72 Notices respecting New Books. 



First Eeport to the University Syndicate after the discovery of the 

 planet, and a facsimile of Adams's memorandum, dated 1841, July 3, 

 of his design to take up the subject of the cause of the irregularities 

 in the motion of Uranus, which was ably carried out in 1845, and 

 would have led to the discovery of the planet, had it been searched 

 for, a year before it was actually found. The scientific papers 

 contained in the volume before us comprise all those which were 

 published by the late Prof. Adams during his lifetime, extending 

 from 1844 (when he was 23 years of age) to 1890 (two years 

 before his death), and appear under the careful editorship of his 

 brother, Dr. W. Grylls Adams. The earliest relate of course to 

 the investigation of the place of JNeptune before it was found, and 

 the calculations of its orbit after its discovery in 1846. As is well 

 known, Prof. Adams's most important subsequent work related to 

 the secular acceleration of the moon's mean motion and other 

 matters relating to the lunar theory. But there are also many mis- 

 cellaneous papers — on the motions of certain comets, on the orbit 

 of the November meteors, besides a considerable number on pure 

 mathematical subjects — and no fewer than five addresses at pre- 

 sentations of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society ; 

 the last of these (on February 11, 1876) being to the late M. 

 LeVerrier, the co-discoverer with himself of JNeptune. The volume 

 is indispensable to all students of what was formerly called phy- 

 sical astronomy ; but as it is called a first volume, the reader 

 naturally asks what is to follow. We will answer in Dr. Grylls 

 Adams's words in his Preface : — " Besides these there are many 

 papers on various brauches of Astronomy which were left in an 

 incomplete state among Prof. Adams's manuscripts. These are 

 being prepared for publication by Professor Sampson." 



We are informed in Dr. Glaishers biographical notice above 

 referred to that the investigations contained in the manuscripts in 

 question will suffice to form, when published, what will practically 

 be a treatise on the lunar theory intermediate to the existing text- 

 books and such complete theories as those of Plana and Delaunay. 

 Adams received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 in 1866 for his contributions to the development of the lunar 

 theory, the address being given by De La Rue. When Challis 

 resigned the directorship of the Cambridge observatory in 1861 

 Adams was appointed his successor (uniting the appointment with 

 the Lowndean instead of the Plumian professorship), and remained 

 there until his death on the 21st of January 1892, having declined 

 the offer to succeed Sir George Airy as Astronomer Royal in 1881. 

 He visited America in 1884 as one of the delegates for Great 

 Britain to the International Prime Meridian Conference held at 

 Washington. 



