58 



NATURE 



[May 23, 1872 



Hardly belter oft" is the physiologist, properly so called. 

 What he needs as general education is a thorough know- 

 ledge of physics and chemistry, with a general acquaintance 

 with the fundamental laws and simpler facts of animal 

 morphology. Instead of that, this scheme takes him 

 away from physics and chemistry, and tries to smother 

 him with the specialities of morphology, to which he most 

 probably has a decided natural repugnance. 



Worst off of all is the geologist, who has to go in for all 

 three general subjects before he can make his special 

 knowledge weigh with examiners, and who therefore will 

 be induced to keep on cramming heterogeneous know- 

 ledge up to the last moment ; forasmuch as the statutes 

 tell him that his place will depend " oh the joint result of 

 Ills examination in all his siihjeets." 



In our humble opinion it would have been far better 

 to have made the previous examination to include the 

 elements of Biology, and at the same time rather more 

 searching as a whole. Every science scholar would then 

 have known something of everything essential in Natural 

 Science. Freed by this examination, he might have 

 turned at once to that something of which he ought to 

 know everything — to Geology, to Botany, to Animal Mor- 

 phology, to Physiology, to Chemistry, to Physics. He 

 would thus have, on the one hand, a sound foundation, 

 with an insight into "the general philosophy," properly 

 so called, of all science, and by early training in a special 

 branch would have had his face set towards original work. 

 We have no space lefi to criticise the various items of the 

 special directions under Biology, Geology, &c. ; but we 

 cannot refrain from uttering our protest against the per- 

 nicious habit, carried to an excess in this programme, of 

 recommending particular books for study. This always 

 means " particular books for examination," and is the 

 most potent nurse of cram. Nor is the evil mended much 

 by making the list of books large and long ; for rather 

 another evil is then introduced, viz., that of giving authori- 

 tative sanction to bad books. We venture to assert that 

 no man of science can look through the list of books ap- 

 pended in this programme to his own particular line 

 without being compelled to admit that some of the books 

 recommended are essentially bad. We have spoken 

 freely because the matter is one we have at heart. We 

 must confess that the scheme at Oxford, as it stands at 

 present, is inferior to that at Cambridge (excepting always 

 that fearful system of order of merit, which hangs like a 

 millstone round all Cambridge studies), and decidedly 

 inferior to what the scientific examinations of the Univer- 

 sity of London will be wdien some necessary changes have 

 been made in its B.Sc. 



M ABLER' S HISTOR V OF ASTRONOMY 



Gcscliichte des Himmelskunde, nach ihrem gesammten 

 Unifange, von Dr. J. H. von Miidler, Emeritirtem 

 Professor und Director der Sternwarte, Dorpat. i Band, 

 i. ii. iii. Lieferungen. (Braunscliwcig, 1872. London : 

 Williams and Norgate.) 



A PERIOD when the love of astronomical study — 

 •^ *- long confined to a few select votaries, and dormant 

 in general estimation— has attained an unprecedented 

 and unlooked-for difi"usion, is well suited for the appear- 



ance of such a historical view of the subject as may not 

 only form a book of reference and comparison for the 

 more advanced cultivator of the science, but may com- 

 mend itself to the less instructed student, as well by the 

 accuracy of its statements as by the perspicuity of its 

 views and the simplicity of its expression. The work of 

 which the earlier portion is now lying before us, seems, 

 as far as can be foreseen, well calculated to answer this 

 end, and Germany may be congratulated upon the com- 

 mencement, at least, of what, ere long, ought to be made 

 popularly accessible among ourselves. We possess, in- 

 deed, already, in the " History of Physical Astronomy," 

 by Prof Grant, a work of the highest pretension as to ac- 

 curacy and intelligence ; but the subject is there regarded 

 from a different point of view, and treated in a different 

 manner, and there is abundant room for each of them. 



For those who venerate the Observatory of Dorpat, 

 from the high position which it took and maintained 

 under the elder Struve, as well as for those who love to 

 contemplate and examine in detail the wonderful features 

 of our satellite, this work will possess a double interest, 

 both as originating within the walls of that honoured 

 building, and as proceeding from the pen of the leading 

 selenographer of his own time. It is only to be hoped 

 that the advancing years of the venerable author may not 

 interrupt the progress of what has been so auspiciously 

 begun. At present it has been carried only as far as the 

 establishment of Tycho dc Brahe, as it seems to be the 

 inaccurate custom of the Germans to call that great man, 

 in his island of H ween, where "lived the Prince of Astro- 

 nomy in external fitness, with princely aspect and splen- 

 dour." But before the science had attained this due 

 recognition as worthy of royal patronage and aristocratic 

 cultivation, it is needless to say that it had to pass through 

 long periods of darkness and discouragement and diffi- 

 culty, when its progress was retarded by superstitious 

 bigotry, chilled by heedless indifference, or entangled by 

 the substitution of imaginary hypotheses for the patient 

 labour of protracted investigation ; and in tracing through 

 all these impediments its gradual and interrupted advance, 

 the learned author has shown not only a full command of 

 the subject, but great fairness and discrimination in its 

 treatment ; and if it might be hinted that the style is 

 sometimes encumbered by a repetition of unvaried meta- 

 phors, yet it is always perspicuous and pleasing. The 

 only point as to which positive censure would not be in- 

 vidious is no fault of the author, but of the corrector of 

 the press, who must be held answerable for some oftensive 

 errata in the Greek and Latin citations. For errors in 

 English and Welsh, through which Bradley's benefices of 

 Bridstow, in Herefordshire, and Llanddewi-velvre, in 

 Pembrokeshire, appear as '' Bradstone " and " Welfiic," 

 some intermediate authority must be responsible ; but we 

 may fear that our own rendering of German names is not 

 invariably more accurate. In order not to interrupt the 

 current of the history, much of the biographical matter 

 appears in the form of notes at the foot of the page, fre- 

 quently of especial interest ; we feel, however, the w'ant 

 of occasional references. The intensity of the author's 

 annoyance at the monkish system may possibly lead some 

 readers to an occasional smile ; but with the Papacy as a 

 whole no religious difference has prevented him from 

 dealing with the candour and justice of a true historian. 

 Of Pliny's merits he has formed a very unfavourable judg 



