February 16, 1894. 
and the religious respect of such bodies formed two lead- 
ing features in ancient science and mythology. In some 
of the earlier chapters he very properly gives the elements 
of astronomical knowledge requisite to calculating the 
position of the stars at fixed periods, and also the methods 
for determining with accuracy the ‘‘ orientation” of build- 
ings. This is by no means the same everywhere, and he 
justly observes that where we find sucha contrast as in the 
temples of Thebes and Memphis, in one of which we find 
*“solstitial’’ and inthe other ‘‘equinoctial”’ orientation, 
it demands almost a difference of race to explain it. 
Professor Lockyer, availing himself of the French and 
German surveys of the temples of Egypt, aided by studies 
of his own made on the spot, finds that one of the main 
objects of the temple of Karnak, for instance, was for 
the purpose of obtaining an exact observation of the pre- 
cise time of the solstice; that many of the temples were 
not intended for solar but for stellar observations; and as 
these, owing to the change of place of the stars, would 
not have remained true for more than three hundred oe 
they furnish us a means of approximating the date of their 
construction. On this theory, the author calculates one 
of the temples at Edfu to have been constructed for 
the observation of the star Canopus, and to have been 
built about 6400 B. C. This extends the epoch of 
culture in Egypt far beyond the time usually fixed by 
modern archeologists, and illustrates the great value of 
the author’s methods, if they should prove acceptable to 
the scientific world. 
Several chapters of the volume are occupied with the 
astronomy of the early Babylonians. It would seem this 
was based on independent observations not less ancient 
than those of Egypt, but at first exerting no influence upon 
them. Later, at an undetermined but a very remote 
period, the astronomic science of northern (lower) Egypt 
was deeply tinged with the stellar and solar doctrines and 
myths of Mesopotamia. : 
The volume is full of suggestions for future research, 
and there is no question but that it puts in the hands of 
investigators new: methods of throwing unexpected light 
on the origins of civilization. We earnestly hope that not 
in the Old World only, but in the great ruins of Mexico, 
Central America and Peru, they will be applied. 
Lnorganice Chemistry for Beginners. By StR HENRY Roscoe, 
F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., M.P. Assisted by JosrrH 
Lunt, B.Sc. (Vict.), F.C.S. New York and London, 
Macmillan and Co., 1893, 245 p. 
We are always glad to welcome a text-book such as 
the above, and to mark its improvement over the vast 
number of elementary text-books in chemistry which 
have become so common of late. The book is arranged 
with a proper understanding of a beginner’s necessities, 
and instead of a few paragraphs on chemical theory 
followed by a dictionary-like description of the chemical 
elements, we have a proper discussion of the principles, 
the study of the elements being introduced by a careful 
analysis of these principles as applied to a few, well 
chosen, typical examples. It is ridiculous to expect a 
beginner in any science to grapple at once with its 
particular symbols and to memorize details which are of 
no moment. We say of no moment, for without proper 
introduction these details are meaningless. The labora- 
tory manual has too often been mistaken for a text-book 
of the science. 
We note particularly in the above work the chapters 
on elements and compounds, combination in definite and 
multiple proportions, calculations, physical measurements, 
and the properties of gases. In Part II. the following 
non-metallic elements are studied with their more im- 
portant compounds: Oxygen,hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, 
sulphur and carbon, 
SCIENCE. 95 
Principles and Practice of Agricultur pA A manual 
for the Examination of Soils, Fertilizers and Agri- 
cultural Products. By Harvey W. Witry, Chemist 
of the United States Department of Agriculture. 
Easton, Pa., Vhe Chemical Publishing Company. 
Vol. I., No. zr, 1894. 
‘THE first number of this work has been received, and 
while it may yet be too early to judge of the character of 
the book as a whole, our expectations are raised, and we 
shall look for an epoch-making work on agricultural 
chemistry. Professor Wiley is of all men in this 
country the most competent to write upon the subject, his 
long connection as Chief of the Chemical Department of 
the United States Department of Agriculture and his 
many writings inscientific journals being sufficient evidence 
of this. Part first includes an introduction, in which the 
elements of the earth’s ‘‘ crust ” are discussed, particularly 
in their relation to agriculture, together with the rock- 
forming minerals and finally the subject of rocks and 
rock decay. ‘The typographic work is excellent, and the 
number is well illustrated with sketches and with repro- 
ductions of photographs illustrating microscopic rock 
structure and the physical changesin rocks. It is pro- 
posed to issue this work in twenty to twenty-four monthly 
parts of forty-eight pages each, selling at twenty-five 
cents a number. 
{ NOTES AND NEWS. 
Macmirtan & Co.’s announcements of forthcoming 
books include ‘‘ The Study of the Biology of Ferns by the 
Collodion Method,” for advanced and collegiate students, 
by George F. Atkinson, associate professor of cryptogamic 
botany in Cornell University; ‘‘ Mental Development in 
the Child and the Race,” by James Mark Baldwin, Stuart 
professor of experimental psychology in the College of 
New Jersey, author of ‘‘ Handbook of Psychology,” etc. ; 
‘‘Materials for the Study of Variation in Animals,” part1., 
“Discontinuous Variation,’ by William Bateson, M. A., 
Balfour student and Hollen of St. John’s College, Cam- 
bridge, illustrated ; A Three Months’ Course” of 
Practical Instruction i in Botany,” by F. O. Bower, D.Sc., 
regius professor of botany in the Univ ersity of Glasgow: 
abridged edition of ‘‘A Course of Practical Instruction in 
Botany,” by the same author; ‘‘A History of Mathe- 
matics,” by Florian Cajori, professor in Colorado College; 
‘© Course in Experimental Psychology,” by James 
McKeen Cattell, A.M., Ph.D., professor of experimental 
psychology in Columbia College; ‘* The Gypsy Road, a 
Journey from Krakow to Coblenz,” by Professor G. A. 
J. Cole, M.R.IT.A., F.G.S., illustrated; ‘‘ Elements . of 
Metaphysics,’ by Professor Karl Deussen, of Kiel, author- 
ized translation; ‘‘ Lifein Ancient Egypt,” described by 
Adolf Erman, translated by H. M. Tirard, with numerous 
illustrations and maps; ‘‘ Physiology for Beginners,” by 
Michael Foster, M.A., M.D., LL.D:, F.R.S., and L. E. 
Shore, M.A., M.D., B.C.; ‘‘ Western Europe in the Fifth 
Century,” lectures delivered at Oxford, by E. A. Free- 
man, D.C.L., late regius professor of modern history in 
the University of Oxford; ‘‘ Western Europe in the Eighth 
Century,” lectures delivered at Oxford by E. A. Freeman, 
D.C.L.; ‘‘ The Life of Sir A. C. Ramsay,” by Sir Archi- 
bald Geikie, F.R.S.; ‘‘A Short Manual of Philology for 
Classical Students,” by P. Giles, M.A., fellow of Gon- 
ville and Caius College, reader in philology in the Uni- 
versity, Cambridge, uniform with Dr. Gow’s ‘‘ Companion 
to School Classics”: ‘‘Town Life in the Fifteenth 
Century,” by Alice Stopford Green, in two volumes, 8vo; 
‘« Hydrostatics,” by A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., professor 
of mathematics to the senior class of artillery officers, 
