•JoLY 2, 1888.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



211 



light — that also must be mentioned. Tlie nebuhe he could 

 resolve into stars Herschel regarded as near; the Andromeda 

 nebula, which he could not so re.solve, he considered, so 

 judged, to be much farther a\yay. This result, being in- 

 consistent with the other, might be supposed to suggest 

 doubt whether we must not giv-e up either the principle of 

 inferring distance from the telescopic power required to 

 show an object, or else the principle which depends on the 

 po.ver necessary to resolve an object into stars ; for the 

 Andromeda nebula cannot be at once the nearest of the 

 nebulffi, as Herschel inferred when using one principle, and one 

 of the farthest, as another jirinciple which he had suggested 

 would obviously te.ach. This, however, has by no means 

 happened. Both princijiles are blandly quoted, not only in 

 text-books of astronomy, but by astronomers who do not 

 write text-books. E.Kcept by the present writer, and earlier 

 (but independently I by Sir. Herbert Spencer, the obvious — 

 one might almost say the staring — discrepancies between the 

 results given by the two methods of star-gauging have not 

 beL'u noticed. Sir John Herschel, however, noticed even 

 earlier the simplj' decisive evidence given by the Magellanic 

 Clouds, and pointed out that this evidence threw doubt on 

 the results commonly quoted as established by his father. 

 Doubts, indeed ! Clouds, looking like rounded masses of 

 milky light, contain stars of all orders, from the seventh 

 magnitude, down to the faintest which even a two-feet 

 mirror will show, and patches of absolutely unfathomable 

 nebulosit}', besides all classes of nebula? ; so that these clouds, 

 interpreted by the two methods of star-gauging, consist of 

 series of marvellously attenuated spike-shaped regions of 

 stars — the spikes all, by a strange chance, pointing directly 

 from the solar .system, while also these spikes, really belong- 

 ing to our own sidereal system, all point directly towards 

 remote galaxies lying at distances exceeding thousands of 

 times the whole span of our galaxy. This is not merely 

 incredible, it is impossible ; for such spike-shaped arrays of 

 stars could not remain in that jireposterous form, oven if 

 they Could assume it fur a single day. 



It has been only through the careless commingling of Sir 

 AV. Herschel's varied results and methods that absurdities 

 such as these have been associated with his splendid labours, 

 and it has only been by entireh' misinterpreting the immense 

 mass of material he has collected, and applying remarks 

 made at one time to results noted at another when his views 

 had entirely altered, thsit the idea of objects thousands of 

 years of light-journey from our system has come to be 

 regarded as anything beyond a mere speculation. It only 

 appears in Herschel's papers in compmy with an assumption 

 which has long since been entirely disproved. 



<B 2! Sip* 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



There is no room this month for the Chart of Mare, 

 which is now, however, in the engraver's hands, and will 

 appear next month. 



The series of pa[)ers on Spectroscopic Analysis promised 

 for the present volume has been delayed chieHy by want of 

 space. We have had to find room for several matters which 

 had not been taken into account or looked for. I may note 

 here that papers on spectroscopic anah-sis, considered as it 

 has to be considered in text-books, would have no value 

 here. Only such matters will be considered as .are usually 

 left Tintouched in such books. In particular, the laws on 

 which the formation of the diffraction spectrum depend will 

 be carefully de.ilt with. This matter has been either wholly 



neglected in the text-books, or such explanations have been 

 given as scarcely any fellow not a fellow of a mathematical 

 society could be expected to understand or follow. 



A CORRESPOXDEST invites me to write a series of article s 

 with illustrations showing how the constellations appear to 

 the inhabitants of planets attending on other suns than ours. 

 I can very readily state and illustrate all I know, or could 

 by life-long labour learn, on this portentous subject. 

 Omitting three stirs, all I know about it is indicated 

 between the end of this paragraph and the beginning of the 

 next. 



* * * 



In Knowledge for May last there occurs, in one of the 

 short reviews, an expression relating to the last Government 

 for which I deem it just to offer apology. The author of the 

 review must not be understood therefore as necessarily 

 considering that any apology is necessary on his behalf. It 

 is solely for myself, as conductor of Knowledge, that I 

 speak. I offer no opinion about the late Government or 

 about the particular matter on account of which an expres- 

 sion belonging too clearly to the vocabulary of abuse (so 

 Bob Acres thought, anyway) is applied to that Government. 

 I only note that Knowledge must not deal with politics, 

 save as they bear on sociology, which is a department of 

 science. It has always seemed to me unfortunate 

 (sociologically speaking) when newspapers (even partisan 

 organs) substitute personal attack for the discussion of the 

 principles on which the conduct of political matters should 

 depend. I reside in a country where the great body of the 

 people seem to expect their newspaper writers to be virulent ; 

 but the better sort, even here, do not like to see personal 

 attacks in the daily journals. I should be sorry to see our 

 newspaper writers in the old country " letting their angry 

 passions rise " and their tone sink, as happened I fear (I 

 hear so) during a recent struggle into which somehow 

 Donnybrook Fair fashions (perhaps naturally) found their 

 way for awhile both in Parliament and in the papers. 



Practical Education. By Charles G. Leland. (Whit, 

 taker & Co.) — We owe a good many bad things to com- 

 mercial competition, and some good things ; and among 

 these last, perhaps, may be classed the demand of late years 

 for pi-actical education. Granted that a boy must have his 

 mind sharpened upon some whetstone, is a Latin whetstone 

 the only one that will suit ? Allowing that there are certain 

 things which must be learnt while a boy is at school (as, 

 for example, the elements of literature), may no seeds be 

 planted to develop later that may bear actually on his future 

 work, and fit him earlier for the battle of life] Our 

 English education has been one-sided far too long. Aut 

 Ccesar nut nullus may be freely translated fur our public 

 schoolboys — " either a classic or a duffer ; " and our modern 

 sides have generally been the intellectual dustholes of the 

 schools. " Rubbish may be shot here " would be a suitable 

 motto for the doorways to the cla.ssrooms, and all who enter 

 abandon hope of success in their school life. But the times 

 are changing, and Mr. Leland's book is a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the discussion of an important question. Mr. 

 Leland may say crede experto, for his plans have been tested 

 and found successful. As a supplementary course to their 

 ordinary school-work, his pupils pursue many light, inter- 

 esting, and useful arts — as aupentoring, leather- work, 

 carving, repoussi work, and so forth. These have as their 



