174 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 108. 



exclude atmospheric nitrogen from the apparatus 

 employed, the less becomes the apparent excretion of 

 nitrogen by the animal. This, taken in connection 

 with the similar fact already mentioned, regarding 

 the results of experiments by the other method, is 

 significant. If, as we increase the delicacy of our 

 experimental methods, the apparent excretion of free 

 nitrogen becomes less and less, it is not a very bold 

 assumption which regards it as entirely due to the 

 unavoidable errors of experiment. That such is the 

 case is perhaps not proven, but the weight of evi- 

 dence is decidedly in favor of that belief. 



H. P. Armsby. 



THE BRITISH NAUTICAL ALMANAC. 



We have received promptly, as usual, the "Nauti- 

 cal almanac and astronomical ephemeris for the year 

 1888, for the meridian of the Royal observatory at 

 Greenwich," the contents and arrangement of which 

 are announced to be the same generally as those of 

 the preceding year. We find no changes in the 

 adopted astronomical constants, nor have any new 

 prediction-tables been substituted for those which 

 have now been employed for many years. The early 

 Struve constant of aberration is not replaced by the 

 recent Pulkowa determination, and Newcomb's 

 mean equatorial horizontal parallax of the sun, 

 8.848", is wisely retained. The fundamental elements 

 of the moon's position in space are derived from 

 Hansen's tables unaltered, and the apparent positions 

 only are modified by Newcomb's corrections, — a 

 method of procedure which seems to be best adapted 

 to the needs of the future investigator. 



For the first time in the history of nautical al- 

 manacs, the positions of all the great planets were 

 derived from a uniform system of tables, and so pub- 

 lished in the British ' Nautical almanac ' for 1882; and 

 the use of these same tables is still adhered to. These 

 are the planetary tables constructed by the late Le- 

 verrier, and printed in the fifth, sixth, twelfth, and 

 fourteenth volumes of the ' Annales de l'Observatoire 

 imperial de Paris.' The derivation of the times of 

 the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites is based on 

 the * Tables ecliptiques des satellites de Jupiter, par 

 le Baron de Damoiseau,' Paris, 1836. Professor 

 Adams's extension of these tables, now employed in 

 the British ' Nautical almanac,' will expire in two 

 years more. 



This ephemeris is now most deficient in its list of 

 standard stars, the number and relative positions of 

 those in the list being entirely inadequate to the 

 needs of field and observatory work. Catalogues of 

 stellar co-ordinates of high precision are now so nu- 

 merous that there would seem to be no good reason 

 why the British ' Nautical almanac' should hesitate in 

 following the ' Berliner astronomisches jahrbuch,' the 

 * Connaissance des temps,' and the ' American ephem- 

 eris,' all of which have within a few years adopted 

 very full lists of standard stars. Also great improve- 

 ments might be suggested for other parts of the work. 



Ever since the year 1834, when the English 'Nauti- 



cal almanac' became an astronomical ephemeris as 

 well, the management of this publication has been 

 characterized by a conservatism, which, in these 

 times of change just for change, is delightful to be- 

 hold. But even conservatism may be unwise ; and, 

 if the British ' Nautical almanac,' as an astronomical 

 ephemeris, is to hold in the future the place it has 

 held in the past, a committee of reconstruction, some- 

 what like that 'relative to the improvement of the 

 Nautical almanac' in 1830, would seem to be re- 

 quired to effect the needed modifications. 



David P. Todd. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTIC 

 ANIMALS. 



The agricultural department at Washington has 

 just issued a volume of some three hundred and fifty 

 pages devoted to the above subject, as the result of 

 the investigations of its veterinary division, — an 

 office distinct from the more newly established 

 ' bureau of animal industries.' The subject-matter, 

 being made up of the reports of the veterinarian-in- 

 chief and his assistants, is of a sort that will, in a 

 way, be interesting and instructive reading for vet- 

 erinarians, and to a certain extent for comparative 

 pathologists. 



The volume opens with a description of a ' veteri- 

 nary experimental station' recently located, in con- 

 nection with the department, near Washington, which 

 seems to afford abundant facility for the proposed 

 work, and from which, in the future, much that will 

 tend greatly to aid in protecting our animal interests 

 from the ravages of disease will undoubtedly result. 

 Then follows a detailed report of outbreaks of con- 

 tagious pleuro-pneumonia among cattle in Connecti- 

 cut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. 

 These have an historical interest, but nothing more, 

 because these states have repeatedly been shown to 

 contain this exotic disease ; and it has just as repeat- 

 edly been shown that a more or less constant inter- 

 change of it goes on with the natural traffic of cattle 

 within their borders. 



An exceedingly interesting and carefully written 

 report is made by Dr. Salmon upon an enzootic out- 

 break of ergotism among cattle in Coffey county, 

 Kan. It is very much to be regretted, for the sake 

 of the department, the cattle interests of Kansas, 

 and the veterinary profession, that, under the cir- 

 cumstances, Dr. Salmon did not himself attend to the 

 matter when first it was reported to be an outbreak 

 of ' foot and mouth disease,' instead of trusting so 

 important a decision to such an unsafe man as ' V. S.' 

 Trumbower proved to be, who, by his own report of 

 the matter given in this same volume, seems to have 

 arrived upon the ground on the afternoon of March 8, 

 to have examined the cattle and their surroundings 

 carefully, and to have then entertained the opinion 

 that the trouble was due to ' foot and mouth disease,' 

 until the 20th of the same month, when he was joined 

 by Dr. Salmon. He then suddenly became as firmly 

 convinced that the trouble was due to ergotism. Is 



