been edited by Dr. Schlect, and published under the title Doctrina XII Apostolorum una cum antiqua Versione Latina prius partis de Duabus Viis. The manuscript is of the eleventh century, and suggests that the. original may have been of pre-Christian-Jewish origin, adapted to the uses of the composer of the Didache.

At Tel Sandahannah, the explorations of the Palestine Exploration Fund, under Dr. F. J. Bliss, have resulted in the discovery of figures and tablets which are regarded by the Orientalists who have examined them as connected with the practice of witchcraft. Sixteen nude figurines in lead of men and women having their hands and feet bound in complicated fetters and writhing in agony, supposed by Dr. Bliss to represent captives, are pronounced by M. Clermont-Ganneau to stand for persons against whom incantations were directed. About 50 small stone tablets in the Greek inscriptions are decided by Prof. Sayce to be magical charms and incantations. In their explanations the authors refer to the practice in the old magic of making a figure in wax (or in the other soft and readily melting substance, lead) of the person to be bewitched, and melting it before the fire or piercing it with needles or pins. Babylonian and Assyrian.-Three important discoveries in Babylon are announced in a pamphlet by Friedrich Delitzsch, Feb. 1, 1901: 1. The location of the Marduk temple, Esagila, described by Herodotus and referred to frequently in Babylonian inscriptions, under the mound known as Amram. 2. The great procession street which was rebuilt by Nebuchadrezzar and named Aiburshabu, of the pavement of which slabs of limestone have been found bearing the inscription, Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, son of Ñabopolassar, am I. The street of Babylon I have paved gloriously for the procession of the god Marduk, the great god, with tablets of limestone. O Lord Marduk, grant everlasting life!" The determination of the position of this street has also led to the determination of the position of the wall, Imgur-Bel, the great inner wall of Babylon. The third discovery is that of the temple E-neach, the sanctuary of the goddess Ninmach, the giver of fertility. It is in the ruin mound of Kasr, about the center of the Babylonian complex of ruin mounds.

The inscription on an obelisk which was erected as a boundary stone or "landmark," discovered at Susa, is cited by Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen as illustrating a highly civilized state of society existing in Chaldea in an extremely remote antiquity. The monument bears engraved upon it the title deeds of estates purchased by a certain Manishtusa or Manishturba, king of the city of Kish, one of the oldest city kingdoms of Chaldea; which show that a system was already established of relations between the king and his tenants, with fixed stipulations as to payments, provision of food, etc. The date of the deeds is estimated to be about 4500 B. C.

Below the remains of the structures of Sargon and Naramsin found by Prof. H. V. Hilprecht at Nippur and already mentioned in the Annual Cyclopædia, the excavators went through 31 feet of débris, representing a period of which we have as yet no knowledge. Antiquities were found belonging to that period which indicated that the arts had then already reached a high develop ment. Writing was in an advanced stage: and the workmanship displayed in the carving of some of the vases could well bear comparison with the best efforts of later art. The relics found here indicate, as a whole, to use the words of Prof. Hilprecht, that behind Sargon I and Naramsin

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there lies a long and uninterrupted chain of development covering thousands of years; and that these two powerful rulers of the fourth millennium before Christ, far from leading us back to the dawn of civilization, are at the best but two prominent figures from a middle chapter of the history of Babylonia." Notices have been found of about twelve kings who reigned before Sargon. An account of the educational system of the ancient Babylonians as revealed by certain tablets which are apparently of the nature of students' exercise books, has been contributed to the Society of Biblical Archeology by Mr. T. G. Pinches. In the system of study thus indicated as followed by young students were found the single wedge corresponding to the "pothooks and hangers of modern days, lists of characters, extracts from bilingual lists and syllabaries, practice in writing names of men and countries, together with titles of officials, phrases used in trade documents, and extracts from legends, which seem to have furnished, as it were, the finish to a certain course of study. Other scribes wrote out, as practice, extracts from various bilingual lists-wooden objects, lists of plants, vessels, etc., preceded by an extract from an incantation and perhaps from a list of temples. Mr. Pinches had succeeded in identifying one of the tablets written out by an ancient Babylonian student and found that it was part of an incantation invoking the aid of the god Ea to restore to health a person suffering from some disorder. The tablet contained some curious and interesting expressions, particularly in that part of it called the Prayer of Life. The afflicted man was to be relieved by the food which was placed near his head, so that he might live and his foot might “stand on the ground of life." He was the son of his god, an expression connected by the late George Bertin with the of God of Gen. vi, 2, which he regarded as explaining the biblical passage referred to This man, therefore, being one of the faithful, the eye which looked at him ill was seemingly to be cast down. (This part of the tablet is defective.)

