124 



NATURE 



[June 5, 1890 



AN EPHEMERIS. 

 Connaissance des Temps. Extrait h Vusage des Ecoles 

 d'Hydrographie et des Marins du Commerce. Pour 

 Van 1891. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1889.) 



THE CoJinaissance des Temps has, within the last few 

 years, by successive improvements, been made 

 quite the most convenient Ephemeris for general use. 

 The information it contains is conveniently given, and 

 almost excessive in amount ; and the result of course is 

 that the pages of tabular matter are a good deal crowded, 

 in order to make the annual volume of reasonable size. 

 For travellers whether by sea or land it, like our own 

 Nautical Almanac, is not, however, quite what is wanted. 

 Much of the information it contains is of no use to 

 them, and the size and weight of the book is excessive 

 for their purposes. This appears to have come to the 

 notice of the Ministry of Marine, who, in 1887, directed 

 the publication of a pamphlet of extracts from the 

 Connaissance containing the necessary information for 

 Navigators and students for certificates as Masters, a 

 copy of which is now before us. 



In making this effort to meet the wants of a very large 

 class of practical men the French have but followed the 

 example of other countries. Some forty years ago the 

 Prussian Government caused to be compiled a Nautisches 

 Jahrbuch, which in its present form appears to be the 

 best adapted of those we have seen for geographers and 

 voyagers. It is manifestly copied, as to form, from the 

 Nautical Almanac, avoiding all the matter useless to 

 geographers, which is relegated to the well-known Berliner 

 Jahrbuchj the contents are all given with an accuracy 

 sufficient for the purposes for which it is intended : a 

 thoroughly practical mind seems to have guided the whole 

 arrangement, and the changes which seem desirable are 

 but small. The American Government next published an 

 American Nautical Almanac, which is practically a re- 

 print of those parts of their larger Ephemeris which are 

 supposed to be required at sea. It is needlessly accurate 

 in its data, and needlessly bulky, but no doubt fulfils its 

 object. And again, just before the French, the Austrian 

 Government published at Trieste a Nautical Ephemeris 

 founded on our Nautical Abnanac, but almost identical 

 in contents with that of the German Government before 

 spoken of. This, it would seem, is published with the text 

 and headings in more than one language. 



The French work approaches most nearly in type to 

 the American : it is mainly a reprint. That part which is 

 not so is the Ephemeris of the Moon, and here conveni- 

 ence is sacrificed to a small gain of space. Not only 

 are the pages crowded unduly, but the arguments (being 

 at 12-hour intervals) are so far apart that interpolation 

 becomes inconvenient. 



Before closing we would like to point out that while all 

 these Governments have provided an Ephemeris for their 

 Nautical men and Travellers which is meant to be 

 specially suited to their limited wants ; England alone, 

 which owns probably half the sea-going ships in the 

 world, and furnishes no small proportion of the explorers, 

 makes no special provision for them. It is not that there 

 is no want felt : for there are several almanacs which, 

 availing themselves of the Nautical Almanac, give 

 astronomical data, together with various other matters 

 NO. 1075, VOL. 42] 



useful to seamen. Our Nautical Almanac took itsj 

 present form on the report of a committee of the Roys 

 Astronomical Society, to whom reference was made bj 

 the Admiralty in 1830. No great change has been mad« 

 since then, and it is beginning to be thought time that itsi 

 contents should be revised : if this is done, we trust it may 

 be considered whether the wants of navigation and geo- 

 graphy should not be specially taken into account. If we 

 are right in believing that the Austrian Government have 

 founded on our Nautical Almanac a publication which 

 admits of all the tabular matter, which is so difficult and 

 expensive to put in type, being combined with a text in 

 varying languages, it might be possible by the adoption 

 of a suitable form, to supply the wants of other nations 

 as well as our own. Our Nautical Almanac in its present 

 form is used, we believe, extensively by those maritime 

 peoples who adopt Greenwich as a prime meridian, and 

 it would, we think, not be difficult to arrange with their 

 Governments for impressions suited to each language. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Wimshurst Electrical Influence Machine. By W. 



P. Mendham. (Bristol : King, Mendham, and Co., 



1890.) 

 This little book, which partakes somewhat of the nature of 

 a trade catalogue, briefly describes and illustrates the con- 

 struction and action of the Wimshurst machines made by 

 the firm of King, Mendham, and Co., and of the accessory 

 pieces of apparatus needed for use with these machines 

 in performing the antiquated experiments so much in 

 vogue with the dabbler in frictional electrical science. 

 The study of high tension electricity is coming to the 

 front so much just now, that it is a great pity Mr. Mend- 

 ham has not utilized his opportunity better, and given to 

 the class of readers for whom this book is intended some 

 notion of the many instructive and easily performed ex- 

 periments on the disruptive discharge, and on electrical 

 oscillations, which we owe to Hertz, Lodge, and others. 

 The only concessions made to modern discoveries are in 

 the descriptions, of apparatus to show the action of the 

 electric discharge on smoke, and of the Thomson 

 quadrant electrometer. The latter, however, had better 

 have been left alone, for the description is too meagre to 

 enable the action of the instrument to be appreciated, and 

 the reader may be apt to imagine that the quadrants are 

 intended to be connected up directly to the terminals of a 

 Wimshurst machine. We need scarcely say this would 

 be very hard on the instrument. H. H. H. 



Pawnee Hero-Stories and Folk-Tales. By George Bird 

 Grinnell. (New York : Forest and Stream Publishing 

 Company, 1889.) 

 The Pawnees were at one time what Mr. Grinnell calls 

 " a great people." They roamed over a vast territory, 

 and enjoyed considerable material prosperity. Now, 

 their numbers are greatly reduced, and the few who re- 

 main give a very inadequate idea of the vigour of the 

 original stock. The author of the present book knew 

 the tribe intimately twenty years ago. He used to camp 

 and hunt with them in Nebraska, and at night they told 

 him hero-stories and folk-tales which had been handed 

 on to them from their forefathers. Many of these narra- 

 tives he carefully translated and wrote down at the time ; 

 and quite lately he visited his old friends for the express 

 purpose of inducing them to extend his collection. They 

 were eager to meet his wishes, and so he was able to 

 bring together the stories which he has now published. 

 He claims that they are recorded exactly as he himself 



