Literature.

annual results of the Greenwich observations from the petty inconsistencies which had crept in by reason of the uncertainty on the elements and the theory of tho moon ' s parallax ( an uncertainty from which we arc at last delivered by the researches of Professor Adams ) , and from the small uncertainty on the equinox ; and to compare these with a lunar theory more legitimate in its form than that of Burekhavdt ' s Tables . Every observation for a period of one

hundred and two years is now computed by the same elements of reduction , and compared with tho same tabular elements . It will not be necessary to continue these reductions beyond 1851 , as the parallax may be considered as established , and a ? Hansen ' s Tables are now applicable ( and partly applied ) to the years commencing with 1852 . In the course of printing some small errors of computation have been discovered ; and these will affect in an inappreciable degree the numerical

corrections of lunar elements given in the supplemental Monthly Notice for 1 S 59 . During the last year several computers have been employed on the principal reductions of the magnetical observations made at the Royal Observatory from ISIS to 1 S 57 . They are based entirely upon the photographic registration of tho positions of the three magnetometers , and will present , it is believed , the first example of reductions so made . The measures taken for every hour are not the ordinates of the photographic curves , but the ordinates of pencil curves traced by hand as representing tho general sweep of the curves , suppressing inequalities of very short period . It is hoped . that , iu this way , results of considerable

value may be obtained . The ordinates have been taken both for solar hours and for lunar hours ; and are so classified as to present , on both systems , the monthly means for days and for hours . The calculations are now far advanced . The great equatorial at the Royal Observatory will , it is anticipated , be shortly ready for use . Much delay has arisen from the tardiness of experiments on the instrument and its driving clock , from the personal occupation of the astronomer royal on public business

not connected with the Observatory , from the pressure of other business on the optieiaus , and finally from little errors of measure derived from the German opticians . It is expected , however , that the whole will soon be in a state fitted for active employment . The memorial concerning Mdlle . Cleret , which was read last week at the Aeademie do Medicine , excited the greatest interest . It seems that the poor lady , afflicted with deafness herself , happened by chance to

cast her eyes upon a torn bit of newspaper in which had been wrapped some trifling- article of haberdashery she had purchased . It contained a portion of a paragraph relating to the travels of some scientific naturalist ; and among other facts remarked that a certain people he had visited possessed a method of curing deafness by means of a volatile essence . For eight years did Mdlle . Cleret experimentalize upon herself , and it was only at the end of that time that the triumph of

sulphuric ether became manifest . The remedy is now officially recognized , and henceforth deafness may by care and attention be reduced to a passing malady , instead of the obstinate and inveterate disease it has hitherto been .

A new immovable green is making a noise at Lyons . A note , from the hand of M . de Montigny , the French consul at Shanghai , has originated the discovery . M . do Montigny affirmed that the Chinese green , so much esteemed in dyeing , was extracted from the bark of the buckthorn . This wood , which happens to grow in great abundance in the environs of Lyons , became immediately subjected to chemical experiment , anil the result has proved most satisfactory . Tho green is

produced perfectly last , and of most beautiful tint . The difference in price from that hitherto imported from China being in the proportion of forty to fifty francs to five hundred francs the kilo . The dye having been [ already applied to every description of stuff may now be fairly judged . It does not turn blue by candlelight , and is , in short , as full and solid as tho English green , resisting , in the . same degree , all decomposition of air and light .

The project of M . Vorrard do Ste . Anno , reported by the French press as having been accepted by the Geographical Society of London , has , for a long time past , occupied the attention of divers men in power here . This plan , which M . Vorrard de Ste . Anno had at first proposed for a line of railway , but which he has since reduced to a telegraphic communication , tends to no less an aim than opening up a direct intercourse with China , passing through Constantinople , crossing Asia Minorin

, order to join the line already executed , working from Tauris to Teheran , thence to the Persian Culf , to follow the coast of India , aud thence to the extremity of the peninsula of Malacca , to continue on the one hand an far as China , and on the other to the Polynesian islands . This line , according to M . Vorrard de Ste . Anne ' s idea , would be made to join th

