October 31, 1884.] 



SCIENCE 



425 



— Prof. E. S. Holden, director of the Washburn 

 observatory of the University of Wisconsin, has lately 

 collected all the data available for a discussion of the 

 law of distribution of the fixed stars, so far as this 

 is determinable from the method of star-gauging. 

 The data were collected from a comparison with the 

 results of a series of star-gauges in progress with the 

 fifteen-inch equatorial of the Washburn observatory; 

 and they include, 1°, the 683 previously published 

 gauges of Sir W. Herschel, with the places brought 

 down from 1690 to 1860; 2°, the 405 unpublished 

 gauges of Sir W. Herschel, extracted from his observ- 

 ing-books, and generously placed at Professor Hol- 

 den' s disposal by Lieut. -Col. John Herschel (these 

 also reduced to 1860); 3°, 500 counts of stars from 

 the published charts of Dr. C. H. F. Peters; 4°, 

 983 counts of stars from the unpublished charts of 

 Dr. Peters, from the Paris charts as revised by him, 

 and from the unpublished ecliptic charts of Profes- 

 sor Watson; 5°, 856 counts of stars from the un- 

 published and published charts of Dr. J. Palisa. 

 These, with the data from Sir J. Herschel' s 605 

 southern gauges, and Celoria's durchmusterung of 

 the stars between 0° and -4- 6°, complete the very 

 valuable collection of data which Professor Holden 

 has brought together in convenient tabular form, and 

 from which one of his most important conclusions 

 is, that the method of star-gauging must be applied 

 to the study of comparatively small regions, and that 

 the results from these are then to be combined into 

 larger groups. Professor Holden hopes that these 

 tables may serve the valuable end of finally disposing 

 of the fundamental assumption that the stars are 

 equally scattered in space, and may bring about the 

 study of their distribution on a more general basis. 



— Caspar Johann Bismarck was the editor, in 1694, 

 of one of the most important geographical treatises 

 of the seventeenth century, — the 'Introductio in 

 omnem geographiam ' of Philip Cluver, which passed 

 through many editions between 1629 and 1730, and 

 was annotated by various savants. Further inves- 

 tigation will be required to determine if this Bismarck 

 belonged to the particular family which has produced 

 the great German chancellor. He was, however, a 

 native of the same region, — Wolfenbuttel in Braun- 

 schweig, a town about sixty miles west from Magde- 

 burg. About fifty miles north from Magdeburg, 

 a small town exists which seems to have given its 

 name to the Bismarck family, though the orthography 

 differs slightly. This village is situated in Altmark, 

 a short distance from the River Biese ; and its name, 

 ' Bismark,' probably signifies ' market of the Biese.' 

 The name of Bismarck is associated with geographi- 

 cal matters in another way. Before the revolution 

 the students of the university of Orleans, which was 

 then in a flourishing condition, were divided, as 

 was then the fashion, into six ' nations,' two of which 

 were the Normans and the Germans. At this time 

 a certain Christopher de Bismarck was quaestor of 

 the Germanic nation. In that capacity, according 

 to Monseigneur Dupanloup, he held a disputation, 

 celebrated in the annals of the university, with the 

 Normans, claiming that Denmark and the Danes, 



in spite of their community of origin, belonged, not 

 with the Norman, but with the Germanic nation. 



— Engineering states that " the pneumatic machine 

 employed by Wroblewski in liquefying and evapo- 

 rating ethylene and oxygen to produce intense colds 

 has also been recently used by him to evaporate 

 liquid marsh-gas. He has thus obtained a tempera- 

 ture of — 155° C. to — 160° C, which is the tempera- 

 ture of ebullition of the liquid gas. It is a useful 

 temperature as coming between the temperatures of 

 —144° C. and —184° C, which are obtained with 

 ethylene and oxygen ; but it varies with the degree 

 of purity of the gas. Oxygen, atmospheric air, ni- 

 trogen, and carbolic oxide, cooled with the marsh- 

 gas, can be liquefied under feeble pressures, so that 

 a chemist who succeeds in producing pure marsh 

 gas easily and economically, will render a service to 

 science." 



— The periodical report of the City guilds of London 

 institute for the advancement of technical education 

 has just been issued, and gives an extended account 

 of the examinations held at the end of May. A con- 

 siderable increase is shown in the number of can- 

 didates, the total this year having been 3,635, as 

 against 2,397 in 1883. The number of centres has 

 been increased from 154 to 164. Carpentry and 

 joinery were new subjects, and attracted 369 can- 

 didates; but metal-plate working, only 2, who did 

 not succeed in passing. The results were considered 

 satisfactory, but show the urgent need for more 

 systematic technical instruction for those who are 

 employed in factories and workshops. 



— Dr. Schweinfurth is spending three months in 

 Berlin, preparatory to a new journey through the 

 Egyptian deserts, on behalf of the Berlin academy 

 of sciences, which he will undertake next winter. 

 Though botany is his own specialty, the survey of 

 the desert forms the main object of his journey. 



— According to the Colliery guardian, Mr. W. E. 

 Garforth, mining-engineer of Normanton, has suc- 

 ceeded in perfecting an invention for the detection 

 of firedamp in mines, which is as remarkable for its 

 simplicity as for its efficiency. It consists of an ordi- 

 nary India-rubber ball, without a valve of any de- 

 scription ; but by the ordinary action of compressing 

 the ball, and then allowing it to expand, a sample of 

 the suspected atmosphere is drawn from the roof or 

 any part of the mine without the great risk which 

 now attends the operation of testing for gas, should 

 the gauze be defective. The sample thus obtained 

 is then forced through a small protected tube upon 

 the flame, when, if gas is present, it is shown by the 

 well-known blue cap and elongated flame. From 

 this description, and the fact that the apparatus can 

 be carried easily in the pocket, the value of this 

 adjunct to the safety-lamp will be apparent. It is 

 thought that explosions are caused frequently by the 

 fire-trier himself, and that his death prevents the 

 cause from being fully ascertained. This danger 

 will now be altogether avoided, and it is said that 

 the detector has been tried at several collieries with 

 completely satisfactory results. 



