1862.] 3f 



March 20, 1862. 



Major- General SABINE, President, in the Chair. 

 The following communication was read : 



" Suggestions for the Attainment of a Systematic Representa- 

 tion of the Physical Aspect of the Moon." By John 

 PHILLIPS, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., Reader in Geology in the 

 University of Oxford. Received January 15, 1862. 



I. SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF SELENOGRAPHY. 

 (a) By Eye-draughts and Micrometry. 



1. Beginning with the labours of Hevelius (1647), maps of the 

 moon, embracing the whole, and signalizing special parts, have been 

 repeated by Riccioli (1651), Cassini (1680), Lalande (1787), 

 T. Meyer (1748), Lambert-Schroter (1791), Lohrmann (1824), 

 Beer and Madler (1836). 



2. The degree in which these laborious efforts may be regarded as 

 meeting the wants of " Selenography," is about equal to that in which 

 the maps of England of the last century satisfy the requirements of 

 physical geography ; and in the same proportion as the great one- 

 inch Ordnance Map of 1862 is superior to the old Chart of 1800, so 

 should be the new drawings of the features of the moon to the older 

 delineations. 



3. That such drawings are attainable by the patient employment 

 of modern instruments, in hands capable of good sketching, is, I 

 believe, not doubted by any competent observer with either achro- 

 matic or reflecting telescopes having equatorial mounting. If any 

 one doubts, let him compare the Copernicus of Madler with the 

 Copernicus of Secchi ; nay, I may venture to ask that my own 

 Gassendi be placed side by side with that of any of the charts already 

 named. 



4. The results likely to be attained by such a series of careful 

 drawings of special parts of the moon's surface, in one branch of 

 scientific research, are recognized by Mr. Conybeare in his Report on 

 Geology to the British Association in 1832. Indeed, it may be 

 boldly affirmed that a competent theory of volcanic action can hardly 



