REVIEWS. 



ARCHAEOLOGY. 



ASTRONOMY. 



British Cosfmiic lUiriiig Xinctecnth Centuries. — By Mrs. Researclies on Tlie Chemical Origin of Various Lines in 

 Charles H. .Ashdown. 376 pages. 459 engravings. Solar and Stellar Spectra. — By Fr.^nk E. Ba.xaxdall, 

 119 plates. gi-in.Xfi^.in. A.R.C.Sc. 77 pages. " 12-in. X 9i-in. 



(T. C. and E. C. Jack. Price IS 6 net. I 



side 



An 



We do not pay enough attention in tliis country to tliat 

 of archaeology which deals with the 

 development of the industries of the people, 

 especially as these are concerned with the 

 details of everyday domestic life. It is 

 true that considerable interest is taken in 

 the history of dress, and this, perhaps, for 

 special reasons, but we still have no folk 

 nu:seum in which we can refer to the actual 

 clothes themselves. The task of getting a 

 proper series together becomes increasingly 

 difficult as the \'ears go by. When, even- 

 tually, a serious attempt is made to repair 

 the deficiency in our national collections 

 we shall, no doubt, liave to depend a 

 great deal on careful reconstructions such 

 as Mrs. Ashdown has made for the purpose 

 of producing the coloured illustrations 

 which embellish her book. As these have 

 been taken, with the help of photography, 

 from real people — and we cannot imagine 

 that the features of English men and women have changed 

 greatly in a few hundred years — we get from the pictures a 

 better idea as to the 

 effect of the costumes 

 than is possible in any 

 other way. 



It is very interesting 

 to the student of the 

 past to study old cos- 

 tumes that survive at 

 the present day — say, 

 like those of the Sister 

 of Mercy and the 

 Blue - coat Boy, and 

 see from what chap- 

 ter of history they are 

 taken. 



The exaggerations in 

 dress that are so 

 common throughout history 

 olden times cannot seem to us to be any 

 pictures of those of the present will 

 appear to our descendants. When the 

 clothes are seen on li\ing persons their 

 ridiculousness is not always quite so 

 obvious as it is in the illustrations of a 

 book or it is possible that the Goddess 

 of Fashion would not have quite so many 

 worshippers. 



Clothes proper are not the onl\- 

 things which are presented to us by 

 Mrs. Ashdown. and the method of 

 riding by ladies which we have chosen 

 for illustration is a good instance. 

 Women of the lower orders, and 

 ladies when hunting or in a hurry. 

 rode astride, but the side saddle was 

 used from Anglo-Saxon times onwards by 

 the quality. 



Anglo-Saxon lady ridin 

 a side saddle. 



A lady riding astride when hunting in the reign of Richard II 



are amusing to us. but those of 

 more idiotic than 



Ladies using the side saddle 

 (14th Centurv). 



(Wyman iS; Sons, for the Solar Physics Committee. Price 4 6.) 



.A. collection of six papers, the first giving the results of a 

 comparative study of the spectra of the 

 sun and lower type stars, in relation to the 

 sunspot spectrum. During the seven years 

 the work has been in progress, several 

 papers bearing on the subject have been 

 published from Mount Wilson Observatorv 

 and are referred to, and the results com- 

 pared with those obtained at Kensington. 

 The stars compared with the sun are 

 Capella and Arcturus. The former yields 

 a spectrum very like the general solar 

 spectrum, but the latter is found to be 

 very similar to sunspot spectra. The 

 elements which appear to have the largest 

 share in producing the distinctive spectrum 

 are vanadium and titanium. The conclusion 

 is drawn that there are probably nearly 

 similar conditions either as to temperature 

 or electrical excitation in sunspots and stars 

 of the Arcturian class. Further it is 

 considered that the Sunspots and Arcturus are lower in 

 temperature than the general photosphere and Capella. 



Part II. gives the results of an investigation of the 

 spectrum of e Ursae Majoris, a star of Sirian type, 

 but having certain peculiarities. One result is that 

 the lines of proto-chroinium are found more pro- 

 nounced than in the 

 spectrum of any other 

 known star. 



Part III. deals with 

 the presence of nitrogen 

 lines in stellar spectra, 

 detailing the relative in- 

 tensities of the stronger 

 lines in the stars ft 7 

 V. f. t. and I Orionis 

 It is noticeable that 

 in spectra of stars of a 

 higher class than i, or 

 a lower than ,i. no nitrogen lines are found. 



Part IV. consists of lists of enhanced lines in the spectra of 

 some metals not published previously. 



Part V. gives tables of wavelengths of 

 known lines of use in studying the radial 

 velocity of stars. 



Part \T. brings together in order of wave- 

 length a number of pronounced lines, met 

 with in various celestial spectra, but, so far, 

 not identified with any known terrestrial 

 substance. The contribution is distinctly 

 a useful one : the last' part very specially 

 may be helpful to the laboratory worker — 

 a list of eighty-two lines to be watched for. 

 Helium is now a well-known gas, yet for 

 many years it was only known as a bright 

 line in the solar chromosphere, very 

 occasionally recorded dark on the disc. 

 What may not these eighty-two lines, as 

 vet unknown, mean ? F. C. D. 



TIu'sc illiistratitins are reproduced hy the courtesy of Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jacl;. 



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