made in anatomical and physiological knowledge. The inferences to which he was chiefly guided by anatomical considerations have thus been placed on a wider basis, at the same time that they have been brought into complete harmony with the more certain evidence of experiment.

The above ragmentary account of Sir William Bowman's scientific work may suffice to show how much his early achievements aided the advancement of knowledge, and how materially they influenced the work of the other great anatomists and physiologists of that stirring time. Who can say how much more a man of such power would have contributed to the building up of the great science which in the vigour of youth he cultivated with such extraordinary success, had not external circumstances withdrawn him-too early-from its service? J. BURDON SANDERSON.

NOTES.

THE new London County Council seems to have rather more enlightened ideas as to the need for the promotion of technical education than its predecessor. On Tuesday, when it was moved that the recommendation of the Finance Committee with regard to the Council's receipts and expenses for the year ending March 31, 1893, should be adopted, Mr. Quintin Hogg proposed as an amendment that the following words be added to the motion :-"Provided that £30,000, being part of the amount receivable by the Council for the financial year ending March 31, 1893, under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise Duties) Act, 1890, be carried over to a suspense account, instead of being applied in reduction of rate, and that such £30,000, when carried over, be dealt with on or before October 1 next by the Council for any purpose authorized by the above Act; and that a special committee be appointed to consider what action the Council should take under the Technical Education Acts, 1889-91, and the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise Duties) Act, 1890, with power to draw up a scheme or schemes for the consideration of the Council." This was seconded by Mr. Baum, and warmly supported by Sir John Lubbock and other speakers. The amendment was adopted by a large majority, only three voting against it.

DR. SCOTT having accepted the charge of the Jodrell Labora tory at Kew, the Assistant-Professorship in Botany at the Royal College of Science at South Kensington will be vacant at the end of the present session. The appointment rests with the Lord President of the Council, and candidates for the post should send their applications to the Secretary, Science and Art Department, accompanied by testimonials. The salary is £400

per annum.

SIR ANDREW CLARK, F.R.S., has been elected for the fifth time President of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

MR. FRANCIS DARWIN, F.R.S., author of "The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," has been elected a member of the Athenæum Club, under the terms of the rule which provides for "the annual introduction of a certain number of persons of distinguished eminence in science, literature, or the arts, or for public services."

THE Trustees of the British Museum have appointed Mr. Arthur Smith Woodward to the Assistant-Keepership of the Department of Geology in succession to Mr. Etheridge, who has been retired by the operation of the Order in Council of August 1890. A junior assistantship which thus becomes vacant will shortly be filled by competition among the candidates nominated by the principal Trustees.

MR. F. J. M. PAGE has been appointed to the Chair of Chemistry and Physics at the London Hospital rendered vacant by the death of Dr. Tidy.

DR. HUGH ROBERT MILL has been appointed to succeed Mr. J. S. Keltie as Librarian to the Royal Geographica Society.

WE have already announced that the Royal Medals of the Royal Geographical Society have been awarded to Mr. A. R. Wallace and Mr. E. Whymper. The Murchison grant has been awarded to Mr. Swan (who accompanied Mr. Theodore Bent in his expedition to Mashonaland); the Back grant to the Rev. James Sibree for his many years' work on the geography and bibliography of Madagascar; the Cuthbert Peck grant to Mr. Campbell for his important journeys in Korea; and the Gill Memorial to Mr. Garrett for his geographical work during the past fifteen years in Sierra Leone.

AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday, Mr. Ernest Gedge read a paper on a recent Expedition under Captain F. G. Dundas, R. N., up the River Tana to Mount Kenia, in East Africa. He said that his account of the expedition had been compiled from the notes and jonrnals of the European members thereof. In appearance the Tana might be likened to a miniature Nile for the whole of its navigable length, a distance of some 360 miles by river, flowing through a vast plain, and generally confined between low banks. The surrounding districts were flooded during the rise of the river in the rainy season. In fact, the whole country from Charra across to the Ozi River might be described as one vast swamp choked with rank vegetation. Only a small fraction of this area was cultivated at present. Above Hameyé, the river was a succession of rapids and falls; the channel was choked with boulders, and quite unnavigable. In fact, it had the general appearance of a mountain torrent of large dimensions. With regard to the geological structure on the upper reaches, this appeared to consist principally of gneissic formations above Hameyć, which, on nearing Mount Kenia, gradually changed to indurated hornblendic schists, till on the mountain itself it again changed to basaltic rocks and volcanic ash.

DR. HENRY HICKS, F.R.S., has announced in the Times that during some recent excavations in Endsleigh Street, N. W., in connection with the deepening of the main sewer, the workmen came upon the remains of a mammoth and other prehistoric animals at a depth of about 22 feet from the surface. In the central excavation, near the north end of the street, two large tusks of a mammoth were met with lying near together along. with other bones belonging to the same animal. A portion of one of these tusks was brought to the surface, and it was found to measure at its thickest part nearly 2 feet in circumference. The length of the complete tusks would probably be at least 9 feet or 10 feet. In another excavation on the west side of the street, at a distance of about 15 feet from the above-mentioned, the lower jaw and other bones of a younger mammoth were discovered at about the same depth from the surface. The dark loamy soil in which the remains were embedded has yielded on examination many seeds of contemporary plants; and Mr. Clement Reid, of the Geological Survey, to whom samples of the loam were submitted, has been able to determine the presence in it of about twenty species. These show that the land at the time was of a marshy nature. Deposits usually classed

with the high-level gravel and brick earth of the Thames Valley were found overlying the animal remains; hence the geological age during which the animals lived, in Dr. Hicks's opinion, must be included in what is known as the Glacial period.

A BUST of Gustav Nachtigal has been set up in the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde, beside the collections formed in the

course of his travels. At the unveiling of the monument interesting speeches were delivered by Freiherr von Richthofen, Dr. Bastian, and others.

THE sixth summer meeting connected with the University extension scheme at Edinburgh will take place in August, and promises to be of great interest. The arrangements include "a geographical and technical survey of Edinburgh and district." There will also be a course on the teaching of physiology and hygiene, with a series of evening lectures by prominent specialists on the problems of technical education. A course on sociology will be given by Prof. Geddes; on anthropology, by Prof. Haddon; on general biology and zoology, by Mr. A. Thomson; on physiology, by Prof. Haycraft; and on botany, by Messrs. Turnbull and Herbertson. Occasional lectures will be given by a number of gentlemen, among whom will be several representatives of foreign Universities.

THE Geologists' Association are to devote the Easter holidays to an excursion to Devizes, Swindon, and Faringdon.

THE Geographical Section of the London Geological Field Class will take their first excursion, under the personal direction of Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., on the afternoon of Saturday, April 23, when they will visit Reigate. Full particulars can be obtained from the general secretary, R. H. Bentley, 31 Adolphus Road, Brownswood Park, N.

BOTANISTS have long been accustomed to publish sets of Exsiccati," especially of micro-fungi, which have been widely distributed among specialists in the groups dealt with. Sets of Coccida prepared by Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, the Curator of the Museum at Kingston, Jamaica, are to be issued by the Institute of Jamaica on much the same plan, and it is hoped that they will be of service not only to students, but also to horticulturists and those interested in agriculture in tropical countries, who often have to contend with scale insects, which they rarely have the means of identifying. The first set, including ten species, all from Kingston, has already been issued.

