SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
197 
results may be explained as due to a present lunar activity ; but be adds, 
very prudently, “ that it is desirable observations should be multiplied, espe- 
cially as there are strong objections to such a view, though the idea has 
been mooted during the last eighty years.” 
Supposed New Variable in Orion.— Mr. Webb calls attention to a red star 
in Orion which he considers to be also (like many other red stars, by the 
wav) a variable star. He says: “I 'have- at present no means of giving its 
place with due accuracy, but it is easily found about 6m. 18s. in time west 
of 42 Orionis, and nearly on the parallel of a minute open pair, about 11 
magnitude, 9' or 10' north of that star. 
. Periodical Changes in the Physical Condition of Jupiter. — Mr. A. C. Rail- 
yard notes evidence in favour of Mr. Browning’s view that the recent changes 
in the appearance of Jupiter may be associated with those solar disturbances 
which have recently been so remarkable. “ A similar increase of colour and 
bright egg-shaped markings ” in the great equatorial belt, “were observed,” 
he remarks, “in the years 1858, 1859, and 1860. Mr. Huggins, Mr. Airy, 
and Sir W. K. Murray all noticed and figured them, their drawings, in 
many respects, corresponding with those made in the course of last season.” 
In 1860 the sun showed many spots. In 1850, when the sun was also much 
spotted, Jupiter was similarly disturbed. Mr. Ranyard also quotes earlier 
instances. He notices “a most interesting remark of Cassini’s,” which 
relates, however, to a well-known peculiarity of Jupiter's spots. Cassini 
“ observed that the bright markings upon Jupiter had a proper motion of 
their own, and that that motion was greater the nearer the spots were 
situated to Jupiter’s equator.” This has been often noticed since ; but 
perhaps the most remarkable known instance of this excess of motion 
near the equator is the case of the dark rift seen across a bright belt for 
six weeks in succession in the spring of 1860. The equatorial or southern 
end of this rift travelled away from the northern end at the rate of about 
190 miles per hour ! This rapid proper motion of one end of a vast rift 
in a cloud-belt — to say nothing of the persistence of the rift for at least 
100 rotations of the planet (that is, by day and by night for 100 Jovian 
days) — surely disposes effectually of the theory that the cloud-belts of Jupiter 
are raised by solar action resembling that to which our own cloud-regions 
are due. Mr. Ranyard closes his paper with the remark that “ if a future 
more complete examination of the observations of Jupiter should confirm 
the suspicion that the sun and Jupiter have the same period of maximum 
disturbance, it would appear to show that the alternations on Jupiter are 
dependent upon some cosmical change, and not on any effect of tides, as 
suggested by Dr. Wolf in the case of the sun.” Is it altogether so clear, 
however, that the imagined action of Jupiter in raising solar tides could 
not synchronise with a solar action raising tides in the deep Jovian atmo- 
sphere? We say this not as advocating the tide theory, but to show that 
the mere coincidence of solar and Jovian disturbances in point of time 
does not necessarily prove that the disturbing cause is cosmical as distin- 
guished from some form of action exerted by these two bodies upon each 
other. 
Common Proper Motion of the Stars 36 (A) Ophiuchi and 30 Scorpii . — 
Mr. Lynn has recalculated the remarkable proper motion common to both 
YOL. X. — NO. XXXIX. P 
