OCTOBKR 1 1900] 



KNOWLEDGE 



231 



hedges, and a hundred minor things havo grown up 

 to bar their way and t^errify th?ir wild nature, where 

 once stretched the great wastes and rolling plains they 

 loved so well. 



Grtal Crested Grebes in Richmond Park. (The Field, Aiipust 18th, 

 p. 21IS. ) Mr. W. R. Rfftil reionls tUo iuterostiiig fnct that f<n- tho 

 second Tear in succession a pair of Grout Cresti'il Grebes have 

 hatolied out two young ones in Kiehniond Park. 



A Short Uisinry of the Bearded Titmouse. B.v J. H. Gurney. 

 (Zooloffist, August, lillK), pp. ;?oS - 374.) Tliis is an interesting 

 account of the Bearded Titmouse, which is reduced in numbers in 

 England to a mere remnant (althougli we are ghid to say now an in- 

 creasing remnant), confined to tlie Norfiilk Broa<ls. The author 

 divides his account into the following heads : Distribution, increasing 

 scarceness, habits, uidifieation, former breeding area, etc. Addi- 

 tional notes appear in the Zoo/ot/ist for September, 190<), pp. 422 

 and 423. 



A J'isit to Loinih Erne in Search of the Sandinch Tern. By 

 Robert Warren. ' (Irish Sat., September, 19tKl, pp. 22(1—223.) 

 This is ail account of the birds observed breeding aliout Lough Erne, 

 and establislies the fact that the Sandwich Tern nests th(>re. 

 Hitherto the only known nesting jihice of this I)ird in Ireland was 

 near Bailina, in County Mayo. 



♦ 



Notices of Boofts. 



'" Rkse.\rches ixto the Origin of the Primitive Constel- 



L.VTIONS OF THE GREEKS, PH(EXICIANS, AND B.ABTLONIANS." Bf 



Robert Brown, junior, f.s.a., etc., etc. Vol. II. (Williams and 

 Norgate.) 10s. 6d. Just a year ago we reviewed the first volume 

 of Mr. Brown's work on the Primitive Constellations, and it is 

 with much pleasure that we note its continuance in the second and 

 concluding volume. The second volume is in many ways an im- 

 provement on the first. Important though the first volume was, 

 as a serious and practically a new investigation into the history 

 and origin of the constellation figures, this volume, which is con- 

 cerned entirely with the Euphratean star records, is more important 

 and takes us into ground more entirely virgin still. Further, 

 some of the faults which disfigured the first volume are less felt 

 or have been corrected in the second ; there is less reason to com- 

 plain of those vain repetitions which led us before to think that 

 Mr. Brown had become so enamoured of the principle of redujdi- 

 cation in the Zodiac as to conclude that there could not be too much 

 of it in the pages of his books. Though the subject is newer and 

 more difficult than in the preceding volume, Mr. Brown has handhd 

 it more clearly and invested it with greater attractiveness. The 

 restoration of the Euphratean planisphere from three small frag- 

 ments, which forms the subject of chapter- IX., is of particular 

 interest. The chapter on " Constellation Subjects in Euphratean 

 Art " would be more convincing if it were not for the manifest 

 assumption on Mr. Brown's part that any object, no matter how 

 familiar, that the Euphrateans sculptured or engraved must 

 necessarily be constellational if it chanced to be amongst the objects 

 which they had chosen for the constellation forms. In the " Tablet 

 of the Thirty Stars " there is a good deal that we find unconvincing. 

 It is dilBcult to suppose that the original lunar zodiac, no doabt 

 far earlier than the solar one, can have begun with the group o' 

 Alpha Aquarii. Chapter XIII., on the Celestial Equator of Aratos, 

 deals with a subject which Mr. Brown has already treated fully 

 elsewhere, but its great importance in the present connection fully 

 justifies him in bringing it forward again. We note, too, with 

 pleasure his very pregnant suggestion that the constellations pro- 

 bably began with the choice of single stars or of small striking 

 groups ; other stars being selected later as they happened to li-; 

 most suitably for connection with the original idea. He justly 

 and strongly repudiates the suggestion that the natural con- 

 figuration of the stars suggested the constellation figures. The 

 idea has had some good names to back it, but ,1 very little direct 

 acquaintanceship with the appearance of the heavens is .sufficient 

 to disabuse any impartial observer. 



When we come to the question, however, of the origin of the 

 constellation forms, we find a grievous inconsistency in Mr. Brown's 

 position. He cannot make up his mind as to whether the Zodiac 

 took its origin when Aries or when Taurus was the equinoctial 

 sign. He tells us indeed explicitly in more than one passage that 

 the latter was the case ; he assumes in a hundred that the former 

 was. Both cannot be true. If he could but steadily lay hold of 

 the fact, which is certainly astronomically established, that the 

 constellations were originally mapped out, possibly in the Euphra- 

 tean valley, but far north of Babylon, and many centuries before 

 the equinox had entered Aries, it would cause him indeed to revise 

 very much of what he has written, but its value would be in- 



definitely increased. The bearing of this fact on the solar myth 

 is most important ; it teaches us that the sun was not first personi- 

 fied as a llam and tho constellation then designed to accord with 

 it, but that the constellation first received the name and figure of 

 the Bam, and the sun derived its personification from the star 

 group. We trust that Mr. Brown may be persuaded to |)rovido 

 liimself with a good precessional globe, .and setting it for about 

 3000 B.C., to go over the ground again, checking every concdusion 

 by its aid. We have no doubt that it will materially modify his 

 views in many details. Even as it is, we assuredly owe Mr. 

