26 



SCIENCE. 



Mr. H. H. Warner, of Rochester, N. Y., offers a 

 prize of $200 in gold for the discovery of any comet 

 during this year. The conditions are that the comet 

 must be unexpected and telescopic, excepting the 

 comet of 1812, and the first discovery must be made 

 in the United States or Canada, and immediate noti- 

 fication telegraphed to Professor Lewis Swift, of 

 Rochester. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHING- 

 TON. 



At the K)ist meeting of the Philosophical Society of 

 Washington, January 8th, the following papers were 

 read : (1). On a Simple Method of deriving some Equa- 

 tions used in the Theorv of the Moon and of the Planets, 

 by Mr. W. F. Mc K. Ritter, of the Nautical Almanac 

 office. (2). On the Orbit of Swift's Comet, by Professor 

 Edgar Frisby, U. S. Naval Observatory. 



The elements of Swift's Comet were computed by Pro- 

 fessor Frisby from three places observed by Professor East- 

 man with Washington Transit Circle, on the nights of 

 October 25th, November 7th, and November 20th. They 

 werer ecorded in "Science," January 8, 1881. 



From these elements it is readily inferred that it was 

 moving very nearly towards the earth at the time of its 

 discovery (October 10th) by Professor Swift. On No- 

 vember 8th it came very near the earth's orbit, its dis- 

 tance from it being then about 0.069, the mean distance 

 of the earth from the sun. Its perihelion lies a little out- 

 side of the earth's orbit, and its aphelion a little outside 

 of Jupiter's orbit. Its perturbations therefore must at 

 some time become immense, but for a long period it 

 will reach its aphelion at times when Jupiter is in a remote 

 part of his orbit. The periodic time from the above ele- 

 ments is about 2i78 d , or a little less than six years. Dif- 

 ferent periodic times have heretofore been deduced for 

 this comet. Some were deduced at 1 1 years, others at 

 5/4 years, and still others n -4- 3 = 3% years. The period 

 of 5^2 years is undoubtedly correct, the slight discrepancy- 

 being due to insufficient data. At each alternate return 

 to its perihelion it cannot be seen, since the earth is then 

 in the opposite part of its orbit, and the sun is between 

 the earth and the comet. It passed nearest to the earth 

 about the 18th of November. 



The logarithms of radii vectores and distances from 

 the earth on the given dates are — 



log. r. log. A. 



October 25th 0.035328 9.221510 



November 7m 0.029018 9 141693 



November 20th °-°34557 9.1 19295 



No theory about any perijdic time was assumed in 

 these calculations. 



THE ROCHESTER MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



At the annual meeting of the Rochester Microscopical 

 Society, held on the 10th instant, the following officers 

 were elected : President, the Rev. Myron Adams ; Vice- 

 President, H. F. Atwood ; Secretary, H. C. Maine ; 

 Treasurer, Dr. C. E. Rider. 



This Society now numbers one hundred and nineteen 

 active members, and is stated to be in a flourishing con- 

 dition. We trust we may occasionally hear from the 

 Society, and that the record presented in our columns 

 may show that a real advance in microscopical studies 

 has been accomplished. 



ELECTRIC FISH* , 



By the Marchioness Clara Lanza. 



The science of electricity and magnetism is clearly ac- 

 knowledged to be an acquisition belonging to modern 

 times, we might say to the last century. To the ancients 

 this great world of ideas was completely unknown, with 

 the exception of a few individual facts which must have 

 appeared to them in a very puzzling light, as philosophy 

 and physics were in a wholly powerless and perplexed 

 condition. 



If we pass over the electric phenomena of our own 

 atmosphere, thunder and lightning, the only facts con- 

 cerning electricity known to the ancients were the capacity 

 of the magnet to attract iron, the attractive power arising 

 between two pieces of amber when rubbed together, and 

 the peculiar effects exhibited by electric fish. 



One of the most numerous and common fish found in 

 the Mediterranean Sea is the torpedo, which is able to 

 eject electric shocks of such force that a man's arm has 

 often been lamed by them. The knowledge of this fact 

 can be traced back to the farthest antiquity. These fish 

 are so often seen on the coasts of Italy and Greece that 

 the effects produced by them must have led to the first 

 experiments, made, in all probability, by fishermen and 

 people directly inhabiting the coasts of these countries ; 

 at all events, the knowledge of this fact is much older 

 than that relating to the magnet and amber, which cer- 

 tainly extends to a remote pre-historic period. 



The Greek designation of these words, magnet and am- 

 ber, contains no etymological relations to the qualities 

 peculiar to these bodies, which must have appeared 

 so mysterious to the ancients. The Greek term for mag- 

 net, Heraklea and Magnetis, denotes simply a stone 

 found in the City of Heraklea or Magnesia — while the 

 Greek word for amber, Electron, relates merely to the 

 color of the substance. In this way it is evident that 

 both the magnet and amber were long known to the 

 Greeks and named by them before their peculiar physical 

 properties were ascertained. 



With the torpedo it is different. The ancient Greeks 

 called it Marhe, and the verb derived from this substan- 

 tive signifies to stun. In the same way the Latin name, 

 Torpedo, denotes something which produces numbness 

 and lameness. In the fish markets of Marseilles and Tou- 

 lon, the torpedo is called torpille, and thus the word tor- 

 peur, (derived from the Latin torpor), is used in French 

 to denote numbness and stupefaction. The Italian 

 fishermen call it Tremola on account of the characteristic 

 trembling sensation which its touch produces. In the 

 Arabic patois of the Maltese, Haddaila is the name 

 applied to an electric fish. 1 Thus we find that every- 

 where the name of the torpedo is etymologically allied to 

 its electric capacity, which makes it evident that the 

 knowledge of its peculiarities extends to the most distant 

 period in the construction of language. 



Perhaps of no more recent date is the practical and 

 most interesting use which the inhabitants of the Medi- 

 terranean countries made of the torpedo's electric capa- 

 city, thus undoubtedly representing the beginning of 

 electro-therapeutics. As a certain cure for headache one 

 or more living torpedos placed upon the affected part was 

 strongly recommended — just as at the present time a con- 

 stant galvanic current is used as the most reliable manner 

 of curing the same complaint. 



Aside from this, the numerous passages in the Greek 

 and Roman authors which relate to the torpedo and its 

 effects are mostly of a subordinate interest. Their lan- 

 guage, like ours, struggles to express that numb and 

 trembling sensation occasioned by the electricity proceed- 

 ing from the fish, and which we ourselves are unable to 

 describe and simply designate by the name of "electric 



* Translated for " Science " from the German of Prof. Franz Boll. 

 1 JohnDavey, Anatomical and Physiological Researches. London, 

 1839. Vol. I. 



