September 11, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



239 



doubt, that this, being a non-conductor, would pre- 

 vent a repetition of the accident of 1839. The acci- 

 dent which occurred in 1884 completely destroyed 

 the upper ten feet of the obelisk ; and the next nine 

 courses of stone for about fifteen feet were all dis- 

 placed, and pushed out from the central axis, and 

 were in danger of falling. The platform was broken 

 by the falling stones, large stones on the circumfer- 

 ence of the platform displaced, and some of the faces 

 of the sides forced out altogether. The sod round 

 the base of the monument was ploughed up in fifteen 

 grooves three to six inches wide and ten to seventy 

 feet in length, while the grass was scorched brown. 



Mr. Chandler proposes for future adoption — as the 

 rounded tenth probably nearest the true value of the 

 latitude of the dome of Harvard-college observatory, 

 42° 22' 47.6'', in place of the value 48.3'' given in 

 the American ephemeris, and 48.1" given in the Berlin 

 jaJirbuch and the Connaissance des temps. 



— In La lumiere electrique for April 18, Mr. B. 

 Marynovitch has a long article upon the telephone 

 used as a signal instrument. The early part of the 

 article is devoted largely to telephone calls, and to 

 the telephone used as a railway signal. At the con- 

 clusion of the article, some attention is paid to the use 

 of the telephone for military purposes ; and we here 



— Mr. S. C. Chandler, jun., has published in the 

 Astronomische nachrichten a most interesting series 

 of observations, — made with his newly devised in- 

 strument, the almucantar, — to determine the latitude 

 of Harvard-college observatory. His results confirm 

 the fact that the hitherto accepted value of the lati- 

 tude requires a sensible correction. The new in- 

 strument gives results remarkably accordant among 

 themselves, the latitude deduced from a set of seventy- 

 three observations being 42° 22' 47.57" ± 0.028". Ke- 

 discussing, in the light of more recent determinations 

 of the star positions, the old observations made by 

 the Bonds and Major Graham in 1844-45, and by 

 Gould at the Cloverden observatory in 1855, and com- 

 bining these with observations of his own in 1883-85, 



reproduce one of the illustrations showing an officer 

 seated in a casemate observing the effect of shot upon 

 a target near by. He is supplied with a telephone, 

 by means of which he transmits the results to the 

 battery. 



— We have received a papyrographed circular an- 

 nouncing the ' American economic association,' whose 

 objects are stated to be the encouragement of eco- 

 nomic research, the publication of economic mono- 

 graphs, the encouragement of perfect freedom in all 

 economic discussion, and the establishment of a 

 bureau of information. To this statement of the 

 objects of the association is appended a proposed 

 ' platform,' of which the first plank expresses ardent 

 opposition to the doctrine of laissez-faire : the second 



