SCIENCE. 
259 
verified by actual returns to perihelion, the question of 
periodicity cannot be affirmed with positiveness. Every 
few years a new one is added to the list, but during the 
centuries and milleniums which are to come, the number 
must swell to thousands. 
Prof. Chandler is computing a new set of elements 
from more trustworthy data, but, as the comet is running 
well with those first published, the new set will probably 
differ but little from the first. The discovery of this 
comet was immediately cabled to Europe, and I have . 
received official announcement that the cablegram was 
duly received, but it seems that it was not discovered 
there until November 7, when, not knowing but it might 
possibly he a new one, it was cabled here as such. 
It has never, to my knowledge, been published in this 
country, that the Vienna Academy has rescinded its offer 
of prizes for the discovery of comets ; therefore I expect 
no gold medal for the discovery of this, but your readers 
may be surprised, perhaps pleased, to learn that Mr. H. 
H. Warner, the well-known medicine man, who is build- 
ing the new observatory for my use, gave me his check 
for $500 for its discovery. This, together with the three 
gold medals awarded me by the Imperial Academy of 
Sciences of Vienna, is a partial remuneration for the 
labor and the unknown suffering endured from cold and 
want of sleep during the many years I have followed 
comet seeking in the open air, with no protection from 
the piercing winds of our northern winters. 
The following are a few positions of the comet from 
Chandler’s ephemeris for Washington midnight. 
h. m. s. 
November 20 .. . . . 1 9 18 Dec. +• 54 3 
24 2 6 19 54 25 
28 2 58 39 53 3 
Lewis Swift. 
Rochester, Nov. 17, 1880. 
COMET E 1880. 
This comet, discovered by Mr. Swift on October 10th, 
proves to be an interesting object. An orbit has been 
computed by Mr. Winslow Upton, of the Naval Observa- 
tory, from the observation made here by Professor East- 
man, and there can be no doubt that this is a return of 
the comet discovered by Mr. Tempel, November 27, 1869, 
since the elements of the two orbits are very nearly alike. 
The periodic time of this comet is therefore nearly eleven 
years, and its mean distances from the sun is a little less 
than that of Jupiter. A. Hall. 
Washington, Nov. ir, 1880. 
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 
The corrections employed in reducing the double star 
observations of M. Otto Struve, given in Vol. IX., of the 
Poulkova observations were only provisional. Since the 
publication of that volume definitive corrections have been 
computed by M. Dubiago, and the corrected results are 
now published as an appendix. 
At the meeting of the American Association this 
Summer, Professor Stone gave a description of the con- 
tinuation of Argelander’s Durchmustervmg now in 
progress at the Cincinnati Observatory. The zone will 
extend from 23° to 31 0 south declination. A four inch 
equatorial is employed. 
Part III of the Astronomical Papers prepared for 
the use if the A 7 nerica 7 i Ephe 7 /ieris and Nautical 
Abnanac is devoted to Master Michelson’s determination 
of the velocity of light. A minute description of the 
apparatus employed is given, together with the deter- 
mination of the errors to which the observations were 
subject. In the latter part of the work several objections 
to the plan followed by Foucault are considered. 
VOL. VI, of the A 7 inales de /’ Observatoire de Moscow 
contains an interesting series of observations of Jupiter 
made during the opposition of 1879. Nearly forty draw- 
ings are given, twenty-seven of which were made at 
times when the large red spot was visible. 
An attempt to photograph stellar spectra was made 
by Drs. Huggins and Miller, as long ago as 1863, but 
not with the best of success. Dr. Huggins has 
published in the last volume of the Philosophical Trans- 
actions, the results of a recent, and this time successful, 
attempt, and at the end of the paper has given a map 
of the spectra of several of the stars observed. These 
are a Lyrae, Sirius, v Ursae Majoris, a Virginis, a 
Aquilae, a Cygni, and Arcturus. With the exception 
of the latter these are all white stars and were observed 
on account of the remarkable circumstance of the 
absence of the K line in one of the earlier photographs 
of Sirius. “The photographs present a spectrum of 
twelve very strong lines. Beyond these lines a strong 
continuous spectrum can be traced as far as S, but 
without any further indication of lines. The least 
refrangible of these lines is co-incident with the line (Q 
of hydrogen near G. The next line in order of greater 
refrangibility agrees in position with h of the solar 
spectrum. The thirdl ine is H, K, if present at all, is 
thin and inconspicuous. The nine lines which follow do 
not appear to be co-incident with any of the stronger 
lines of the solar spectrum.” The symmetry of arrange- 
ment of these lines is such as to suggest that they are 
the spectrum of a single substance, perhaps hydrogen. 
The spectrum of Arcturus is very different from that 
of the other stars named, but quite similar to that of the 
sun. The spectrum is crowded with a vast number of 
fine lines, and in further contrast with the class of white 
stars the kne K is very broad and winged and more in- 
tense than H. Beyond K the lines are broader and 
more intense and arranged more or less in groups with 
fine lines between. Although the crowding continues as 
far as the spectrum can be seen on the plate the position 
and arrangement of the lines beyond H is quite different 
from those in the solar spectrum. 
Photographs of the spectra of Venus, Mars and 
Jupiter were also taken, but these showed no modification 
whatever of the solar light. In the case of the moon 
most of the photographs presented differences in the 
relative intensity of the ultra violet region, but nothing 
that could be taken as evidence of the existence of a 
lunar atmosphere. O. S. 
Prof. C. A. Young, of Princeton, has been fortunate 
enough to obtain one of the finest large-crown glass 
discs ever cast. It is of French manufacture, 22 inches 
in diameter and without a flaw. Alvan Clark & Sons 
are finishing it for the new Princeton refractor. 
Dr. B. A. Gould, Director of the Cordoba Observatory, 
Argentine Republic, was in Boston, November 3, on a 
visit to this country and returns to Cordoba on the 
steamer of the 27th November. His address is no 
Marlboro street, Boston. 
Dr. Elkin, whose work on the Parallax of a Centauri 
has been previously noticed, is spending a few weeks in 
Washington. He expects to leave shortly for the Cape 
of Good Hope, where he will continue his investigations 
upon the Parallax, using for that purpose Lord Lindsay’s 
four-inch Heliometer, which he is to take out with him. 
W. C. W. 
