128 
SECOND REPORT — 1832 . 
want of detail in these publications has in many instances de¬ 
prived the observations of much of their value. 
With the year 1800 commenced the publication of Zach’s 
Monatliche Correspondent : it continued without interruption 
to the end of 1818 (a year in which the order of almost every 
continental scientific publication is interrupted). Lindenau’s 
Zeitschrift fur Astronomie commenced in 1816, and finished 
with 1818 ; Zach’s Correspondance Astronomique commenced 
in 1818, and terminated in 1826 ; and Schumacher's Astrono- 
mische JVachrichten, which commenced in 1821, exists still as 
an astronomical periodical. These works were published at 
intervals of one or two months (the last of them, as often as 
matter to fill a sheet could be obtained): and nothing perhaps 
has contributed more to the progress of the science; especially 
in those parts (as the observations of comets,) which were use¬ 
less without immediate circulation. “ What,’’ asks Lindenau, 
6i would have been the fate of the small planets, if the Monat¬ 
liche Correspondent had not then existed ?” But besides the 
rapid communication of information, these journals also allowed 
of the publication of observations with greater detail, and of 
fuller exposition of theoretical or physical views. And in fact 
nearly all the astronomy of the present century is to be found 
in these works or in the Ephemerides of Berlin, Paris, or Milan. 
It is owing, I suppose, partly to political events, and partly to 
our small acquaintance (in general) with the German language, 
that the three most valuable of these periodicals and the Berlin 
Ephemeris have till lately been little known in England. 
In 1814 the regular annual publication of the Konigsherg 
Observations (by Bessel) was begun; as well as that of the 
Dorpat Observations (by Struve); in 1820 that of the Vienna 
Observations (by Littrow); and in 1826 that of the Observations 
at Speier (by Schwerd). These are all the Observations regu¬ 
larly published on the Continent with which I am acquainted. 
One volume, comprising several years’ observations, has been 
published at Paris, but it does not seem likely to be followed 
by any more ; one also has been published at Turin. Several 
very valuable volumes of observations have also been published 
at Palermo (byPiazzi and Cacciatore), and, I believe, two at Abo 
(by Argelander). In all these the original observations are 
given as fully as in the Greenwich Observations, and some 
steps of the reductions are in general much more completely 
explained. 
Nor has our own country in the mean time been idle. Soon 
after the present Astronomer Royal (Mr. Pond) succeeded to 
Dr. Maskelyne, the regular annual publication of observations 
