Miscellaneous Intelligence. 171 



ium are also present ; across which are at least four groups of 

 bright lines of which the greater number can be traced into the 

 nebula for some little distance from the stellar spectra. Mr. 

 Huggins is led to infer that the stars of the trapezium are not 

 optically projected on the nebula but are physically bound up 

 with it and are very probably condensed out of the gaseous mat- 

 ter of the nebula ; also that the nebula as a whole may not be at 

 a distance from us greater than that which we should attribute to 

 such stars if they occurred alone in the heavens. 



On the 28th of February of this year he obtained another pho- 

 tograph, using a narrow slit, and was astonished not to find the 

 strong line near 3730. He found, however, the pair that was on 

 the less refrangible side of it, and two other pairs in the more re- 

 frangible region of the spectrum. 



Mr. Lockyer, in his Researches upon the Spectra of Meteorites, 

 has inferred that of seven nebular lines then known three belong 

 to hydrogen and three to magnesium. One of these latter lines, 

 near 5005, is in the visible spectrum, and Mr. Huggins has 

 tested a part of Mr. Lockyer's inference by direct comparison of 

 the magnesium spectrum with that of the nebula. From these, 

 and from various observations of other astronomers, Mr. Huggins 

 concludes " that the remarkable spectrum of the gaseous nebulae 

 has not been produced by burning magnesium." h. a n. 



V. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund. — The following circular 

 has been issued by the Trustees of this fund, of whom Dr. H. 

 P. Bowditch is President : 



This fund, which has been established by Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Thompson, of Stamford, Connecticut, " for the advancement and 

 prosecution of scientific research in its broadest sense," now 

 amounts to $25,000. As accumulated income is again available, 

 the trustees desire to receive applications for appropriations in aid 

 of scientific work. This endowment is not for the benefit of any 

 one department of science, but it is the intention of the trustees 

 to give the preference to those investigations which cannot other- 

 vnse be provided for, which have for their object the advancement 

 of human knowledge or the benefit of mankind in general, rather 

 than to researches directed to the solution of questions of merely 

 local importance. 



All applications should be forwarded to the Secretary of the 

 Board of Trustees, Dr. C. S. Minot, Harvard Medical School, 

 Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



It is intended to make new grants at the end of 1889. 



*„.* The trustees are disinclined, for the present, to make any 

 grant exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) ; preference will be 

 given to applications for smaller amounts. 



2. The Assay er's Manual: an abridged treatise in the do- 

 cimastic examination of ores, and furnace and other artificial 