AT the twenty-third annual meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, held on March 29, Mr. H. B. Woodward, F.G.S., was elected President for the coming session. Dr. F. D. Wheeler, the President, read the annual address, in the course of which he stated that during the past year the Society had lost by death six members, to one of whom -the Rev. H. P. Marsham-it was indebted not only for the register of the "Indications of Spring," begun by his greatgrandfather, R. Marsham, F.R.S., of Stratton Strawless, in 1736, and continued with only one break to the present time, but also for the letters of Gilbert White to that gentleman, printed in the Transactions for 1874-75. Dealing with the subject of the gradual extinction of many of the species of Lepidoptera that once inhabited the fens, Dr. Wheeler said he thought the direct action of man might in most cases be wholly disregarded. Indirectly, by draining the fens, man was no doubt responsible for the extinction of many of their peculiar denizens, but even this cannot account for all, since some insects disappeared or became very rare without any striking change in the locality they inhabited. He considered that such cases were generally due to climatic causes, the insects being possibly on the extreme limit of their geographical area. In some cases the gradual drying of the fen might, by affecting the food-plant, prove fatal in the end to the larvæ feeding on it.

AT the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales on February 24, Mr. J. H. Maiden read a paper on Panax gum. Resinous exudations have been mentioned for many years as occurring in non-Australian Araliaceae, but no details of composition, much less of analyses, are, it is believed, in existence.

A true gum has been recorded as occurring in a New Zealand Panax. The author now describes true gums from P. sambucifolius var. angusta, P. Murrayi, and P. elegans. They closely resemble certain Acacia gums, but may be distinguished in practice by slight odours of a peculiar character.

THE Meteorological Council have recently issued, in the form of a preface to the Daily Weather Reports for July to December 1891, a series of tables giving the monthly means for pressure, temperature, and rainfall at twenty-eight stations. The values are for twenty years, 1871-1890, and in the case of rainfall, for twenty-five years, 1866–90, and they will be very useful for reference in various climatological questions. The tables show that the mean pressure is uniformly higher over the southern portion of the British Islands than over the northern, but the difference is less in summer than in winter; in April the means are more uniform than in any other month. The tem perature tables give the means of the dry-bulb and wet-bulb, and the mean maximum and minimum values, together with the means of the latter. Taking the mean of the minimum and maximum values for January and July, as representing the coldest and hottest periods of the year, we find that Cambridge is the coldest place, while both Loughborough and York are colder than some of the Scotch stations. The hottest station is London, 72° 4, and Loughborough is 71°5. The wettest station is Valentia Island, the total fall for the year being 56.6 inches; the next wettest place is Roche's Point, where the annual fall is 47.8 inches. The driest station is Spurn Head, where the total yearly fall is only 20'9 inches. The average yearly fall in London for a quarter of a century is 24'99 inches.

SPANIARDS are making a good many preparations for the celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the New World. In the autumn of the present year there will be several Exhibitions, in one of which will be shown objects relating to the continent of America before the advent of Europeans, while another will illustrate the state of civilization in the colonizing countries of the Old World at the time when the new continent was discovered. In October the Congress of Americanists will meet at Huelva, and will discuss a variety of subjects relating to the continent of America, and its inhabitants 400 years ago. In the same month, at Madrid, a SpanishPortuguese-American Geographical Congress will meet for the discussion of such questions as relate more particularly to the "Iberian-American" races, their aptitude for colonization, and the future of the Spanish language.

It is expected that the diamond industry of South Africa will be well represented at the Chicago Exhibition. The collection from Cape Colony will include 10,000 carats of uncut stones, a large quantity of very fine cut and polished ones, together with all that is necessary to show the process of mining and washing. For this it will be necessary to transport to Chicago 100 tons of pulverized blue earth, 50 tons of unpulverized earth, and a complete washing machine, which will be "operated " by natives.

THE first number of the Irish Naturalist has been issued, and will doubtless receive a cordial welcome in Ireland, where no other journal of the kind exists. It is a monthly periodical, and for the present each issue will consist of only sixteen pages. The paper starts with the support of all the Irish Natural History Societies.

