SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
419 
by Professor Pritchard, to enable me to make the very minute final adjust- 
ments of the equatorial. While making observations for the preliminary 
adjustments I inadvertently used my left eye, and was surprised and de- 
lighted to find that I had recovered perfect vision with it, the granulations 
in the centre of the retina having disappeared.” 
The Johnson Memorial Prize. — The Trustees of the Johnson Memorial 
Prize for the encouragement of the study of astronomy and meteorology 
propose the following subject for an essay : — u The History of the successive 
Stages of our Knowledge of Nebulae, Nebulous Stars, and Star-clusters, 
from the time of Sir William Herschel.” The prize is open to all members 
of the University of Oxford, and consists of a gold medal of the value of ten 
guineas, together with so much of the dividends for four years on 333Z. 
Reduced Annuities as shall remain after the cost of the medal and other 
expenses have been defrayed. Candidates are to send their essays to the 
Registrar of the University, under a sealed cover, marked a Johnson Memo- 
rial Prize Essay,” on or before the 31st day of March, 1879; each candidate 
concealing his name, distinguishing his essay by a motto, and sending, at the 
same time, his name sealed up under another cover, with the same motto 
written upon it. 
Discovery of Neiv Planets (147 and 148). — The “ Astronomical Register ” 
(September) publishes the two following letters : — 
11 Vienna : July 15, 1875. 
“ In the night of the 10th to the 11th July I noticed in a constellation 
of stars with which I was familiar, a faint little star of the 12th magnitude, 
the distance of which from A. Oe. 2,051 °/l I estimated at about 13h. to 
be -t 3s. and + 3', but I did not succeed in taking an observation, properly 
speaking. On the following morning I was enabled to establish that it is in 
truth a planet. As yet I have obtained the following position thereof : — 
1875. 
July 11 
Vienna M. T. R. A, app. 
12h. 59m. 23s. 20h. 19m. 22*78s. 
13h. 55m. 55s. 20h. 18m. 36*06s. 
12h. 49m. Os. 20h. 17m. 53’07s. 
Magnitude 12-0. 
Decl. app. 
-17° 29' 53-6" 
-17° 3P52-8" 
- 17° 33' 47-0" 
The Director of the Observatory, Professor Carl von Littrow, has been so 
good as to select the name ‘ Protogeneia ’ for the planet. — L. Schulhoe. 
By M. Prosper Henry, of Paris : — “ 1875, August 7th, 12h. 50m. M.T. 
Paris ; R. A. (148), 22h. 39m. 3s. ; N. P. D., 101° IP'5. Hourly motion, 
-1-3S. + 36". Magnitude 10*7.” 
Study of the Solar Surface. — At the recent meeting of the American 
Association, Professor S. P. Langley, of Alleghany Observatory, detailed 
some of the conclusions at which he had arrived after years of study of the 
solar surface. Professor Langley first showed by comparative experiments 
that an absorptive atmosphere surrounds the sun. Little attention has in 
recent years been paid to the study of this atmosphere. The earlier efforts 
to tabulate its absorptive power, produced with different observers, though 
men of eminence, strangely discordant results. Their methods and deduc- 
tions were given in detail. Secchi’s results, making the neighbourhood of 
the edge of the sun about half the brightness of the centre, are probably 
