SCIENCE. 



213 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



Published at 



229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1880. 



Smyth's Celestial Cycle in its day was probably 

 the most valuable companion which had at that time 

 been prepared for the use of amateur astronomers. 

 The second volume is known as the Bedford Catalogue, 

 and contains an excellent list of the most interesting 

 double stars, nebulae and clusters, with descriptions, 

 and much other valuable information. When pub- 

 lished, this Catalogue was received with such favor 

 that the Royal Astronomical Society bestowed upon 

 its author a gold medal. In presenting the medal, 

 the president of the Society, Sir G. B. Airy, called at- 

 tention to the fact that the original observations upon 

 which the Catalogue was based had not been placed 

 at the command of the Society, and hoped that such 

 would be done at no distant period. A careful exam- 

 ination of the Cycle now shows that it is full of inac- 

 curacies. Mr. Burnham called attention to these 

 some years ago, but the subject attracted no general 

 attention until a paper by Mr. Herbert Sadler, a mem- 

 ber of the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society, 

 appeared in the Monthly Notices for January, 1879, 

 in which Mr. Sadler used language which might easily 

 be construed into a charge of dishonesty on the part 

 of Captain Smyth. The words actually used were as 

 follows : 



" I have thought it better, therefore, as the charge 

 I have brought against the Bedford Catalogue is of a 

 very serious character, to place an asterisk against the 

 symbol of the observer whose erroneous measure 

 Smyth appears to have followed, so that anyone may 

 be able to detect the source of Smyth's error at a 

 glance in cases where he has presumably copied the 

 measures of others." 



This criticism raised a perfect storm in the Society. 

 As Mr. Burnham had originally called attention to 

 the inaccuracies of the Cycle, he immediately set to 

 work re-observing the stars of the Bedford Catalogue, 

 and has published his results in the June number of 

 the Monthly Notices. This paper contains about 350 

 measures of 148 stars, which he has compared with 

 the measures of Captain Smyth. Mr. Burnham divides 

 these stars into two classes : Those which had and 

 those which had not been carefully measured by any 



other observer up to the time of the publication of 

 the " Cycle of Celestial Objects ;" and concludes that 

 the measures of the former class are in the main cor- 

 rect, while those of the latter class are either roughly 

 approximate or grossly inaccurate ; in fact, are not 

 micrometrical measures at all in the usual sense of the 

 term. In explanation of the remarkable character 

 of the " Cycle " measures Mr. Burnham says : 



" We know that the observations in the Bedford 

 Catalogue, which, so far as the double stars are con- 

 cerned, could have been easily made in one year, are 

 scattered over a series of years. It may, I think, be 

 fairly assumed that they were made in leisure mo- 

 ments, without that care which a more zealous and 

 experienced observer would bestow ; with no definite 

 idea of their publication and use ; and as an amuse- 

 ment rather than as a serious astronomical work. If 

 we assume that at the beginning the observer made it 

 a practice, in measuring double stars, of setting the 

 micrometer wires in accordance with the previous 

 measure of other observers, for the purpose of identi- 

 fication, or for some other reason, and with the inten- 

 tion of making such changes in the wires as the ap- 

 pearance of the object seemed to warrant, we have at 

 once a complete explanation of the very close agree- 

 ment with other measures." This explanation seems 

 reasonable and implies no dishonesty on the part of 

 Captain Smyth. 



Immediately following Mr. Burnham's paper is one 

 by Mr. Knobel, who calls attention to the fact that 

 the majority of these so-called measures have a weight 

 1 assigned, and that Captain Smyth repeatedly as- 

 serts that such are mere guesses. Mr. Knobel ac- 

 counts for many of the discrepancies in position 

 angles by errors in computation. 



Both of these interesting papers give a pretty clear 

 insight into the Bedford Catalogue ; and, although it 

 is undoubtedly true that the principle upon which it 

 secured the medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 was a wrong one, as the Astronomer Royal showed at 

 the time of presentation, still in its preparation Cap- 

 tain Smyth performed a useful service, and all lovers 

 of astronomy will be glad to know that Mr. Cham- 

 bers is preparing a new edition which will embody the 

 progress of astronomy up to 1880. 



The United States Fish Commission has completed 

 its summer's work at the Newport Station, and its 

 parties have returned to Washington. The Fish 

 Hawk, the steamer of the Commission, is now at 

 Wilmington receiving the remainder of its fish-hatch- 

 ing apparatus for use during the winter. 



The work has been successful beyond any expecta- 

 tions. Among the acquisitions of three days' work on 

 the edge of the Gulf Stream were fifteen new species 

 of fishes, one hundred and seventy-five species of 

 mollusks, of which one hundred and fifteen were new 

 to southern New England, sixty-five new to America, 

 and thirty or more undescribed. Corresponding ac- 

 quisitions have been made in other branches of marine 

 zoology. 



