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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



miles would correspond to the height of the 

 colored prominences, his scale tells us how 

 many globes as large as our earth could be 

 placed one above another, so as barely to 

 reach to the summit of the solar flames. 



The sections on the stars and nebula? 

 are full of interest, though Dr. Schellen is 

 disposed to place somewhat more reliance 

 on the researches of F. Secchi into the 

 stellar spectra than is entertained by our 

 leading spectroscopists. On dealing with 

 meteors and their spectra Dr. Schellen lays 

 a well-deserved stress on the labors of 

 Schiaparelli, to whom science owes the rec- 

 ognition of the strange fact that meteoric 

 rings are associated with comets. Nearly 

 ten years have passed since Schiaparelli an- 

 nounced that 'the comet of 1862, No. III.' 

 (a large and bright object) ' is no other than 

 the remains of the comet out of which the 

 meteoric ring of the 10th of Augifst has 

 been formed in the course of time.' Re- 

 ceived with doubt for many months, this 

 bold assertion gradually commended itself 

 more and more to the attention of those 

 who studied meteoric phenomena, until in 

 1866 the recognition of a corresponding 

 agreement between the November meteor- 

 ring and Temple's comet of that year re- 

 moved all doubt as to the reality of the 

 relation. On February 9th of the present 

 year, the gold medal of the Astronomical 

 Society was awarded to Schiaparelli in rec- 

 ognition of this important contribution to 

 our knowledge. 



The editorial work of Dr. Huggins adds 

 considerably to the value of Schellen's 

 treatise. In places, the author apportions 

 somewhat incorrectly the merit due to vari- 

 ous workers in the field of spectroscopic 

 research ; so that some of the notes in which 

 Dr. Huggins refers to these points are, in 

 reality, very necessary. But the work of 

 the editor is yet more important in removing 

 errors and explaining difficulties relating to 

 Bcientific details. 



Ancient Amkrica : in Notes on American 

 Archaeology. By John D. Baldwin, A. M. 

 Harper & Brothers. 



One of the great results of modern sci- 

 ence is the power it confers of aniving at 

 true interpretations of the past. Just in 

 proportion as it discloses orderly relations in 



the events of Nature, and trains the human 

 mind in the careful weighing of evidence, it 

 enables investigators to turn backward and 

 gather a knowledge, which was before impos- 

 sible, of the ancient order of things. We 

 owe to science, therefore, a history of man 

 which is earlier than books of civilizations 

 which rose and passed away with no litera- 

 ture to preserve its memory. Fragmentary 

 and most incomplete it assuredly is, and a 

 host of questions arise in the inquirer's mind 

 to which no answers can be given ; yet a 

 vast and constantly-increasing mass of facts 

 is known, from which many valid conclu- 

 sions are deduced of interest to the students 

 of Nature and of Man. 



Archaeology, or the science of antiquities, 

 searches for all the vestiges of human ac- 

 tion in the distant past ; the remains of 

 architectural structures, of public works, 

 carvings, inscriptions, coins, medals, heral- 

 dic symbols, workmen's tools, articles of use 

 and ornament, and whatever can serve to 

 throw light upon the state of man and so- 

 ciety when they were produced. It matters 

 nothing how apparently trivial are the relics 

 of by-gone ages ; they have interest for the 

 archaeologist because they are the results 

 of art, industry, intelligence, and social or 

 ganization, and become the measures of 

 these conditions. 



The book before us treats of the most 

 interesting departments of American ar- 

 chaeology. Its author published a volume 

 in 1869 on the prehistoric nations, and now 

 follows it with a popular compendious state- 

 ment of what is known of the ancient mon- 

 uments of North and South America, and 

 the inferences they warrant as to the con- 

 dition of the early inhabitants of our conti- 

 nent. For, whatever theory is adopted 

 regarding the origin and career and rela- 

 tionship of the American races of men, one 

 thing is certain : this continent was formerly 

 the theatre of a people greatly superior to 

 the Indian tribes. Many of the works that 

 remain give evidence of high, though of 

 course, indefinite antiquity. 



One of the phases of ancient works 

 which remain to us in great abundance is 

 the mound-structures ; the people who made 

 them being known as the mound-build- 

 ers. These are numerous in the Mississippi 

 Valley there being 10,000 of them in Ohio 