American lines by submarine cables laid down between the islands which separate the American continent from the easte rn coast of Asia . Thus would be established regular communications by land between Europe and America , tho transit passage of which would bring together the remainder of the universe . The total amount paid for fresco painting in tho New Palace at AA estminster since 1845 , to March 3 , 1 SC 0 , was £ 10 , S 2 S 18 s . GUj and for

statuary during the same period , £ 22 , 010 . The twenty-eight portraits executed in oil , in the Prince ' s Chamber , have cost £ 1 , 900 . The sums expended for the l . iahiteuance aud repairs of the . building and the furniture therein since its occupation , is £ 65 , 210 9 s . id . The lighting and ventilating , since those services came under the management of the Office of Works have absorbed £ S 7 , 0 (! S 2 s . Id . The Critic has the following remarks : " The Academy Exhibition of

this year presents one generally remarked and generally welcome novelty , for which the thanks of the public , of critics , exhibitors , and even of the rejected , are due to the hanging committee . Festoons of crimson drapery occupy the space of old held by pictures above the second or third row . A good background is thus afforded to the pictures which aro hung . Those ivhieh used to be so hoisted next the ceiling eseops that public stigma and disadvantage . Tho spectator escapes a

craned neck and an aching back . And the general effect is infinitely more avtistie and less warehouse like . The insufficient accommodation of the Academy ' s present "house" is also brought convincingly home to the bosom of the artist world : which was perhaps among the objects the Academy had in view . One result is , that nearly 200 fewer pictures are hung in the three great rooms than last year , nearly 300 fewer in all!—in itself no small gain to the weary critic . AVhat used to be the architectural room is now exclusively devoted to pictures , instead of to a jumble of all things . The miniature painters , on whom photography has told so fatally , are content with the centre

screens in what used to be their room , the walls of which are lined by drawings , water-colour pictures , and architectural designs . Some of the architects' contributions are exiled to the passage , the academicians gladly remembering there is an exhibition in Conduit-street , exclusively devoted to that branch of the arts . The Octagon-room is made over , as usual of late , to engravings . Considerable pains have evidently been bestowed on tho hanging of the pictures . The endeavour to attain

symmetrical and artist-like effects is obvious , though too often on a merely mechanical , plan , not always felicitous in its results on individual pictures . On the whole , too , a pretty generous and liberal spirit has been shown in the admission of outsiders to the lino ; though , as in all exhibitions over which mere sublunary mortals preside , singular preferences are ( aud we suppose must be ) shown ; not more so here , however , than elsewhere—in Suffolk-street , or Pall-mall , say . Ono feature of the

exliibition , apparent to most observers , is traceable to any but commendable motives ; we allude to the absence of several younger members of the Pre-Raffaelite school , whose works in previous exhibitions had secured them a standing in the arts , and had attracted general notice . The absence is not a voluntary one . One of the hangers had , it is reported , been heard to declare , with some emphasis , " he would show no mercy to the Pre-ltaffacritos ! " a speech the indiscretion of ivhieh is only equalled by its cynical disregard of common fairness and decency .

The candid revelation of so much bias and prejudice very plainly showed his unfitness for a judicial post , such -as that of hanger . He has proved as good as his word . Not only no mercy , but no justice , has been shown to several works of high technical merit within the proscribed category , by men of acknowledged position . Now , is it right that a gratuitous indignity and undeserved injury should be inflicted on two or three artists , simply because they

are of a school beyond the pale of a certain hanger ' s sympathies ? The alleged injustice and partiality are of too serious a kind to be passed over in silence . Tho wrong done demands inquiry , and , if possible , redress . A far juster and more liberal spirit was shown by the Academy iu its treatment of the leaders of Pre-Raffaelitism , when that heresy first sprang into being some ten or twelve years ago , —treatment which the subsequent career of those artists has done nothing to make the Academy

ashamed of . Whatever may be the differences of opinion as to the merits or demerits of Pre-Raffaelitism as a final system , there can be none as to its value as a source of discipline for the young artist ' s mind , hand , and eye ; or as to the wholesome influences , the new life , it has infused into modern English art , just at a period when that threatened to become utterly conventional , generalising , and vacuous . AA e remember the time when tho works of the hanger in question would have been , greatly benefited by a little Pre-Raffiielite strictness . "