ADDRESS. 
Ivii 
accumulating for the formation of a more accurate and more extensive catalogue 
of stars than any hitherto published. The British Association would add greatly 
to the benefits it has already conferred on astronomical science, by promoting 
thepublication, when sufficient materials can be collected,of ^general catalogue 
of all stars (o the ninth magnitude inclusive, which have been rtpeated/g obsetTed 
with meridian instruments. The modern sources at present available for such 
a work are the reduced and published observations of the Greenwich, Pul- 
kowa, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge observatories, and tlu- recently 
completed catalogue of 12,(XX) stars observed and reduced by the indefati¬ 
gable astronomer of Hamburg, Mr, Charles liiunker, together with 
numerous incidental determinations of the places of comparison stars in the 
Aslronnmische Nachrichlen. To complete the present account of the state 
of Stellar Astronomy, mention should In* made of two volumes recently pub¬ 
lished by Mr. Cooper, containing the approximate places arranged in order 
of right ascension of 80,186 elliptic stars front the ninth to the twelfth mag¬ 
nitude, of which only a very small number bad been previously obsened. 
The observations were made with the Markree Equatorial, and' have been 
Printed at the expense of Her Majesty’s Government. The determination 
of differences of longitude by galvanic signals is an astronomical matter of 
great practical importance. This method, employed first in America, was 
introduced into England by the Astronomer Royal, and has been applied to 
the determination in succession of the differences of longitude between the 
ireenwich Observatory and the observatories of Cambridge, Edinburgh, 
Brussels, and Paris. In the first and last instances results have been pub¬ 
lished which prove the perfect success and accuracy of the method, 
-tr. Airy, on recently announcing in the public papers the completion of 
ic operation between the Greenwich and Paris observatories, justly remarks 
iat such an experiment could not have been made without the assistance 
attorned by commercial enterprise and that commercial enterprise is in turn 
lonoured by the aid thus rendered to science. In the summer of last year, 
fob Encke, following the example set in England, determined successfully 
y galvanic signals the difference of longitude between Berlin and Fmnkfort- 
°n-die-Maimi. Galvanism lias also been applied to astronomical purpose* in 
°thcr ways. I he method of observing transits by the intervention of a gal¬ 
vanic circuit (just put in practice in America), in which only sight and touch 
te employed, and counting is not required, is now in operation at the 
reenwich Observatory, it is found to be attended with more labour than 
isr u lu . , ’ buf , as free from errors to which the other method 
liable, it lays claim to general acceptance. At Greenwich, also, Lhe 
haivanic circuit is most usefully employed in maintaining the movement* of 
distant sympathetic clocks, and in dropping time signal balk A bull is 
opped every day at Deal by a galvanic current from the Royal Observatory, 
-line anxiety was felt by astronomers respecting the continuation of that 
ost indispensable publication the Asfronomiache Nachrichlen, after the 
-cease ot the editor, M. Petersen, in February last. This has been dispelled 
y a recent announcement that the King of Denmark has resolved to main- 
Ci/ tl a 0bRervQ . tor y in connexion with that of the editorship of that 
ij *7* ‘he‘Astronomical Journal,’nu American publication of the »auie 
t mi, undertaken by a young astronomer and mathematician, Mr. Gould, for 
especial information of his countrymen, has reached the end of Volume 
1J oin i »i ’ W 10 .l ,e ^’ be c^odnued. Generally, it may be said of astro- 
.• P re f e,lt ,lin c» tJ iat it is prosecuted zealously and extensively, active 
emtions being now more numerous than ever, and that the interests of 
