on that night made the distance only 0.14 in the position angle 270°.5. The two components seem to be of the same brightness, each being rated at 6.9 magnitude. The Harvard Photometry gives the star, which is 190 Draconis B., the magnitude 5.4. Although the system possesses no sensible proper motion, it belongs to the type of stars in which rapid orbital motion is to be expected. May, 1906.

R. G. AITKEN.

NEW MEMBERS OF THE STAFF OF THE SOLAR OBSERVATORY.

Dr. HENRY G. GALE, recently Instructor in Physics at the Ryerson Laboratory of the University of Chicago, joined the staff of the Solar Observatory in February last. Dr. GALE'S principal work will be in the spectroscopic laboratory on Mount Wilson, where he is carrying on various investigations on arc and spark spectra as related to the spectra of Sunspots. For several years Dr. GALE has been assisting Professor MICHELSON in his optical investigations, and has thus acquired an experience which will prove of great service in his new work.

Dr. H. K. PALMER, who has recently returned from Chile, where he assisted Mr. WRIGHT in the spectroscopic work of the Mills Expedition of the Lick Observatory, has just joined the staff of the Solar Observatory. Dr. PALMER will for a time assist Mr. ABBOT in his studies of the solar constant, and subsequently take up bolometric investigations of the Sun with the Snow telescope. His acquaintance with reflecting telescopes, derived from his work with the Crossley reflector, as Professor KEELER'S assistant, and his subsequent work in South America should render him a valuable member of our staff. GEORGE E. HALE.

PERSONAL NOTES.

Mr. SEBASTIAN ALBRECHT, fellow in the Lick Observatory during the past three years, received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in Astrophysics, at the May commencement of the University of California. The titles of his theses are:

1. A Spectrographic Study of the Fourth Class Variable Stars Y Ophiuchi and T Vulpeculae.

2. On the Distortion of Photographic Films on Glass. During the coming academic year, Dr. ALBRECHT will be an assistant in the Lick Observatory, on the D. O. Mills foundation, continuing the measurement and reduction of spec

trograms obtained by the Mills Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere.

Mr. GEORGE F. PADDOCK, post graduate student in the McCormick Observatory, University of Virginia, has been appointed assistant in the Lick Observatory, with duties at Santiago, Chile, assisting Astronomer HEBER D. CURTIS, in charge of the Mills Expedition. Mr. PADDOCK sails from New York on June 30th.

Dr. HAROLD K. PALMER, successively Fellow in the Lick Observatory and Assistant on the D. O. Mills foundation in Chile, and on Mount Hamilton, has resigned to accept a position on the staff of the Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution on Mount Wilson. Dr. PALMER goes with the good will and best wishes of all the residents of Mount Hamilton.

Mr. Roscoe F. SANFORD, B.S., University of Minnesota, 1905, has been appointed as Carnegie Assistant in the Lick Observatory, with duties in the Meridian Circle Department, · under Professor TUCKER'S direction.

W. W. CAMPBELL.

SMITHSONIAN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT WILSON.

Mr. CHARLES G. ABBOT, Aid acting in charge of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, has arrived at Mount Wilson, and will continue the study of the solar constant which he commenced here last year. During the winter the numerous bolographs and pyrheliometer measures made last summer have been reduced at Washington, with extremely satisfactory results. In view of the high precision of these determinations of the solar constant, due to the excellence of the atmospheric conditions at Mount Wilson, it is hoped that the Smithsonian Institution will be able to continue this work through at least one full Sun-spot period.

GEORGE E. HALE.

AWARD OF THE DRAPER MEDAL TO DIRECTOR CAMPBELL.

The National Academy of Sciences has this year conferred the Draper Medal upon Dr. W. W. CAMPBELL, Director of the Lick Observatory. The medal was formally presented to Dr. CAMPBELL on April 17th, at a banquet given by President ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, to the members of the Academy and invited guests in Washington, D. C.

R. G. AITKEN.

GENERAL NOTES.

PRIZES OFFERED BY THE FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

The sum of 100,000 francs has been bequeathed by Madame GUZMAN to the French Academy of Sciences as a prize, to bear the name of the PIERRE GUZMAN Prize, in memory of her son, and to be awarded to one who shall discover means of communicating with some astral body other than the planet Mars. Forseeing that this prize will probably remain unclaimed for some time to come, provision has been made that the accumulating interest shall be used for prizes, also bearing the name PIERRE GUZMAN, to be awarded at intervals of five years to scholars, either French or foreign, who shall make important contributions to the Science of Astronomy. The year 1910 has been fixed upon as the date for the first award.

Other prizes offered by the Academy are: The LALANDE Prize (annual,) of 540fr. for the one making the most interesting observation or publishing the memoir most useful to the progress of astronomy.

