Feb, 27, 1890] 



NATURE 



391 



soars into the realms of prophecy, and tells us about 

 the climate which may be expected in these islands in 

 the years 1970, 2020, and 2130 ! 



The author assures us that he writes especially for civil 

 engineers, and is not careful to conceal his contempt 

 for " prominent men in other branches of science " and 

 their opinions. But as there are some works "profit- 

 able for instruction," so there are others calculated to 

 afford amusement ; and it is very hard indeed that civil 

 •engineers should have a monopoly of all the fun that is 

 to be got out of this one. 



The Scenery of the Heavens. By J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S. 

 (London : Roper and Drowley, 1890.) 



The title of this work is so suggestive of pictures that 

 one cannot help feeling disappointed with the limited 

 number of illustrations, especially as the book is designed 

 for general readers. We look in vain, for example, for 

 representations of Saturn and Mars, solar prominences, 

 and many other celestial objects, of which no descriptions 

 can convey so much to the mind as good illustrations. 

 Some of the illustrations are reproduced more or less 

 faithfully from photographs by Mr. Roberts and the 

 Brothers Henry, but we regret to note that the 

 wonderful photograph by Mr. Roberts of the Great 

 Nebula in Orion is not amongst these. We may suggest 

 also that in future editions some account be given of the 

 instrument which reveals to us the greater part of the 

 " scenery of the heavens." 



On the whole, the text is excellent, and will no doubt [ 

 greatly interest the general reader. There is, however, 

 a very loose statement on p. 24 — namely, "if we as- 

 sume that the attraction of gravitation at the earth's 

 equator is 32*2 feet, we have the accelerating force of 

 gravity on the sun equal to 895 feet per second." One of 

 the most notable features of the book is the large number 

 of poetical selections having reference to astronomical 

 phenomena. The book contains a good deal of informa- 

 tion, in some cases perhaps too much to serve the 

 avowed purpose of the author, unless his readers intend 

 to become amateur observers. The long lists of red 

 stars, doubles, variables, and star clusters, for example, 

 are much too detailed for general readers, although not 

 sufficiently so for regular observers. The chapter on 

 variable stars, as might be expected from Mr. Gore, is 

 especially good. There is also an excellent chapter on 

 shooting-stars, by Mr. Denning, who is eminently fitted 

 for such a task. 



We may remind Mr. Gore that probably no one now 

 supposes that the so-called "gaseous" nebulas consist 

 of nitrogen (pp. 197, 206), and that the structure of the 

 Great Nebula in Andromeda as revealed in Mr. Roberts's 

 photograph indicates that the nebula is probably not " a 

 vast cluster of very small stars placed at an immense 

 distance from the earth " (p. 204). 



No attempt is made to touch upon any theoretical 

 astronomy, and the scope of the book is therefore 

 correctly described by the title. 



A Trip through the Eastern Caucasus. By the Hon, 

 John Abercromby. (London : Edward Stanford, 1889.) 

 Is it worth while for a traveller to make a six weeks' 

 tour the subject of a book? Probably most people 

 would answer promptly and emphatically, No ; but any 

 one who reads Mr. Abercromby's work will see that the 

 reply may be wrong, and that everything depends on the 

 nature of the scenes visited, and on the traveller's ability 

 to give an account of his impressions. In the course of 

 six weeks Mr. Abercromby twice crossed the main chain 

 of the Caucasus by passes which are little used except 

 by natives. He was fortunate enough to secure, through 

 the instrumentality of Prince Dondukoff Korsakoff, the 

 Governor-General of the Caucasus, a circular letter in 

 Russian and Arabic to all in authority wherever he might 



wish to go. This, he says, acted like a charm, securing 

 for him at every place the utmost hospitality. He had, 

 therefore, the best possible opportunities of seeing what 

 he desired to see, and of forming just opinions as to the 

 characteristics of the people whom he visited. 



Particularly good is his description of the strange village 

 called Kubachi, in which there was at one time a flourish- 

 ing school of the higher kinds of artistic craftsmanship. 

 The village is " a long, narrow, extremely compact ag- 

 glomeration of houses, built on the southern face of a very 

 steep slope with a shallow ravine on both sides." A high 

 round tower, commanding a wide view, stands at the top. 

 All the roofs are flat, and, seen against the sky, the profile 

 of the village is not unlike "a gigantic staircase." Before 

 reaching Kubachi, Mr. Abercromby heard all sorts of 

 wonderful stories about the inhabitants, and was assured 

 that they were of Prankish origin. He found that there 

 was nothing specially pAiropean-looking in the type of 

 face either of the men or women. They appeared to 

 him "quite like the Lesgians, though milder in their 

 manners, and less wild-looking." Their speech has no 

 sort of relation to the Indo-European languages, but be- 

 longs to the Lesgian family. There are in the village 

 many sculptured stones and other relics of a period when 

 the workers of Kubachi had a genuinely artistic impulse ; 

 and of these remains Mr. Abercromby gives a remark- 

 ably clear and attractive account. Not less interesting 

 in its way is his description of the extraordinary wall of 

 Derbend, which, according to the current native belief, 

 is 3000 years old. For this idea there is of course no 

 real foundation. Mr. Abercromby, with the enthusiasm 

 of a thorough antiquary, investigated this structure with 

 the greatest care, and even readers who are not generally 

 attracted by archaeological research will find much to 

 please them in his narrative. Altogether, the work is 

 fresh and bright, and we recommend it to the attention 

 of those who find in good works of travel intellectual re- 

 freshment and stimulus. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[T^e Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature, 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. "^ 



The Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers : 

 a Suggested Subject-Index. 



The method advocated by Mr. J. C. McConnel (Nature, 

 February 13, p. 342) would undeniably be feasible. But I 

 should pity the fellow-craftsman who should have to carry it out. 

 The idea of numerical subdivision has been worked out by Prof. 

 Dewey with great ingenuity and industry in his " Decimal 

 Classification and Relative Index," 1885. We find, on referring 

 top. 31, that oi6'9289S5l will indicate the "Bibliography of 

 Persian poets." Natural science occupies a place from 500-600, 

 and does not seem to have been as yet reduced to an equal 

 degree of elegant simplicity, for the subject of "observing 

 chairs, &c.," is merely denoted by 522*28. 



After this it does not seem over bold to pronounce the result 

 one of the most amusing things in cataloguing literature. It is, 

 however, surpassed by Mr. J. Schwartz's " King Aquila's 

 Library," in which the system is fairly demolished. But the 

 London inquirer into the actual working of such a cumbrous 

 device may gain a useful hint by noting that at the Guildhall 

 Library there is an alphabetical index to these totally unnecessary 

 numbers. Indeed, one is found in Prof. Dewey's own book, and 

 would, of course, be an absolute necessity in the proposed case. 



No, a good subject-index can be constructed on much simpler 

 lines. See, for example, Poole's "Index to Periodical Litera- 

 ture," which includes in its first supplement (1882-87) some 

 1090 volumes (indexed in 483 pages). Another example may be 

 found in the subject-index at the end of the "List of Books of 

 Reference in the British Museum Reading Room," 1889. In 

 this some twenty thousand volumes are included, which would 



