244 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 9. 



the North Star at one point in the sky is 

 established by a quotation from Shake- 

 speare, but there is an intimation later that 

 the distinguished poet was possibly a little 

 weak in his Astronomy. The author is 

 veiy fond of bolstering up quite generally 

 accepted scientific theories by poetic quota- 

 tions, and even in the case of the Law of 

 Gravitation, against which there can hardly 

 be said to be any serious rebellion at the 

 present time, he finds it desirable to repeat 

 that bit of nonsense beginning, 



"The very law that moulds a tear, ' ' 



for the existence of which not even poetic 

 license furnishes excuse. 



In the discussion of the size and mass of 

 the earth, as elsewhere, great unevenness 

 is shown. On one page is a diagram of a 

 complicated piece of triangulation by the 

 British Ordnance Survey, including the 

 base-line on Salisbury Plain, and on that 

 opposite is one explaining angular measure 

 and terrestrial latitude by opening the legs 

 of a pair of compasses. In the discussion 

 of latitude there are many errors, and a be- 

 ginner will be greatly helped by not reading- 

 it. There is a good deal about the Zodiac, 

 with incidental references to ' mansions in 

 the sky ' and the emotions with which the 

 first men witnessed the first Setting of the 

 Sun, ' to whom he was dead,' together with 

 a brief account of how their hopes were 

 buoyed up and their fears calmed by the 

 appearance of the ' Evening Star.' See wood 

 cut on opposite page representing Venus 

 shiniag upon a rural scene, including a vil- 

 lage of at least twenty houses, a church 

 with a tall spire tipped with a cross, and 

 calming the fears ofa farmer driving a yoke 

 of oxen drawing a cart on which is prob- 

 ably a half ton of hay or grain or something 

 of the sort. This is a marvellous develop- 

 ment for a single day. At this point more 

 poetry appears, and the rigorously scientific 

 treatment is enhanced in value by numer- 



ous references to Lucifer, Apollo, etc., etc. 

 To ilhastrate the phases of Venus, which, 

 by the way, hardly belong to pre-telescopic 

 astronomy, the author shows a picture in 

 which a lamp represents the sun, and a 

 comely youn'g woman with quite-up-to-date 

 leg-of-mutton sleeves is represented as 

 standing in four positions, in front of, 

 behind, on the right and on the left of the 

 luminary as viewed by the reader. Un- 

 fortunately it has been thought necessary 

 to represent this yoiing lady as looking 

 squarely at the sun in all of the four posi- 

 tions, and thus what is intended to simplify 

 the explanation of one phenomenon proves 

 to be much more effective in establishing a 

 very erroneous conclusion respecting an- 

 other. And this is not the only happening 

 of this kind in the barely one hundi-ed pages 

 of the book. To one who only 'skims' 

 through it, it is reminiscent of the days of 

 a quarter or half century ago, when ' As- 

 tronomy and the Use of the Globes ' was a 

 favorite subject in yoiing ladies' seminaries. 

 A more careful examination shows, however, 

 that it is not so harmless as might at fii-st 

 appear, and although it unquestionably con- 

 tains some good features it is quite safe to 

 predict that the ' inadequate and unscien- 

 tific' treatment of the subject found in good, 

 modem text-books of Astronomy and Geog- 

 raphy will continue, for the present, to re- 

 ceive the confidence of both instructors and 

 students. T. C. M. 



Biological Lectures Delivered at the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory of Wood's Holl. 8vo, 

 242 pp. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1894. 

 In no way, short of an actual sojourn at 

 the Wood's Holl Laboratorj', is it possible 

 to secure a better idea of the scope and 

 character of the opportunities afforded by 

 this institution than by the perusal of this 

 series of selected lectures. Wood's Holl is 

 at once the ' finishing school ' of the Ameri- 

 can biological student, and the rallying point 



