August 9, 1901.] 



SCIENCE, 



217 



theoretical and practical astronomy and astro- 

 physics, together with, in smaller measure, that 

 of the higher geodesy. Mathematical and 

 physical papers are to be included in the scope 

 of the work only in so far as they have a direct 

 bearing upon one or more of the topics above 

 named, while the literature of meteorology and 

 geophysics is wholly set aside as foreign mat- 

 ter. With regard to the popular literature of 

 astronomy the editor sagely remarks that while 

 for the most part it is of small scientific value, 

 the bibliographic purposes to be served by the 

 A JB call for a fairly complete summary of this 

 literature, including even 'crank' papers, all of 

 which are to be presented in a purely objective 

 manner without comment or criticism, in order 

 that ' the reader may be given an opportunity 

 to form for himself a provisional judgment of 

 the article abstracted.' 



In respect of arrangement the subject matter 

 of the AJB is divided into four principal cate- 

 gories, entitled : General and Historical ; As- 

 tronomy ; Astrophysics ; Geodesy and Nauti- 

 cal Astronomy. These are appropriately sub- 

 divided, while a brief supplement, of only four 

 pages, contains the miscellaneous matter that 

 the editor has not found expedient to classify 

 under any of the preceding titles. Noteworthy 

 in this connection is the following criterion by 

 which papers upon astronomy and astrophysics 

 are assigned to their respective classes : Prob- 

 lems involving only space and time relations 

 of the celestial bodies constitute astronomy ; 

 problems of the celestial bodies involving other 

 elements than the above are to be classified 

 under astrophysics. As the editor himself 

 notes, this rule of classification assigns to as- 

 trophysics the visual estimation of stellar mag- 

 nitudes even though made in connection with 

 meridian circle work, while the spectroscopic 

 determination of motions in the line of sight is 

 assigned to astronomy. This reversal of the 

 popular classification seems to the reviewer 

 sound in principle and well adapted to become 

 the general practice. 



Some conception of the amount of labor in- 

 volved in the preparation of the abstracts here 

 presented may be formed from the list of nearly 

 200 periodical publications, including publica- 

 tions of observatories, which have been so 



largely drawn upon for abstracts that the edi- 

 tor has found it convenient to assign to their 

 names abbreviations for permanent use. To 

 this material there must be added books inde- 

 pendently published and periodicals rarely 

 cited. As a type of the latter and a source not 

 usually included under astronomical literature 

 we note The Congressional Record and several 

 of the monthly magazines commonly sold at 

 ngws-stands and on railway trains. The bulk 

 of material to be digested is beyond the compe- 

 tence of any one man, and the editor has there- 

 fore associated with himself seven foreign col- 

 leagues who are charged with the supervision 

 of special portions of the work, in large part 

 pertaining to the literature of their own coun- 

 tries. The American representative is Dr. H. 

 S. Davis, who has elsewhere requested that 

 papers of American origin which are germane to 

 purposes of the AJB and are published in such 

 manner as not to be readily accessible through 

 the ordinary channels may be sent to him for 

 review at the address, International Latitude 

 Station, Gaithersburg, Md. 



In respect of scope and plan the AJB is be- 

 yond question a welcome addition to thie litera- 

 ture of astronomy, but one whose actual value 

 must be tested by the experience of many per- 

 sons in using it as a work of reference. A sub- 

 ject index is hardly to be expected in a volume 

 of this character and no attempt at furnishing 

 one is made, but the well-classified Table of 

 Contents and an extended Index of Names, in- 

 cluding institutions as well as persons, will be 

 found of service by whoever uses the volume 

 for serious purposes. A feature of special value 

 to computers of orbits is the tabular Index of 

 Observations of Comets and Minor Planets oc- 

 cupying no less than 34 pages of the volume, 

 which cannot fail to save much time that has 

 hitherto been spent in the endeavor to make 

 complete the computer's list of observations of 

 the object with which he is concerned. 



So far as may be judged from its apparatus 

 of classification, cross references, indexes, etc., 

 there is no reason apparent to the reviewer 

 why the AJB should not stand the test of time 

 and use, and in those parts of its subject matter 

 with which the writer is specially conversant 

 he has found the work eminently complete, 



