558 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a comparison of Lee's tactics with those of 

 the successive commanders opposed to him, 

 it does show that lack of food, clothing, and 

 munitions of war had a large share in con- 

 quering his army. It was an expedition to 

 acquire shoes that precipitated the contest 

 at Gettysburg, and the verdict of a young 

 Irishman, who served on Fitz Lee's staff, 

 concerning the Confederates was, " I never 

 saw men fight better, but they don't ate 

 enough ! " 



After the war many honorable and lu- 

 crative positions were offered to General Lee, 

 but he chose to accept the presidency of 

 Washington College, on a salary of fifteen 

 hundred dollars. In this position he died, 

 and the name of the college was changed to 

 Washington and Lee University in his honor. 



A steel portrait by Hall is the frontis- 

 piece of this volume ; there are also several 

 maps and a notably good index. 



Popular Astronomy. A General Description 

 of the Heavens. By Camille Flamma- 

 KION. Translated from the French by 

 J. Ellard Gore. New York: D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. Pp. 685. Price, $4.50. 



This work, the author says, is written for 

 those who wish to have an account of the 

 things which surround them, and who would 

 like to acquire, without hard work, an ele- 

 mentary and exact idea of the present condi- 

 tion of the universe. M. Flaramarion is one 

 of that race of brilliant writers on scientific 

 subjects which France has developed within 

 the past few years, who, endowed with great 

 powers of the imagination and possessed of 

 admirable gifts of style, have the faculty of 

 presenting the truths of their special branches 

 in the most vivid and picturesque language. 

 He is not addicted to the faults, with which 

 some of his school are chargeable, of indulg- 

 ing in exaggeration, and of seeking effect 

 ac the expense of exactness. While he falls 

 below none of them in vigor of descrip- 

 tion and power of interest, he is true to 

 science, and not inaccurate. The present 

 work has had a circulation at home probably 

 unequaled among scientific books, and has 

 received a distinguished reward of merit 

 from the French Academy of Sciences ; be- 

 sides which the author has been given va- 

 rious other honors. The present edition of 

 the Popular Astronomy has been translated, 



with the author's sanction, by J. Ellard Gore, 

 author of other popular astronomical works, 

 who has also edited it so as to incorporate 

 the results of the discoveries that have been 

 made since the French edition went to press, 

 and has reduced the figures given by the au- 

 thor to English measures. M. Flammarion 

 begins his picture with a presentation of the 

 earth as a body in the sky, and as that one 

 whose position and motions controlled the 

 ideas of the ancients respecting the universe, 

 which, in the ignorance then existing of the 

 relation of the earth to the other bodies, were 

 infected with many errors ; and he describes 

 the slow process by which these errors were 

 corrected. The question. How was the earth 

 formed? suggests an outline of the nebular 

 hypothesis, which is given. From this planet 

 the reader is taken to the moon, the nearest 

 body to it, of which are given its astronom- 

 ical elements and a physical description; 

 then to the planets, in the order of their dis- 

 tances from the sun, with consideration of 

 their apparent and real motions. In connec- 

 tion with the account of Uranus besides our 

 being told the mortifying fact that the exist- 

 ence of the earth and all its great men and 

 great enterprises is and must always remain 

 unknown to the people thereof a discussion 

 of the question of life in other worlds is 

 given, with the conclusion that though the 

 conditions in them are not compatible with 

 the life of such beings as we know, we have 

 no right to deny that there may be other 

 beings adapted to those conditions. The 

 discussion is continued in the chapter on 

 Neptune, where the author declares that such 

 a thing as a sterile and uninhabited desert 

 world is contrary to the acts and views of 

 Nature as we know her. The nature and 

 orbits of comets are discussed. Are they 

 really composed of carbon diamonds of the 

 sky ? '' Their importance would be much 

 greater still if they should be found to carry 

 in them the first combinations of carbon, 

 for it is probable that it was by, these com- 

 binations that vegetable and animal life com- 

 menced on the earth and the other planets, 

 and thus these vagrant bodies might be the 

 sources of life on all the worlds." From an- 

 other point of view the author gives reasons 

 for supposing that comets' tails considering 

 the immense velocities at which they are car- 

 ried, forty thousand miles a second in the 



