July, iqo6 1 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIEIC NEWS 



489 



REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



ASTRONOMY. 



Radcliffe Catalogue for 1900 ; of 177^ Stars, chielly com- 

 prised wkhin the zone 850 to 90" N.P.D. (Oxford, 1906, 

 xxxvi. + 81 ; 15s. net). — This vo/ume, published by order 

 of the Radcliffe Trustees, under the direction of Dr. 

 Rambaut, the Radcliffe observer, contains the results of ten 

 years' meridian observations with the Radcliffe transit in- 

 strument, formerly used by Carring^ton. Of the years in 

 question, 1894 to 1903, the first two were mainly devoted to 

 finishing off the previous Radcliffe Catalogue for iSgo, and 

 the last to dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the present 

 one. The quantity of observations, e\-en if wholly confined 

 to the seven remaining years, is not by any means large, 

 but it should be borne in mind that the staff is small, and 

 has much other work to do, and that serious interruptions 

 were caused by the death of E. J. Stone in 1897, and the 

 appointment of his successor, who was, perhaps, inclined 

 to be too sceptical as to the value and validity of his pre- 

 decessor's Vk'ork. Most of the stars in the present catalogue 

 are to be found within the zone 850 to 90", N.P.D., and it 

 also contains all the stars legitimately included in the 

 Nautical .Almanac Zodiacal List. (N..\., 1897.) 



It might at first sight be thought that Dr. Rambaul's re- 

 mark on the first page of the introduction, as to the number 

 of stars in the catalogue, is a rather clumsy paraphrase of 

 the possibly sarcastic statement, " The observations, 

 t/ioiig/t few, are good." The real meaning of the sentence 

 is that the observers did not endeavour to work against 

 time, as they might have been tempted to do. .Alterations 

 were made in the floor of the room to increase the stability 

 of the instrument, and various other improvements intro- 

 duced into the system, notably a chronograph. It is not 

 clear that the substitution of a circular mercury trough for 

 reflection observations of stars is an improvement, as the 

 dimensions are not given. For nadir observations, where 

 the advantage of a circular trough is less questionable, the 

 old rectangidar one is still in use. It seems obvious that 

 unless the circular trough is very large, its use for low 

 stars is a great mistake, and if low stars were not observed, 

 is it not surprising that the R-D discordance should be 

 regarded as unsatisfactory.' Very few stars were observed 

 for Colatitude, so that it is quite likely that all the cata- 

 logue comparisons ai the end of the introduction are 

 systematically affected. It appears certain for instance, 

 that the comparison with Grecnwicli, ISOO, from which Dr. 

 Rambaut professes to cast doubt on the vnliditv of the 

 Greenwich RD correction, is erroneous, since the adopted 

 colatitude at Greenwich is affected by RD, and this point, 

 as well as the effect of substituting Pulkowa refractions for 

 Hessel's, seems to have escaped the RadclilTe observer's 

 notiee. There is a description of the determination of pivot- 

 errors by a method devised by Dr. Rambaut, founded on 

 that of M. Hamy, of the Paris Observatory. There is also 

 a defence of electric control for chronographs, which, how- 

 ever, is not satisfactory, as it assumes that there is no lag 

 in the changing speed gear, and that the observations are 

 all read in accurately by proportional scale, which, though 

 desirable, is only attainable when the number of registered 

 observations is comparatively small, or the computing staff 

 large and not busy. Our readers must not infer that we 

 are objecting to the electric control so much as to the 

 defence of it. Several pages are devoted to a discussion 

 of the division errors of the circle, which leave the im- 

 pression of a great waste of time. Stone's errors being 

 under suspicion, the observations on which they were 

 founded were re-examined, without the light of the know- 

 ledge as to their relative value, which Stone undoubtedly 

 possessed, but did not record, with the natural result that 

 by giving equal weight to most of them, a different set of 

 corrections was obtained, and the also natural result that 

 the differences were slight. Whereupon, as the old cor- 

 rections were already in use, no change was made. It is 

 difficult to see what change could have been made without 

 repeating the observations themselves, as it could hardly 

 be Stone's powers of computing that were under suspicion. 

