274 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 164 



are left in the dark as to their accuracy or utility. 

 The reports of the volunteer observers show the 

 lack of careful editing by the compilers. We 

 are told at the beginning that the photographic 

 work was undertaken at the request of Professor 

 Newcomb, for certain investigations he was pur- 

 suing. It would have been wiser to have turned 

 over to him at once the observations made, 

 instead of publishing them in then present crude 

 form. The publication is certainly not to the 

 credit of the institution from which it proceeds. 

 We should hardly have devoted as much space to 

 the above report, had it not been published at 

 a time when the status of the observatory is 

 under discussion. If it indicates the character 

 of the scientific work which is done by naval 

 officers under naval management, the position 

 of the committee of the National academy, that 

 it would be unwise to build a new naval obser- 

 vatory, is amply confirmed. Contrast with this 

 weak paper the appendix which precedes it in the 

 same volume, — 1 The orbit of Iapetus,' by Pro- 

 fessor Hall, a model of scientific writing, — and 

 further comment is unnecessary. The paper also 

 emphasizes the need of a scientific head for the 

 observatory. If under the present management 

 such a publication is allowed to see the light, and 

 thus make the institution the laughing-stock of 

 the scientific world, it is time the management 

 was changed. 



The prize offered a year ago by H. H. Warner 

 of Rochester, for 'the best three-thousand-word 

 paper' on the brilliant sunsets of 1883-84, has 

 lately been awarded. The judges were Professors 

 Kirkwood of Bloomington, 111., Harrington of Ann 

 Arbor, Mich., and Stone of Virginia ; and their 

 opinion of the essays was so high that Mr. Warner 

 was induced largely to increase the awards. 

 Meteorologists will universally read with satis- 

 faction that Kiessling of Hamburg received the 

 first prize of two hundred dollars. Other prizes 

 were given to J. E. Clark of York, England, H. 

 C. Maine of Rochester, N.Y., and Rev. Sereno 

 C. Bishop of Honolulu ; the last is now well 

 known in connection with his early observation 

 of the new solar corona, which is now generally 

 called after him. It is further stated in the 

 Rochester Democrat and chronicle, that a 1 special 

 AVarner medal of honor ' will be awarded to Pro- 

 fessor Abbe of the signal service, Professor Upton 

 of Brown university, Prof. H. A. Hazen of the 

 signal service, Professor Davis of Harvard col- 



lege, Mr. F. Cowle of Lauriston, Tasmania, and 

 Rev. R. Graham of Errol, Scotland. Mr. War- 

 ner's extension of his first offer of a single prize, 

 so that there should be a more general recognition 

 of the efforts made by a number of the com- 

 petitors, is characteristic of his generosity, already 

 well known to astronomers from his hundred- 

 dollar prize for the discovery of new comets. It 

 is said to be his intention to publish the sunset 

 essays as soon as they can be put into shape for 

 the printer. 



A very great interest attaches to the brief 

 notice of the new objectives of Dr. Carl Zeiss of 

 Jena, by Dr. H. van Heurck, director of the 

 botanical gardens at Antwerp. The success of 

 Zeiss's experiments to discover a new glass which 

 should give more perfect objectives than it is pos- 

 sible to make with crown and flint glass has ap- 

 parently exceeded expectation, almost surpassed 

 the highest hopes ; for, according to van Heurck, 

 the new homogeneous immersion \ objective, with 

 a numerical aperture of 1.4, manufactured by 

 Zeiss from the new glass, excels the best English 

 lenses in the perfection of its sharp definition : 

 " The images are of wonderful clearness, and the 

 objective has a greater resolving power than any 

 that we have had hitherto. With the vertical 

 illuminator, Amphipleura argenteum is resolved 

 into pearls, not merely at some points, but over 

 the whole surface, and with such sharpness that 

 they may be counted. No doubt this objective 

 will show us, in many diatoms, details which have 

 hitherto escaped observers. Bacteria will proba- 

 bly exhibit details of structure as yet unknown, 

 and which will perhaps enable us to better dif- 

 ferentiate the species." We have heard from 

 other sources equal praise of the new objective* 

 which seems to surpass the present much admired 

 — we might almost say beloved — oil immersions, 

 as these surpass the water immersions. It will be 

 remembered that Professor Abbe, the son-in-law 

 of Dr. Zeiss, pointed out, in 1878, that we could 

 not hope for any considerable improvement in ob- 

 jectives until we should have some better materials 

 than crown and flint glass. Since then the German 

 government appropriated twenty-five thousand 

 marks to enable Zeiss to make experiments in 

 manufacturing new glasses suitable for lenses. 

 All scientific men will rejoice that the experi- 

 ments have had such a very successful result. 

 We trust that the new objectives and oculars will 

 soon be upon the market. 



