September 21, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



'43 



connected with the iron-industry, but also descriptions of the appa- 

 ratus and manipulations especially adapted to the work. 



A fuller discussion of the advantages and defects of the several 

 methods given for the determination of a single element would 

 have added to the user's satisfaction. 



One is surprised to find in a work so excellent a table of atomic 

 weights in which recent recalculations and redeterminations are 

 ignored. According to this table, Al = 27.5, Sb=i22, Mn = 55, 

 Pt=i97.i8, etc. The error naturally e.xtends to the table of fac- 

 tors, which are calculated on the basis of these atomic weights. 

 Thus the factor for Al from AUO3 is .53398, instead of .53010 as 

 it would be with Clarke's value, AI = 27.o75 (0=i6). 



The mechanical execution of the book is, on the whole, superior 

 to any thing we have had the good fortune to see in the way of 

 laboratory handbooks. Heavy, fine paper, admirable press-work, 

 and a party-colored binding make the book pleasant to the eye and 

 hand, and — expensive. It is indeed almost too fine and costly 

 to expose to the rude chance of laboratory disfigurement. It inay 

 be, however, that author and publisher hope, through its full-dress 

 appearance, to promote a feeling of greater respect for nicety of 

 manipulation in the chemists into whose hands it may come. 



The book is unusually free from typographical errors ; but we 

 notice a slip of the proof-reader's on pp. 55, 56, 57, and 63, where 

 the references to Fig. 45 should read H instead of D. 

 Fi?-s/ Lessons in Engh's/i. By F. B. Greene. Philadelphia, 

 Cowperthwait & Co. 16''. 



One of the most difficult studies for most young persons is gram- 

 mar. A few. whose minds are fitted to readily grasp abstract ideas, 

 learn it easily and with pleasure; but to the majority it is at first 

 irksome. This is partly due to the habit of English grammarians 

 of laying down a mass of rules borrowed from the classical lan- 

 guages, and having but little application to our own tongue ; but it 

 is also in part due to the abstract and formal character of gram- 

 matical treatises, which are ill adapted to the minds of children. 

 To remove this difficulty and make the introduction to grammar 

 easier, books have been prepared of late years on the inductive 

 principle, and teaching the rudiments of the science by example. 

 Rules and technical terms are very sparingly used, and the pupil is 

 taught the parts of speech and the construction of the sentence in 

 so simple a way that he can hardly fail to understand them. The 

 book before us is one of this class, and, though nothing but actual 

 use in the classroom can accurately test its value, it seems to be 

 well adapted to its purpose. It is illustrated, so as to make it at- 

 tractive to very young pupils ; and the lessons and examples are of 

 the simple character that such pupils need. Such a work is cer- 

 tainly a great improvement on the elementary grammars of former 

 days. 



Old and Neui Aslrimomy. Parts I.- V. By Richard A. Proc- 

 tor. London and New York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 4°. 



The present work, the first instalments of which have reached us, 

 is intended to give an account of the science of astronomy and of 

 its history to the general student. The work is admirably adapted 

 to this purpose. Proctor's theories and arguments being set forth 

 very clearly, and being illustrated by numerous good and very in- 

 structive cuts, which pre-eminently enhance the value of the book. 

 In a brief introduction the author states his object. " It is as a sub- 

 ject for study and contemplation as a means for training and exer- 

 cising, but likewise for ennobling and purifying the mind, that as- 

 tronomy should be studied by all. It is the celestial science as 

 viewed and studied by philosophers, as Newton and Herschel, 

 that I propose to contemplate in the present volume." In the first 

 chapter the history of the methods of observing heavenly bodies is 

 described, in which discourse Proctor expounds his curious concept 

 that the Egyptian pyramids were nothing else than immense ob- 

 servatories. The development of these methods is traced up to the 

 present time. The next chapter contains studies of the earth's shape. 

 The various proofs of the earth's curvature are explained by novel 

 figures, among which we call attention to the telescopic view of 

 a ' hull down ' ship seen indistinctly beyond the sharply defined 

 horizon, thus proving that it is farther distant than the horizon. 

