60 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 102. 



complement to Argelander's ' Uranometria nova ' of 

 the northern sky, was undertaken, and carried well 

 toward completion, and published with star-charts in 

 1879, giving the estimated brightness of all southern 

 stars, visible without telescopic aid, in about seventy- 

 grades of brilliancy. The observations for this work 

 were made by the naked eye, or with ordinary binoc- 

 ular field-glasses, and entirely by the assistants; Dr. 

 Gould's near- 

 sightedness pre- r 

 venting his shar- 

 ing immediately 

 in the work, al- 

 though he di- 

 rected and over- 

 looked its execu- 

 tion with the 

 most minute 

 carefulness. 

 The zone obser- 

 vations, by which 

 astronomers un- 

 derstand the 



determination of the position of stars observed in 

 successive belts around the sky, every star being 

 noted as it crosses the field of a meridian-circle tele- 

 scope, were begun in August, 1872, and completed 

 in 1875. In these, every one of the original tele- 

 scopic observations was made by Dr. Gould; and 

 they numbered over 105,000. Since 1875 the work 

 of computation, revision, and publication, has occu- 

 pied eight years, until now the finished catalogue is 

 before us; and Dr. Gould may proudly feel his am- 

 bition satisfied in ending so well the work begun in 

 outline by Lacaille with his little telescope at the 

 Cape of Good Hope over one hundred years ago. 



Among the younger men who have shared in Dr. 

 Gould's labors at Cordoba, only one has remained 

 with him through the many years since its beginning. 



which the second view, of Cordoba in the valley of 

 the Kio Primero, is taken. The overshadowing of 

 the town by the churches is characteristic of the place. 



DR. GOUXD'S OBSERVATORY AT CORDOBA. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In accordance with a recommendation of the 

 recent geodetic conference, a series of observations 



for latitude is to 

 be made at the 

 U. S. naval ob- 

 servatory, which, 

 taken in connec- 

 tion with a simi- 

 lar series made 

 elsewhere, and 

 compared with 

 obs ervations 

 made after an 

 interval of some 

 years, will assist 

 in determining 

 whether there 

 are any slow changes taking place in latitudes upon 

 the earth. Lisbon, which is very near the same par- 

 allel as Washington, is expected to co-operate with 

 the naval observatory. The observations will be 

 made with the prime vertical instrument: and at 

 Washington a line-officer of the navy will be detailed 

 for the work, which will probably require several 

 years. 



— Prof. F. H. Snow of the University of Kansas 

 reports that only two Decembers (in 1872 and 1876) 

 in the past seventeen years were colder than that just 

 passed. It was the cloudiest December upon record, 

 and the precipitation of rain and snow was more 

 than fifty per cent above the average. Ice formed 

 upon the Kaw River to the thickness of thirteen 

 inches. 



VIEW OF CORDOBA FROM DR. GODXD'S OBSERVATORY. 



We feel sure from the frequent mention, in the annals 

 of the observatory, of the faithful services of Mr. John 

 M. Thome, that the director will gladly see the name 

 of this assistant associated with his own in our brief 

 notice of the work they have accomplished together. 

 The first of the accompanying cuts, reproduced 

 from sketches by a former assistant, shows the obser- 

 vatory and the director's house on the barranca, from 



— The fifteenth annual meeting of the Wisconsin 

 academy of sciences, held at Madison from Dec. 29 to 

 Dec. 31, was unusually well attended. The academy 

 expects to have suitable rooms assigned it in the cap- 

 itol, on the completion of the additions to that build- 

 ing, in which its library and collections can be properly 

 placed. The latter has become doubly valuable since 

 the destruction of the scientific collections of the 



