Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 239 



that temperature is 



v r = — cubic metre. 

 1-4 



If we apply these data of experiment to formula (5), taking into 

 consideration equation (2), we find, for an approximate expression 

 of the heat of transformation of white into red phosphorus, 



Q=-17-5. 



Thus, as M. Favre announced a little while after M. Schroetter's 

 discovery, white phosphorus disengages heat in passing into the 

 condition of red phosphorus. From an experiment by M. Hittorf, 

 the transformation of liquid white phosphorus at 280° determines 

 a sudden rise of the temperature from 280° to 370°. Designating 

 by c the specific heat of the phosphorus the temperature of which 

 thus rises, we should have ex 90=17*5; from this we deduce 

 c=0*19, a number which differs little from the specific heat found 

 by M. Regnault. — Comjptes Rendus de VAcad. des Sciences, vol. lxxvi. 

 pp. 365-368. 



ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 



We were not a little disappointed on attending the Anniversary 

 Meeting on the 14th of February to find that the Medal had not 

 been awarded for the current year. The failure of the Council to 

 find an astronomer whose attainments are such as to entitle him to 

 become the recipient of the highest honour the Society has the 

 power to bestow, suggests some important queries relative to the 

 actual state of astronomy at the present time on the one hand, or 

 to the condition of the Society which is, or ought to be, the repre- 

 sentative of the science in England on the other. If we remember 

 rightly, one medal only has been awarded during the last three 

 years, and that to a foreign astronomer well deserving of it. Is 

 there no English astronomer on whom the Society could gracefully 

 and legitimately bestow it? Are the claims of our American 

 brethren exhausted? or can no continental astronomer be found 

 worthy to swell the list of medallists of the Society by the recep- 

 tion of its mark of highest approbation for services well and faith- 

 fully performed ? We shall not attempt to reply to these queries. 

 Those distinguished astronomers who take the lead in guiding astro- 

 nomic thought in this country are well able to answer them. If, 

 however, only one astronomer could be found (and we want but 

 one annually) to whom the presentation of the Medal would alike 

 confer honour on the Society and on the recipient, we should by 

 the award take note of the continued onward progress of the Science ; 

 but as it is, we are in doubt as to whether astronomy is declining, 

 or whether it is duly represented by the Society, which hitherto 

 has held astronomical prestige in its hands. Of late years we have 

 looked in vain for the choice spirits who held rule and sway at 

 Somerset House when Baily, Sheepshanks, Herschel, and others 

 sat in council ; but few such spirits are now left to reflect the former 