 • In the discussion of the sun, moon, and planets, their apparent 

 Jiiotions are first treated ; and after an exhaustive explanation of 



the ancient theories, and the paths of the planets relatively to the 

 earth, supposed to be at rest, Kepler's system is described and ex- 

 plained. Of particular interest is Proctor's elementary deduction 

 of the perturbing action of the sun on the moon, which is used in 

 explaining the cause of the tides. The fifth instalment treats of 

 the methods and results of measuring and weighing the solar sys- 

 tem. The book is very beautifully printed, and the instalments are 

 following each other very rapidly. The matter is treated very at- 

 tractively, and the mathematical deductions, which are contained 

 in notes, are so arranged as to be intelligible to anybody who has 

 an elementary knowledge of it. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



RiCH.ARD Anthonv Proctor died in this city on Sept. 12, of 

 yellow-fever, which he had contracted in Florida. Proctor was 

 born at Chelsea, England, on March 23, 1837. Early in life he de- 

 voted himself to astronomy, and was a very fruitful writer. His 

 first book was on ' Saturn and its System.' In the United States 

 he is largely known to the public through his lectures, which he 

 delivered in most of the larger cities. His first visit to our country 

 was in 1873-74. He was eminently successful as a popular writer, 

 and knew well how to make the difficult problems of astronomy 

 attractive and intelligible to the general reader. His last work, 

 'Old and New Astronomy,' which is being published, is a splendid 

 specimen of his enthusiasm for his science and of his success in 

 imparting it to his readers. 



— The Appalachian Mountain Club plans an excursion to Mount 

 Washington, Mass.; the party, which will be limited to fifty in 

 number, to leave on Friday morning, Sept. 28. 



— E. Dubois read recently, before the French Academy of Sci- 

 ences, a paper on the satellites of Mars which were discovered in 

 1877 by Asaph Hall. It appears remarkable, that notwithstanding 

 the numerous observations of the planet, and notwithstanding their 

 rapid motion and close proximity to it, they were not discovered 

 sooner. Dubois believes that such would undoubtedly have been 

 the case if they had existed. He expresses the opinion that two 

 of the telescopic planets which occupy the zone between Mars and 

 Jupiter approached the former so near that they have become its 

 satellites. He also says that several others of these bodies may 

 become satellites of Mars in course of time. 



— F. S. Mansfield, attache to the United States Legation in 

 Japan, visited the scene of the eruption of the Bantaisan in Japan, 

 of which a full report was given in the last issue of Science. His 

 account, which was printed in the Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 26, 

 contains the following additional details: On Sunday, the 15th of 

 July, rumblings were heard and earth-tremors felt in the vicinity 

 of the Bantaisan. The first disturbance noticed occurred at about 

 7 A.M., and was followed by three earthquake shocks at intervals of 

 ten minutes, when there occurred a loud explosion, the noise of 

 which the people compared to the report of thousands of cannons 

 discharged simultaneously. At 10 a.m. the eruption was at its 

 height, and by 4 p.m. it was over. The Japanese Government has 

 set up a temporary hospital in a schoolhouse for the treatment of 

 the wounded, and has organized a relief committee to look after the 

 homeless and to recover the bodies of those who had been killed. 

 The number of people who lost their lives by the disaster was, ac- 

 cording to the olficial statement from the government relief station 

 at Inawashiro, 51S, the bodies of 70 of whom had been found, 

 while 41 persons had been injured, and were then in the hospital at 

 Inawashiro. The eruption occurred on the eastern side of the 

 principal peak of Bantaisan. A portion of the smaller peak was 

 carried away. The mud then filled up the side of the mountain, 

 not only on the eastern side, but on the northern side as well, run- 

 ning down in a stream to the valley below. At the foot of the 

 mountain each stream was about half a mile wide, gradually nar- 

 rowing toward the top. The main eastern stream was divided 

 about halfway up the mountain by a ridge, and came down in two 

 separate volumes, the one continuing east, while the other branch 

 came down on the southern side of the mountain, the latter stof)- 

 ping in the very small hamlet of Minemura, which was partially 

 destroyed by the mud covering completely some of the houses. 