THE burial mounds of sand in Florida are rapidly disappearing in consequence of the way in which they are disturbed by treasure-seeking natives and relic-hunting tourists. Mr. C. B. Moore has therefore done good service by giving in the February number of the American Naturalist an account of a somewhat remarkable burial mound previously unopened. It stands on Tick Island, Volusia County, Florida, and is conical in shape, except towards the east, where from the summit a gradual slope

extends into a winding causeway or breast work. The height of the mound is 17 feet; its circumference, 478 feet. Its base is composed of shells, apparently brought from the neighbouring shell fields to serve as a foundation in the marshy soil. Across the centre of this layer of shells from north to south runs a ridge of pure white sand, above which is a stratum of dark sandy loam mingled with shells, while the sides of the ridge are rounded out with sandy loam in which shells are wanting, thus forming a symmetrical mound. During the excavations over a hundred skeletons were exhumed, and Mr. Moore does not doubt that many hundreds still remain. Although careful searchers examined every spadeful of sand, not a bead of glass nor a particle of metal was discovered, so that the mound had probably ceased to be used for burial purposes when Florida began to be occupied by white men. Many fragments of pottery were found, and various ornaments and stone weapons. THE Pittsburgh Electric Club, according to an account of it given by the American journal Electricity, seems likely to be a successful institution. It was organized nearly a year ago, and is a corporation of the State of Pennsylvania. Its aim is primarily to aid in the progress of electrical and mechanical science, and incidentally to promote social intercourse among those interested in this main object. By the time it completes its first year of existence it will have 200 members. Every electric company in the United States is represented in its membership. The Club has already provided itself with "a large and luxurious home," several of the rooms of which are effectively represented among our contemporary's illustrations.

AN interesting paper on the manufacture and use of aluminium, from an engineering stand-point, by Mr. Alfred E. Hunt, President of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, is printed in the current number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. Mr. Hunt is strongly of opinion that financially the most successful solution of the aluminium problems of the future will be in the way of utilizing the metal in the arts rather than in devising more economical methods of manufacture. He gives a very good account of the uses to which aluminium has already been applied. We may note that it has been successfully used instead of lithographic stone. Powdered aluminium mixed with chlorate of potash is used to give a photographic flash-light, which produces much less smoke than the magnesium compounds used. An aluminium has been produced for the coating of iron, and Mr. Hunt thinks that this will undoubtedly be considerably used in the future.

ACCORDING to the National Druggist, the sunflower is found to be of great service in Southern Russia, where it has for some time been extensively cultivated. It is grown principally for the bright yellow, colourless, and tasteless oil yielded by its seeds. That oil is said to be superseding olive oils throughout Southern Russia for domestic purposes. The pressed seeds and the boiled leaves (the latter mixed with clay) serve as cattle food, the stalks as fuel. Like the eucalyptus, the sunflower possesses the property of drying marshy soil, and counteracts the development of malaria germs.

A VALUABLE paper on photography applied to the detection of crime, by Dr. Paul Jeserich, was read at a recent meeting of the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and has now been printed in the Society's Journal and Transactions. Among the subjects with which the author deals is the application of photography to the detection of the falsification of handwriting. In such cases photography can be of great service, as in an enlarged photographic picture erasures and alterations can be more clearly seen than in the original. But, above all, photography can be used to demonstrate in the resulting picture differences in inks which cannot be perceived by the eye. Dr. Jeserich claims that by his method, the outcome of many years' experience, it is possible to demonstrate differences in the colours of the inks |

which cannot be seen, the one ink appearing light and the other dark. This process depends on the following considerations:As is well known, the tints of the inks that are called black are either brown, red, green, or blue in shade. Such tones have but little effect on the eye, as it is chiefly sensitive to the yellow and red rays, but the chief sensitiveness of photographic plates, on the other hand, lies in the blue, violet, and ultra-violet. As, with ordinary sensitive plates, yellow and green subjects are rendered dark, and blue ones light, the same will follow in photographing inks of various tones. This difference can be considerably intensified by the use of suitably coloured light, and colour-sensitive plates. In this manner marked differences in the various inks can be clearly and distinctly demonstrated. After the reading of the paper, Captain Abney, the Chairman, said he once examined an engraving which was reputed to be of value, and by means of photography he was able to bring out the original signature under a spurious one, which had been added. The picture turned out to be worthless.

