70 Notices respecting New Books, 



plausibly suggested." In the outset Mr. Rollwyn stands forth as 

 the champion of the non-scientific, to defend them against the plau- 

 sible suggestions of time-honoured philosophers, who have given to 

 the world, by means of observation and theory, the facts and expla- 

 nations of the constituent bodies of the universe, substituting his 

 new explanations and, as he calls them, discoveries, for much that 

 is now generally received. 



In that portion of the work which is devoted to the consideration 

 of stars, star-systems, and nebulae, it would have contributed greatly 

 to simplicity had the author, in addition to the array of figures ex- 

 pressing hundreds of billions, given the quantities in so many words. 

 The experience of the general public, for whom Mr. Rollwyn writes, 

 in estimating quantities seldom exceeds hundreds of thousands, and 

 as a billion is a million times a million, it is by a great mental effort 

 that so large a quantity can be apprehended by figures alone. With 

 regard to stellar arrangements, Mr. Rollwyn does not appear to be 

 well read up ; for in his work we look in vain for any notice of Proc- 

 tor's theories of star-drift, star-streams, the constitution of the uni- 

 verse, &c. ; and it is remarkable that, amongst theories which have 

 been regarded with but little favour by the author, the speculations 

 of Proctor should have been overlooked. On the other hand we 

 find the author demolishing, as he thinks, the gaseous character of 

 the nebulae, calling in question the results of Dr. Huggins's obser- 

 vations of the bright lines in the spectra of nebulae, as well as the 

 observations of Sir W. Herschel, whose telescope, the author says, 

 invests and unites the Dumb Bell with a fictitious elliptical halo and 

 junction. '/ How can such luminosity yield a spectrum analysis ? 

 We should as soon think of testing the spectrum analysis of a ghost, 

 or a night-mare, or a dream. To come to the conclusion that be- 

 cause such a spectrum presents no elementary lines it must be the 

 spectrum of a vapour, would be vapouring indeed, and with very 

 thin vapour. All honour to spectrum analysis ! but we trust we are 

 too jealous of the integrity of scientific truth to accept implicitly the 

 first suggestions and unfledged conclusions drawn from it, — too ap- 

 preciative of its great achievements, too respectful to its already well- 

 won and w T onderful laurels, to drag it through the mire in support 

 of hasty and ill-digested inferences." 



Of the three bright lines in the spectra of nebulae discovered by 

 Dr. Huggins, Mr. Rollwyn remarks, " it is surely exacting too much 

 to ask us to assume that when three lines only appear in the spec- 

 troscope, this miserable meagre telegram exhaustively explains all 

 the luminosity embraced within the extended confine." 



It would be wasting time to go further into an analysis of the 

 work. Not only is the author ill-read in his subject and extravagant 

 in his suppositions (of which the pear-shaped form of the moon is an 

 example, the diameter directed towards the earth being 3893 miles, 

 while that at right angles to it is 2153 : whence he obtained his 

 data we are at a loss to conceive ; the micrometrical measurements 

 of Gussew in 1859 or 1860 gave the greatest mean deviation from 

 the spherical form as about -^ of the radius, or less than 60 miles), 



