SCIENCE. 



151 



unexpected presence of teeth in connection with an 

 otherwise bird-like structure, we have overestimated 

 the true taxonomic significance of the facts, and lost 

 sight, for the moment, of our customs in other groups ? 

 May it not be, indeed, that we have been uncon- 

 sciously affected by the phenomenal nature of most of 

 Prof. Marsh's palreontological discoveries, and that we 

 have not only been unduly impressed by the facts, but 

 also influenced in some degree by the general admira- 

 tion for the discoverer's achievements, so as to refrain 

 from questioning his conclusions ? Yet, as has been 

 shown already, our author has kept his own mind open 

 upon this yery point, and it is to be hoped that he 

 may have the pleasure and the honor of discovering 

 other forms of Aves dentatae, affiliated in other respects 

 to the several groups of existing birds, and held 

 together only by their teeth. 



Hereafter such problems as are involved in this 

 memoir will be discussed more advantageously in the 

 light of the considerations respecting the Evolution 

 and Classification of Vertebrates which have been 

 presented recently by Prof. Huxley. 



So admirable is the present work as a whole that 

 one shrinks from any criticism of details. Upon the 

 following points, however, some improvement could, 

 perhaps, have been made : 



While insisting upon the lack of bony union of the 

 ends of the mandibular rami in the American Odon- 

 tornithes, our author makes contradictory statements 

 in regard to the tissue by which they were joined 

 during life. On pages 11 and 179 it is said to have 

 been ligament ; on page 123, and in the explanation 

 of plate 1, cartilage is specified, while on page 112 

 the union is said to have been " as in serpents." 

 Judging from the appearance of the surface shown in 

 plate 1, fig. 4, the union was ligamentous rather than 

 cartilaginous, but there may have been a mingling of 

 the two kinds of tissue. 



The date of the discovery of Hesperornis is given 

 as November, 1870, on page 2, but as December on 

 page 195. 



It would have greatly facilitated references if there 

 had been given in this volume a complete Bibliog- 

 raphy of Odontornithology, together with a state- 

 ment of the dates of discovery of the various forms, 

 and the dates of their assignment to more comprehen- 

 sive groups than species and genera. The synonymy 

 as given under the species named in the Appendix 

 does not quite meet this want. 



In view of the aid which evolution has received 

 from embryology, it would seem that even a special 

 palaeontological memoir like the present might have 

 contained some expression of the author's expectation 

 that light may sometime be thrown upon the problems 

 involved by the careful scrutiny of the development of 

 certain recent birds, notably the Struthionidse. 



P>. G. W. 



Report Submitted to the Academy of Medicine on 

 the Substitution of Margarine for Butter and Lard 

 in the Public Asylums of the Department of the 

 Seine. — M. Riche finds that pure butter yields a quantity 

 of fatty acids insoluble in water ranging from 86.5 to 88 per 

 cent of the weight of the pure fatty matter, whilst in all 

 the other fats and animal oils, and in almost all vegetable 

 oils, there is from 95.20 to 95,80 per cent of insoluble fatty 

 matter. 



ON THE SOUTHERN STARS AND OTHER 

 CELESTIAL OBJECTS. 



By J. H. Pope, New Zealand. 



This paper embodies the results of observations made 

 during the last eight years. While most of the work is 

 original, yet, when the object described is important, and 

 an account of my observations could not be satisfactorily 

 given without reference to the work clone by previous 

 observers, their facts and opinions have been quoted. 

 An apology is scarcely needed for giving a short resume 

 of the facts known about the great star Alpha Ceniauri ; 

 accordingly, a very brief history of this remarkable ob- 

 ject, from Lacaille's time (1750) to the present has been 

 given. 



The instruments used were an 8^ inch reflector, by 

 Browning, and a \% inch equatorial of superior quality. 

 The measures of angles and distances have been ob- 

 tained by the methods described in my paper in last 

 year's "Transactions."* The angles of position will, I 

 have little doubt, be found to be good, but the atmos- 

 phere has not been steady enough of late to admit ot 

 the best use being made of oblique transits. I have, 

 however, little doubt that such measures of distances as 

 are given will be found to be very satisfactory approxima- 

 tions to the truth. For the spectroscopic work recorded 

 in this paper I have used an admirable little star-spec- 

 troscope, by Browning. This instrument has enabled 

 me to determine, quite satisfactorily, the class to which 

 the stars examined belong, and, in many instances, to 

 say that the spectrum lines of certain elements are prob- 

 ably present. As, however, the means at my disposal 

 did not permit me to make accurate measures of the 

 positions of lines, my work in this department should be 

 looked upon as the results, so to speak, of a " flying sur- 

 vey," useful perhaps, in its way, but to be superseded 

 when more thorough and accurate determinations can 

 be obtained. 



It should be stated, however, that, while depending on 

 eye estimation alone, it would be very unsafe for an ob- 

 server to say, that a conspicuous line, for instance, in the 

 greenish blue of the spectrum of a certain star was cer- 

 tainly the F hydrogen line ; yet it is unlikely that a prac- 

 ticed eye, one trained to recognize the position of certain 

 lines in spectra that have been already measured, could 

 be mistaken, in any large proportion ot cases, in picking 

 out, say, the principal Fraunhofer lines in a stellar spec- 

 trum. On the whole, it seems to me that such deter- 

 minations as are given in this paper are not without a 

 real value, if carefully made. Many years must elapse 

 before the lines in the spectra of the southern stars can 

 be accurately measured by methods like those employed 

 by Dr. Huggins. In the meantime such results as those 

 here given are all that are available. These serve to 

 give us a certain amount of information that can be 

 thoroughly relied on ; they enable us to state, further, 

 that the existence of certain physical conditions, and the 

 presence of certain elementary substances in certain 

 stars, are highly probable ; and, possibly, they are calcu- 

 lated to create or stimulate in us a desire to learn more 

 certainly and fully the constitution and physical habi- 

 tudes of the stars. 



The objects are treated of in the order of their Right 

 Ascension, and the places of the stars when given, are 

 taken from the "First Melbourne Catalogue," epoch, 

 1870. 



The first star on the list is Achernar or a Eridani. 

 This fine first magnitude star is very nearly pure white, 

 without any discernable tint, except possibly a slight 

 shade of blue. This star belongs to Padre Secchi's first 

 class of stars, the type of which is the giant sun Sirius. 

 In the case of typical stars of this class, the spectrum is 



* Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. XI., Art. X. 



