December 23, 1897] 



NATURE 



171 



The next and last lecture brings us down to recent 

 times, and the men whom many of us knew. In it we 

 are told of the establishment of the Cambrian, Silurian 

 and Devonian systems by Sedgwick and Murchison ; of 

 the discovery that glacial ice once gathered on the 

 mountains of the British Isles ; of the coordination of the 

 wisdom of many observers by Lyell and Darwin in the 

 enunciation of the great laws which guide the develop- 

 ment of the organic and inorganic world ; of the practical 

 application by Nicol and Sorby of chemical and micro- 

 scopic analysis to the identification of the minerals which 

 make up the rocks, and often to the detection of their 

 mode of aggregation. 



The old controversy between Sedgwick and Murchison 

 is introduced with a very skilful relative depreciation of 

 Sedgwick ; but perhaps the last has not been heard of 

 that question, and it may yet be acknowledged that 

 whereas the Arenig, Bala, and May Hill series were first 

 clearly defined by Sedgwick, and placed in their true 

 relative positions (" Life and Letters of Sedgwick," vol. 

 i. 529-531 ; vol. ii. 510-563), the Llandeilo and Caradoc 

 series were placed in their wrong order, and had the 

 wrong fossils assigned to them in the " Silurian System" 

 of Murchison, while the May Hill series was then unrecog- 

 nised by him. Sir Archibald Geikie very fairly says 

 that the middle disputed series must be either Upper 

 Cambrian or Lower Silurian, and is unwilling to admit 

 the new term Ordovician proposed for it. 



Geologists owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. George 

 Huntington Williams, who founded the lectureship in 

 memory of her distinguished and much lamented hus- 

 band, the late Professor of Geology in the Johns Hopkins 

 University. They will also accord their thanks to those 

 who selected the first lecturer, and to him for his choice 

 of a subject. T, McKenny Hughes. 



THE TWO BONDS. 

 Memorials of William Cranch Bond and George Phillips 

 Bond. By Edward S. Holden. Pp.296. (New York: 

 Lemcke and Buechner, 1897.) 



IN these days when one is rather inclined to forget 

 who were the pioneers of astronomy in different 

 countries, it is interesting to be able to obtain a volume 

 in which are described the lives, the difficulties to be 

 surmounted, and the success attained by those who have 

 been in these critical positions. The two Bonds — 

 William Cranch and George Phillips, father and son — 

 may be regarded as the first important contributors 

 towards the early history of astronomy in America ; and 

 as they were the first two directors of the now well-famed 

 Harvard College Observatory, the earliest founded of any 

 college observatory in the United States, an account of 

 their lives and work is very welcome. 



The present volume purposes to afford such inform- 

 ation, and Prof. E. S. Holden, and those who have 

 helped him, deserve great credit for this valuable con- 

 tribution to the history of astronomers. Prof. Holden, 

 as he tells lis, became acquainted with the Bonds in his 

 youth, and in the preface he speaks of the unfailing 

 kindness which he and his young friends received at 

 their hands when at the observatory. "It has been my 

 fortune," he says, " as an observer, to repeat some parts 

 NO. T469, VOL. 57] 



of his (George Bond's) work, and to obtain in this way 

 an even more accurate judgment of his persistent 

 thoroughness." 



William Cranch Bond's father was a true Cornishman, 

 and it is said that the family never ceased to regret their 

 immigration to America. " A loyal love of England 

 was characteristic of the family for many years. In 

 household customs, manners and traditions they were 

 thoroughly English down to very recent days." 



William at an early age turned his attention to astro- 

 nomy, and when only fifteen years old (1804) con- 

 structed an excellent chronometer, and also a quadrant 

 which proved a very serviceable instrument. His taste 

 for mechanical contrivances was considerable, and, as is 

 now well known, he became very distinguished in this 

 direction. Much interesting information is brought 

 together in this volume, which shows that William 

 Bond's career was by no means a smooth one, although 

 it was rewarded with great success. The chronograph, 

 now an important adjunct to meridional work, we owe 

 to his mechanical ingenuity, and it is interesting to note 

 that he was the first American to be elected a Foreign 

 Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society. 



William's son, George Phillips, was perhaps even more 

 remarkable than his father in the amount of work whi'ch 

 he accomplished. His Maginim optis on the great 

 comet of Donati is perhaps the best known of his con- 

 tributions, but there are others which were of nearly 

 equal importance. It may be mentioned here that he 

 was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society for the splendid memoir just referred to, but the 

 official notification of the award reached America some 

 days after his death. The nebula of Orion was minutely 

 examined by him in the winters of 1857-8-9, in order to 

 check the drawing made by his father, and investigate 

 the truth of the remarks of Otto Struve, who criticised 

 the positions of the stars in the engraving. This memoir 

 is also of considerable importance, and illustrates the 

 thoroughness which he displayed in his observational 

 work. George Bond's forecast of the future of photo- 

 graphy in its application to celestial physics has shown 

 that he thoroughly understood the whole question, and, 

 as Prof. Holden remarks, " he is the father of celestial 

 photography." 



The volume before us contains several interesting ex- 

 tracts from the diaries of George Bond, which include 

 many important facts about his life. The extracts from 

 his notes, made during two visits to Europe in 185 1 and 

 1863, will be found very pleasant reading, as Bond visited 

 most of the important observatories on this side of the 

 Atlantic. His interviews with and descriptions of the 

 astronomers of that day abound with interesting 

 matter. In an account of his visit to Paris, he says 

 about Leverrier : 



" In the frankness of his manners, in the absence of all 

 assumed dignity, and in other points of resemblance, he 

 is not unlike Mr. .A.dams. His straightforward way of 

 expressing himself, and absence of all ostentation, render 

 him what I should call accessible." 



These diaries are followed by a collection of George 

 Bond's correspondence, while the last chapter is devoted 

 to an account of the scientific work accomplished by 

 both the father and son. A useful appendix is added 



