SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
97 
Astronomical Society, a foolish person starting the theory that the ruddy 
colour of Mars is due to heat, or rust, we forget at the moment which. The 
dignity with which the President explained that, owing to the lateness of 
the hour the theory need not be discussed, was delightful to all save the 
theorist, who did not appreciate, perhaps did not fully understand the joke. 
The Satellite of Neptune seen with a k^-inch Object-glass. — Mr. J. W. 
Ward, of Belfast, whose observations of the two outer satellites of Uranus 
with a 4^-inch achromatic, excited considerable attention in the spring of 
1876, has achieved what might be supposed the still more surprising feat 
of observing the satellite of Neptune with the same telescope. It appears, 
however, that he finds the satellite of Neptune as easy to see, or rather he 
finds it not more difficult to see, than the two outer satellites of Uranus, 
whence we must infer that Neptune’s satellite is a far larger body than any 
of the satellites of Uranus. 
Lunar Inequalities. — Mr. Neison writes to us as follows : 
“ Sir, — In the October number of the 1 Popular Science Review ’ I find a 
statement about myself which is entirely untrue, and which, therefore, I beg 
of you to be so good as to give me the opportunity of contradicting in the 
next number of the 1 Review.’ These statements had been already made in 
another periodical and denied by me, and I refer you to the enclosed copy of 
the November number of the “ Astronomical Register ” for a detailed proof 
that they are perfectly unfounded. — Yours faithfully, E. Neison.” 
Our remarks were very moderate, the strongest words we used being in a 
sentence to the effect that Mr. Neison’s procedure seemed to us ill-considered. 
We brought no “ railing accusation ” against him. It is in his power, we 
have no doubt, to remedy the mistake so far as it affects himself by original 
research. 
Proper Motions and Distances of the Fixed Stars. — M. Flammarion who 
has lately achieved notoriety by his new chart of Mars based on M. Terby’s 
researches, announces two sets of results of what he describes as his original 
researches into sidereal astronomy. In the first place, by charting the proper 
motions of the fixed stars, he finds reason to believe that some of these bodies 
are travelling together through space. In the second place, he says, after 
describing the theories of Sir W. Herschel, Struve, and others, ‘ les recher- 
ches que j’ai entreprises m’ont lentement et successivement amene a des con- 
clusions toutes differentes, dont voici le resume. Les plus grandes differences 
d’eclat intrinseque, de dimensions, et de masses, existent entre les etoiles. II 
y a peut-etre autant de differences entre les etoiles qu’entre les planetes de 
notre systeme. Ainsi la distribution generale des etoiles n’offre pas la regu- 
larity classique sous laquelle on l’envisageait ; de petites etoiles, des amas, 
et des nebuleuses, peuvent etre moins eloignes de nous que des dtoiles 
brillantes ; et la constitution des cieux presente un caractere moins simple 
que celui qui lui etait assigne par des jauges telescopiques et la theorie 
d’une distribution homogene.’ The following passages in an essay by Mr. 
Proctor would therefore seem to be plagiarisms of M. FJammarion’s later 
views on these points: — “The charting of the stellar proper motions 
has led me to the discovery of the fact that the stars in many parts* of 
1 the heavens are travelling in systems — or, as it were, drifting — through 
space ”... instances cited . . . “ The general conclusions to which I 
NEW SERIES, YOL. II. NO. Y. H 
