LITERARY NOTICES. 



705 



welfare of man. The " vast array of primor- 

 dial atoms " as well as the beginning of life 

 upon the earth demand the exertion of cre- 

 ative power ; this, it is claimed, or even sub- 

 sequent creative acts, are not in conflict with 

 the process of evolution. 



In the remaining lectures the author does 

 not enter upon a comparative study of re- 

 ligions, but confines himself to the claims of 

 Christianity. 



Whatever may be said in favor of the 

 theistic arguments contained in the first part 

 of the book can scarcely be maintained in 

 regard to these deductions, wherein it is 

 urged that the Christian doctrine of the ori- 

 gin of man, his fall from a state of inno- 

 cence, the dogma of the Trinity, and the in- 

 dwelling of the Spirit " satisfy certain aspi- 

 rations of natural theology." 



THE DAWN OF ASTRONOMY. By J. NORMAN 

 LOCKYER, F. R. S., etc. New York and 

 London : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 432. 

 Price, $5. 



IT would be impossible to determine 

 whether the heavenly bodies aroused the 

 greater wonder in the ancients, who could 

 know but little of their real nature, or in us, 

 who have learned something of their immense 

 sizes, distances from the earth, and velocities 

 of motion. That the ancients were profound- 

 ly impressed by them, and were attentive ob- 

 servers of their phenomena, is being made 

 more and more evident by the advance of 

 archaeological research. While in Greece, 

 some four years ago, Prof. Lockyer became 

 interested in determining the orientation of 

 some of the Athenian temples. He found 

 reason to believe that these structures were 

 oriented upon an astronomical basis, and, 

 carrying the investigation back to the works 

 of the ancient Egyptians, discovered the 

 abundant evidence in support of his supposi- 

 tion which is embodied in the handsome vol- 

 ume before us. The great temple of Amen- 

 Ra at Karnak faces the sunset at the time 

 of the summer solstice. A stone avenue 

 stretches through the axis of the temple 

 for five hundred yards, and throughout all 

 the halls of the building nothing was al- 

 lowed to obstruct the view through this 

 avenue toward the point where the sun 

 dropped below the horizon on the longest day 

 of the year. Other temples elsewhere were 

 VOL. XLV 52 



oriented toward the same point. Still others 

 appear to have been oriented with reference 

 to stars. Ruins of old temples have been 

 found and beside them a less ancient struc- 

 ture with an axis pointing in a somewhat 

 different direction. Inasmuch as stars change 

 their declinations about a degree in three 

 hundred years, this circumstance of a changed 

 axis in the new temple strongly supports the 

 theory of stellar orientation. Many similar 

 facts are given by Prof. Lockyer, and in con- 

 nection with them he sets forth the astro- 

 nomical basis of the Egyptian pantheon, de- 

 scribes the Egyptian calendar, and constructs, 

 from the various monuments, inscriptions, 

 and other available material, a chronicle of 

 the succession of moon cult to sun cult, and 

 of the mingling of these together and with 

 various star cults, as successive waves of 

 population inundated the valley of the Nile. 

 The volume is copiously illustrated with views 

 of temples and other monuments, figures of 

 gods, diagrams, etc. 



SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. By 

 GEORGE W. RAFTER, M. Am. Soc. C. E., 

 and M. N. BAKER, Ph. B. New York : D. 

 Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 598. Price, $6. 



THIS substantial volume embodies a com- 

 prehensive survey of the operations for the dis- 

 posal of sewage that have been carried on in 

 the United States. The conditions and needs 

 governing sewage disposal in this country 

 being somewhat different from those existing 

 abroad, the authors believe that the infor- 

 mation which they have gathered will be of 

 peculiar benefit to American sanitary officials 

 and engineers. The work is divided into 

 two parts, the former of which is a discus- 

 sion of principles, while the latter consists 

 of descriptions of works. The practice of 

 discharging sewage into fresh -water streams 

 and lakes from which the water supplies of 

 towns are taken has given rise to many of 

 the most perplexing problems that sanitary 

 engineers have had to deal with. Accord- 

 ingly, the pollution of streams by sewage and 

 manufacturers' waste and the self-purification 

 of streams thus polluted are among the ear- 

 liest topics treated in this work, their legal 

 as well as their scientific aspects being duly 

 considered. The authors regard as not 

 proved the assertion that polluted streams 

 are rendered fit for drinking by natural agen- 



