406 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 144. 



Tired Aa and Ad, and then the combined correction 

 for differential refraction and parallax. As every 

 computer of the final orbit of a comet wishes to 

 use his own corrected distances in applying the 

 parallax, and as the distances used above are not 

 stated, he must in this case re-compute both the 

 differential refraction and the parallax-factors. It 

 would certainly be better to publish the Aa and 

 A6 corrected for refraction, and the 'logjpA,' ac- 

 cording to universal custom. 



New or variable stars. — Mr. W^. H. S. Monck, 

 in the Observatory, 1885, 335, makes the sugges- 

 tion that the new or temporary stars that occa- 

 sionally appear mdy be due to swiftly-flying 

 meteor streams in space, meeting a nebula or 

 gaseous mass, either bright or dark, and suddenly 

 heating a part to incandescence, as in the case of 

 shooting stars striking our atmosphere. 



Discovery of an asteroid. — A telegram from 

 Professor Pickering announces the discovery on 

 October 27 of a new asteroid, by Perrotin of the 

 Nice observatory. Its position on October 27, at 

 7h 12^, Washington mean time, was: right as- 

 cension, 1^ 8™ 53s ; declination, +7° 8', with 

 daily motions of —36^ in right ascension, and — 7' 

 in declination. This is the eighth asteroid dis- 

 covered this year, and the sixth discovered by 

 Perrotin. 



Mr. Chandler's Almucantar. — We recently noted 

 {Science, vi. 239) Mr. Chandler's correction to the 

 latitude of the Harvard college observatory from 

 almucantar-observations. Since then he has un- 

 questionably shown {Astr. nachr., 2687) that this 

 instiiiment is capable of detecting slight errors in 

 the positions of even some of the ' hauptsterne ' 

 of Auwers' system, and of furnishing valuable 

 coiTections to them from a comparatively limited 

 number of observations. Mr. Chandler's promised 

 memoir upon the construction, theory, and use 

 of the almucantar will be awaited with unusual 

 interest. 



Death of General Baeyer.— Geodesy has lost its 

 most illustrious representative in the death, at the 

 advanced age of 91, of Dr. J. J. Baeyer, founder 

 of the European Gradmessung, president of its 

 central bureau and of the Royal Prussian geodetic 

 institute. He died on the night of September 

 10-11. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 According to the report of Superintendent 

 Wear, of the Yellowstone national park, the 

 maintenance of a strict watch day and night has 

 resulted in breaking up, in a measure, the whole- 

 sale slaughter of game ; and the park is now fuU 

 of game of all kinds, including about two hundred 

 head of bison, large numbers of elk, and several 



herds of antelope. By the new roads, access to 

 the objects of interest is facilitated. It is recom- 

 mended that the force of assistants be increased 

 from ten to fifteen, as the present force is not 

 large enough to prevent the commission of acts of 

 vandalism. The travel in the park this summer 

 has been much greater than ever before. 



— President Porter has sent to the corporation 

 his resignation of the presidency of Yale college, 

 the resignation to take effect at Commencement, 

 next June. He wiU, however, retain his position 

 as Clark professor of moral philosophy. 



— King Leopold of Belgium, it is reported, has 

 already found the Kongo Free State a more ex- 

 pensive enterprise than he can carry on unaided. 

 His recent visit to Wiesbaden was made, it is said, 

 for the purpose of inducing some one of the Ger- 

 man princes to assume the sovereignty of the 

 Kongo country in his stead. 



— R. T. Stupart, the Hudson Bay observer, 

 who abandoned his station at Stupart Bay the day 

 before the steamer Alert reached there, arrived in 

 Halifax on Saturday, Oct. 31, on the steamer 

 Miranda from St. John's, Newfoundland. Their 

 voyage of twelve days in an open boat to Fort 

 Chimo was exceedingly perilous. 



— Supplementing the regular course of instruc- 

 tion at Sibley college, Cornell, a series of lectures 

 on mechanical engineering will be delivered from 

 time to time by members of a body of non-resident 

 lecturers who have been chosen from among the 

 most distinguished men of the profession. These 

 gentlemen choose their own subjects, and times of 

 lecture, and their own method of presentation of 

 the subject selected. The director of the college 

 announces that the following named gentlemen 

 are engaged to lecture during the year 1885-86 : 

 Dr. E. D. Leavitt, jun.. Dr. R. W. Raymond, Dr. 

 C. E. Emory, Mr. Charles T. Porter, Mr. J. M. Allen, 

 Mr. J. C. Hoadley. 



— A petition to congress for a deed to San 

 Miguel mountain — an excellent situation for an 

 observatory, near San Diego — has been circulated 

 by the San Diego society of natural history. 



— The San Diego society of natural history has 

 taken steps for the protection of the nearly extinct 

 Punis Torreyana of San Diego county. 



— The ' Lungen gymnastik ' of Th. Huperz is 

 really a handbook on the care and development 

 of the lungs, and the attendant and reflex advan- 

 tages of such care. Though he says it is for the 

 physician, yet its style and method are such that it 

 may be most successfully used by the laity. The 



