202 Selenography : its Past, Present, and Future.’ (April, 
does not stand in the direct line of development from the 
age. The cheap jest, produced with so much glee, of in- 
quiring why we do not behold the interesting spectacle of 
the transformation of a chimpanzee into a man, or con- 
versely of a man by retrogression into an orang, merely 
testifies the crudest ignorance of the do¢trine of Descent.” 
We cannot help expressing our regret that England and 
Germany are left to work out this great question alone. Is 
there no place for France, once the home of philosophic 
zoology—the country of Buffon and Lamarck, of St. 
Hilaire and of Blainville, the ‘‘ Cuvierivorous ?” Is her 
“ official science”’ fatally smitten with alethophobia ? 
V. SELENOGRAPHY: ITS PAST, PRESENT: 
AND" FUTURE: 
By E. Neison, F.R.A:S., @ce.) &e: 
uta or the study of the moon’s surface, 
“S) may be said to have been commenced by Hevelius, 
the celebrated observer of Dantzic; for, though 
earlier astronomers had examined the moon, and there had 
been even prior to the discovery of the telescope much 
speculation as to the nature of the surface, yet to Hevelius 
are due the first systematic observations of our satellite’s 
surface. When Hevelius commenced his study of the 
details of the moon’s surface, the subject was practically 
new ; Galileo had already, it is true, discovered the moon’s 
libration in latitude, and understood how a diurnal or paral- 
lactic libration must also ensue, though it is doubtful 
whether, with his means, it could have been detected ; but 
his lunar observations, like those of Scheiner and others, 
were too imperfect to be of any value. A primary and 
important result of the observations made at Dantzic was 
the discovery of the lbration in longitude, which from his 
far more accurate observation did not escape Hevelius, and 
which he explained from the circumstance that the moon 
from its uniform rotation on its axis always presented the 
- same face to the centre of its orbit, while the earth was 
situated at one of the foci. Considering the optical means 
then at the disposal of Hevelius, his telescope not magnifying 
more than forty diameters, the completeness and general 
