'58 



NA TURE 



{Mar. 12, 1874 



be properly weighed by the members generally, or the 

 fitness of candidates in any way tested ? And when it is 

 argued that the clerk and housekeeper, as well as the 

 Librarian, ought to be appointed by the Society also, and 

 not by the Council, the acme of absurdity in the matter 

 seems to have been reached. 



It is quite evident, from what has been said, that 

 the less a learned Society indulges in legislation the 

 better. What must be called the " opposition " were 

 anxious, at the meeting on Thursday last, for a further 

 revision of the whole laws of the Society ; fortunately, 

 however, the common sense of the Fellows was against 

 them. Sir John Lubbock pointed out, at the conclusion 

 of the debate, that none of the speakers had made out 

 even a primd facie case for further change. It may 

 be hoped, therefore, that when the technical question of 

 the legality of the amendments has been disposed of, the 

 Society will enjoy undisturbed peace and quietness. 



One practical suggestion seems to educe itself from 

 what has been said. The only way to settle matters of 

 dispute of this kind is to have an authoritative arbitrator. 

 If we ever get a minister to take charge of our 

 scientific institutions, a legal assessor might be con- 

 veniently attached to his staff to act in lieu of 

 a Visitor to the learned Societies which now possess a 

 quasi-official status from being housed at the public ex- 

 pense. If the points which the dissentients raised in the 

 present case could have been authoritatively and impar- 

 tially settled ofl'-hand, there would have been no need for 

 an important scitnlific Society to have wasted a con- 

 siderable portion of its session over matters in them- 

 selves of the slenderest possible consequence, and abso- 

 lutely without importance in a scientific sense. 



THE MOON 

 The Moon Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satel- 

 lite. By James Nasmyth, C.E., and James Carpenter, 

 F.R.A.S. With 24 illustrative plates of lunar objects, 

 phenomena, and scenery, and numerous woodcuts. 

 (London; Murray, 1874.) 



THE illustrations to this book are so admirable, so far 

 beyond those one generally gets of any celestial 

 phenomenon, that one is tempted to refer to them first 

 of all. No more truthful or striking representations of 

 natural objects than those here presented have ever 

 been laid before his readers by any student of Science ; 

 and I may add that, rarely if ever, have equal pains been 

 taken to insure such truthfulness. Mr. Nasmyth, not 

 content with the drawings he has been accumulating 

 for many years, has first translated them into models, 

 which, when placed with a strong light shining obliquely 

 upon them, should reproduce the ever-changing lunar 

 effects of light and shadow. Having obtained models 

 which bore this test, he has photographed them with 

 the light falling, now on one side, and now on the 

 other, to represent the sunrise and sunset appearances on 

 our satellite, as observed in the telescope. The result is 

 perfect ; far more perfect than any enlargement of photo- 

 graphs could possibly have been, because, by every 

 such enlargement, a softness is brought about, whereas, 

 the more powerlul the telescope employed and the more 

 perfect the atmospheric conditions, the more does the 



unevenness and sharpness of every lunar detail come 



out. 



But, though I have given the first place to a general 

 reference to the illustrations, I by no means intend 

 thereby to imply that the text is of secondary importance. 

 In fact, the more carefully the text is read, the more 

 obvious does it become that Mr. Nasmyth has used his 

 drawings as a means to an end, and that he and Mr. 

 Carpenter between them have produced a work which is 

 not only a very beautiful and a very readable one, but 

 one of some importance. From this point of view it 

 is to be regretted that the book had not been published 

 a month or two later, as then the authors might further 

 have illustrated their subject by a reference to Mr. 

 Mallet's most important paper on volcanic energy, which 

 has just appeared in the " Philosophical Transactions" 

 — a paper which supports the authors' views in many 

 important particulars, and though it clashes with others, 

 if we are not mistaken, a discussion of the question from 

 the two points of view presented will ultimately enable 

 us to carry our conclusions further than they have gone 

 hitherto. 



Again, it is not a little curious that another communi- 

 cation presented to the Royal Society not long ago, and 



Fig I. — First stage of a lunar Volcano 



not yet published in this countr)', may also throw new 

 light upon one at least of the interesting points presented 

 to the student of lunar physics. I refer to the working 

 hypothesis on which I have attempted to explain the 

 absence of metalloids from the sun's reversing layer in 

 its bearing upon the moon's atmosphere. 



Before, however, more detailed reference to these 

 points, it is as well to state briefly, for those less conver- 

 sant with lunar matters, the principal points in which 

 Selenology differs from Geology, or rather the principal 

 effects which have been produced on the moon in past 

 time which differ from the effects which have been pro- 

 duced on our planet in past time. 



First among these is undoubtedly the evidence of vol- 

 canic action on a scale far surpassing anything that we 

 have an idea of here. Witness craters 74 miles in diame- 

 ter, and if the walled plains are accepted as craters, then 

 diameters of craters reaching 300 miles, the volcanic energy 

 not being scattered here and there, but making up the 

 entire surface over large areas. 



