250 



SCIENCR 



[Vol. XXI. No. 535 



southern. It would go hard with a student if in this broad field 

 he could not find a word somewhat analogous in meaning to any 

 other word in any other language; particularly were the student 

 satisfied as easily as Mr. Greg. For instance, among his "ac- 

 cordances" there are plenty of instances of analogies like the 

 following: Accadian, shuhu, wheat, American, mays, maize; 

 Acoadian, ka, life, American, aJc, water; Hebrew, ben, son, 

 American, hua, son; Thibetan, swa, to breathe, American, cenfca, 

 noise; Indo-Chinese, petan, bird, American, pa-hue, to fly, etc. 

 Thousands of his "accordances " are no closer than these. 



But the unscientific spirit of the book is only too painfully ap- 

 parent throughout. All such mere phonetic similarities, even 

 where they are real and close, are of absolutely no value and 

 prove nothing whatever concerning the relationship of linguistic 

 stocks. This can only be demonstrated by studying the history 

 and growth of a language, tracing its development and the influ- 

 ences to which it has been subjected, ascertaining the evolution 

 of its grammatical forms and categories, separating the original 

 elements from grafts and accretions, and confining comparisons 

 to the former exclusively, and then only in the forms which ex- 

 isted at the earliest ascertainable epoch. Any such method as 

 that adopted by Mr. Greg, in which these elements of linguistic 

 growth are omitted, and even in which identity of alphabetic 

 value is not attempted, is wholly valueless; and it is most un- 

 fortunate that all writers on linguistics have not been educated 

 to recognize this fundamental principle of research. 



. An Atlas of Astronomy. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball, LL.D., 

 F.R.S. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 

 In this work Sir Robert Ball has added a handy companion to 

 his "Star Land." The atlas contains a series of seventy-two 

 plates explanatory of the sun, moon, major planets, and fixed 

 stars. The object of the atlas is to put into a convenient form, 

 for the amateur astronomer, those data that will interest in a 

 study of the evening sky. The author has in the introduction 



given the usual definitions of the coordinates of the position of a 

 heavenly body as seen projected upon the celestial vault. A very 

 neat explanation of the manner in which the orbit of a binary 

 star is computed, is given, and as the process is so simple young 

 astronomers will find in the construction of the orbits of the 

 hundreds of binary stars very interesting instruction. The lunar 

 maps, although upon a small scale, are very complete, giving as 

 they do a representation of some part of the moon's surface 

 throughout the whole lunation. A good selection of telescopic 

 objects, such as interesting double stars, nebulse, and rich star 

 clusters is also given. The name of each object and its position 

 in the sky are given as well as a short explanatory note describing 

 the object. We note that some of the explanations given by the 

 author are a little abstruse. On page 3, in describing the path 

 of a planet, the words ellipse and orbit seemed to be woefully 

 mixed up, so that it is difficult to follow the meaning of the au- 

 thor. For example, we have the statement that ''the line P^ 

 through the two foci is the axis major of the ellipse. This is 

 immediately followed by the statement that " it is bisected in O 

 at the centre of the orbit." An orbit and an ellipse are not the 

 same by any means, and should never be considered as such. A 

 few lines following we have the statement that "the pointP, 

 nearest the sun, is the perihelion of the orbit. We certainly fail 

 to see the truth of that statement. We should say that P was 

 the perihelion point of the object moving in the orbit. Thesame 

 criticism applies to the point of aphelion. Again, we must question 

 the statement that " the time that the planet takes to go around 

 its orbit is the periodic time." We were not aware that a planet 

 went around its orbit. If it does, what is the name of the path 

 in which the planet itself is moving? Upon the whole, the work 

 has been neatly arranged, and the publishers have made it at- 

 tractive both in style of printing and in neatness of binding. We 

 would recommend the book to those who are seeking for some 

 popular work that has in a handy form the interesting points, 

 in astronomy. G. A. H. 



CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. 



Philosophical Society, Washington. 



Apr. 39. — Cleveland Abbe, Measurements 

 of the Growth of Plants with the Auxano- 

 meter; Henry Farquhar, The Price of Sil- 

 ver; M. H. Doolittle, Is there an Objective 

 Reality ? 



Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston. 



Apr. 39. — Charles M. Skinner, Across 

 British America. 



May 3. — Lemuel C. Barnes, Mount Her- 

 mon in April ; Charles C. Hall, The Shawan- 

 gunk Mountains. 



Society of Natural History, Boston. 



May 3. — R. T. Jackson, Notes on the De- 

 velopment of Palms. 



Royal Meteorological Society, London, 

 England. 



Apr. 19. — "The Direction of the Wind 

 over the British Isles, 1876-80," by Mr. F. 

 C. Bayard, F.R. Met. Soc. This is a reduc- 

 tion on a uniform plan of the observations 

 made twice a day, mostly at 9 a.m. and 9 

 P.M., at seventy stations during the lustrum 

 1876-80, and the results are given in tables 

 of monthly and yearly percentages. " Notes 

 on Two Photographs of Lightning Taken at 

 Sydney Observatory, Dec. 7, 1893," by Mr. 

 H. C. Russell, F.R S. These photographs 

 were taken with a |-plate view-lens, 

 mounted in a whole-plate camera, and, as a 

 matter of course, there is some distortion at 



the edges. Both photographs show the 

 gas-lights in the streets as white specks, the 

 specks being circular in the centre and 

 crescent-shaped in other parts of the plate, 

 owing to distortion. The lightning-flashes 

 are also distorted. Mr. Russell believes that 

 this distortion may account for the so-called 

 "ribbon" flashes which are seen in many 

 photographs of lightning. He has also made 

 some rpeasurements of the length and dis- 

 tance of the flashes, and of the intensity of 

 the light. "Notes on Lightning- Discharges 

 in the Neighborhood of Bristol. 1893," by 

 Dr. E. H. Cook. The author gives some 

 particulars concerning two trees in Tyntes- 

 field Park which were struck by lightning, 

 one on June 1 and the other on July 18, and 

 also some notes concerning a flagstaff on 

 the summit of Brandon Hill, which was 

 struck on Oct. 6. "Constructive Errors in 

 Some Hygrometers, " by Mr. W. W.Midgley, 

 F.R. Met. Soc. The author, in making an 

 investigation into the hygrometrical condi- 

 tion of a number of cotton mills in the 

 Bolton district, found that the mounting of 

 the thermometers and the 'position of the 

 water receptacle did not by any means con- 

 form to the regulations of the Royal Mete- 

 orological Society, and were so arranged 

 that they gave the humidity results much 

 too high. The "Cotton Factories Act " of 

 1889 prescribes the maximum weight of 

 vapor per cubic foot of air at certain tem- 

 peratures; and the author points out that, 

 if the instruments for determining the 

 amount jDresent in the mills have an error 

 of 20 per cent against the interests of the 

 manufacturer, it is necessary that the 

 makers of the mill hygrometers should 

 adopt the Royal Meteorological Society's 

 pattern for the purpose. 



Reading Matter Notices. 



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 Eipans Tabules cure dyspepsia. 



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