sons

From the enormous number of baked-clay tablets and fragments from the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon preserved in the British Museum, a selection is to be made, under the authority of the trustees of that institution, of all the texts relating to legends concerning the creation of the world and the mythical origins and deeds of some of the earliest and most famous kings of Mesopotamia, with a view to their publication in a collected edition. Since George Smith in 1876 called attention to resemblances between parts of these legends and some passages in the early chapters of Genesis, several renderings of them have appeared in English, French, and German, and much attention has been given to the study of them in America. The text used by Mr. Smith in his work, after his death lost sight of for twenty-five years, and only recently identified, will be published for the first time in this collection.

Mashonaland.-Dr. Carl Peters has been for the last two years, or since 1899, when previous accounts of his work were published, exploring the country between Zambesi and Sabi (Zambesia or Mashonaland), and reports that he has been able to ascertain that all the ancient ruins about the eastern border of Mashonaland apparently belong to the same class of civilization. He has everywhere found the same type of ruins, with the evelopean wall as the typical form of house-building; while in some parts whole cities of these buildings are easily found. Artificial water furrows are still existent in parts of the region. Not only are all old workings on gold mines generally

found in the neighborhood of these ruins, but Dr. Peters discovered during the summer of 1901 a series of ancient copper mines along the eastern bank of the upper Sabi. From all the evidence discovered in the explorations, from the occurrence of symbols of phallus worship from the Zambesi down to the Sabi, and from other results, the author is led to believe that the ancient conquerors belonged to a Semitic race; and that the repeated appearance of the names of Massapa, Umsapa, Rusapi, Sabi, etc., makes it highly probable that they were Sabeans, a race very nearly related to the Phenicians of the Mediterranean. Thus the views of Theodore Bent and other explorers before Dr. Peters are confirmed. Two stones with old inscriptions, not yet deciphered, have been found in Manicaland.

Arabian.-In a discussion of the age of the south Arabian Minæan kingdom, Otto Weber agrees in general with Glaser and Hommel as to the antiquity of the inscriptions, and endeavors to prove that the kingdom antedated that of the Sabeans, reaching its highest point of prosperity about 1000 B. C. At this time the Minæans had the commerce of southern Arabia in their hands, while by means of a colony in the northern part of Arabia, Musri, frequently confounded in the Bible with Egypt, they were in close commercial intercourse with Mesopotamia. The author believes that the Minæan inscriptions carry us back at least as far as 1200 B. C. It follows, of course, that the Minæan alphabet was developed much earlier. The Minæan kingdom lasted till about 600 B. C., when it was overthrown by the Sabeans. The same subject is discussed by Lidzbarski (Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik) from the epigraphic point of view. This author, in opposition to Hommel, who supposed the Minæan script to be the parent of the Phenician, reaches the conclusion that the south Arabian script was derived directly from the north Semitic or Phenician, and that the oldest specimens of it can not antedate 800 B. C. Discussing the forms of the letters of the Siloam inscription at Jerusalem, Lidzbarski concludes, on epigraphical grounds, that it is very ancient, as was at first supposed, and not of the Herodian period, as has recently been claimed.

