November 20, 1885.] 



SCIEJSrCE. 



449 



oiir atmosphere. The observatory at Meudon has 

 special f acihties for this work ; and already in a 

 tube of oxygen 60 metres long, under a pressure 

 of 27 atmospheres, M. Janssen states that there are 

 absorption phenomena visible beyond A, and some 

 bands in other parts that are not in the solar spec- 

 trum. These he attributes to the increase of press- 

 ure over that of our atmosphere. 



Personal equation in observing circumpolars. 

 — In rediscussing Wagners Pulkowa transit-obser- 

 vations of Polaris, 51 (li) Cephei and 6 Ursae 

 jMinoris, to determine the constant of nutation, Dr. 

 L. de Ball finds an interesting and strikingly con- 

 stant difference between the right-ascensions ob- 

 served by ' eye-and-ear ' and on the clnronograph. 

 His results are as follows : — 



Method. 



Eye-and-ear . . . 

 Chronographic 



a Ursae Mi- 

 nor is. 



51(H) Cephei. 



38.71 ± 0.043 

 39.06 ± 0.051 



11.72 ± 0.026 

 12.01 ± 0.027 



Ursae Mi- 

 noris. 



53.08 ± 0.020 

 53.36 ± 0.020 



The above are the seconds of right ascension for 

 1865.0. 



Latitude of the Bordeaux observatory. — 

 M. Rayet has determined (Comptes rendus, ci. 731) 

 the latitude of the new observatory at Bordeaux 

 to be -f- 44° 50' 7''. 23 ; but as it rests entirely upon 

 measures of the zenith-distance of fundamental 

 stars, and as there appears to have been no inves- 

 tigation of flexure or of constant error in the nadir- 

 point, it may possibly be in error by some tenths 

 of a second. 



Asteroids 251 and 252. — The asteroid dis- 

 covered by Pahsa on the 4th of October {Science, 

 vi. 333), while searching for Eudora, turns out to 

 be a new one, and is accordingly number 251. 

 Eudora was observed at Vienna on October 4 — 

 11.3 magnitude. Perrotin's new asteroid of Oc- 

 tober 27 becomes number 252. 



The total solar eclipse of 1885, September 9. — 

 The last number (835) of Nature gives several let- 

 ters from observers of the recent eclipse of the sun 

 visible in New Zealand. There are no reports from 

 the government parties organized by ]\lr. EUery, 

 but it is stated that bad weather seriously inter- 

 fered with their observations. IMr. Graydon made 

 a series of sketches of the corona from Tahoraite, 

 — a pouit weU within the belt of totality, but some 

 forty miles north of the central line. Five sketches 

 were made duriag the short time of totality, and 

 their agreement confirms the observer's impression 

 of the fixity of the phenomenon. A woodcut from 

 these sketches shows five or six long rays (besides 

 a large number of shorter ones) projecting from the 

 sun's limb, the longest ray being some two or three 

 diameters of that body in length. A dark rift was 



observed in the corona, and near this rift a red 

 flame was noticed by some of the bystanders to 

 shoot out just before the end of totality. Ten in- 

 stantaneous photographs were obtained lyy a party 

 at Blenheim; and at Mastertton '' Messrs. McKerrow 

 and party, who had camped at the foot of Otahuao, 

 proceeded to the top and fixed their instruments 

 amid driving snow and hail." They were rewarded 

 by the sky clearing off just before totality, and four 

 photographs were obtained. Other observations 

 were made at Wellington and Dryertown. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The following papers were entered to be read 

 at the meeting of the National academy of sciences 

 in Albany, beginning Nov. 10 : S. P. Langley, 

 Obscure heat ; John S. Billuigs, A new form of 

 craniaphore, for taking composite photographs ; 

 A. S. Packard, The carboniferous merostomatous 

 fauna of America ; E. C. Pickering, Stellar 

 photography ; E. D. Cope, Two new forms of 

 polyodont and gonorhynchid fishes from the 

 eocene of the Rocky Mountains ; (by invitation) 

 O. T. Sherman, Yale college observatory, New 

 lines on the spectra of certain stars ; C. H. 

 F. Peters, Certain stars observed by Flamsteed, 

 and supposed to have disappeared ; James HaU, 

 Remarks upon the international geological congress 

 at Berlin, with a brief historical notice of the origin 

 of the congress ; James Hall, Notes on some 

 points in the geology of the Mohawk vaUey ; 

 Simon Newcomb, When shall the astronomical 

 day begin? (by invitation) William B. Dwight, 

 Primordial rocks among the Wappinger vaUey 

 limestones, near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. ; C. H. F. 

 Peters, The errors of star catalogues ; A. Graham 

 Bell, Preliminary report on the investigation re- 

 lating to hereditary deafness ; C. A. Young, The 

 new star in the nebula of Andromeda ; (by invita- 

 tion) J. A. Lintner, Recent progress in economic 

 entomology ; J. W. Powell, Remarks on the stone 

 ruins of the Colorado and the Rio Grande ; (by 

 invitation) Charles H. Peck, The New York state 

 herbarium ; (by invitation) T. H. Safford, The 

 formation of a polar catalogue of stars ; (by invita- 

 tion) Otto Meyer, A section through the southern 

 tertiaries ; James Hall, Remarks upon the Lamel- 

 libranchiata fauna of the Devonian rocks of the 

 state of New York, and the results of investiga- 

 tions made for the paleontology of the state ; J. 

 S. Newberry, Recent discoveries of gigantic placo- 

 derm fishes in the Devonian rocks of Oliio : J. S. 

 Newberry, The flora of the cretaceous clays of 

 New Jersey. 



— The American public health association will 

 convene at Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Dec. 8, 