SOME Correspondence has been going on in the New York Nation about the present position of the study of psychology as a science in the United States. Mr. E. W. Scripture is very far from being satisfied with it. One or two pioneers in the use of scientific methods have, indeed, achieved some success; but this, says Mr. Scripture, "ought not to blind us to the fact that by far the large majority of our so-called Universities teach a psychology which would call a blush of shame to the face of old Aristotle, the father of the science, for the degeneration of his offspring in the last two thousand years. To attempt to console ourselves by pointing out the entire lack of psychological facilities in England (except in the Cavendish Physiological Laboratory), is like trying to persuade the New Yorkers of the charms of bossism because the Czar of Russia is worse than Hill."

PERHAPS the most noticeable contribution to the new number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England is a paper by Mr. Carruthers, explanatory of a series of eight diagrams, illustrating “The Life of the Wheat Plant from Seed to Seed,” which the Society has recently published. These notes will be very useful, and, judging from the woodcuts in the Journal, the diagrams themselves are likely to prove of considerable value to agricultural lecturers and teachers. Amongst the reports, that from the Royal Veterinary College is interesting; it deals mainly with the subject of foot-rot in sheep, and furnishes very strong evidence of the contagious nature of the disease; further investigations are in progress with the bacteria found in pus from the diseased surfaces. Mr. R. E. Prothero contributes an interesting historical sketch of farming in England, under the title of "Landmarks in British Farming."

Himmel und Erde for April contains some interesting notes on the nature of Jupiter's surface; the observations which Christopher Scheiner made with his instrument about the year 1625, with two illustrations, one showing a perspective view of the instrument itself, the other being a representation of the solar surface, on which are situated several spots that were visible on the sun from April 18 to May 1, 1625; an article by Dr. A. Fock on a "Problem of Chemical Mechanics"; and a paper by Dr. Leize on the "End of the Age of Alchemy, and the beginning of the Iatrochemical Period."

PART 13 of the "Universal Atlas" that is being published by Messrs. Cassell and Company contains maps of the British Empire, The Caucasus, and Greece. In the first of these all the well-known currents are charted, and in addition, the commercial routes of the world, which form such a network of lines, especially in the Atlantic Ocean, are inserted. Three smaller maps on a larger scale show in greater detail these steamship lines in the neighbourhood of Western Europe, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean.

