July 21, 1904] 



NA TURE 



267 



agreed to adopt one system of nomenclature, selecting 

 that of Mr. Rowland Ward's " Records of Great 

 Game." Not only is this satisfactory from the point 

 of view of uniformity, but it indicates, in some degree 

 at any rate, a tendency to revolt against the American 

 practice of regarding every colour-phase of an animal 

 as representing a distinct species. .Accordingly we 

 find all the .American forms of wild sheep included 

 under a single specific heading. In the case of the 

 musk-ox, the author has indeed seen fit to depart from 

 this ;idmirable practice, classing the East Greenland 

 animal as a species apart from the typical Ovibos 

 moschatiis of the Barren Grounds. Moreover, he is 

 not justified in suggesting that the name O. m. wardi 

 (first proposed in our own columns) should give place 

 to Dr. .Mien's O. pearyi. Doubtless Lieut. Peary 

 has more claim to have a musk-o.x named after him 

 than has .Mr. Rowland Ward, but if we are to dis- 

 regard the rule of priority in regard to names of recent 

 origin, zoology will soon be in a state of hopeless 

 chaos. 



-Since the history of the bison has been written and 

 re-written over and over again, the portion of the 

 jjresent volume dealing with the musk-o.x has greater 

 claims to novelty than have the chapters devoted to 

 the first-named animal. Mr. Whitney's account of the 

 extreme difficulties and hardships inseparable from an 

 expedition into the Barren Grounds shows that musk- 

 ox hunting is bv no means holiday work, and that 

 even when plans have been most carefully laid, a trip 

 may result in failure even to sight the game. Perhaps 

 it is not generally known that previous to the author's 

 venture the only extensive trips that had been made 

 into the Barren Grounds were those of the two English- 

 men, Mr. \\"arburton Pike and Mr. H. T. Munn. 



.\s a companion to the preceding excellent volume 

 and its fellow in the same series, " The Deer Family," 

 Mr. Van Dyke's " Tlie Still-Hunter " may be heartily 

 commended. Written more exclusivelv from the 

 sportsman's point of view, it deals in considerable 

 detail with the technique of stalking — or " still-hunt- 

 ing " as our .American friends term this kind of sport 

 — and is especially devoted to the pursuit of the white- 

 tailed and mule deer and the prongbuck. As we learn 

 from a statement on the back of the title-page and 

 the preface, this volume is a new and illustrated 

 edition of a work which originally appeared so long 

 ago as 1882 or thereabouts. But it is none the worse 

 for this, since it not only describes American deer- 

 stalking in its palmy days, but is thoroughly up to 

 modern requirements in the matter of rifles and other 

 essentials of sport. 



The illustrations, which are both numerous and 

 artistic, are nearlv all drawn for a special purpose, and 

 serve to indicate both the impediments and the facili- 

 ties with which the sportsman is likelv to meet in the 

 pursuit of his quarry. While the earlier chapters are 

 devoted to a description of the manner in which to 

 recognise good hunting grounds, and the various 

 methods of tracking and shooting deer, the later ones 

 treat more especially of rifles and how to use them, 

 with a discussion on the type of bullet and the charge 

 of powder best suited to this kind of sport. 

 NO t8i2, vol. 70] 



If the big-game sportsman who intends to shoot in 

 .America be provided with the volume heading this 

 notice and its companion on the "Deer Family," 

 together with Mr. Van Dyke's "Still-Hunter," he 

 may consider that, so far as literature is concerned, 

 he is thoroughly equipped for his task. The first two 

 volumes have, in addition, no small amount of interest 

 for naturalists of all countries. R. L. 



THE ORBIT OF A PLANET. 

 Gruitdriss der theorctischen Astronomie mid der 

 Geschichte der Planetentheorien. Zweite vermehrte 

 .Auflage. By Prof. Johannes Frischauf. Pp. xv-t- 

 199. (Leipzig : Wilhelm Engelmann, 1903.) 

 ' I 'HE title of this work is too comprehensive; an 

 -*- outline of theoretical astronomy might be ex- 

 pected to touch at least gravitational theory, even if 

 other physical sections were omitted. Prof. Frischauf's 

 work — the first edition of which appeared in 1871 — is 

 engaged almost exclusively with the geometrical 

 problem of finding an orbit from observation, and with 

 a detailed historv of Kepler's search for the true forn> 

 of a planet's orbit. It is intended as an introduction, 

 and is not ambitious for completeness; indeed, it omits 

 many things a student might well be told, which would 

 not have broken its attractive readable quality. For 

 example, there are many better approximations for 

 solution of Kepler's problem than that given on p. 6, 

 and the well known graphical solution with the help 

 of the curve of sines is not mentioned; this should not 

 be omitted, for it is a method of real utility, and with 

 proper care can be worked, as Bauschinger says, with 

 an error not exceeding a tenth of a degree. 



The author is well advised in following Gauss 

 closely ; it is almost inevitable that the work should 

 be largely composed of excerpts from the Theoria 

 Motus, and a writer serves his readers best who does 

 not disguise them. But the numerical examples would 

 have gained by being less faithful. The practice of 

 astronomers in their reductions has undergone very 

 great changes, and justice is not done to it by a note 

 such as that at the bottom of p. 74, where, in reference 

 to certain places of the sun extracted by Gauss directly 

 from the tables — von Zach's presumably — Prof. Fris- 

 chauf explains that our procedure is now less primitive. 

 Those who prefer to read Gauss and Olbers in 

 the original, or in the masterly handbooks of Watson 

 or Oppolzer, will find plenty to interest them in the 

 third part of this work. L'nder a title of the history 

 of the planetary theory. Prof. Frischauf gives, along 

 with a cursory account of the rest of the history, a 

 most interesting detailed story of Kepler's successive 

 efforts to obtain the true form of a planet's orbit. Prof. 

 Frischauf remarks that there are few more interesting 

 pieces in the history of science ; yet very few authors 

 have allowed themselves space to do it justice. Dr. 

 Frischauf, as professor at Gratz, is the appro- 

 priate man to write upon Kepler, for Kepler 

 himself was a lecturer on mathematics at Gratz, 

 and there made his name as an astrologer. 

 The penetration of the older theories deserves more 

 recognition than it gets; it is but little known how 



