228 Scientific Intelligence. 



on the Astrophvsical Observatory, by the director, Mr. C. G. 

 Abbot, in Appendix 5 ; from the latter the following summary is 

 taken: "Progress has been made in the measurement of the 

 effects produced by atmospheric water vapor on solar and ter- 

 restrial radiation. New apparatus for measuring sky radiation 

 has been devised and perfected. Special pyrheliometers have 

 been constructed and caused to record solar radiation with con- 

 siderable success at great altitudes when attached to free balloons. 

 The results obtained tend to confirm the adopted value of the 

 solar constant of radiation. Further results from balloon 

 pyrheliometry are expected. A tower telescope has been erected 

 and put in operation on Mount Wilson. By means of it the 

 variability of the sun has been independently confirmed, for it 

 appears that changes of the distribution of radiation over the 

 sun's disk occur in correlation with the changes of the sun's total 

 radiation." 



An interesting account of the Explorations and Field-work of 

 the Smithsonian Institution in 1913 is given in a special publica- 

 tion, being No. 8 of vol. 63 of the Miscellaneous Collections. A 

 sixth revised edition of the Smithsonian Physical Tables, pre- 

 pared by Frederick E. Fowle, has recently been issued as 

 No. 6 of the same series, pp. xxxvi, 355, 405 tables. (See page 219.) 



4. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition 

 of the Institution for the Year ending June 30, 1913. Pp. xi, 

 804, with numerous plates and figures. Washington, 1914. — This 

 annual volume of the Smithsonian Institution contains the report 

 of the Secretary, already noticed in this Journal (March, 1914, p. 

 286). The General Appendix (pp. 145-789) embraces thirty-six 

 papers in the different departments of science, covering the more 

 important lines of scientific progress. 



5. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol- 

 ume I, No. 1. Pp. 1-58, with one plate. January, 1915 (The 

 Waverly Press, Baltimore). — The first number of the Proceed- 

 ings of the National Academy of Sciences (see this Journal, Dec. 

 1914, p. 572) has recently appeared, and fulfills all the promises 

 made in the prospectus ; it also leaves nothing to be desired on 

 the typographical side. The editorial work is chiefly in the 

 hands of Professor A. A. Noyes as chairman of the editorial 

 board, and Professor E. B. Wilson as managing editor ; Dr. A. 

 L.Day, Home Secretary, and Dr. George E. Hale, Foreign Secretary 

 of the Academy, are associated with them, and also fifteen gen- 

 tlemen in different departments of science. Seventeen papers are 

 included in this number, three in mathematics, six in astronomy, 

 two in botany and genetics, and one each in chemistry, physiology, 

 ethnology, and anthropology. These Proceedings will be of 

 great assistance to the science of the country by giving oppor- 

 tunity for prompt announcement, in brief, of important results. 

 As an example may be noted (p. 12) the account by S. B. Nichol- 

 son of the discovery of a ninth satellite of Jupiter at the Lick 

 Observatory ; this is estimated as of the nineteenth magnitude. 



