SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
195 
General, to whom lam much indebted for valuable assistance. Dr. Copeland 
had three assistants. All these men formed part of the crew of my yacht — 
whom I have trained to the work. 
‘‘I am happy to say that the German expedition, under Dr. Low, got 
the third and fourth contacts, and three (3) complete sets of heliometer 
measures. Also, Mr. Meldrum got the second and third contacts, though 
rather uncertain as to the first internal contact, owing to cloud. Thinking 
that, possibly, he would not be able to get time determinations on the night 
of the 9th, I sent him a box of nine chronometers, which I have left with 
him for the rating of his clock. 
“P.S. — One of my photographs shows the second internal contact beau- 
tifully.” 
In summing up the results of the transit observations, we must assign a 
first place to Lord Lindsay’s work among all that has been accomplished at 
single stations. To the Americans must be assigned the first place among 
the nations, not only as respects the cost and completeness of preparations, 
but also for the skill and judgment shown in their preliminary investigations. 
The Russians provided (and well) for the greatest number of stations. The 
Drench pre-eminently distinguished themselves by their daring in occupying 
stations of danger and difficulty, so dangerous indeed that the British Ad- 
miralty declared them inaccessible. The Germans and Americans did well 
also in this respect. Great Britain, at one time hopelessly in the rear, drew 
nearer at the last to her j ust position, but did not quite attain it. 
General Meeting of the Astronomical Society . — It seems fated that the 
general meetings of this society should be disturbed by unpleasant proceed- 
ings. In February 1873 there occurred the attack on five members of the 
council by Messrs. Lockyer, Strange, and Pritchard, which ended in the 
defeat of this trio. This attack had its origin in the proposed observa- 
tory for determining the (imagined) laws according to which sunspots rule 
the weather — a proposal to which the five members attacked had opposed an 
energetic resistance. In February 1874 the dissentients had fallen out 
among themselves. Professor Pritchard had not duly considered the wishes 
of the other two in connection with the new observatory at Oxford ; and 
Colonel Strange rose in his place and denounced his former associate and ally 
as unworthy of his position as a vice-president of the societ}*- ; but, Professor 
Pritchard being absent, the attack was very properly silenced by the chair- 
man of the meeting. This year the difficulty arose out of another matter. 
For three years certain valuable instruments lent by the Astronomical 
Society to the eclipse expedition of December 1871 had been lost to sight. 
Messrs. Dunkin and Proctor had in vain written to the Secretary of the 
British Association (under whose auspices that expedition was despatched) 
to gain tidings of the missing instruments. But early this year, in preparing 
the report of astronomical proceedings for the preceding year, Mr. Dunkin 
found in the report of the Melbourne Observatory a letter by Mr. Ellery, 
thanking Mr. Lockyer for his generosity in presenting these instruments to 
that observatory. The meeting was naturally indignant when they heard 
this news, one gentleman going so far as to quote the statute Vic. 24 & 25 ; 
and though Mr. De La Rue said this was not warranted by Mr. Lockyer’s 
