1. Professor C. E. Weatherburn’s paper in the Gazette, 1936, p. 320, gives an interesting proof by vector-analysis of the condition for a twisted curve C to have as binormals the principal normals of another curve C1.

It may be of some interest to give a few bibliographical notes on the subject and to mention new or not generally known properties of certain of these pairs of curves.

Mr. J. A. Edgar: On beginning the study of astronomy it is imperative for the student to gain familiarity with the brightest stars and with the classical constellations and their relative positions. The stars apparently all shift their positions westward during the night, and there is further a seasonal drift due to the annual revolution of the earth about the sun, so that a permanent acquaintance with the principal groups must depend on an intimate knowledge of their relative positions. In imparting this knowledge it is tedious and inefficient to point out the groups to the student, and published star maps are usually confusing, as they present too many configurations at once. Much can be gained by the student constructing his own maps. In this way the star chart grows, gradually extending familiarity with the sky. The first chart to construct is that showing the circumpolar group of stars. For this purpose polar graph paper must be used, and coordinates analogous to latitude and longitude are adopted.

In 1816 there appeared a translation by Dr. John Taylor of a treatise on Hindu Arithmetic and Geometry, published at the expense of the Literary Society of Bombay The author of this treatise was Bhascara Acharya (1114-c. 1185) and the treatise itself is of some importance in the history of Hindu mathematics. A discussion of this treatise, which is called the Lilawati, may be found by those interested in Rouse Ball’s History of Mathematics, pp. 150-154. It is however with the appendix to Taylor’s translation that we are here concerned. Little is known of Taylor himself except that he was born in Edinburgh, took his M.D. degree there in 1804 and died in Persia in 1821. He is believed to have published other translations from the Sanscrit besides the Lilawati. However, the appendix of this translation is entitled “A Short Account of the Present Mode of Teaching Arithmetic in Hindu Schools” and it may be of some interest to give a brief description of its contents.