52 



NA rURE 



[NoVEMIiEK 17, 1898 



Eclipses of the Moon in India. By Robert Sewell, late 

 o< her Majesty's Indian Civil Service, Memljer of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, &c. Pp.13; tables Ix. London: 

 Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd , 1898.) 

 This work is in fact a continuation and completion of 

 Mr. Sewell's " Indian Calendar," which was noticed in 

 N.\ti;rf. for July 9, 1896 (vol. liv. p. 219). The principal 

 matter (besides some notes and additions to the Calendar), 

 is a table of the times, durations, and magnitudes of all 

 eclipses of the moon (whether visible or not in India) 

 for the period of sixteen hundred years, from a.d. 300 

 to.\.ii. 1900. The times are reduced to the Hindu prime 

 meridian, that of Lairka (Ujjain), the longitude of which 

 is 75' 46' east of Greenwich, and are reckoned from mean 

 sunrise (taken as 6h. a.m.) at that place. The calcula- 

 tions are founded on Oppolzer's "Canon der Finster- 

 nisse" ; but another table gives the figures reduced from 

 \)xe. Nautical Almanac {\cm\\'=, commencement in 1767 

 (or rather 1768, as no eclipse of the moon occurred in 

 the former year), though the figures in the "Canon" are 

 probably more accurate than those in the Almanac before 

 the year 18 19 (not 1821), when Burckhardt's lunar tables 

 were first brought into use in the latter. Mr. Sewell has 

 not thought it necessary to mark the magnitude of an 

 eclipse as greater than total, simply affixing to all such 

 the letter " t." He acknow ledges the help in the calcu- 

 lations aftbrded by Saukara Balkrishna Dikshit, formerly 

 Pandit of the Training College, Poona, whose co-operation 

 was so valuable in his work on the " Indian Calendar," 

 and whose death took place early in the present year ; and 

 also expresses his thanks for kind advice and assistance 

 given by Prof Turner (of Oxford) and Mr. Crommelin (of 

 the Royal Observatory, Greenwich). The precautions 

 taken have probably secured that accuracy which is so 

 particularly essential in matters of this kind ; here we 

 will merely point out two errors in p. 4 of the Introduc- 

 tion, where "fixtures" is printed instead of " figures," 

 and Burckhardt's name is spelt without a "k," though 

 Mr. Sewell is liberal of that letter in retaining the 

 obsolete method of spelling " Almanac " with one. 



W. T. Lyxn. 



Famous Problems of Elementary Geometry. By Felix 

 Klein. Translated by W. W. Beman and D. E. .Smith. 

 Pp. ix + 80. (London : Ginn and Co., 1897.) 

 Our mathematical readers who do not read German will 

 be glad to know that they have now before them a trans- 

 lation of a discussion of three famous geometric problems 

 of antiquity, namely, the duplication of the cube, the tri- 

 section of an angle, and the quadrature of the circle as 

 seen through modern eyes. This discussion took place 

 at Gottingen at a meeting of the German Association for 

 the Advancement of the Teaching of Mathematics and 

 the Natural Sciences, and w-as presented by the great 

 German mathematician. Prof. Felix Klein, with the 

 purpose of bringing the study of mathematics in the 

 university and gymnasium into closer connection. Such 

 an important work as this will doubtless be read very 

 widely, and the joint translators have done good service 

 in making this discussion more available by the excellent 

 translation we have before us. 



The Evolution of the Aryan. By R. von Ihering. 



Translated by A. Drucker. Pp. xviii -(- 412. (London : 



Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1897.) 

 Mr. A. Dkickkk has given us a translation of an 

 unfinished work by the late Prof von Ihering. Much of 

 the argument of the book depends on theories which the 

 leaders of linguistic science have now abandoned. 

 Philologers now confess that community of language 

 does not necessarily imply community of race, and 

 Orientalists and other linguists are hopelessly at variance 

 regarding the " Urheimat " of our race ; the book, though 



NO. I 5 16, VOL. 59] 



ignoring all this, contains much wide reading and keen 

 observation. This is apparent in matters relating tc 

 Greek, and especially to Roman, civilisation, the author': 

 special province. In some cases a more intimate know- 

 ledge of things Indian would have improved his argu 

 ment. Thus the Pali Baveru-jirtaka, known to student; 

 of folk-lore, is a very important and early witness frotr 

 the Indian side to commerce between India and Babylon 

 The " corrective stake ' (pp. 54, 55) is also illustrated b) 

 the punitive heated pillar (sitrmi), mentioned by Manr 

 and earlier authorities. 



Mr. Urucker's English is free and lucid ; one ina>' 

 quite forget that one is reading a German work o' 

 science. In the first sentence of his preface, is noi, 

 "latest Sanskrit and earliest Babylonian" a slip for the 

 reverse expression ? C. B. 1 



First Lessons in Modern Geology. By the late A. H 

 Green, M.A , F.R.S. Edited by J. F. Blake, M.A| 

 Pp. viii + 208. (Oxford : The Clarendon Press, 1898., 

 The manuscript of this book was left by the late Prot 

 Green in a somewhat unfinished condition, and the edr 

 was asked to prepare it for the press. The book isdescril 

 in the preface as being practically a primer, yet in the th 

 lesson, dealing, among other matters, with the constitut 

 of quartz, after the barest statement of the proportion 

 weight in which silicon and oxygen combine chemica 

 and the introduction, with no explanation, of the te 

 " atomic weights," we read : " All this the chemist wo 

 express shortly by writing for silica SiO.j ; Si standing * 

 twenty-eight parts by weight of silicon, O for sixteen p;; 

 by weight of oxygen, and the 2 under the O showing t: 

 in silica the oxygen is in the proportion of twice sixte' 

 SiO.j is called the chemical formula for silica." Is t 

 the kind of information to place before a begin: • 

 receiving his third lesson in geology ? Later on in th 

 same lesson the chemical composition of orthoclase i 

 dealt with in a similar manner. If the beginner him^c 

 were consulted, we imagine his third lesson in geoli , 

 would be his last. Had the editor omitted these li' 

 digressions, which cannot be understood by mere re 

 ing, the educational value and the interest of the b' 

 would have been much enhanced. 



First .Stage Inorganic Chemistry {Practical), 

 Frederick Beddow, D.Sc, Ph.D. Pp. viii -f 1 

 (London : \V. B. Clive.) ,, 



The course of practical work contained in this volumi 

 follows the elementary syllabus of the Science am 

 ..\rt Department's examination in inorganic practica 

 chemistry. The syllabus gi\es the outlines of a reason 

 able course of laboratory work ; and therefore the presm] 

 volume, like others constructed upon the same lines, 1 

 several good features. .After a few introductory expi ; 

 ments in manipulation, and exemplifying characteri- 

 properties of some common substances, the preparatii r. 

 and properties of a number of common elements an 

 compounds are described. Following this are exper 1 

 ments on the action of heat, water, and acids on son ] 

 familiar substances, simple quantitative experiments, .111 

 e.xercises in systematic analysis. The volume thus pi< 1 

 vides elementary students with an instructive course 1 1 

 H-ork in practical chemistry. 



Mari'els of Ant Life. By W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E> I 

 Pp. viii + 174. (London: S. W. Partridge and (.0 

 1898.) 

 Ants and their habits form a subject of perennial interi-'s 

 to general readers, so Mr. Kirby 's popular account of th 

 more remarkalile phases of ant life should be success! : 

 The text is lightly written, for the benefit of gent 

 readers who are entirely unfamiliar with insect lite in ' 

 scientific aspects ; but there is also much in it to inter ■ 

 attentive students of natural history. 



