August IS, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



199 



last century and rose to distinction in liis pro- 

 fession, though I have no evidence of his being 

 closely related to the Maryland Mayers. 



By all of the latter, except the subject of 

 Dr. Woodward's sketch, the name was invaria- 

 bly spelled with an "e" in the last syllable. 

 The future student of heredity is very likely 

 to be misled by this change, which seems un- 

 fortunate unless there existed some sufficient 

 reason, not apparent at this moment. 



T. C. Mendenhall 

 Ravenna, Ohio 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Terrestrial and Celestial Globes, their history 

 and construction including a consideration 

 of their value as aids in the study of geog- 

 raphy and astronomy. By Edward Luther 

 Stevenson, New Haven, Yale University 

 Press, published for the Hispanic Society of 

 America, 1921, Volume I, xxvi -|- 218 pp., 

 95 plates; Volume II, xii -+- 292 pp., 72 

 plates. 



These magnificent volumes present in a most 

 interesting way the development of globes 

 from earliest times up to the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. The first volume treats terrestrial globes 

 in antiquity, celestial in antiquity, globes of 

 the Arabs, globes of the Christian middle ages, 

 those constructed in the period of the gi-eat 

 discoveries, and in four further chapters globes 

 of each quarter of the sixteenth century. The 

 second volume discusses globes of the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth centuries in two chapters 

 each, with a final chapter on the technic of 

 globe construction, incliiding materials and 

 methods particularly of making the gores. 



A bibliographical list, which makes no pre- 

 tense of being exhaustive, gives approximately 

 600 titles; an "Index of Globes and Globe 

 Makers" occupies 25 pages ; and finally a "Gen- 

 eral Index" follows, occupying 16 pages. Tor 

 use as an ordinary index the inclusion of items 

 of the bibliographical list and names given in 

 the index of globes and globe makere would 

 have been highly desirable. As it is all three 

 indices must be consulted to determine whether 

 given items are mentioned in the work. 



The section devoted to Arabic globes and 

 the section relating to globes in antiquity are 



based upon material of thirty years ago and 

 longer. There is more recent material, and 

 the use of modern works would have improved 

 these chapters. In particular no mention is 

 made of Suter's great work on the mathemati- 

 cians and astronomers of the Arabs^ which 

 includes the references of the Fihrist. Suter 

 mentions as writers on the use of the armillary 

 sphere, or on the planisphere or astrolabe, 

 Al-Sufl and Al-Fazari (p. 3) of the eighth 

 century, Al-Nairizi of the tenth (p. 45) and 

 also Al-Biruni, Al-Zarkali of the eleventh, and 

 Ibi- al-Bannah, whose activity extended into 

 the fourteenth century. Al-Zarkali's instru- 

 ments were famous and one of his works dis- 

 cussing instruments was published in Latin 

 translation by Johann Schoner at Niirnberg in 

 1534. 



With reference to the Greek conception of 

 a globular earth the works of both T. L. 

 Heath= and of the late Pierre Duhem^ contain 

 the latest and best information by the highest 

 authorities on these matters. It may be of 

 interest to note that Theon of Smyrna C. 150 

 A.D. (ed. J. Dupuis, Paris, 1892, p. 287) 

 states that the Babylonians "explained celestial 

 phenomena" and were able "to predict celestial 

 phenomena to come, the Chaldeans by the aid 

 of arithmetical methods, the Egyptians by 

 graphical methods." 



The bibliography could easily have been ex- 

 tended to give more adequate conception of the 

 wide interest in globes, and the large amount 

 of literature bearing directly upon globes in 

 works of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. 



Probably the most notable omission is that 

 of any reference to one of the earliest works in 

 the English language containing an extensive 

 discussion of both celestial and terrestrial 

 globes. Robert Eecorde, an English physician, 



1 Suter : ' ' Die Matliematiker und Astroiiomeu 

 dcr Araber, " Abhandl. zur Geschichte der Math. 

 Wissenschafien, Vol. 10, 1900. 



- T. L. Heath: " Aristarehus of Samos, . . . 

 A History of Greek Astronomy to Aristarchus, 

 etc.," Oxford, 1913; "A History of Greek Math- 

 ematics," Oxford, 1921, 2 vols. In Vol. II, pp. 

 17-18, Heath states that Archimedes wrote a 

 work on Sphere-making which is lost. 



' " Le Systfeme du Monde, ' ' 5 vols., Paris, 

 1913-1917. 



