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TOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
what extreme caution all presumed evidence of change on the moon’s surface 
ought to be received, and how necessary it is to accumulate observations 
made under various and particularly under low illumination.” 
The “ Bedford Catalogue — Admiral Smyth’s Cycle of Celestial Objects, 
commonly called the “ Bedford Catalogue,” is used by so many telescopists, 
and has been so long regarded as an authority, that many will hear with 
pain as well as surprise of the announcement by Mr. Herbert Sadler, after 
careful examination of many statements in the work (vol. ii.), that it is 
utterly untrustworthy. He adopts and emphasizes the remark of that most 
careful and skilful observer of double stars, Mr. Burnham, that “ no publica- 
tion of original observations, in this or any other language, can be named 
which contains so many serious errors.” “ The measures of the Struves, 
Dembowski, Dawes, Secchi, and half a dozen others whose names might be 
mentioned,” adds Burnham, “ do not contain altogether more than a small 
fraction of the mistakes in the Cycle which have led to so much discussion 
and confusion. . . . Ordinarily there is no difficulty in detecting the mistake at 
once. This is not the case with the Cycle. There is no theory which will 
account for the many serious discrepancies. The measures generally agree 
substantially with those which are given from prior observers, but the 
strangest part is that the agreement is kept up just the same where the 
earlier measures are all wrong.” This statement, it will be noticed, involves 
a somewhat serious charge, which those who are interested in supporting 
the reputation of the late Admiral Smyth would do well not to overlook. 
We 3hall hope to see the cases adduced by Mr. Herbert Sadler explained 
on some other hypothesis than that Admiral Smyth u fudged ” (to use 
a schoolboy phrase) some of his observations. Not content with shaking 
our faith in this older catalogue, Mr. Sadler makes a most damaging 
reference to a catalogue published quite recently, at great expense, by 
the Boyal Astronomical Society. u As far as I am aware,” he says, “ there is 
one catalogue only, and that not an original one, which surpasses the 1 Bed- 
ford Catalogue ’in inaccuracy, and that catalogue is the 1 Deference Catalogue 
of Multiple and Double Stars,’ forming Vol. xl. of the Memoirs.” It is to 
be hoped that Professor Pritchard, who with the late Dr. Main shared the 
responsibility for the last-named most remarkable production, will endeavour 
to show that it is either not so bad as it is commonly reported to be, or 
that there is some valid excuse for its being, as many allege, altogether 
valueless. 
Phenomena Observed at the Occultation of a Star by the Moon. — Mr. Christie 
describes a curious phenomenon presented at the occultation of the fourth 
magnitude star 17 Tauri by the moon, on November 10, 1878. He observed 
with nearly the full aperture of the Great Equatorial (nearly 13 inches). 
As the star approached the moon’s limb he observed it steadily, fearing to 
lose it in the overpowering brilliancy of the moon’s light. He expected it 
to disappear at a slight notch in the moon’s bright limb; but instead of 
that the moon’s limb, to his surprise, seemed to recede for some three or 
four seconds of time, and the star disappeared gradually in a sort of lumi- 
nous haze, through which it was seen with more and more difficulty as it 
advanced. At the instant of disappearance the star was seen apparently 
perfectly bisected by the limb; that is, completely shorn of its rays and half 
