lY. Astronomy. 



1. ^ series of Astronomical Drawings for the Centennial 

 Exhibition.— A unique feature of the Centennial exhibition will be 

 a series of thirty-six Astronomical drawings of interesting celes- 

 tial objects, executed in pastel by L. Trouvelot, the artist who 

 produced the series of Astronomical engravings undertaken by 

 Professor Winlock at Harvard College Observatory. Tlie pictures 

 vary m size between eighteen by twenty-two inches, and twenty- 

 three and one-half by twenty-eight and one-half inches, exclusive 

 of the frames. The following have already been completed, viz : 

 Nebula in Orion, Nebula in Andromeda, Horse-Shoe Nebula, 

 Winged Nebula, Trifid Nebula, Ring Nebula, Dumb-Bell Nebula, 

 Cluster in Hercules, Coggia's Comet, the planets. Mars, Jupiter 

 and Saturn, Sun-Spots in full activity, Solar Protuberance erup- 

 tive form, Solar Surface with Chromosphere, Protuberances and 

 Corona, Aurora Borealis, Group of Sun-Spots with bridges, 

 Milky Way in two parts, Zodiacal Light, Shower of Shooting 

 Stars, and Tempel's Nebula in the Pleiades. The original sketches 

 have been for the most part made with an excellent refractor, of 

 SIX and one-half inches aperture, mounted in Mr. Trouvelot's Phy- 

 sical Observatory at Cambridge. Their production has been a 

 work of immense labor. From fifteen to twenty-live nights have 

 been spent in the study of each nebula. The sketch of Tempel's 

 Nebula in the Pleiades is the result of sixty-five hours' study. In 

 the drawings of the Milky Way, the stars are plotted with consid- 

 erable accuracy. Over a year was spent in the preparation of 

 these two sketches. Of the sun-spots, protuberances, auroras and 

 the zodiacal light, the most typical forms have been represented. 

 In the shower of falling stars, every one represented was observed 

 on the night of Nov. 13, 1869. It is Mr. Trouvelot's design to 

 make these drawings available at the close of the exhibition, in 

 producing a series of Astronomical Charts for educational purposes. 



2. Our Place among Infinities; by Richard A. Proctor. 

 324 pp. 8yo. New York, 1876. (D. Appleton & Co.)— This 

 work consists of "A series of essays contrasting our little abode in 

 spac^ and time with the infinities around us," with also " Essays 

 on the Jewish Sabbath and on Astrology." Mr. Proctor aims, in 

 nvs various works, to put science, especially astronomical science, in 

 an attractive form for the general reader. In presenting his sub- 

 jects he does not always make it clear as to what are speculations 

 and what known facts ; but he is dealing with the marvellous, and 

 this method in his hands makes things the more marvellous. His 

 jange of knowledge is considerable, and his style perspicuous and 

 torcible. Astronomers would not accept of all his conclusions, 

 neither would geologists, and probably not biblical critics. After 

 perusing his note on the origin of crater-cavities on the moon's 

 surface by the blows of meteorites, or the passage (p. 84) in which 



