BOOK NOTICES. 143 



3. The solar spots are due to displacement of the sun from the center of 

 the vortex ; the corona and protuberances are due to the ether or electricity es- 

 caping from the sun (electricity being treated as a gas similar to air) ; the same 

 theory of vortices is made to explain the formation of cyclones and tornados in 

 the earth's atmosphere. 



Mr. Bassnett and his papers will be remembered by members of the Ameri- 

 can Association who attended che Cincinnati meeting, especially the members of 

 section A. 



This book is evidently given to the world by the author in the honest belief 

 that it is right, and that all modern science is wrong. As the result of much labor 

 and study it deserves to be treated with respect; as a scientific treatise it contains 

 the most glaring errors and assumptions, all of which have from time to time 

 been pointed out. 



It is somewhat interesting to note the number of persons in the United 

 States who feel competent to give the "only true" theory of the physical uni- 

 verse. As in the present instance, these theories often contradict the best known 

 laws of mathematics and physics, and go direcdy against the teaching and expe- 

 rience of the masters in science. In America there is, perhaps, a larger class of 

 men who feel competent to propound a theory of the universe, who are ignorant 

 of the principles of mathematics and physics necessary for such discussions, than 

 elsewhere. Mr. Bassnett proceeds with charming naivete to construct a theory in 

 which he controverts the most ordinary principles established by men of science, 

 and then complains most bitterly of the blindness and stupidity of these same 

 men of science who refuse to pay any great amount of attention to his talk. 



Along with its peculiar "theories " the book contains many facts of astrono- 

 my. To the student it will be worse than useless and to the scientific man valu- 

 ble only as a curiosity. 



H. S. P. 



The Woman Question in Europe : Edited by Theodore Stanton, M. A. 

 Octavo, pp. 478. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, London and Paris. 

 For sale by M. H. Dickinson, $3.50. 



This is a series of essays by capable writers — mostly women — of England, 

 Germany, Holland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, 

 Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Bohemia, and the Orient, upon 

 the movement in recent times for the amelioration of the condition of women in 

 all these countries. In the arrangement of the chapters an ethnological order has 

 been maintained, viz.: Anglo-Saxon England, the Teutonic countries, Scandi- 

 navia, the Latin nations, the Slavonic States and finally the Orient. 



The work is rather a compilation of facts upon than a philosophical study of 

 the subject, though several of the essayists have given in their papers the results 

 of profound and critical consideration of its various branches. Thus, in the 

 chapter upon England we find discussed first, the Woman's Suffrage Movement; 