The VALZ Prize (annual,) of 460fr. for the most interesting astronomical observation.

The G. DE PONTECOULANT Prize of 700fr. (biennial) to encourage researches in Celestial Mechanics, to be awarded in 1907.

The DAMOISEAU Prize of 2000fr. (triennial,) to be awarded in 1908, for a theory of the planet Eros, based on all known observations.

The JANSSEN Prize of a gold medal (biennial,) to be awarded in 1908, for a discovery or research embodying. important progress in physical astronomy.

THE PRESSURE OF LIGHT. The Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution last week was given by Professor J. H. POYNTING, whose subject was "Some Astronomical Consequences of the Pressure of Light." The lecturer said. that the pressure of light-or rather of the whole range of radiation from the infra-red to the ultra-violet-which had been predicted by CLERK MAXWELL and proved to exist by the experiments of NICHOLS and HULL and of LEBEDEW, constituted a new force that had to be reckoned with. Though apparently negligible in terrestrial affairs-the pressure on the Earth would amount to some 75,000 tons, which was a mere

nothing in comparison with the gravitational pull of the Sun -it might have considerable importance out in the solar system in regard to bodies which, though smaller than our planet, were yet much larger than those which composed the tails of comets. He considered a beam of light as a carrier of momentum, bearing with it a forward push which it was ready to impart to any body on which it impigned, and exerting a backward push on the source from which it had been radiated. He discussed the effects that arose on the supposition that either the source or the receiving surface was in motion, and examined the conditions, as to size and distance, in which the gravitational pull on masses of matter would be outbalanced by the pressure of the Sun's radiation. Taking the case of a comet, regarded as composed, to begin with, of a compact cloud of particles of various sizes, he pointed out that the coarser particles, as the comet revolved round the Sun, would get in front and the finer trail behind. After several hundred revolutions the finer dust would have drifted nearer the Sun, and, given time, the different sizes might become so scattered as to lose all appearance of connection with each other. There could be no doubt that this effect existed, if comets had the constitution they were now supposed to have, and its result must be that a comet would in time, undergo dissolution and ultimately end in the Sun. The Times of May 14th, 1906.

ASTRONOMER

Note

NEW ROYAL OF IRELAND. Following closely upon the appointment of Mr. F. W. DYSON to the post of Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astronomy, comes that of Mr. E. T. WHITTAKER to a similar position in the sister island. As the writer of the "Oxford Book" points out, both Mr. DYSON and Mr. WHITTAKER held. the Sheepshanks Astronomical Exhibition, Mr. WHITTAKER also an Isaac Newton Studentship, while Trinity College, Cambridge, numbers among its Fellows the Royal Astronomers of these three kingdoms.-Journal of the British Astro. Association.

The following notes have been taken from recent numbers of Science:

Rear-Admiral COLBY M. CHESTER, superintendent of the U. S. Naval Observatory, was placed on the retired list on February 28th. He will be retained in temporary active duty in the Bureau of Navigation. Rear-Admiral CHESTER Will be succeeded in charge of the Naval Observatory by RearAdmiral ASA WALKER.

Professor E. C. PICKERING, director of the Harvard Col

lege Observatory, has been elected a corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

Professor JAMES MILLS PEIRCE, who was appointed tutor in Harvard University in 1854, and has been Perkins professor of astronomy since 1885, died from pneumonia at his home in Cambridge on March 21st.

Mr. FEE writes, in a consular report, that the new standard time for India was adopted in Bombay, on January 1st, and is gradually overcoming the prejudice incident to a new departure. He further says: "The Indian standard time is in advance five hours and thirty minutes of Greenwich time, being nine minutes faster than Madras time, about twentyfour minutes slower than Calcutta time, and about thirtynine minutes faster than Bombay local mean time, the longitude of the city of Bombay being 72° 52' east of Greenwich. Five hours and thirty minutes advance of Greenwich time would be the local mean time for longitude 82° 30' east of Greenwich. This parallel of longitude passes through India at about the eastern mouth of the Godavery River in the Bay of Bengal, and near Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, on the Ganges River. It is the local mean time of this parallel that now sets the standard of time for all India.'

Dr. ANDING, professor in the University of Munich, has been appointed director of the observatory at Gotha.

Dr. PAUL GUTHNICK, of Bothkamp, has been appointed astronomer in the Royal Observatory at Berlin.

The next meeting of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, will be held at New York, in affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, during convocation week, 1906-7.

The Observatore Romano officially announces that the Rev. JOHN GEORGE HAGEN, director of the observatory at Georgetown University, is in Rome, and will be appointed director of the Vatican Observatory.

Dr. JOHN ANTHONY MILLER, professor of Mechanics and Astronomy, in Indiana University since 1895, has resigned in order to accept the professorship of Mathematics and As tronomy in Swarthmore College.