252 
[May, 
Incidents of the Early Life of 
and the plate developed and put away, and be available at 
any time for the determination of the star magnitudes.. Be- 
sides this it is a valuable thing to have a record which is 
practically free from errors of the stars visible at a given 
time in a given part of the heavens. 
The Liverpool Astronomical Society has lately, through 
the munificence of Mr. Howard Crabb, been able to set up 
apparatus for carrying on the work of Stellar Photography. 
This is an Equatorial Stellar Camera, driven by clock- 
motion, and fitted with a compound lens \\ inches in aper- 
ture. Already some fifteen hundred or more stars have been 
photographed. The number of stars on any one plate de- 
pends on two conditions — the sensitiveness of the plate and 
the length of exposure. The great clusters in Gemini and 
Cancer, and the spiral nebula in Canes Venatici, have 
already been photographed, as well as several double and 
variable stars. Doubtless as the work progresses many 
interesting results will be obtained in so new a line of 
research. 
II. INCIDENTS OF THE EARLY LIFE OF 
FRIEDRICH WOHLER. 
(Born July 3 1 st, 1800; Died September 23RD, 1882.) 
By Miss Katherine Windscheid. 
S RIEDRICH WOHLER was the descendant of a fa- 
mily in comfortable circumstances, living in Central 
Germany. His grandfather was Master of the Horse 
to the Landgrave William IX. of Hessia ; his son, August 
Anton, Wohler’s father (born January 28th, 1771), studied 
the veterinary art and rural economy, according to the 
wishes of his family, though without any special inclination. 
Far, however, from preparing himself exclusively for this 
vocation, he had profited so well by a sojourn of several 
years at the University of Marburg, studying the different 
branches of philosophical and philological science, that on 
