II. Development of the Photographic Method.-Conditions required to obtain accurate results. Proofs that observed motions are correct. Conditions other than motion affect results.

III. Results Obtained for Individual Stars (general consideration of the solar-motion problem).-Comparison of results obtained at different observatories. Accuracy attainable for stars of various magnitudes and spectral types. Velocities of groups of stars in different areas of the sky. Introduction to the solar-motion problem.

IV. Proper Motion Determinations of the Motion of the Solar System. -Consideration of the principal methods and results. Systematic motions of the stars.

V. Spectrographic Determinations of the Solar Motion.-Advantages of the method. Development of theory. Selection of materials for solution of problem. Recent results for direction and speed of solar motion.

VI. Other Products of the Spectrographic Method.-Systematic motions of the stars. Orders of magnitude of stellar velocities and average velocity. Relation between brightness and velocity. Distances of the

stars.

VII. Visual and Spectrographic Double Stars.-Visible double stars, introductory to invisible double and multiple stars discovered by means of the spectrograph. Discovery and study of spectroscopic binary stars. VIII. Spectrographic Study of Variable Stars (general consideration of stellar problems).—Application of radial-velocity method to study of variable stars. Current and future problems of the stellar system.

Presentation of the Gold Medal. The annual general meeting of the Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society was held February 11th at Burlington House. The President, Sir DAVID GILL, was in the chair. Professor FRIEDRICH KÜSTNER, of the Royal Observatory, Bonn, to whom the Council awarded the gold medal of the society, was present. The president said the gold medal had been awarded to Professor KÜSTNER for his catalogue of stars, his pioneer determination of the aberration constant from motions in the line of sight, and his detection of the variation of latitude. Astronomy in one sense or another appealed to minds of widely different orders. To the mathematician it offered problems of infinite interest; but, as they all knew, there had been most distinguished workers in the field of astrodynamics to whom the spectacular glories of the heavens did not appeal to whom the first sight of an object like Saturn or a great star cluster as viewed through a good telescope brought no thrill, no insatiable desire to see more, or to acquire or devise means for so doing. Such men were too apt to regard the art of observing as a mere mechanical operation that was unworthy of their practical study. But they were thus frequently placed in the position of having to employ observations about which they had not the capacity to distinguish between the good and the bad. There was a larger number of persons who were not wanting in the

emotional response to their first telescopic sight of celestial objects; some of them acquired, or were driven to construct, instruments to indulge their awakened curiosity; and not a few of them afterwards did useful work as astronomical observers. The attributes of the great majority of astronomers lay between these two extremes. But the number of men who possessed the true fire and natural capacity for the most refined original research in the field of astronomy was limited. Such men must have an inborn natural mathematical, mechanical, and manipulative aptitude; the critical faculty to discern the possible sources of error to which any class of observations might be liable, with the inventive capacity to devise means for their elimination; and that persistent patience and divine discontent with their own best efforts which alone could lead to the highest and most refined class of work. Their medallist was supremely a man of this latter type. (Hear, hear!) The greatest teacher of practical astronomy since the days of BESSEL was unquestionably WINNECKE, and he fully realized the fact that the true, practical astronomer was "born, not made." Their medallist was one of the first to enter the small but brilliant school conducted by WINNECKE at Strassburg, about forty years ago, and since then he had touched no department in the wide field of astronomical research which he did not adorn. (Hear, hear!)

After the presentation of the gold medal to Professor KÜSTNER, a number of interesting photographs and drawings of the comet, taken at Oxford, Cambridge, Dunsink, and other places were exhibited.— The Times, February 12, 1910.

