é JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 97 
4 
jealously of his contemporaries, by taking for his map only names of 
philosophers who were dead.” His successors have marked his selec- 
tions with approval, as more than two hundred of the names he 
chose are retained on lunar maps. For the great plains called by 
Hovel seas, Riccioli retained Hovel’s names, but added others to 
them, intending thereby to indicate their supposed influence over 
the earth. This faint vestige of astrological conceits, if such it be, 
has not been obliterated from our maps. We still speak of the lake 
of death, sea of serenity, and the rest of Riccioli’s fanciful names. 
But they have become meaningless. The belief which called them 
into being, namely: that the heavenly bodies influence human des- 
tiny, and that such influence in individual cases might be ascertained 
by protracted study, was once dominant in the world, but has faded 
away never to return. ‘ 
Thisty years later Cassini published a lunar chart. He was a 
learned astronomer and a most indefatigable worker, and made im- 
portant contributions to lunar knowledge. Lalande re-published 
Cassini's map in 1787. 
About the middle of the eighteenth century, Mayer, whose lunar 
tables have been mentioned, proposed the publication of a more 
complete lunar map than had then been issued. He, unfortunately, 
died before his plans were carried out, though a map eight inches in 
diameter was published with his posthumous works in 1775. 
Although small, it was the most accurate map of the moon printed 
till 1824. 
During the last quarter of the eighteenth century the elder 
Herschel, in England, and Schreeter, in Hanover, directed their 
attention to lunar investigations. They worked with better instru- 
ments than had been used by their predecessors, using magnifying 
powers from 150 to 300 diameters. Herschel, whose mechanical 
genius improved every astronomical instrument he touched, used 
micrometer measurements for his lunar drawings, instead of trusting 
entirely to skill of eye and hand. Schreeter’s Se/enotopographische 
Fragmente gaye views of parts of the lunar surface with more details 
than any earlier map had given. He named many formations in the 
south-west part of the moon’s disk, and sixty of his names are still 
retained. He first adopted the practice, still in vogue, of designat- 
ing small spots near craters already named, by letters of the Greek 
and Roman alphabets. 
