SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
ASTRONOMY. 
HANGE in the arrangements for observing the apiwoaching Transit of 
Venus . — The Astronomer Royal has at length yielded to the pressing 
arguments which have been urged in favour of an extension of the arrange- 
ments for observing the approaching transit of Venus. It has for some time 
been known that Prof. Adams^ the discoverer of Neptune, had taken Mr.. 
Proctor’s view of the subject j and we believe we are right in saying that 
Prof. Adams had been for some weeks in correspondence with Mr. Proctor 
on the one hand and the Astronomer Royal on the other, with the object of 
eifecting a change in the proposed schemes. This correspondence bore fruit 
at the recent visitation of the Royal Observatory, when Prof. Adams pro- 
posed to the Board of Visitors that the Government be requested to provide 
the means of organising some parties of observers in the southern hemi- 
sphere, to employ Halley’s method. This was carried unanimously, and the 
Astronomer] Royal expressed his perfect acquiescence in the result. The 
final decision will rest with the Admiralty and the Government. Thus has 
been brought to a close, so far at least as scientific resolutions are concerned, 
a contest which had long been strenuously maintained by argument on one 
side, and by a somewhat persistent silence on the other. 
We would fain pass from the subject without any further reference to the 
circumstances which preceded it, and still less to the individual astronomers 
who took part in the discussion. The great end which has been so long 
sought for has been attained, and it really matters very little through whose 
exertions this has been accomplished. But we are compelled to notice 
(because partly affecting our own veracity) a passage in the pages of a weekly 
contemporary, which adopts a singularly contemptible method of treating 
the matter. In coming to their decision,” says ‘ Nature ’ of the Board cf 
Visitors, it is proper to add that the Board was in no degree either in- 
fluenced or assisted by certain discussions which have taken place out of 
doors ; their decision would have been just the same whether these discus- 
sions had or had not taken plade ; and the Board came to their conclusion 
under a full knowledge of the very peculiar climatic and navigational difficul- 
ties which seem to attend on the roving expeditions which they recommend. 
It is, in fact, only a realisation of an old proposal by the Astronomer Royal 
himself, which seems to have been set aside on account of the many serious 