Chinese Turkestan.-Discoveries of manuscripts and other ancient inscribed documents made by Dr. M. A. Stein, of the Indian Educational Service, in Chinese Turkestan, promise to be of considerable importance for the history of that part of central Asia. Both the languages and the alphabets of the documents are, for the most part, Indian in character, but examples of Chinese are not wanting, as well as of some nonAryan language which has not yet been identified. The manuscripts found at Dandin-Uilig, Sven Hedin's Ancient City of Taklamakan, were chiefly written in the alphabet known as Central Asian Brahmi, and seem to represent a period extending from about the fifth to the eighth century of the Christian era. Excavations made farther to the east of the desert, in the district once watered by the river Nya, which now loses itself in the sands, have brought to light, among other interesting objects, hundreds of wooden tablets inscribed with Kharoshti characters and often dated in years of the reigning sovereign. Both the language and the alphabet of these tablets are those of the Indo-Scythic princes of the first century A. D.; and it seems probable that the ancient civilization of the district was overwhelmed by the sand at that period. Only a general account of Dr. Stein's work has yet been received.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, a federal republic in South America. The legislative power is vested in the national Congress, consisting of a Senate of 30 members, 2 from each province and from the federal district, and a House of Deputies containing 133 members elected for four years by the people directly. The President is elected for six years by electoral colleges having twice the number of members in each province that there are of Senators and Deputies combined. The President is Julio A. Roca, elected in 1898. The VicePresident, whose function is to preside over the Senate, is Norberto Quirno Costa. The Cabinet at the beginning of 1901 contained the following members: Secretary of the Interior, Dr. Felipe Yofre; Secretary of Foreign and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Dr. Amancio Alcorta; Secretary of Finance, Dr. Osvaldo Magnasco; Secretary of War, Col. Pablo Ricchieri; Secretary of the Navy, Commodore Martin Rivadavia; Secretary of Agriculture, Dr. Martin Garcia Merou; Secretary of Public Works, Dr. Emilio Civit.

The

Area and Population. The republic is divided into 14 provinces and 9 territories having a total area of 1,319,247 square miles, and a population in 1895 of 4,094,911, estimated to have increased in 1899 to 4,569,000. Buenos Ayres, the capital, had 806,613 inhabitants in 1900. number of immigrants in 1899 was 111,083, including 53,295 Italians, 19,732 Spaniards, 2,449 French, 1,686 Russians, 950 Austrians, 732 Germans, 477 English, and 344 Swiss; emigration, 62,241. The foreign residents in 1895 numbered 886,895, of whom 492,636 were Italians, 198,685 Spaniards, 94,098 French, 21,788 British, 17,143 Germans, 14,789 Swiss, 12,803 Austro-Hungarians, 2,269 Portuguese, and 32,184 of other nationalities. There were 105,000 immigrants in 1900.

Finances.-The revenue in 1899 was $45,676,-* 189 in gold and $61.419,990 in paper, and the expenditure was $30,860,817 in gold and $103,887,458 in paper. The revenue in 1900 was estimated at $45,981,735 in gold and $67,122,000 in paper, and expenditure at $32,946,813 in gold and $95,447,513 in paper. The budget estimate of revenue for 1901 was $37,991.000 in gold and $62.300.000 in paper. Of the gold revenue $28,000,000 come from import duties, $2,800,000 from export duties, $2,645,000 from port and navigation dues, $460,000 from consular fees and fines, and $4,086,000 from debt service. Of the revenue collected in paper $15,000,000 come from the spirit duty, $11,300,000 from the tobacco duty, $8,500,000 from duties on wine, sugar, and matches, $1,600,000 from duties on beer and other articles, $5.300,000 from sanitary works, $1,800.000 from the land tax, $8.400.000 from stamps and licenses, $4,900,000 from posts and telegraphs, $540,000 from land sales and leases, $3,570,000 from railroads, and $1,390.000 from other sources. The expenditures for 1901 were estimated at $25.981,543 in gold, of which $283.941 were for foreign affairs. $24.487.214 for debt, $10,388 for the navy, and $1,200,000 for extraordinary and unforeseen expenses; and at $88.399.249 in paper, of which $16.938,096 were for the Interior Department and Congress, $1.257.840 for foreign and ecclesiastical affairs, $7.826.636 for financial administration, $11.977.250 for debt. $11,685,938 for justice and education, $13.223.370 for the army, $9,529.764 for the navy. $1.438.220 for agriculture, $6,599,765 for public works, $3,458,370 for pensions, and $4,464,000 for extraordinary expenses.

The debt on June 30, 1900, amounted to £87,575,508, including £6.345,000 of bonds held by the Government. Of the total £45.738.708 were national loans, £31,891,657 provincial and other

loans assumed by the Central Government, and £9,945,143 cedulas. All the provincial debts have been exchanged for 4-per-cent. national bonds. The provincial and municipal budgets added to the national budget make a total expenditure estimated in 1897 at $193,846,534.