Historical Note.-Mr. GEORGE MADEIRA, mineralogist and mining engineer of Healdsburg, California, has supplied me. with the following interesting information: "In the year 1860 I erected the first astronomical observatory and installed the first astronomical telescope in the State of California, at Volcano, Amador County, some 2,200 feet above the sea. The telescope, with its equatorial mounting and delicate clockwork motion, was made by TEBOURS & SECRETAN, of Paris, France. It was of only three inches aperture and the highest power was but 125. . . . I was a youth in 1860, and an enthusiast in astronomical studies. Professor TELERAND WAS my instructor, a thorough mathematician; and for two years, while he was with me, the Volcano Observatory ran day and night.... On June 30, 1861, a superb comet, unheralded, appeared in the west after the Sun had passed below the mountain ridge. I had been observing some large spots on the Sun and really saw the comet an hour before the Sun had set. I ran to TELERAND's home, shouting, 'I have discovered a huge

.

comet.' . . In an instant the telescope was turned on the comet, and the clockwork set in motion. We saw a large coma with a bright central nucleus, the coma in a violent state of ebullition. The Sun soon went down, and then we saw the luminous tail stretching backward across the heavens for 20,000,000 miles. . . . 'We are passing through the tail of the comet,' exclaimed Mr. TELERAND. . . . There was a golden glow, extending quite to the horizon's line both north and south. A few small meteors fell during the night, no other results being observable. We must have been in the line of the comet's tail for twenty-four hours, as on the succeeding night the golden halo was perceptible."

W. W. CAMPBELL.

Book Catalogue.-WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, booksellers and publishers, of 28 Essex Street, Strand, London, have recently issued a very comprehensive classified catalogue of manuscripts, books, and pamphlets on astronomy. There are over 3,600 entries in the catalogue, containing many rare books from the libraries of Captain W. NOBLE, E. CROSSLEY, Miss A. M. CLERKE, and A. A. COMMON. It is noticed that a complete set of the Astronomische Nachrichten now costs over $600. The price of the catalogue is one shilling.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

BERGSTRAND, ÖSTEN. Sur le mouvement du deuxième satellite d' Uranus, Umbriel. Uppsala and Stockholm. 1909. 8°. 19 pp. Paper.

BRENDEL, MARTIN. Theorie der kleinen Planeten. Zweiter Teil. Berlin. 1909. Folio. 192 pp. Paper.

CANNON, ANNIE J.

Maxima and minima of variable stars of long period. Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Vol. LV, Part II. Cambridge. 1909. Folio. 291 pp. Paper.

EVERSHED, JOHN. The spectrum of sunspots. Madras. 1909. Folio. 54 pp. Paper.

FAGERHOLM, ERIK. Undersökningar öfver stjärnhopen G. C.

341. Uppsala and Stockholm. 1909. 8°. 123 pp. Paper. KING, EDWARD S. Photographic magnitudes of seventy-six stars. Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol. LIX, No. V. Folio. Pp. 127-155. Paper.

Meridian-Beobachtungen von Sternen in der Zone 65°-70° nördlicher Declination. Von H. GEELMUYDEN and J. FR. SCHROETER. Kristiana. 1909. Folio. 320 pp. Paper. Neue Annalen der K. Sternwarte in München. Katalog von 1,436 Sternen, hauptsächlich Zenitsternen. München. 1999. Folio. 242 pp. Paper.

NORDLUND, J. O. Photographische Ausmessung des Sternhaufens Messier 37. Uppsala and Stockholm. 1909. 8°. 148 pp. Paper.

Observations of major planets made with the heliometer at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, during the years 1897 to 1904. Edinburgh. 1909. Folio. 87 pp. Paper. PICKERING, EDWARD C. Durchmusterung zones observed with. the 12-inch meridian photometer. Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Vol. LXX. ́ Cambridge. 1909. Folio. 23 pp. Paper. SAMPSON, RALPH ALLEN. A discussion of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, 1878-1903. Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Vol. LII, Part II. Cambridge. 1909. Folio. 343 pp. Paper.

STRATTON, F. J. M. The constants of the Moon's physical libration. Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. LIX, Part IV. London. 1910. Folio. Pp. 257-290. Boards.

WENDELL, OLIVER C. Photometric observations made with the 15-inch east equatorial during the years 1892 to 1902. Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Vol. LXIX, Part I. Cambridge. 1909. Folio. 97 pp. Paper.