222 



♦ KNOWLEDGE . 



[Sept. 12, 1884. 



AN APOLOGY TO DR. KTNNS. 



I INTIMATED, on p. 204, my earnest anxiety that justice 

 should be done to Dr. Kiuns. I now hasten to render 

 it. Having carefully read through the edition of his book just 

 published, from beginning to end, I feel that, differing, as 

 I do, from him in the inferences he draws from his facts, I 

 can the more willingly, and with the ler^s bias, bear testi- 

 mony to the entire accuracy of the very large number of 

 scientific facts which he has brought together. A para- 

 graph on abnormal refraction which appeared in the only 

 edition of " Moses and Geology " that I had previously 

 seen (and upon which I placed an interpretation repudiated 

 by Dr. K.) has been expunged from the present one ; and 

 I can only frankly express my regret that I should have 

 brought a charge of ignorance, which a simple perusal of 

 the volume before me suffices amply to refute. I do not 

 know whether it is necessary to reiterate here that I never 

 did — as assuredly I never intended to — make the very 

 slightest insinuation against Dr. Kinns's personal character, 

 honour, or veracity. They have been as unassailed in these 

 columns as they are unassailable. 



ilftiifliiS* 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLK 



Suggestions for Eslahlishing Popular and Educational 

 Museums. By Teos. Laurie. (London : Laurie.) — In 

 this pamphlet Mr. Laurie offers suggestions for the esta- 

 blishment of local museums of science and art, which 

 may be studied, not without profit, by those interested 

 in popular education. His ideas as to the collection of 

 ■objects illustrating the local industry of the place in which 

 the museum is situated seem good, and he further gives a 

 list of anatomical and physiological models, works of art, 

 wall charts, ifcc, which he considers should form part of 

 every collection established for educational purposes. 



Hospital Sunday and Hospital Saturdaij. By Henry 

 C BuBDETT. (London : Ivegan Paul, Trench, &. Co. ) 

 1884. — Mr. Burdett finds gi-ave fault with the administra- 

 "tion of the funds collected on what are known as Hospital 

 Sunday and Hospital Saturday — especially with the latter. 

 All who are anxious that the very large sums of money 

 gathered on these days should be applied to the greatest 

 advantage to the alleviation of sickness and suffering, 

 should study the pamphlet whose title heads this notice. 



Children's Dress. A Lecture delivered in the Lecture- 

 room of the International Health Exhibition by Miss 

 Ada S. Ballin. (London : W. Clowes <fe Son.) — This emi- 

 nently practical lecture may be commended to the serious 

 consideration of the parents of all young children. That 

 our present unscientific mode of clothing them gives rise to 

 imperfect development, disease, and even death, can un- 

 happily hardly be denied ; and those who wish to see their 

 youngsters happy and healthy can scarcely expend sixpence 

 more profitably than in the purchase of the instructive 

 pamphlet before us. 



Text-book of Practical Solid or Descriptive Geometry. By 

 David Allan Low. Part II. (London: Longmans, Green, 

 <i Co., 1884.) This is the second volume of the work, 

 concerning the previous part of which we were able to 

 speak so favourably on p. 97. The commendation which 

 we bestowed upon that we are equally able to extend to 

 the conclusion of Mr. Low's really excellent book. We 

 have, however, one fault to find with it, and that is that 

 its author persists in that most unscientific solecism, the 

 use of " for inches. " means seconds of arc and nothing 



else, and it is as legitimate — or as illegitimate — to employ 

 it to indicate a measure of length, as it would be to use £, 

 as the symbol for a gallon. 



We have also on our table Cassell's Popular Gardening, 

 The Book of Health, The Library of English Literature, 

 European Butterflies and Moths, Cassell's Household Guide, 

 The Countries of t/ie World, and I'he Franco German War, 

 Longfellow's Poems (illustrated), all published by Cassell <fe 

 Co. ; Pitman's Musical Monthly, a surprisingly cheap and 

 useful publication for musical amateurs of limited means; 

 Water Supply to Villages and Rural Districts, by E. 