The Army and Navy.-The regular army is recruited by voluntary enlistment. If the recruits are not sufficient the law of Nov. 23, 1895, gives power to the Government to draw men by lot, who are obliged to serve four years unless they furnish substitutes. Another class is composed of conscripts who are drawn for one year and trained for sixty days or longer, according to the needs of the service. Besides these all male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five belong to the National Guard, divided into the active, reserve, and territorial sections, and numbering about 472,000 men altogether. The active army in time of peace consists of 12 regiments of infantry, 1 battalion of mountain troops, 11 regiments of cavalry, 4 regiments of field artillery, 2 regiments of mountain artillery, 1 regiment of engineers, 1 brigade of pontonniers, 1 brigade of sappers and miners, 1 brigade of railroad troops, and I brigade of telegraphists. The infantry is armed with Mauser rifles of 7.65 caliber, with 5 cartridges in the magazine; the cavalry, with carbines of the same system; the artillery, with 7.5 Krupp rapidfiring guns. The peace strength in 1900 was 1,340 officers and 7,279 men.

The fleet in 1900 consisted of an armored coastguard, Almirante Brown, of 4,200 tons; 4 armored cruisers, built between 1896 and 1899-General San Martin, Pueyrredon, Belgrano, and Garibaldi, of 6,000 to 7,000 tons; 4 armored gunboats of various dates; 4 small protected cruisers; 7 unarmored first-class gunboats; 2 avisos; 2 schoolships; 6 destroyers constructed in 1896; and 12 first-class and 15 second-class torpedo-boats.

Commerce and Production. The value of imports in 1899 was $116,851,000. The principal articles imported were cotton cloths of the value of $18,319,000; iron manufactures, $18,077,000; woolens, $8,252,000; bagging and sail-cloth, $6,682,000; coal, $6,536,000; wood, $6,008,000; wine, $5,732,000; yerba-maté, $3,863,000; chemicals and drugs, $3,343,000; paper, $1,919,000. The total value of exports was $184,918,000. The principal articles were wool of the value of $72,284,000; cereals, $59,919,000; hides, $25,629,000; animals, $9,028,000; meat and meat products, $5,904,000; tallow, $2,206,000. The commerce was distributed among different countries as follows:

hay, 105,598 tons. In 1900 the exports of cattle declined to 150,550, sheep to 198,102; exports of frozen beef were 24,590 tons, of jerked beef 16,449 tons, and of frozen mutton 56,412 tons. The wool exports fell off to 101,113 tons. The exports of butter were 2,322,662 pounds. The shipments. of wheat were 1,929,676 tons; of corn, 223,357 tons; of linseed, 223,257 tons; of hay, 102,836 tons. The decline in the exports of live cattle was due to the fact that the ports of the United Kingdom were closed to animals from the Argentine Republic during the last eight months of the year on account of the foot-and-mouth disease. In the summer of 1901 the Argentine Government announced that the disease no longer existed in any part of the republic. Imports of sheep into Great Britain were interdicted for the same cause, but the sheepgrowing industry was already declining rapidly, as is indicated by the decrease in the wool exports. The exportation of jerked beef to Spanish-American countries has dwindled with the rise of the trade in frozen beef. The butter trade with Great Britain, in spite of the slight decrease in the exports, is likely to expand, because the Australian butter with which the Argentine product competes must travel twice the distance. The exports of wheat and corn from the Argentine Republic are so uncertain and variable that they exercise a disturbing influence on the world's markets. The exports of wheat in 1898 were 645,161 tons, and in 1897 only 101,845 tons. The corn exports in 1898 were 717,105 tons. The total value of imports in 1900 was $113,485,069, and of exports $154,600,412. Of the imports in this year 34 per cent. came from Great Britain, 15 per cent. from Germany, 13 per cent. from Italy, 12 per cent. from the United States, 9.5 per cent. from France, and 16.5 per cent. from other countries. Of the exports 15.5 per cent. went to Great Britain, 13 per cent. to Germany, 12 per cent. to France, 11.5 per cent. to Belgium, and 48 per cent. to other countries.

Navigation.-The number of vessels entered at Argentine ports during 1899 was 10,148, of 6,939,567 tons, of which 3,319, of 646,518 tons, were sailing vessels, and 6,829, of 6,293,049 tons, were steamers.