 Brown a very heavy debt for the industry and aliility with which 

 he has pushed his enquiries into a re.gi(m previously so entirely 

 unexplored, and yet of such intense interest to all who concern 

 themselves with the beginnings of the oldest and grandest of the 

 sciences. 



" Inoroanio Evolution as Studied dy Sr'ECTUuM Analysis." 

 By Sir Norman Lockyer, K.c.B., F.R.s. (Macmill.au.) As. net. 

 Tliis vidumc may be considered as a sequel to the three works 

 pulilished in the preceding thirteen years —" Chemistry of the Sun," 

 "The Meleoritic Hypothesis," and "The Sun's Place in Nature." 

 Its ]nirpose is to gather together and focus the evidence presented 

 in the three former volumes of the dissociation of those substances 

 which we are accustomed (o regard as elementary, and (he entire 

 array of observations and theories presented in tho whole <'olIection 

 are regarded as a contrilnilion to the study of the evolution of 

 those elements. It is clear, therefore, that the book is one dealing 

 with a subject of the highest importance, and it should be said 

 at once that of the four volumes of the series it is by far the best. 



The earlier cha))ters dealing with the first principles of spectro- 

 scopy are admiraldy clear, so clear as to give rise to the unkind 

 suspicion when Sir Norman writes obscurely — and no one can 

 sur])ass him in this respect at times — that either he has then no 

 definite idea of what he wishes to say, or else no very strong desire 

 that he should be understood. So far, too, as the present work 

 summarizes the conclusions of the three earlier volumes, we fin 1 

 a considerable increase in precision. 



As to the theoi-y here put forward, that of the growth of the 

 elements themselves, it is one of which it is very easy to vaguely 

 formulate. It has been done repeatedly by men who are justly 

 regarded as paradoxers as well as by some of the very leaders of 

 science. Front's Law, Meudeleef's Periodic Law, were quite 

 sufficient to suggest it to any imaginative mind. But the working 

 out in detail is a very different business, and to discuss adequately 

 the details here given would require a^ much space as the book 

 itself. Leaving the plausibility, therefore, of the theory entirely 

 on one side, it is sufficient to say here that Sir Norman Lockyer 

 gives a clearer .account of the present state of the discussion, and 

 a more precise exposition of his own views with regard to it, than 

 in any of his previous works. He comes more nearly to com- 

 mitting himself to definite propositions which can be tested and 

 refuted or confirmed. The book, therefore, will both be more 

 useful to the student and a more valuable contribution to science 

 than any of its three precursors. 



The illustrations are, we regret to say, of the same unsati.3 

 factory character as in the previous volumes. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Tejrt-Soof.- of Zool'),/,/. Part II. — Birds, Reptiles, Fishes. By 

 Dr. Otto Sclimcil. (Uiack.) Illustrated. 3s. Cd. 



Microscopes and Srii^ntifto Instruments — Cutalogne, ItJOIJ 19i)l, 

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Elementary Physics and Chemistry. Gregory and Simmons. 

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Outlines of Field Geology. 5th Edition. By Sir .\. Oeikio. 

 (Maeraillau.) 3s. Ijd. 



Photometrical Measurements. By Wilbur M. Stiue, ch.d. 

 (Macmill.an.) (is. fid. 



A Treatise on Zoology. Edited by Prof. E. Ray Lankester. 

 Part II. — The Poripera and Cwlentera. (Black.) 15s. net. 



An Outline of the Theory of Thermodynamics. By Edgar 

 Buckingham. (Macmillan.) 8s. net. 



The Spectrum Plate. (I'ampldet.) By Miss Ackland. 



The Path of the Sun, Illustrated hy Diagrams. By William 

 Sandcnian. (Simpkin.) 



The Journal of the Society of Comparatire Legislation. August, 

 lilix). (Murray ) 03. 



Studies in Fossil Botany. By Dr. 1). H. Scott, k.b s. (Black.) 

 Illustrated. 7s. <id. net. 



On llie Rotation of Spiral Nebula Messier ~)1 Canum Venaticorum ; 

 Annual Report, IS'JO-iyOO, Saeilian Professor of Astronomy : and 

 other astronomical pamphlets. By H. 11. Turner, Savilian Prof, of 

 .Vstrononiy. 



The Birds of Ireland. By Richard J. Usaher and Robert Warren. 

 (Gurney & Jackson.) 30s, 



