January 21, 1909] 



NATURE 



i35 



defects from the literary point of view, the book is to 

 be welcomed as an addition to the scanty literature of 

 glass from the pen of a practical glass worker, and it 

 will no doubt find many appreciative readers among 

 those interested in decorative glass. W. R. 



ASTRONOMY, MYTH, AND LEGEND. 

 The Judgment of Paris, dud some other Legends 

 Aslronomicallv Considered. By the Hon. Emmo- 

 line M. Plunket. Pp. iv+199; illustrated. (London : 

 J. Murray, 1908.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 



NO archaeologist denies that in the " myth-making 

 age " (whenever that may have been ; we are 

 still making myths now) our primitive ancestors were 

 often struck with the appearance of the heavenly 

 bodies, and made pretty stories out of them. But 

 what he does deny is that, at any rate in the case of 

 Greece, the majority of the myths, or anything like 

 the majority, are of celestial origin. We know, also, 

 far too much about the probable early history of the 

 ^'Egean countries to believe for a moment that many 

 Greek legends (as distinct from myths) are con- 

 nected with the movements of the sun, moon, and 

 stars. But the Hon. Miss Plunket finds an 

 astronomical explanation for all legends as well as 

 myths. She confuses the two ; for her Achilles or 

 Agamemnon are as unreal as Aphrodite and Hera, 

 and all four are but svmbols, so to speak, of some 

 aspect of the heavenly bodies at some time or other. 



To the Greeks Aphrodite and Hera were as real as 

 .•\chilles or Agamemnon. Miss Plunket reverses the 

 process. Both she and the Greeks are equally un- 

 critical in their method ! For her everything is 

 unreal and astronomical. But why should not some 

 of the myths, and a few of the legends, be astro- 

 nomical, and the rest not? After all, we are not all 

 of us star-gazing now, and there is no proof that 

 our " myth-making " ancestors were more given to 

 the pursuit than we are. An archaeological discovery 

 has shown us that many of these astronomical ex- 

 planations of legend are mere fantasy, as we fear 

 much of Miss Plunket's book is. There is far more 

 earthy reality about these stories than she thinks. 

 The murder of Agamemnon by Klytaimnestra and 

 Aigisthos, in which Miss Plunket sees " mythically 

 chronicled an eclipse occurring at or close to the 

 season of the winter solstice," would be considered 

 by the modern arch»ologicaI historian to be a 

 legendary reminiscence of a real tragedv of a particu- 

 larly ghastly character perpetrated in the royal burg 

 of Mycenae at some time during the period of Achaian 

 domination, no more. \\'hy should it be anything 

 else/ Why be astronomical? Why should the Greeks 

 have woven all these cryptic legends about stars ? 



To regard the Trojan war, too, as an astronomical 

 myth after the discoveries of Schliemann is to exhibit 

 a peculiar point of view. Miss Plunket calls it a 

 "conviction." "Convictions" are unscientific; they 

 are merely inverted prejudices, and no scientific 

 worker has any business to be dominated by them. 

 We note, however, from many indications, that Miss 

 Plunket would be scientific enough could she but 

 NO. 2047, VOL, 79] 



conceive the possibility that every myth and legend is 

 not necessarily of astronomical origin. With her 

 suggestion that the Gorgon's head is originally the 

 cold full moon we are in cordial agreement. We 

 have then in the Perseus story a queer folk-tale of a 

 sort of Jack-the-Giant-Killer who went up into the 

 sky and brought the moon down, as the primitive 

 mind, like the child-mind now, could easily conceive 

 the wonderful person as doing. In this there is 

 nothing astronomical ; and the Medusa on the shield 

 of Athene may very well be the full moon on the 

 body of the goddess of the grey-blue night-sky, 

 yXavKants'Adijpti; why not? But there is no astro- 

 nomical complication here, only a general sky-goddess 

 with the moon on her, as it naturally would be. 

 Miss Plunket's explanation of the term Tpiroyeveia for 

 Athene as " born of Trita," a deity of the Avesta, is 

 at least more probable than the very doubtful con- 

 nection with Lake Tritonis in Libya. The author 

 makes other suggestions which will compel the most 

 sceptical critic to read her work with attention and 

 respect, even though he may differ toto caelo from 

 its main contentions. 



H. R. Hall. 



HE.AT FOR ENGINEERS. 

 Heat for Engineers. A Treatise on Heat, with Special 

 Regard to its Practical Applications. By Chas. R. 

 Darling. Pp. xii-l-430. (London : E. and F. Spon, 

 Ltd., 1908.) Price J2s. 6d. net. 



ANY author who attempts to cover the syllabus 

 outlined in the preface and contents of this 

 treatise needs considerably more than 415 pages of 

 the ordinary-size text-book in which to do that 

 properly. Too much has been attempted, and a great 

 opportunity has not been made use of to the fullest 

 advantage. Some portions of the book are elementary 

 to a degree which irritates; other portions are so 

 advanced that needful and useful sections have been 

 sacrificed in order to keep the size of the book within 

 the usual limits. Clearly the author should have 

 divided his matter into two volumes, one elementary 

 and the other advanced. In the preface there is 

 rightly expressed the opinion that " the numerous 

 applications of heat in modern industrial pro- 

 cesses "... do not " receive more than the briefest 

 mention in ordinary treatises on heat," and it is the 

 avowed object of this book to remedy that omission. 

 Yet " Practical Heat Engines " are disposed of in 

 sixteen pages, and one searches in vain for a mention 

 of that most interesting and instructive heat motor— 

 the Diesel engine. There is nothing about evapor- 

 ators; a study of the action of multiple-effect 

 evaporators especially conveys much that is useful to 

 the engineering student. We obtain the impression 

 that the book is meant for the student in physics, and 

 not for the engineer. If that is conceded, then there 

 is more reason for its contents. In any case, how- 

 ever, space might have been found for dealing with 

 the errors of the aneroid barometer, since the 

 instrument itself is considered and described. An 

 improvement in the arrangement of the contents 



