February 20, 1885.] 



SCIENCE 



155 



Professor Hough and Mr. Burnham made frequent 

 examination of the planet Saturn whenever the best 

 conditions of observation were present. They made 

 a special search for markings on the rings, with nega- 

 tive results. The belts on the ball were very con- 

 spicuous, but no marking was seen which could be 

 used in determining the period of the planet's rota- 

 tion. 



The conditions of weather in the spring of the 

 year, so unfavorable elsewhere, prevailed at Chicago ; 

 and, in their attempts to observe the satellites of 

 Uranus, the astronomers were rewarded with success 

 in observing these difficult objects on only a few 

 occasions. 



From the Observatory for February we learn 

 that forty-five chronometers are now on trial at the 

 Royal observatory, Greenwich, for purchase by the 

 admiralty; that the small planets (206) Hersilia and 

 (210) Isabella, which had not been observed since 

 1879, the year of their discovery, have recently been 

 re-observed; that Herr Palisa of Vienna, the dis- 

 coverer of small planets, beiug desirous of raising 

 funds for the intended expedition to observe the 

 total eclipse of August, 1886, desires to sell for two 

 hundred and fifty dollars the right of naming the 

 latest discovered small planet (244); and that Dr. 

 Gill, her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape, has 

 obtained a sum of money from the government 

 grant for scientific purposes, in order to enable him 

 to set on foot a photographic survey of the southern 

 heavens. Mr. C. Kay Woods is proceeding to the 

 Cape for the purpose of taking the requisite photo- 

 graphs, and he also intends to continue the work of 

 photographing the solar corona which he lately 

 undertook in Switzerland, under the direction of 

 Dr. Huggins. 



The Kev. S. J. Perry, director of the observatory 

 of Stonyhurst college, communicates to the Observa- 

 tory a summary of his observations of the chromo- 

 sphere in 1884, with an automatic spectroscope by 

 Browning, having a dispersion of six prisms of 60°. 

 He has found the greater part of the past year favor- 

 able for this work. The mean height of the chromo- 

 sphere, which varied little in 1882 and 1883, attaining 

 its maximum in May of the latter year, fell away 

 rapidly in 1884. A great diminution is also reported 

 in the number of the prominences, and some falling 

 off in their average height. The number of observed 

 displacements of the C line differed but little in the 

 last two years; but the amount of displacement was 

 slight in 1884, compared with 1883. No distortions 

 have been recorded during the past two years so 

 great as those of April and May, 1882. 



ROGERS'S HISTORY OF ENGLISH 

 LABOR. 



Those of our readers who are devoted to po- 

 litical and social science need no introduction 



Six centuries of work and wages. The history of English 

 labour. By James E. Thorold Rogers, M.P. New York, 

 G. P. Putnam's sons. 591 p. 8°. 



to the recent volumes of Mr. Thorold Rogers. 

 It is eighteen }*ears since he published the 

 first two volumes of his histo^ of agriculture 

 and prices, — a work of incalculable value to 

 the critical inquirer. He has since then made 

 an elaborate study of the wages of English 

 labor during the last six centuries, and of 

 their corresponding purchasing-power. The 

 data, which he has collected with marvellous 

 industry, have been printed in part, and in 

 part they still remain in the author's notes. 

 His work is therefore unique. No one, he 

 tells us, has entered on this field of research 

 except himself, and no one has attempted to 

 make use of the data he has published for the 

 purposes which the author has in view ; yet, for 

 all his statements, he assures the reader that 

 he can give ample verification. The narrative 

 which he bases upon these inquiries is by no 

 means so statistical as to be dry. The writer 

 is never dull, and is generally entertaining as 

 well as instructive. He brings before the pub- 

 lic, information, hitherto hidden, respecting 

 the daily life, needs, burdens, comforts, and 

 helps of the inhabitant of England since the 

 middle of the thirteenth century. 



His volume begins with a sketch of English 

 society at that period when the vast majority 

 of persons were engaged in agriculture ; and, 

 after devoting six chapters to this introduction, 

 the author proceeds to the subsequent history 

 of wages and labor, and to a consideration of 

 the influence of legislation upon the distribu- 

 tion of wealth. He shows that the evils of 

 pauperism and the degradation of labor were 

 largely due to governmental acts designed to 

 compel the laborer to work at the lowest wages 

 possible. Although this bad legislation has 

 long since been abandoned or modified, the 

 effects remain in England to-da} T . It will 

 thus be seen that the volumes are a contribu- 

 tion to the historical method of political econ- 

 omy. If the author's figures are correct, and 

 his mode of presenting them trustwortlry, it is 

 obvious that he has enabled the statesman and 

 the economist to study the actual results of 

 economic legislation during a period quite long 

 enough to be very instructive. His conclusions 

 have an important bearing upon the spread of 

 communism as well as upon the existence of 

 poverty. 



We can perhaps exhibit the tendenc}' of the 

 entire work most readily b}- giving an analysis 

 of the closing chapter, in which the remedies 

 for present evils are succinctl}' pointed out. 



During the last sixty years parliament has 

 done much toward abrogating severe laws 

 which interfered with the freedom of labor. 



