Notices respecting New Books, 279 



be possibly complete. No sucb decompositions are, however, known 

 to modern chemistry. Reverting once more to the Preface, we 

 should earnestly advise the author to withdraw from any future 

 edition the concluding sentence. The slightest consideration must 

 convince him of its extreme personal ungraciousness to all living 

 chemists save one. 



It remains to add that Dr. Morley's ' Outlines ' is in most other 

 respects deserving of much praise. The descriptive part of the 

 work is concise and, so far as we have examined it, free from 

 serious errors. It was a happy thought to place the chapter on 

 Physical Constants near the end of the book ; most of this is pithily 

 written and brought down to date. But, like a skilful tactician, 

 the author has kept his best to the last. The Summary of General 

 Reactions, with references to the proper pages preceding, is an 

 almost original feature, and cannot fail to be of the greatest advan- 

 tage to students ; it would well repay extension and classification. 



Dr. Morley's text-book is undoubtedly a valuable and interesting 

 work. If it is not quite the success that the author appears to 

 have intended, we can only say, in the words of our neighbours, 

 il merite bien de Vetre. 



A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century, By 

 Agjtes M. Clebke. Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black. 1885. 

 Since the publication of Prof. Newcomb's ' Popular Astronomy ' in 

 1878, this is undoubtedly the most remarkable work of a popular 

 character that has appeared in this country on the subject of Astro- 

 nomy. And being a history of Astronomy — that is, as Miss Clerke 

 puts it, telling us in addition to what we know, how w~e came to 

 know it, — it covers somewhat different ground from that traversed 

 by Prof. Newcomb, and is to a considerable extent, especially in the 

 domain of modern astronomical physics, supplementary to his 

 treatise. The recent progress of Astronomy has been such as, in 

 Miss Clerke's opinion, to lend itself with facility to untechnical 

 treatment ; and her endeavour has been to enable the reader to 

 follow the course oi modern astronomical inquiries, and to realize 

 the full effect of the change introduced by the discovery of spectrum 

 analysis. The author is evidently a practised writer, who has 

 thought for herself on most of the astronomical problems of the 

 day, and is not afraid of expressing her opinions on them, and she 

 has certainly succeeded in making the work before us a very 

 instructive as well as a very interesting one. 



The book is divided into two parts. Part I. is concerned with 

 the progress of Astronomy during the first half of the nineteenth 

 century, and Part II. with the recent progress of Astronomy. In 

 the first part, Miss Clerke sketches clearly and well the history of the 

 foundation and progress of Sidereal Astronomy, including the life 

 (special prominence being assigned to the biographical element) and 

 work of the Herschels, Bessel, and the other pioneers of Astronomy 

 of the time. She tells once more the story of the early struggles 

 of the elder Herschel, and of Bessel, who " chose poverty and the 

 stars, and went to Lilienthal with a salary of a hundred thalers an- 

 nually," of Sir John Herschel's splendid work at the Cape, of F. Gr. "W. 

 Struve and the Pulkowa Observatory. The progress of our know- 



