THE CAPE ASTRONOMICAL RESULTS, 1871–1873.—Mr. Stone has just circulated the results of meridional observations oi stars made at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, in the years 1871–1873. His present object has been not so much to furnish extremely accui ate places of principal southern stars as to supply reliable positions of stars down to the seventh magnitude within 15° of the South Pole, and it is considered that this volume contains all Lacaille's stars in this region of the sky, and very nearly all sevenths not observed by him. It is the “first published instalment of the materials collected for the projected Catalogue.” The separate results for mean R.A. and N.P.D. are given, with catalogues of places for the commencement of each year, the whole number of stars observed being about 1,400. Bessel's reduction constants are appended. This form of publication is perhaps sufficiently ample in the present day, though Mr. Stone alludes to a desire expressed by some astronomers to see the Cape observations printed in detail in the same manner as the Greenwich observation?, a plan hardly practicable with the limited staif at his disposal, and which would involve very slow progress of the work with the resources of the Cape rress. We are inclined to think that Mr. Stone exercises a wise discretion in limiting his volums to its present form, and thus assuring its comparatively early distribution in the astronomical world. As it is the volume is not produced without a considerable expenditure of time in the routine work of the reductions by the director himself.