 We ran appreciate the determination not to waste more 



time by altering the corrections, better than we can ap- 

 preciate the devoting of several pages of introduction to 

 the account of the investigation. Very few of the funda- 

 mental stars seem to have been really well observed in 

 X.P.D. Possibly it was in this one unfortunate direction 

 that the observers were encouraged to save time. In one 

 place. Dr. Rambaut says : " The results are of a high 

 order of accuracy, as is shown by the tests which have been 

 applied," i.e., the probable error is small; in another place 

 he says : " The smallness of the probable error correspond- 

 ing to the zone lao' to 122°, is obviously an accident, due 

 to the small number of stars which it contains." .Are we to 

 infer that the probable error of a single observation must 

 be zero, or that the probable errors of the catalogue are 

 small because the stars are few ? Nearly all the stars in 

 the catalogue have been observed three times at least in 

 each element. Among the very few e.xceptions, we notice 

 Sirius with only two observations. It seems a pity such a 

 star was included at all, if so few observations were made 

 of it, especially as it involved corrections for orbital motion 

 and parallax. Reference numbers are given for each star 

 to Auwers' Bradley (1755); Lalande (1800); Weisse's 

 Bessel (i), (1825); Albany, A. G. (1875); Radcliffe (1890); 

 Greenwich (1890); and Bonn Durchmusterung (1855), and 

 notes are added on magnitude and colour, and authorities 

 given for the adopted proper motions. We have nothing 

 but praise for the general style and appearance of the 

 volume, which is similar to the Radcliffe 1890 Catalogue. 

 It will be interesting to compare the results with other 

 catalogues of the same epoch when they appear, a time 

 which should be fast approaching. 



BIOLOQY. 



The Dynamics of Living Matter, by J. Loeb, Columbia 

 University Zoological Series (New York and London, 1906; 

 pp. xi. + 233, price 12s. 6d. net). — Two transcendental 

 problems, observes the author, confront the biologist at the 

 present day, namely, the artificial transformation of dead 

 into living' matter, and the artificial transformation of one 

 species of animal or plant into another. As to the first 

 problem it is certain that no one has yet witnessed such a 

 transformation, but since we daily see animals and plants 

 converting dead into living matter in their own tissues, and 

 since chemical processes are essentially the same in living 

 and in dead matter. Professor Loeb does not despair of the 

 discovery of abiogenesis, and urges that this should be the 

 goal of every biologist. Incidentally he raises the question 

 whether death is a necessary outcome of development, and 

 whether rejuvenation and the commencement of a new 

 cvcle are impossible. .As to the second problem, this has 

 undoubtedly been solved by de Vrics's famous experiments 

 of primulas, and, if plant-species can be artificially produced, 

 why not animal species? The chemistry of living organ- 

 isms, the general physical constitution of living matter, the 

 more important physical manifestations of life, the influence 

 and effects of electricity, heat, and light upon living matter, 

 the phenomena of " heliotropism " (turning to the sun), the 

 nature of fertilisation and regeneration processes form the 

 subject of the various chapters (originally lectures') which 

 go to form this thoroughly philosophical, and at the same 

 time thoroughly practical, work, which cannot fail to raise 

 the already high status of the scries to which it belongs. 



BOTANY. 



Methods in Plant Histology, by C. J. Chamberlain, A.M., 

 Edition II. (I'islur L'nwin, iqot); los. 6d. net). — The first 

 edition of this book, written by a teacher of botany con- 

 nected with the L'niversity of Chicago, was very favourably 

 received in this country on account of its sterling merit ; 

 the present edition embodies all the reliable laboratory 

 methods that have been discovered during the interval of 

 four years. The collection and preservation of material, 

 very important features, and on which further research 

 almost entirely depends, receive special attention. Methods 

 of growing laboratory material are also clearly outlined. 

 The almost endless variety of reagents and stains cata- 