THE anhydrous sulphates of zinc, copper, nickel, and cobalt have been obtained in well-developed crystals by M. Klobb, who describes his experiments in the current number of the Comptes rendus. It was first observed that when a small quantity of the ordinary hydrated sulphate of cobalt was allowed to fall into fused sulphate of ammonia it immediately dissolved, imparting a deep blue colour to the liquid, and when the heating was con tinued in such a manner that the ammonium sulphate slowly volatilized away, the walls of the crucible were found to be covered with small red crystals. Upon analysis these crystals proved to be those of anhydrous cobalt sulphate. Similar experiments with the hydrated sulphates of zinc, copper, and nickel succeeded equally well, and it was found to be immaterial whether the hydrated salts with five, six, or seven molecules of water, or the amorphous anhydrous salts obtained by ignition, were employed. The best mode of operating in order to obtain [good crystals is briefly as follows. A quantity of ammonium sulphate is placed in an ordinary porcelain crucible; over this is then laid an intimate mixture of ammonium sulphate with one-third its weight of the metallic sulphate required. The crucible, covered by its lid, is then inclosed together with a packing of sand within a Hessian crucible, which is afterwards placed in a muffle furnace and heated until the sulphate of ammonia has all escaped. The heating should then be at once discontinued in order to prevent decomposition of the metallic sulphate. After cooling, if the heating has been carefully conducted, the residual metallic sulphate is found to be crystalline throughout, and to consist largely of single well-formed crystals. The result is particularly good in the case of zinc sulphate. If quantities of about twenty grams of anhydrous zinc sulphate are employed, colourless octahedrons two and a half millimetres long may be obtained. These crystals only dissolve with extreme slowness in cold water, but are much more rapidly dissolved upon warming. Sulphate of copper treated in a similar manner yields prismatic needles of the anhydrous salt. These crystals present a pale grey appearance, but on being left exposed to the air for a few days they assume first a green tint and subsequently pass over to the ordinary pentahydrated blue salt. Unlike the crystals of anhydrous zinc sulphate, they are rapidly dissolved by cold water, forming the usual blue solution. The crystals of anhydrous sulphate of cobalt prepared in like manner consist of brilliant red octahedrons, which are apparently unaltered by exposure to the air, and which are only slightly attacked by water even when boiling. Still more remarkable are the green crystals of anhydrous nickel sulphate obtained by the above mode of preparation, for these crystals, so unlike the readily soluble hydrated sulphate, are prac tically insoluble both in cold and boiling water. This last instance affords a striking example of the influence of water of crystallization upon the solubility of a salt.

1

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include an Entellus Monkey (Semnopithecus entellus 8) from India, presented by Dr. Wm. Eames and Dr. Earle, R.N.; —Owl (Pseudoscops_grammicus) from Jamaica, presented by the Trustees of the Jamaica Institute; a Green Conure (Conurus pavua) from Trinidad, presented by Mrs. Hill; two Sharp-nosed Crocodiles (Crocodilus acutus) from Central America, presented by Sir Henry Arthur Blake, K.C.M.G.; two Common Vipers (l'ipera berus), British, presented by Mr. A. Cotton, F.Z.S; an Orange-winged Amazon (Chrysotis amazonica); two Mississippi Alligators (Alligator mississip piensis) from South America, a Mantchurian Crossoptilon (Crossoptilon mantchuricum) from Northern China, four Spinytailed Mastigures (Uromastix acanthinuru) from North Africa, deposited; a Slow Loris (Nycticebus tardigradus) from Borneo, two Bar-breasted Finches (Munia nisoria) from Java, two Mute Swans (Cygnus olor), European, purchased; an Angora Goat (Capra hircus var.), born in the Gardens.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. OBSERVATIONS OF THE SPECTRUM OF NOVA AURIG.E.-Dr. Henry Crew, in Astronomy and Astro-Physics for March, gives a general description of the visible spectrum of Nova Aurige on February 10 and 11, observed by him with a spectroscope attached to the 36-inch of the Lick Observatory. The positions of the following lines were determined by direct comparison with the lunar spectrum and the spark spectra of hydrogen and magnesium :

No. of line.

Description.

Probably C; very broad and bright in

prism; not seen in grating.

Faint, broad, diffuse.

Not quite so bright as 2, but broader; both 2 and 3 may be bright only in comparison with neighbouring ab sorption bands.

Yellow line, just below D.

Three very faint lines; difficult to say whether they are really bright lines or simply bright regions bounded by dark spaces.

Much more brilliant than any of the preceding; quite broad; much sharper on the upper side than the lower; nearly coincides with b. The most brilliant part of the continuous spectrum is terminated abruptly by this line.

Of about the same brilliancy as 8, and, like it, sharper on the upper side. About half as bright as 9.

Probably F; not less than 6 tenthmetres in width.

Hy? Wide and difficult to see.

