley, Milford, etc. All places on or near the centre 

 of the path will be in darkness for about two minutes of 

 the time. At the central line, near Oroville, the totality 

 will be 114 seconds; at Point Arena, it will be 120 

 seconds. It will last from 108 to 120 seconds — longer 

 nearer the coast than in the interior. In Nevada the 

 shadow of the moon will cross the western line at the 

 town of Verdi, and its breadth is so great that from 

 Verdi north along the boundary for a distance of nbout 

 100 miles there will be total darkness of the eclipse. The 

 central point of the moon's shadow will cross the Western 

 Nevada line at a point 32 rods north of the 124th mile- 

 post. The south edge of the moon's shadow will pass 

 about halfway between Reno and the highest point of 

 Peavine Mountain. Thus Reno will be j ust outside the 

 shadow. The centre of the path will be about six miles 

 north of Winnemucca, and 29 J miles north of Tuscarora. 

 The south edge of the path will pass north of Wadsworth 

 and south of Pyramid, Lovelocks, and Humboldt House. 

 The north edge of the path will pass north of Buffalo 



Meadows, Willow Point, Paradise Valley, Spring City, 

 Willow Creek, Cornucopia and White Rock, and will 

 pass ten miles south of Fort McDermit. 



The eclipse, from beginning to end, will be very long. 

 For instance, at Point Arena the beginning of the eclipse 

 will be 1 hour and 10 minutes before the beginning of 

 totality, and the end will be 1 hour and 16 minutes after 

 the ending of totality, the whole lasting over two hours 

 and a half. It begins at that place at oh. 15mm. usee, 

 mean time. For standard Pacific time, 14 minutes 58 

 seconds should be added to that. In San Francisco the 

 eclipse will not be total, but very nearly so. About 

 eleven-twelfths of the sun will be obscured. There it 

 will begin at 23 minutes 7 seconds past 12 o'clock, and 

 end at 9 minutes 6 seconds past two o'clock. The time 

 of greatest obscurity is at 48 minutes 43 seconds past 1 

 o'clock. It is greatly to be hoped that there will be clear 

 weather, though January is an unfortunate time of the 

 year for astronomical work in that part of the world, 

 since it falls in the middle of the wet season. The 

 Royal Astronomical Society has published a letter of 

 Professor E. S. Holden, of the Lick Observatory, giving 

 the probable meteorological conditions. He gives the 

 records of cloudiness at various Californian stations for 

 the last fifteen days of December and the first fifteen 

 days of January, but prefers not to express any definite 

 opinion on a subject so uncertain as Californian weather 

 in January. He simply presents the data. Time signals 

 from the Lick Observatory are received daily (at Pacific 

 standard noon) at nearly every railway station in Cali- 

 fornia. On the days immediately preceding and follow- 

 ing the eclipse they will be automatically transmitted 

 from the standard clock, and special pains will be taken 

 to make them useful to observing parties in the field. 

 The observing party from the Lick Observatory intend 

 going to Bartlett Springs with their instruments, which 

 will include a spectroscope. Mr. Burckhalter (Chalot 

 Observatory) and party will go somewhere between 

 Cloverdale and Ukiah. Mr. Blinn (Blinn Observatory) 

 will go to Winnemuca Peaks, Nevada. Professor David- 

 son (Davidson Observatory) will probably go to some 

 point in Nevada, in the hope of getting good weather. 

 It is expected that a number of eclipse expeditions will 

 be formed in the east and go to California, and some 

 observers are expected from Europe. Photographers 

 will accompany all these parties. Members of the 

 Pacific Coast Amateur Photographic Association are 

 making preparations for the event, and will occupy 

 different points along the line of totality. — Iron. 



SCIENTIFIC AIMS. 



PEOPLE who occupy themselves with heat and light 

 and electricity, or with plants and animals, or 

 who mix solutions in test-tubes and see what colours 

 are produced, or who take daily readings of the ther- 

 mometer and barometer, all claim some kind of place in 

 the world of science. These and other employments of 

 the same kind are for many purposes conveniently dis- 

 tinguished from purely literary, and- also from purely 

 practical pursuits. But no definition of science can hold 

 water which takes account merely of the sort of object 

 concerned. It is possible to play with scientific instru- 

 ments, to buy and sell them, to use them ignorantly, to- 

 treat them as charms, works of art, or means for the 

 gratification of the senses. If we mean t-o use language 



