December i, 1923] 



NA TURE 



783 



has been willing to give of his best, anxious to improve 

 the common stock of knowledge and to profit by the 

 new knowledge placed at his disposal by the research 

 staff, the Association has prospered most ; the 

 firms which knew most have learnt more, and it has 

 not been a question of giving everything, receiving 

 nothing. Time only can solve the question. We may 

 be allowed to hope that, as the welfare of its citizens 

 depends on the prosperity of a State as a whole, so the 

 advances of industrial science will benefit the whole 

 industry, and not least those who by previous know- 

 ledge and experience are most able to profit it by them. 



Popular Astronomy. 



(i) The Star People. By Gaylord Johnson. Pp. 

 xi+107. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., n.d.) 

 45. 6d. net. 



(2) The Vault of Heaven : An Introduction to Modern 

 Astronomy. By Sir Richard Gregory. Second 

 edition, rewritten. Pp. vii + 202. (London : Methuen 

 and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 6^. net. 



(3) The Heavens and their Story. By Annie S. D. 

 Maunder and E. Walter Maunder. Pp. 357. (Lon- 

 don : The Epworth Press, n.d.) 45. net. 



(4) The Kingdom of the Heavens : Some Star Secrets. 

 By Charles Nordmann. Translated by E. E. 

 Foumier d'Albe. Pp. 262. (London : T. Fisher 

 Unwin, Ltd., 1923.) 125. dd. net. 



THE practically simultaneous appearance of four 

 books, all written mainly with the object of 

 making available the fundamental truths of astronomy, 

 demonstrates alike the eagerness of the public to be 

 informed and the willingness of those qualified by 

 experience to minister to this praiseworthy curiosity. 

 Naturally, there is much repetition ; the same facts, or 

 many of them, appear in each of the several volumes, 

 but the method of presentation varies according to the 

 assumed intelligence of those addressed. 



(i) In the first, Mr. Gaylord Johnson addresses an 



audience of children and adopts kindergarten methods 



with the object of teaching them how to recognise and 



identify the constellations. The method is novel and, 



it prove successful, we imagine that the ability of the 



cher, the gift of creating interest in what is un- 



' imiliar, the power of rapidly comprehending the direc- 



um of a child's thoughts, and the art of giving it 



\pression will play as great a part as the ingenuity 



exhibited by the author of the scheme. Mr. Johnson's 



hook may act as a stimulant, but against one danger 



we may utter a word of warning — the attempt to 



• collect too many stars and their delineations. Thi.s 



1. an error into which we think the author has fallen. 



Many of the stars depicted are too faint, some of the 



NO. 2822, VOL. I 12] 



^H^it 



fourth and lower magnitudes being included. Such 

 faint stars might be allowed in groups, as in the 

 Pleiades, but for isolated stars it is doubtful whether 

 any below the second should be included. But adher- 

 ence to such a rule would have prevented the drawing 

 of the outline of the constellation figures, and this 

 feature is naturally relied upon to increase the interest 

 of the children. 



(2) A second edition of " The Vault of Heaven " has 

 long been needed. This early work from Sir Richard 

 Gregory has been a warm favourite with the writer of 

 this notice, who has lent it to many students anxious to 

 become acquainted with the plan of the solar system 

 and the constructive machinery of the stellar universe. 

 Whether from politeness or conviction, all have ex- 

 pressed approval, and it is to be hoped that another 

 generation will find equal pleasure with the contents. 



This new edition, written up to date, serves a further 

 purpose to those who have read the earlier. They will 

 learn what has been accomplished by the improvements 

 in the construction of instruments, and the continuous 

 application of these potent engines of research to the 

 study of the heavens. Spectroscopy and photography 

 have advanced by leaps and bounds in the interval, 

 and much information that was hoped for, but seemed 

 outside the reach of human effort, has become part of 

 the general stock of knowledge. The drift of the stars 

 through space, the dimensions of the whole stellar 

 universe, the growth and decay of worlds, with much 

 else that invited speculation, have become certainties, 

 and a new set of problems lies before the astronomers 

 of the future, though it must be admitted some of the 

 older and apparently simpler problems still stand 

 tantalisingly on the border-land of the unknown, and 

 individual judgment may interpret the evidence as 

 temperament dictates. Among these may be placed 

 the " canals " of Mars and the theories built on them, 

 the varying appearances on the lunar surface, which 

 Prof. W. H. Pickering and others have noted to recur 

 with a regularity that betokens a cosmic cause. 

 Concerning the correct interpretation of the observa- 

 tions, Sir Richard Gregory preserves a judicial atti- 

 tude, presenting the evidence impartially, and leaving 

 the verdict to the decision of instructed opinion. The 

 class for whom the book is intended is clearly indicated, 

 and this class should benefit from the well-arranged and 

 accurate contents. 



(3) We confess that we have read this book with no 

 small measure of surprise, for it is apparently put 

 forward as a recent compilation. It bears no date, and 

 there is no suggestion that it is a reprint of an ancient 

 work. But such well-informed authors could not, if the 

 work were new, refer in the preface to the late Sir W. 

 H . M . ( hristie as the Astronomer Royal, and afterwards 



