100 YEARS AGO

The author of the alleged discovery in this instance is Dr. Waltemath, an astronomer of Hamburg, and his assertion is, that there is evidence of the existence of a second moon, circling about the earth, but with such low reflective power that it has usually escaped observation even when in opposition. The author has perceived the desirability of making this hypothetical moon do a useful work in celestial mechanics, by explaining that the difference between the observed and computed secular acceleration of the moon's mean motion arises from the action of the newly discovered body. ⃛ It is, of course, quite possible that Dr. Waltemath fully believes in the existence of this object. In that case we should say, he is the only person who does; for when we ask on what kind of observation does this very accurate orbit rest, we find that the author has employed that large collection either in which persons have believed that they have seen objects of doubted value transiting the sun, whether bright or dark. He seems to have trusted to those wild and reckless assertions that are made from time to time about “ruddy fireballs” or “night suns,” or other vague descriptions, and on such loose and inaccurate data he has unfolded his strange and wondrous tale.

From Nature 24 February 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

The Cantor Lecture before the Royal Society of Arts, delivered on January 20 by Dr. C. H. Andrewes, of the National Institute for Medical Research, is an admirable summary of the essential features of our knowledge of that world-wide scourge, the common cold; and nobody is better fitted than Dr. Andrewes to state what we know and what we do not know about it. ⃛ If, as Dr. Andrewes showed, those who are working on this problem in Great Britain and other countries are only beginning to pick up clues to the solution of what is one of the most complex problems of virology, there is plenty of evidence that this relative ignorance will not persist for very long. All the portents, indeed, suggest that presently the common cold, like typhus, typhoid, cholera, smallpox, yellow fever and other plagues, will have yielded to human domination.

From Nature 28 February 1948.