A curve, showing the intensities of the lines as seen with a prism, accompanies this description. Prof. Young has determined the positions of twelve bright lines in the Nova spectrum (Astronomical Journal, No. 258). The wave-lengths are as follow: 4340 (Hy), 449, 4861 (F), 4922, 5015, 5165, 5260, 5304, 559, 590 (D?), 632, 6563 (C). A faint line was also glimpsed below C, and another-probably h-above G. The lines at 4922 and 5015 are believed not to be nebular lines. Those at 559 and 632 are possibly coincident with the two principal lines in the aurora spectrum.

DENNING'S COMET (b 1892).—Edinburgh Circular No. 25 contains the following elements and ephemeris of Denning's comet, computed by Dr. R. Schorr :

22

22

22

4 45 13 41 2 23 7 59 14 316 DISPLACEMENT OF RADIANT POINTS.-The late Dr. J. Kleiber left behind him a paper "On the Displacement of the Apparent Radiant Points of Meteor Showers due to the Attraction, Rotation, and Orbital Motion of the Earth." The paper appears in the March number of Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. The three principal causes of displacement mentioned in the title are treated separately, and the theory is illustrated by a consideration of the Perseid and Andromedid radiants. More than twenty years ago Schiaparelli developed formulæ for determining the amount of displacement of a radiant point due to the attraction of the earth. The effect of the attraction is to diminish the zenith-distance of every radiant and leave its azimuth unchanged. The corrections to be applied to the co-ordinates of the Perseid and Andromedid radiants on account of this disturbing cause were computed by Dr. Kleiber, and are given in his paper. It is shown that the latter swarm affords a good example of the displacement of a radiant due to the attraction of our planet. The rotation of the earth produces a small aberration of radiants, never amounting to more than 1 in the latitude of Greenwich. With regard to the earth's orbital motion, Dr. Kleiber found that it is sufficient to explain the displacement of 57° in right ascension, and 10° in declination, observed by Mr. Denning in the case of the Perseid swarm. And, after the proper corrections have been applied, it appears that of the forty-nine radiants catalogued by Mr. Denning as belonging to the Perseid shower, forty-six lie within a circle described about the cometary radiant with a radius of 2°." This important result settles definitely the question as to the reality of the shift of radiant points.

TWO NEW VARIABLES IN CEPHEUS.-Mr. Paul S. Yendell, in the Astronomical Journal, No. 258, communicates the discovery of two variables of long period in Cepheus. One of them, D. M. 50° 2769, has a range of variation of a full magnitude (58 mag, to 6'8 mag.) in about a year. An interesting point is that "the star is apparently subject, especially near its maxima, to sudden and considerable fluctuations in light, often amounting to several steps from one night to the next.' The star No. 8594 of Chandler's "List of Stars probably Variable' has been proved to be variable. The period is about 348 days, and the light-range about o 7 mag., from 6'2 mag. to 6'9 mag. ON THE VARIATION IN LATITUDE.-At the Paris Academy on March 28, M. Faye said :—“The question of the variability of latitudes has lately occupied the minds of astronomers and geodetists to a large extent. The Academy will hear with interest that this question appears to be settled in the affirmative by some observations that the Geodetical Association has recently had made at Honolulu. Whilst at Berlin, Prague, and Strasburg, the latitude increased o" 04 from June to September, and afterwards decreased o"I or o" 2 to December, and then diminished o"13 to January, at Honolulu it varied in the opposite direction-that is, it fell about o"3 from June to September, and increased o" 13 from December to January."

THE INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS.

THE annual spring meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects was held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week, the President, the Earl of Ravensworth, occupying the chair during the whole of the sittings excepting that of Thursday evening, when Admiral Sir John Hay presided. The programme was not quite so long as usual, the Council of the Institution having come to the conclusion-wisely, we thinkthat it would be more desirable to have fewer papers and devote more time to their respective consideration. As it is now settled that the Institution is always to hold two meetings in the year, there is a chance of relief to what was always a congested programme when the business of the whole year was crowded into a single session. Where the summer meeting is to be held this year is not yet settled, but it is to be hoped that some place in

the provinces will be selected, as it is right that the great shipbuilding centres of the Kingdom, of which London is not one, should be visited by the leading shipbuilding institution.

