140 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[June 1, 1897. 



the Zoological Society. Many a dumb animal's life waa 

 saved in time of jeopardy by his prompt application of a 

 common-sense remedy. We are indebted to him for many 

 instructive and valuable papers. He described several 

 new species of different genera, and was the first to 

 describe the annual shedding of the horns in the American 

 prong-horned antelope. Mr. Bartlett did much to en- 

 lighten us on the divergence of habit in allied species, the 

 peculiar traits of individuals, and the effect of confinement 

 in the modification of instinct ; and he was wont to say 

 that the more the treatment of an animal in confinement 

 was made to conform to its natural conditions of life, the 

 better was it for its health and longevity. 



We regret to announce the death of Edward James 

 Stone, F.E.S., Observer and Director of the Eadcliffe 

 Observatory, Oxford. He was born in London, 28th 

 February, 1831, and in 1856 obtained a scholarship at 

 Queen's College, Cambridge, graduating as fifth wrangler 

 in 1859, and was forthwith elected to a fellowship. 

 Becoming Chief Assistant at Greenwich Observatory in 

 1860, he succeeded Sir Thomas Maclean, ten years later, 

 as Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape, and in 1879 

 he turned homewards to fill the post of Eadcliffe Observer. 

 Dr. Stone will, perhaps, be best remembered through his 

 two star catalogues ; the first, for the epoch 1880, including 

 nearly twelve thousand five hundred southern stars, and 

 for which the French Academy, in 1881, bestowed on him 

 the Lalande Prize ; the second, termed the " Eadcliffe 

 Catalogue for 1890," giving the places of six thousand four 

 hundred and twenty-four stars situated between the Equator 

 and twenty degrees of south latitude, thug completing 

 a most useful survey of the austral skies. For his re-dis- 

 cussion of the observations of the transit of Venus in 1769, 

 he received, in February, 1869, the gold medal of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society. The value of the sun's 

 distance, however, which he then arrived at — ninety-one 

 million seven hundred thousand miles — is now known to 

 be about a million miles too small. On December 8th, 

 1871, Dr. Stone watched the first of the eagerly anticipated 

 nineteenth century transits of Venus, and ably organized 

 the Government expeditions to observe the second of the 

 pair eight years later. His report, presented in 1887, 

 contained an elaborate inquiry into the baffling phenomena 

 of " contacts," and gave, as the upshot, a parallax of 8-85", 

 corresponding to a distance of the earth from the sun of 

 ninety-two million five hundred and sixty thousand miles. 



Notices of Boolts. 



The Cambridge Natiinil Histori/. Vol. II. Worms, Eoti- 

 fers, and Polygon. By various Authors. (Macmillan.) 

 Illustrated. 17s. "The Cambridge Natural History" 

 has, perhaps, not realized the popular character promised 

 by the prospectus, but it has found a foremost and perma- 

 nent place among works designed to present a connected 

 view of the organic world to the cultivated mind, and to 

 exhibit the most important facts and consequences now 

 known to natural science. By no stretch of the imagina- 

 tion can the present volume be called a work for the 

 general reader : it is a volume for the student of science, 

 and by him will it be welcomed. The subjects and authors 

 are as follows : Flatworms and Meso/.oa, by F. W. Gamble ; 

 Nemertines, by Miss L. Sheldon ; Threadworms and 

 Sagitta, by A. E. Shipley; Rotifers, by Prof. Marcus 

 JIartog; Polychaet Worms, by Dr. W. B. Benham; Earth- 

 worms and Leeches, by F. E. Beddard ; Gephyrea and 

 Phoronis, by A. E. Shipley ; and Polyzoa, by S. F. Harmer. 

 The writers are high authorities upon the assemblages of 



animals with which they respectively deal, and their con- 

 tributions claim the attention of all who are professed 

 naturalists. The whole volume is a marvel of careful 

 writing, brilliant illustration, and good printing. There 

 is, indeed, no similar work in existence containing text 

 more trustworthy and instructive, or clearer figures than 

 are given in the volume before us. As an instance of fine 



a^ 



Leploplana in the act of Swiiuming. A. Seen from the right side 

 during the downward stroke (the resemblance toa skate is striking); 

 B, from above, sliowing the upward stroke and longitudinal undu- 

 lations of the swimming lobes ; c, side view during the upward 

 stroke ; D, transverse section of the body during the stroke. 



From The Cambridge Nafiiral History, Vol. II. (By permission of 

 Messrs. Macmillan.) 



drawing the diagrammatic view of the structure of Lepto- 

 plana tremellaris as a type of the Polycladida would be 

 difficult to excel. All earnest students of natural science 

 should see, and, if possible, possess, the monumental work 

 now in course of publication by Messrs. Macmillan. 



The Gases of the Atmosphere : the History of their 

 Discovery. By Prof. W. Ramsay, F.R.S. (Macmillan.) 

 Illustrated. (Js. " To tell the story of the development 

 of men's ideas regarding the nature of atmospheric air is 

 in great part to write a history of chemistry and physics." 

 These are Prof. Ramsay's opening words, and they serve 

 to define the spirit in which the present work has been 

 written. The experiments and speculations of Boyle, 

 Mayow, and Hales ; the discovery of fixed air (carbon 

 dioxide) by Black, and of mephitic air or phlogisticated 

 air (nitrogen) by Rutherford ; the discovery of dephlo- 

 gisticated air (oxygen) by Priestley and by Scheele ; the 

 overthrow of the phlogistic theory by Lavoisier ; and 

 Cavendish's investigations of nitrogen and water, are 

 described by Prof. Ramsay in language easily understood 

 by readers without any special scientific training. It was 

 Cavendish who, so far back as 1785, found that a fraction 

 of the supposed nitrogen of the air differed from the rest ; 

 and in 1895, one hundred and ten years later, Lord Rayleigh 



