350 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 739 



from whicli is derived tlie heat, the energy, 

 the life of the earth. The countless myriads 

 of stars and the numerous planets could be 

 blotted out of esistence without sensibly af- 

 fecting our daily life; but if the sun ceased 

 to shine the days of the world would be num- 

 bered. Again, the sun is a typical star and 

 only by a minute and careful study of the 

 solar constitution can we ever hope to derive 

 some knowledge of the condition of the stars 

 and the course of stellar evolution. Tet Mr. 

 Dohnage devotes but eighteen pages to the 

 study of the sun, and gives twenty-five to the 

 moon and forty-four to eclipses. Comets, the 

 ephemeral by-products of the solar system, 

 are given just as much prominence as the sun 

 itself. Again, the lines along which modern 

 research is progressing are not clearly set 

 forth, and the reader is often left in doubt as 

 to who are the real workers and leaders in 

 astronomical thought. Too much promi- 

 nence is given to the opinions of writers of 

 scientific fiction; it is certainly an innovation 

 in a serious work to find H. G. Wells so 

 freely quoted. 



The book is well written and weU printed, 

 and it may serve the purpose described by its 

 subtitle as " a popular introduction in non- 

 technical language." The illustrations are 

 well selected and many of the photographs are 

 beautifully reproduced. The three views of 

 the moon, taken from photographs made in 

 the Paris Observatory, are exceptionally well 

 rendered in the plates. 



Charles Lane Poor 



The Royal Society Archives: Some Account 

 of the Letters and Papers of the Period 

 17^1-1806, with an Index of Authors. Com- 

 piled by A. H. Church, D.Sc, F.E.S. Pp. 

 73. Oxford, 1908. 



A valuable aid to the student who may wish 

 to consult the original communications made 

 between 1T41 and 1806 to the Eoyal Society 

 of London has been prepared by Dr. A. H. 

 Church, to whom we are already indebted for 

 a manuscript calendar of the collection of 

 guard-books designated as " Classified Papers." 

 An earlier collection of letters addressed to 

 the society or its officers, and comprised in 



forty-eight volumes, was indexed by W. E. 

 Shuckard in 1840. The third set of guard- 

 books, which comprises both letters and papers, 

 consists of 127 volumes and these have been 

 grouped in twelve decades, the letters and 

 papers in each of these being numbered con- 

 secutively. The series is designated " Letters 

 and Papers." Although most of the material 

 of the letters was published in the Philosoph- 

 ical Transactions of the society, they were 

 edited to a considerable extent, and much of 

 the personal note was removed in this way. 

 From among many interesting items noted by 

 Dr. Church in his pamphlet, we select the fol- 

 lowing : 



Decade I., No. 403. Li a letter dated May 

 4, 1745, E. A. F. de Eeaumur says: 



I heartily wish there was in the world as strong 

 a moral attractive power as there is a natural 

 one that might dispose our two nations particu- 

 larly to seek to unite by mutual acts of friend- 

 ship and good will. 



Decade 11., No. 198. An unpublished letter 

 of Benjamin Franklin, dated February 4, 1750, 

 describes certain experiments in killing hens 

 and turkeys by the electric current. Franklin 

 proceeds to relate his personal experience of 

 an electric shock from the apparatus employed : 



In making these Experiments, I found that a 

 man can without great Detriment bear a much 

 greater Electrical Shock than I imagin'd. For I 

 inadvertently took the Stroke of two of those 

 Jars thro' my Arms and Body, when they were 

 very near full charg'd. It seem'd an universal 

 Blow from head to foot throughout the Body, and 

 was followed by a violent quick Trembling in the 

 Trunk, which went gradually off in a few seconds. 

 . . . My Arms and Back of my Neck felt some- 

 what numb the remainder of the Evening, and 

 my Breastbone was sore for a Week after, as if 

 it had been bruised. 



Decade II., No. 494. A letter in Latin from 

 Linnseus, acknowledging his election to the so- 

 ciety. A facsimile of this letter is given in 

 Dr. Church's pamphlet. 



Decade HI., No. 117. A letter, also in 

 Latin, from Josef Stepling, concerning a 

 shower of meteoric stones that fell near 

 Strkow in Bohemia, July 3, 1753. One of 

 these aerolites is now in the British Museum. 