The following is a list of the papers read, in the order in which they were taken :-On divisional water-tight bulkheads as applied to steamers and sailing-vessels, by B. Martell, Chief Surveyor Lloyd's Register of Shipping; on steadying vessels at sea, by J. I. Thornycroft; notes on some recent experiences with H.M. ships, by W. H. White, C. B., F.R.S.; a ram vessel and the importance of rams in war, by Commander E. B. Boyle, R. N.; whale-back steamers, by F. C. Goodall; on an approximate rule for the vertical position of the centre of buoyancy, by S. W. F. Morrish; on balancing marine engines and the vibration of vessels, by A. F. Yarrow; some notes on the strength of steamers, by A. Denny; on the transverse stability of ships, and a rapid method of determining it, by W. Hök; notes on experiments with inflammable and explosive atmospheres of petroleum vapour, by J. H. Heck; on the theoretical effect of the race rotation on screw propeller efficiency, by R. E. Froude; performance of three sets of engines belonging to the second-class cruisers recently added to H.M. Navy, as calculated from the full-power steam trials, by Mr. J. G. Liversidge, R. N.

It is evident that the space at our command will not permit us to give anything approaching a full description of a meeting that occupied five sittings, some of them of over four hours' duration; and we will therefore concentrate our attention upon those points more especially within our scope. Mr. Martell's paper was one of great value, but it was treated from a purely constructive point of view. There are, it may be remarked in passing, some very nice mathematical and physical considerations involved in the study of the theory of bulkheads. This was pointed out by Dr. Elgar during the discussion, but up to the present we are not aware that the matter has been approached in a philosophic spirit. Before that can be done, certain experimental data must be obtained, and it will then remain for the mathematician to apply the canons of his science to the elucidation of the problems involved.

So

Mr. Thornycroft's paper on the steadying of vessels at sea was an account of some investigations and experiments carried out by one of our most scientific and careful mechanical engineers. Mr. Thornycroft has a steam-yacht, the Cecile, of 230 tons displacement. With this vessel he proceeded to make experiments with a view to reducing the rolling motion in a sea-way. The Cecile, it should be stated, is a bad roller, or, rather, a difficult vessel to prevent from rolling, as she has large metacentric height and a flat floor; in other words, she has considerable stability. In this vessel Mr. Thornycroft fitted, under the cabin floor, a shaft, which was free to turn completely round its axis, and to this was keyed a mass of ballast weighing 8 tons. The shaft had a crank, which was actuated by an hydraulic motor. In this way the ballast could be moved out from the centre line of the ship, so as to counteract the rolling motion. The movement of the weight had naturally to be provided for by some automatic arrangement, and this was supplied by a short-period pendulum placed near the centre of gravity of the ship, and actuating the valves of the motor. far, all is simple enough, but here the difficulties commence. The inertia of the heavy mass of ballast will cause some loss of time, as only a limited force could be used for its control, and Mr. Thornycroft sets himself the task of overcoming this difficulty. He therefore introduced a second pendulum, of long period, which tends to move the ballast in an opposite direction to the first pendulum, and this enables the apparatus to discriminate between the angular motion of the water and that of the vessel. Mr. Thornycroft found, however, that the long-period pendulum is rather a delicate instrument, and its function can best be served by a cataract arranged to always slowly return the ballast to the centre. This device has the effect of accelerating the phase of motion, which in some cases is required. Unfortunately, at this point Mr. Thornycroft's description breaks off. The mechanism by which the motion of the pendulum is made to govern the movement of the weight was described by Mr. Beauchamp Tower, who has seen it in operation, as "the greatest intellectual treat to all who appreciated the niceties of mechanical design." This intellectual treat was denied to the members of the Institution, for the mechanism was not described further than that it was an electrical device. Those, however, who have attempted to work with pendulums on board