Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/72

 complement to Argelander's ' Uranametria nova ' of the northern sky, was undertaken, and carried well toward corapiation, and published with alur-chftrts in 187t>, giving the estimated brightness of all southern stars, visible without telescopic aid, in about seventy grades of brilliancy. The observations for this work were made by the naked eye, or with ordinary binoc- ular field-glasses, and entirely by the assislantB; Dr. Gould's near- sighted ueas pre- venting his shar- ing Immediately In the work, al- though he di- rected and over- looked ilB execu- tion with the

��The i

��efuli

���derstand the

determination of the position of stitrs observed in successive belts around the shy, every star being noted as it crosses the Held of a meridian-circle tele- scope, were begun in August. 1872, and completed in l(tl5. lu these, every one of the original tele- scopic observations was made by Dr. Gould; and they numbered over 10(i,000. Since 1675 the work o( computation, revision, and publication, has occu- pied eight years, until now the finished catalogue is before us; and Dr. Gould ma; proudly feel his am- bition satisfied in ending so well the work begun in outline by Lacaiile with his little telescope at the Cape of Good Hope over one hundred years ago.

Among the younger men who have shared in Dr. Gould's labors at Cordoba, only one has remained with him through the many yean since its beginning.

��which the second view, of Cordoba in the valley of the Rio Priniero, is taken. The overshadowing of the town by the churches is characteristic of the place.

NOTES AND NEWS.

recommendatioD of the inference, a series of observations for latitude is to be made at the U. S. naval ob- servatory, which,

tion with a slmi-

eleewhere, aud compared with

made after an interval of some years, will assist iTonv AT coanuBA. j^ determining

whether there are any alow changes taking place in latitudes upon the earth. Lisbon, which is very near the same par- allel as Washington, is expected to co-operate with the naval observatory. The observations will be made with the prime vertical instrument; and at Washington a llne-o£cer of the navy will be detailed for the work, which will probably require several

— Prof. F. H. Snow o( the University of Kansas reports that only two Decembers (In IST2 and 1876) ill the past seventeen years were colder than that just passed. It was the cloudiest December upon record, and the precipitation of rain and anow was more than fifty per cent above the average. Ice formed upon the Kaw Biver to the thickness of thl

���I

��We feel sure from the treijuenl mention, in the annals of the observatory, of the faithful services of Mr. John H. Thome, that the director will gladly see the name of this assistant associated with his own in our brief notice of the work they have accomplished together. The first of the accompanying cuts, reproduced from sketches by a former assistant, shows the obser- vatora and thv director's house on the barranca, Irom

��— The fifteenth annual meeting of the Wisconsin academy of sciences, held at Hadison from Dec. 29 lo Dec. 31, was unusually well attended. The academy expects to have suitable rooms assigned it in the cap- Itol. on the completion of the additions to that build- ing, in which its libraryandcoIIectioDscan be properly placed. The latter has become doubly valuable since the destruction of the scientific collections of the

�� �