242 Notices respecting New Books. 



supply the Eight Ascensions and Declinations of a far larger 

 number. 



Many pages are devoted to particulars of the Paris Mint and to 

 tables of the value of French money as compared with that of other 

 countries. The geographer and statistician will find ample infor- 

 mation concerning the population and area of every country in the 

 world ; details respecting European countries, particularly France, 

 being most abundant. M. Marie-Davy contributes some valuable 

 particulars, together with a map, of terrestrial magnetism. A large 

 number of useful tables concerning gases, solids, and liquids 

 concludes this portion of the work. M. Faye presents us with an 

 Essay on Famines, Earthquakes, Deluges, and other Scourges of 

 Nature. In speaking of famines, he alludes to the supposed 

 connection, which we in England have heard so much of during 

 the last few years, between the years of a maximum of sunspots 

 and of excessive rainfall in India, and to that between the minimum 

 of spots and an extraordinary number of bankruptcies in London. 

 M. Faye amusingly traces the connection of all these : — many sun- 

 spots cause much heat and this brings much rain, which causes 

 abundant rice-crops, therefore the heart of the Hindoo rejoices and 

 he issues many orders for cotton goods from England, therefore 

 is English trade prosperous during the years of maxima, and, 

 inferentially, unsuccessful at the opposite period. An easy 

 confutation of this fallacious proposition lies in the fact that 

 during a year of maximum sunspots the mean temperature in Java 

 exceeded that of a minimum year by only *1° C. By taking the 

 rainfall at Madras from 1830 to 1870, M. Faye shows conclusively 

 that the connection between maxima or minima of sunspots and 

 excessive rainfall or drought is purely imaginary. The final portion 

 of this valuable work is devoted to the Eeport of the French Expe- 

 dition sent to Caroline Island to observe the Eclipse of the Sun 

 of May 6, 1883. It is accompanied by an untouched photograph 

 of the sun, which shows well both the inner and the outer corona. 

 The chief results of the expedition were the observation of 

 M. Tacchini, showing the analogy between the spectrum of certain 

 parts of the corona and that of comets ; and the proof by MM. 

 Palisa and Holden of the non-existence, or at any rate the non- 

 visibility, of an Intra-Mercurial planet. 



Manual of the Transit Instrument as used for obtaining Correct Time. 

 By Latimer Claek, MICE. Spon : London and New York 

 (pp. 40). 



Transit Tables for 1884, giving the Greenwich Mean Time of the 

 Transit of the Sun and of certain Stars for every Day in the Year ; 

 with an Ephemeris of the Sun, Moon, and Planets. By Latimer 

 Clark, M.IC.E. Spon: London and New York (pp. 67). 



Mr. Clark has taken out patents for two new forms of the Transit 

 Instrument, and is naturally anxious to bring them before the 