 Bailey-Denton, O.E., B.A. ; The Journal of Botany, Brad- 

 streets, The Railway Review, The Tricyclist, Society, The 

 Index, Our Monthly, the Hindu Excelsior Magazine, and 

 the Syllabus of the Day and Evening Classes of tlie Mason 

 Science College for 1884-5. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



Fbom September 12ih to September 26th. 

 Bt F.E.A.S. 



SPOTS and facalae continue to appear in safficient nnmber on the 

 Snn's disc to render the daily scrutiny of his sarface almost 

 certainly productive of interesting resnlts. The configuration of 

 the night sky may be gathered from Map IX. of " The Stars in 

 their Seasons," A minimum of Algol (" The Stars in their Seasons," 

 Map I.) will happen at 2h.43m. a.m. on Sept. 25th. At 3 p.m. on the 

 19th, Mercury comes into inferior conjunction with the Sun, and is 

 of course but poorly placed indeed for the observer about this time. 

 He may, however, probably be caught as a morning star about the 

 time when these notes terminate. Venus is still a most striking 

 and brilliant object in the morning sky, rising as she does between 

 1 and 2 a.m. during the nest fortnight. In the telescope she pre- 

 sents the phase of the Moon in her last quarter. She attains her 

 greatest elongation (46^ 5') west at noon on the 21st. Neither Mars 

 nor Jupiter is yet in a position for observation. Saturn, however, 

 rises before 10 p.m. on the 12th ; and just after 9 o'clock at night 

 by the 20th. He is still to the north of '(, Tauri ("The Stars in 

 their Seasons," Map I.) Uranus is for the present removed from 

 the ken of the observer, as is Neptune too. The Moon is new on 

 the 19th, and she does not enter her first quarter until 21 minutes 

 past 10 o'clock in the morning of the 27th. She will only be fully 

 observable during the last three days of the interval which our 

 notes cover. During that period she will occult two stars at 

 moderately convenient hours. \Te gave the particulars of 

 the first occultation a fortnight ago on p. 182, but repeat 

 them here. On the night, then, of September 12th, the Moon, 

 before rising, will have occulted the 6ith mag. star BAG., 

 1930. Later, after she has risen, the star will reappear from 

 behind her dark limb at llh. 14m., at an angle from her 

 vertex of 220°. The second occultation will occur on Sept. 25, 

 when the 6th mag. star 29 Ophinchi will disappear at the dark 

 limb of the Moon at 5h. 28m. p.m., at a vertical angle of 126° ; 

 reappearing at her bright limb, at an angle of 258° from her vertex 

 at Oh. 41m. p.m. When these notes begin the Moon is in Taurus, but 

 at 7 o'clock this evening she will pass into the extreme north part of 

 Orion. Twelve hours later, i.e., at 7 o'clock to-morrow morning, 

 she will have crossed this strip of sky and entered Gemini. It will 

 be 10 p.m. on the 14th before she quits Gemini for Cancer, and in 

 Cancer she remains until noon on the 16th, when she crosses its 

 boundary into Leo. Travelling through the last-named constella- 

 tion, she descends into Sextans at 3 p.m. on the 17th, re-emerging 

 in Leo at 3 o'clock the next morning. She finally quits Leo for 

 Virgo at 4 a.m. on the 19th. Her passage through Virgo occupies 

 until noon on the 22nd, at which hour she crosses the boundary 

 into Libra. At 1 p.m. on the 24th, she enters the narrow northern 

 strip of Scorpio, which she has traversed by midnight. She then 

 passes into the southern part of Ophiuchus, where she continues 

 until 10 p.m. on the 26th. At this hour she crosses into Sagittarius, 

 where we leave her. 



The oldest college in the United States (with the exception of 

 Harvard), viz., William and Mary College, Virginia, has been com- 

 pelled to close its doors, having but one student at the beginning 

 of the present school year. It was founded in 1693, and has had 

 amongst its eminent ahtmju' Washington, Randolph, Tyler, Brecken- 

 ridge, and General Scott. — Atheiueutn. 



