mathematicians. I have collected many pretty specimens of their work in this country. "The double effect of the study of entomology is to impart a certainty to the mind and religion to the heart. The creation is a visible ladder by which man ascends to the invisible creator. Philosophy, politics, history, and morality itself, are subject to the intellectual revolutions of wavering humanity; but the facts of the creation are as invariable as God, and the analysis of a plant or an insect marks its demonstration with the seal of eternal truth." Children are liable to be cruel and tyrannical when no direction is given to their minds. Give a boy a gun, and he will slaughter every living animal that is not the subject of property, without discrimination. without compunction or remorse. He kills for the sake of killing; and the dying agonies of a wounded sparrow excite no sympathy, no regret. Think you that if a companionship had been established between him and living things; that he had learned their valne in the scheme of creation; their uses in the economy of nature; their beauty, their innocence, their helplessness, that he would thus destroy them for mere wantonness? know, from observation and experience, that there can be a Softening, humanizing influence brought to bear upon youthful minds through a correspondence and communion with nature's works. Those who are interested in birds and flowers must be refined by the association. An intimate connection with the varied works of creation leads the mind from vicious associations, and preserves it from contact and contamination. The man or woman educated to observe and reflect upon the condition of natural objects, can never be alone-will never want companionship. Under circumstances where others would be miserable and lonely, the naturalist may indulge in sweet, though silent, communion with nature, and look "through nature up to nature's God." We I am indebted to A. S. Packard, jun., Esq., of Brunswick, Maine, for useful hints and extracts relating to generic and specific defini tion. PAPER X.-LATITUDE OF THE OBSERVATORY. BY LIEUTENANT E. D. ASHE, R. N., F. R. A. S. [Read before the Society, 5th May, 1864.] THE many advantages and accuracy of results in obtaining the Latitude, by placing a transit instrument in the prime vertical, induced me to prefer that method to any other. A small transit instrument of 24 inches focal length, by Simms, was placed nearly in the prime vertical; the place of observation was immediately to the northward of the transit room, in a temporary wooden building erected for the purpose. The assistant, Mr. Heatley, was the observer and computer. A mean-time chronometer; that beat half-seconds, was placed upon a table near the transit ínstrument, and the beats could be distinctly heard when taking the observations, with but few exceptions, when the noise common to a barrack-square interfered. The level was always applied, and the chronometer compared, both before and after cach observation. Observations were taken with the instrument in reversed positions, and the same star taken generally cast and west, and the star was also taken as it passed the meridian by the transit instrument of the Observatory; and always a sufficient number of clock-stars were taken to insure the angle Z, being, known to a tenth of a second. When this formula was used. Tan D= tan +cos Z. Where =Latitude, and 8 declination of star. By reversing the instrument any error of collimation, or inequality of pivots, will produce exactly a contrary effect on the Latitude; and it is presumed that the Latitudo of the Observatory is determined with as much accuracy as the declination of the stars are known. The stars selected are taken from the B. A. C., 1850, Nat. Alk. and Radcliff Cat., and out of 15 stars with lamp N., and 10 stars taken with lamp South, there is a range of only 1". 3 in the means. |