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NA TURE 



[May 14. 1896 



ASTRONOMY AND MILTON. 

 The Astronomy of Miltoris " Paradise Lost:' By Thomas 

 N. Orchard, M.I). 8vo, pp.388. (London: Longmans, 

 Green, and Co., 1896.) 



THLS work amounts in fact to a sketch of the history 

 of astronomical discovery under the heads of the 

 different departments of that science to which allusions 

 are made in the great epic of the sublimest of our poets. 

 The author justly remarks that the choicest passages in 

 " Paradise Lost " are associated with these allusions ; 

 his main object has been their exposition and illus- 

 tration, and his enthusiasm has led him to include 

 a wealth of matter in carrying this out, which his 

 readers will not regret. Milton lived in a critical 

 period of astronomical progress. The discoveries of 

 Galileo and Kepler had shown the great probability of 

 the truth of the Copernican system : but Newton had not 

 yet placed that system upon an irrefragable basis. Hence, 

 " in describing the natural phenomena witnessed by our 

 first parents, he adheres to the doctrine of the Ptolemaic 

 system," whilst it is evident from many passages, particu- 

 larly from the discourse between Adam and the angel in 

 the eighth book, that he saw and appreciated the sim- 

 plicity and beauty of the Copernican theory, on which 

 he had doubtless conversed with Galileo, the " Tuscan 

 ■artist," when on his travels in his younger days. All will 

 remember how he represents Raphael as speaking with 

 scarcely-veiled sarcasm of the sphere being supposed to 

 be girded with "Centric and Eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle 

 and Epicycle, orb in orb," and Adam's difficulty at con- 

 ceiving "how nature, wise and frugal, could commit such 

 disproportions." Mr. Masson has, we need hardly say, 

 written well on the cosmogony of " Paradise Lost " in the 

 introduction to his edition of Milton ; but Dr. Orchard 

 has treated the subject with an abundance of illustration 

 which fully justifies his hope that his contribution to 

 Miltonic literature is both interesting and instructive- A 

 chapter is devoted to the poet's visit to Galileo, and the 

 allusions thereto ; it is somewhat remarkable that Milton 

 nowhere mentions the fact that the astronomer was then 

 blind, an affliction which afterwards befell himself 

 Satan's shield is compared to the glass with which the 

 moon was viewed from the top of Fesole, a suburb of 

 Florence, or in Valdarno, meaning the valley of the 

 Arno in which that city was situated. Less pertinent 

 to his subject is the sketch of the discoveries of 

 Herschel and others in the sidereal heavens or the 

 region of the fixed stars, of which scarcely anything 

 was known until long after the time of MiUon, the 

 date of W. Herschel's birth being exactly a century after 

 the poet's visit to Florence. Dr. Orchard does not seem 

 to have disabused himself of the so-called island theory 

 of the nebute, which, it is now clear, have some relation 

 to our own galactic system ; but, on the whole, his 

 survey of the history of sidereal astronomy is accurate. 

 There are many allusions in " Paradise Lost " to the 

 starry host " spangling the hemisphere"; and one fine 

 passage speaks of their motions "regular then most when 

 most irregular they seem," which, however, may refer 

 chiefly to the planets, and only by analogy to other 

 systems conceived as probably existing, but not then 

 NO. 1385, VOL. 54] 



known. Three constellations (besides the cluster of the 

 Pleiades) are mentioned by name : Taurus, Ophiuchus, 

 and Andromeda, the " fleecy star " near the last being 

 generally supposed to be Aries or its principal star, 

 though this is not certain. Much more frequent allusion 

 is made in the poem to the sun than to any of the other 

 orbs of the firmament, and that body is described " in 

 a manner worthy of his unrivalled splendour and of his 

 supreme importance in the system which he upholds and 

 governs." Probably few passages in any poem are more 

 familiar to all than Satan's address to the great luminary, 

 whose beams the spirit of evil is appropriately repre- 

 sented as hating. Venus is alluded to under the name 

 Hesperus, and as the evening star ; and the Galaxy or 

 Milky Way is described as "a broad and ample road, 

 whose dust is gold and pavement stars." As to comets, 

 they are twice introduced, oddly enough in one place as 

 a simile to Satan, and in another to " the brandished 

 sword of God." In the former of these places Milton 

 makes a remarkable mistake by speaking of a comet 

 "that fires the length of Ophiuchus huge in th' arctic 

 sky." No part of Ophiuchus is thus situated ; does he 

 mean Draco? Dr. Orchard himself makes a mistake in 

 p. 297, calling 1456 "the year in which the Turks ob- 

 tained possession of Constantinople." The last chapter, 

 on Milton's imaginative and descriptive astronomy, is, 

 as might be expected, more full of passages from the 

 great poem than any other, and appropriately closes a 

 work which deserves, and will probably attain, a wide 

 circulation. W. T. Lynn. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Cholera in Indian Cantonments, and how to deal with it. 

 By E. H. Hankin, M..A.. Pp. iv + 103. (Allahabad : 

 Pioneer Press. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell, and Co., 

 1895.) 

 The knowledge of the cholera microbe, gained during 

 the past few years, is applied in this little volume in. 

 formulating directions for the prevention of the disease. 

 The author has had exceptional opportunities of study- 

 ing cholera outbreaks in India; and his experience in 

 investigating sources of infection,' renders the practical 

 precautions he describes as necessary to prevent the 

 spread of the disease in Cantonments, of great value to 

 Cantonment magistrates, medical officers, and others 

 interested in the question. Before dealing with the 

 practical hints for the prevention of cholera, Mr. 

 Hankin gives a brief account of the properties of the 

 cholera microbe, which may be summarised as follows : 



(1) The cholera microbe when outside the human body, 

 so far as is known, only lives and reproduces in water ; 



(2) it is so small that it cannot be removed by filtration 

 through ordinary domestic filters ; (3) it is easily and 

 rapidly destroved by boiling ; (4) it is rapidly destroyed 

 by drying ; (5) it is readily killed by acids ; (6) it varies 

 in virulence ; (7) laboratory experiments show that its 

 growth is favoured by the presence of traces of common 

 salt and of nitrates in its culture fluids. 



In a chapter on cholera epidemics, irregular and other- 

 wise, it is shown that infection is caused by swallowing 

 the microbe either in food or water; hence the pre- 

 cautions laid down are mainly concerned with the means 

 for preventing the access of the microbe to the food and 

 water supply, and with easy methods of disinfection. 

 The instructions given are such as can readily be carried- 

 out, and though they are not so elaborate as the rcgula- 



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