Railroads, Posts, Telegraphs.-The length of railroads in operation in 1900 was 10,595 miles. The capital expenditure was $526,616,661 in gold. The cost of the national lines was $56,331,063; of guaranteed lines, $113,311,995; of provincial lines, $83,859,062; of private lines, $257,141,178. The gross receipts in 1898 were $41,394,169 in gold; expenses, $19,117,118. The number of passengers carried in 1900 was 17,813,712; tons of freight, 12,725,657.

The post-office in 1898 carried 181,821,945 pieces of mail-matter in the internal and 34,630,224 in the international service; receipts were 7,318,989 francs; expenses, including telegraphs, 12,141,810 francs.

The telegraphs in 1900 had a length of 27,584 miles, with 58,656 miles of wire. The Government lines were 12,174 miles in length; provincial lines, 3,530 miles; railroad telegraphs, 10,190 miles; private lines, 1,690 miles; messages in 1897, 5,296,184.

Political Affairs.-The political situation in 1901 was dominated by the financial difficulties that have disturbed and partially checked the prosperous development of this productive country for many years. The commercial conditions were easier than they had been for three or four years, and the export trade was increasing when the Government brought forward a plan for the unification of the foreign debt that excited intense

opposition and distrust. A change in the Cabinet was made on March 21, when Capt. Onofre Betzeder was appointed Minister of Marine and Ezequiel Ramos Mejia Minister of Agriculture. When Congress assembled on May 3 the President stated in his message that the accounts for the preceding year practically balanced, the revenue having been $65,500,000 in gold and the expenditure only $200,000 in excess. The conversion fund amounted to $8,500,000, and would reach $15,000,000 by the end of the year. The unification project was announced, having for its chief object a reduction of the service of the floating debt. The resulting improvement in Government finances was expected to lead to more immigration and colonization. The bill was presented to Congress on June 11. It authorized the issue of gold consols up to the amount of $435,000,000, bearing 4 per cent. interest and redeemable in fifty years, the annual rate of amortization being one-half of 1 per cent. These were intended for the conversion of all or part of the existing debts whenever such conversion would benefit the Government. The new loan would be secured on the customs revenue, the Department of Customs having to deposit daily eight-tenths of 1 per cent. of its receipts for every $5,000,000 of bonds issued. The Senate gave its approval to the plan. In the Finance Commission of the House of Representatives it obtained a majority of a single vote. When the debate began the Opposition press and the hostile politicians stirred up wide-spread alarm. Students held excited meetings and smashed the windows of the Government newspaper organs. On July 3 they stoned the house of the President and assailed ex-President Pellegrini. Shots were exchanged with the police, who were unable to cope with the disturbance. Both houses of Congress having given consent, a state of siege was proclaimed on July 4 for six months. On July 5 the President sent a message to Congress withdrawing the unification bill. The Minister of Finance resigned, and Dr. Marco Avellaneda was appointed to the office on June 10. The popular excitement having subsided when its cause was removed, at the end of July the state of siege was abolished. Further Cabinet changes were the appointment of Señor Seru as Minister of Public Instruction and Justice on July 11, and of Dr. W. Escalante as Minister of Agriculture on July 17. The new Minister of Finance stated that, although the pressure of the external and internal floating debt made the condition of the treasury difficult, the revenue collected greatly exceeded the estimates, and the budget would close with a surplus. The Government was unwilling to repeal the conversion law, and would increase the conversion fund, which would not be diverted to any other use unless Chile compelled the Argentine Republic to purchase more war vessels in order to preserve its naval superiority, the fund being available for war purposes. The Patagonian boundary dispute between the Argentine Republic and Chile had been referred to arbitration. Pending the decision it was proposed by the Argentine Government that both nations should cease augmenting their war material. Chile agreed to this, but after the election of a new President in Chile the victorious party proposed to acquire a new battle-ship and two cruisers. The Argentine Government was determined in that case to make a like addition to its own navy, but after some correspondence the agreement for the maintenance of the naval status quo was renewed. A bill for emission of more paper money failed.

ARIZONA. (See under UNITED STATES.) ARKANSAS. (See under UNITED STATES.)

ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS IN 19001901. The advancement of astronomy in these two years has been progressive and satisfactory in all its branches. More especially is this true in its stellar, spectroscopic, and photographic departments. They furnish a record of progress and discovery that has not been equaled in a decade.

Eros.-The problem of the Sun's distance, which has baffled astronomers for two thousand years, has lately come close upon a solution. The most surprising thing about it is that it has been accomplished by a process never before dreamed of. The Earth's distance from the Sun being the base line by which the distances, magnitudes, velocities, etc., of all celestial objects are measured (except those of the Moon), it follows that its distance should be determined with mathematical exactness. Heretofore the only process known to ascertain the Sun's distance with any prospect of exactness was by the transits of Venus across the Sun's face. By her transit of June 3, 1769, the Sun's distance was computed to be 95,000,000 miles. By her transits in 1874 and 1882 the distance was reduced to 93,000,000, and by the new process to 92,850,000. This reduction of the Sun's distance has reduced the assumed distances and magnitudes of all the heavenly bodies except the Moon. These transits, however, occur at irregular periods, and therefore are not often available. They occur as follow: Once in eight years, then in one hundred and five and a half, then again in eight, then in one hundred and twenty-one and a half, then in eight, and one hundred and five and a half, and so on forever. The next will take place June 8, 2004, after an interval of one hundred and twenty-one and a half years. They always happen in December and June; the last was on Dec. 6, 1882.

On Aug. 13, 1898, Witt, of Berlin, discovered an asteroid, or planetoid, or minor planet (as they are variously called), revolving round the Sun, as do all the 465 now known that are between Mars and Jupiter. This one, however, which received the name Eros, revolves between the Earth and Mars, and can approach nearer the Earth than any heavenly body except the Moon. When it is in perihelion while the Earth is in aphelion, and rising when the Sun is setting, of course it will be on the meridian at midnight, and can approach the Earth within 35,000,000 miles. These favorable conditions are not often simultaneously fulfilled. They would have been, however, had the discovery been made four years earlier. The next will take place in 1930. But there was quite a favorable opposition in December, 1900; so near, in fact, as to allow the determination of its parallax. The nearer a planet approaches the Earth, the greater will be its parallax, and if this is exactly ascertained, Kepler's third law gives the distance of the Earth from the Sun, and from the other planets also. The distance from the Earth to this little speck of a world (supposed to be but 18 miles in diameter), when nearest, is 0.15 in terms of the Earth's distance from the Sun, while Venus in transit is 0.27, or almost twice as far.

Kepler's third law is: "The squares of the periodic times of the planets' revolution round the Sun are proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from him." In the latter part of December, 1900, the little planet was so near that two observers, one in New York and the other in California, obtained measurable angles, which gave its distance from the Earth's center, and so the great problem was solved without going to remote countries to observe the transits of Venus. As the little planet was as near the Earth as it

will be until 1930, astronomers are waiting with commendable patience for its next nearest approach, when the grand problem will be solved. The twentieth century was inaugurated by astronomical incidents and an amount of discussion rarely if ever equaled. Allusion is made to the variation in the light of the asteroid Eros, and the sudden outburst of a new first-magnitude star in the constellation Perseus. The variability of many stars and comets is well established; but that a dark planet which shines by reflected sunlight should vary in brilliance is a mystery too deep for solution. More than 465 little planets have been discovered revolving round the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, and Eros is the only one in which variation in light has been certainly detected, except their periodical variation by change in distance from the Earth and the Sun. When the novelty was first announced, it was ascribed to chance, or more probably to error of observation. Three different theories have been advanced to account for it, viz., (1) that the little planet is double, the components revolving round each other parallel to our line of sight, as do many of the double stars that alternately occult each other; (2) that two asteroids may have collided and adhered to each other, forming an object resembling a dumb-bell. If this object rotated in 5h 16m, the light changes could be explained; (3) this supposes that the little planet, only about 18 miles in diameter, has on its surface two bright and two dark spots, at or near its equator, its rotation on its axis presenting to the Earth alternately its bright and dark spots. The first and second theories are the only ones that appear tenable. The most plausible, and the one that explains what is observed, is that periodically it is occulted by something that cuts off a portion of its light, the phenomenon being visible from the Earth only when the rotatory motion of the occulting object is parallel, or nearly so, to our line of sight. This not only explains the cause of the variation, but also its beginning and cessation. If, as Prof. Pickering remarks, the variation is caused by its rotation, it is possible, from measures of its light, to determine the time of rotation and the direction of its axis in space. The fact that its successive maxima and minima are of unequal intensity, and that the intervals between them are of variable length, would seem to discountenance the first hypothesis-that the two sides are unequally dark. The variability of the light of the planet is shown by the trails on plates taken in 1893 and 1894, and particularly so on those taken in 1896. In February, 1901, the range of variability amounted to two magnitudes,, and on May 6 it was inappreciable." Prof. Wendell, of Harvard Observatory, argues that "if the variations were caused by markings on the surface, it could scarcely have sunk to zero so suddenly." In 1903 the asteroid will again be in opposition and situated as when its light mutations were first observed.

