604 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
The Sun: Its Constitution; Its Phenomena; Its Condition. By Nathan^ 
T. Carr, LL.D.; Hu?nboldt Library, No. 49. J. Fitzgerald, New York, 1883. 
One of the results of the attempts to popularize science has been the pro- 
duction of a class of writers who, without the training or knowledge necessary to 
the task, aim to produce explanations and theories in provinces where, as it 
might almost be said, "angels fear to tread." While the book under discussion 
cannot unreservedly be classed among these productions, it is so markedly on 
the border line between them and the works of well informed men that it is, for 
this jeason, the more dangerous. The departure from accuracy of statement is 
frequently so slight that only one conversant with the subject would notice the 
delinquency. In the hands of persons, whether liberally educated or not, who 
are not familiar with the minutiae of solar research the book cannot fail to pro- 
duce erroneous and hurtful impressions. 
It is at once evident that the author has never studied solar phenomena with 
the aid of good instruments, the sine qua non of knowledge in this department. 
His descriptions are misleading, and the discussions founded upon them err ac- 
cordingly. The most prominent example of this error is the confounding the 
corona with the chromosphere, and the prominences with the faculge ; (§ § 9, 10, 
Ji). But it is in the application of the principles of physics to the study of the 
constitution of the Sun that the most serious inconsistencies are found. There is; 
a continual interchange of the terms 'cloud' and 'vapor,' 'fluid' and 'liquid;^ 
and a clear idea of the essential properties of a gas seems to be entirely wanting. 
We find an incorrect view of the formation of a gas by heat given at some length 
(§ 15) ; the doctrine of the conservation of energy totally denied (§ 16) ; decided 
misapprehension of gaseous pressure (§ 18); and the attraction of gravitation en- 
tirely overlooked {§ 22). With this armory to fall back upon, it is not strange 
that the author should criticize the recognized masters of this department of 
research with considerable freedom and not without a slight flavor of pity and 
superiority. The danger to be feared from the publication of this book is the 
effect it will have in misleading persons who are anxious to know somewhat con- 
cerning our central luminary, but are not prepared to distinguish between the 
true and the false. To the student of the subject the book can have no interest 
excepting that belonging to a curiosity. H. S. S. S. 
Finland: Its Forests and Forest Management. Compiled by Jno Croum- 
bie Brown, LL.D. i2mo., pp. 290. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1883. 
This is the third of a series of volumes, the publication of which has been 
undertaken as a contribution to the literature of forest science in the English 
language. The earlier volumes, " The Forests of England, and their Management 
in Bygone Times," and "The French Forest Ordinance of 1869, with Historical 
Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France," have been noticed in these 
pages. Doctor Brown is an indefatigable student of such subjects nas already 
