HARVARD OBSERVATORY.

An announcement has just come from the Harvard Observatory of the discovery of 14 new variable stars. These discoveries were made on examination of the Henry Draper memorial photograps of stellar spectra taken by Mrs. Fleming During last November an announcement of six new variables was made, and in last July of seven.

The system used in discovering variable stars is very successful. There is in the observatory a library, so to speak, of the sky for the past eight years. During this time nearly 60,000 photographs of the skies at differet times have been taken. As soon as a star is noticed with hydrogen lines on its spectrum, a reference is immediately made to the photpraphs made in that region where the star is found. From these different photographs it can be learned whether the star is always of the same brightness. This method leads to the discovery of more variable stars here than in any other place, as the Harvard Observatory is the only one which uses this system. The ordinary way of finding variable stars is by watching each night to see if they change in brightness. As yet no star, whose spectrum has hydrogen rings, has proved to be other than a variable.

It was with great pleasure that a report from Arequipa, was received at the Observatory, stating that the Bruce photographic telescope, the most powerful of its kind in the world, had arrived in safety. This telescope was sent to Peru some time ago and considerable anxiety has been felt as to its safe arrival, as it was rather a dangerous voyage from here to Arequipa.

At present they are preparing at the Observatory to send a collection of photographs to New York for exhibition. The collection is similar to the one exhibited at Chicago during the World's Fair.