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Double, Triple, and Binary Stars. To the naked eye all the stars are single, but when ex amined with modern telescopes several thousand are found to be double or triple. It is possible for a star to appear double when one component happens to be almost exactly behind the other. If no motion of revolution around each other is detected after years of observation, they are called "optically double stars." But such instances are not common. If a motion of revolution of the pair is detected, they are called "physically double," or "binaries," and of these there are two kinds, telescopic and spectroscopic. Several thousand telescopic binaries have been discovered.

In Vol. I (1900) of the publications of the Yerkes Observatory, at Williams Bay, Wis., is a catalogue of 1,290 double stars discovered and micrometrically measured by the greatest living double-star discoverer, Prof. Sherburne W. Burnham, F. R. A. S., whose work was recognized by the Royal Astronomical Society of England when it awarded him its gold medal in 1894.

In a catalogue recently issued, 2,000 are published, all southern pairs. Prof. Aitkin, of Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, Cal., publishes a list of 62 pairs lately discovered with the 12-inch telescope at that observatory, all having been reobserved with the 36-inch, and compared with Burnham's list. The list is a continuation of a previous list of double stars discovered there. Generally the telescopic binaries are of long periods, but how long never has been ascertained. One of long period is Castor, generally considered to be at least one thousand years. Both components are self-luminous suns like ours. At least 30 telescopic binaries are known to have periods of less than one hundred years. The five shortest are Kappa Pegasi, 11.12 years; Delta Equulei, 11.43 years; Xi Sagittarii, 18.85 years; Rho Argus, 22 years; and 85 Pegasi, 24 years. One of the most interesting of the double stars is Sirius, the dog-star, remarkable as having been pronounced a binary years before it was discovered to be one, by its vibratory motion—a striking instance of the refinements of modern astronomical observations. A very interesting triple star is Gamma Andromeda, a bright star that has a double companion revolving around it; period unknown.

Until recent times there was no way of ascertaining whether there might not be others, too close to be divided by the telescope. The principles involved in the phenomena observed in the resolution of spectroscopic binaries needs some preliminary explanation. Should a spectroscope be pointed to a star, it gives a spectrum resembling a piece of a rainbow, crossed by many dark lines. If a photograph of the lines be taken, and after a time another, and the lines do not agree exactly, it indicates that they are formed from two stars instead of from one only. It also indicates that the stars are revolving around each other in a plane parallel to the line of sight. This is called a spectroscopic binary. Of course, when one is approaching our solar system, the other will be receding from it. The waves of light from the receding star being longer, its lines are all moved slightly toward the red end of the spectrum, while the lines from the approaching star are displaced a like amount toward the violet, causing them alternately to appear narrow, broad, and double at equal periods of time, which, when ascertained, gives the period of their revolution around each other. They are too near to be divided by any telescope, hence the periods of spectroscopic binary stars are much shorter than those visually seen by the telescope. This department of astronomy is not new. In 1889 Miss Maury, of Harvard College Observatory, while examining some Harvard celestial photographs, found that the lines in the spectrum of Zeta Ursa Majoris close up and separate once in fifty-two days, thus indicating that a complete revolution is made in one hundred and four days. Prof. Campbell, director of Lick Observatory, announces that he has found, by spectroscopic methods, that the pole-star (Alpha Ursa Minoris) is a spectroscopic trinary, consisting of three suns belonging to a single system, which revolve round each other, the brightest of which is, as everybody knows, visible to the naked eye. What causes this star to be the most wonderful