Notices respecting New Books. 373 



in this experiment the clustering, the streaming, and the produc- 

 tion of vacant spaces were not the result of the force of gravity- 

 acting among the particles themselves so as to occasion these clus- 

 terings and segregations, yet this same force, combined with the 

 muscular force which determined the passage of the grains from 

 the hand, determined and fixed for the time being the position of 

 each individual grain on the tray. The assumption of stars of uni- 

 form size being distributed at uniform distances in space cannot be 

 regarded in any sense as a " chance " distribution ; for uniformity 

 of such a character implies design, a design manifestly absent in 

 the simple experiment above named. Mr. Proctor's star-streams 

 are but the results of forces operating on and among the stellar 

 orbs, the principal of which must doubtless be gravity ; but how 

 star-streams are produced we have yet to learn. 



The remaining subject in Mr. Proctor's book is " star-drift;" and 

 here we feel we are upon much more substantial ground than when 

 engaged in the examination of the other portions of his work. His 

 views of " star-drift " are based, not on conjecture, but upon obser- 

 vation. His two charts of the proper motions of stars form a va- 

 luable contribution to the records of observational astronomy ; and 

 we venture to predict that, in pursuing the course opened up by 

 Mr. Proctor, astronomers will become much better acquainted with 

 the distribution of the stars in space than by any other method 

 whatever. We would, however, call attention to that which we 

 consider to be a great defect in a work specially treating on the 

 " universe." It is the absence of any, except the most incidental, 

 mention of the binary and multiple systems. Surely, if Mr. Proctor 

 desires to place the important subject of " star-drift" on an impe- 

 rishame basis, it must be by showing that the drift-systems of 

 Taurus, Cancer, and Ursa Major partake of the nature of multiple 

 systems ; and that the reader may be able to form a clear concep- 

 tion of this link in the great systematic chain, it is essential that he 

 be led upwards step by step by the careful study of the binary 

 systems. It maybe said that Mr. Proctor has provided for this in 

 some of his other works ; but it is this fragmentary character of 

 some of his writings, the work before us especially, that we object 

 to. We should have perused it with much greater interest had it 

 been arranged differently. And while upon this point, we would 

 just say that an index is an essential part of a work like the present ; 

 there are many portions of it to which reference may often be ne- 

 cessary, and which may be difficult to find without such a help. 



The restriction of the term " star-drift " to the motions figured 

 to the eye on p. 141, as distinguished from that which may be de- 

 signated " sun-drift," is a happy one ; and we cannot close this 

 notice of the first part of the volume without congratulating Mr. 

 Proctor on a discovery by which that of binary systems by the elder 

 Herschel is extended to portions of the starry universe containing 

 systems of a much more imposing character. Mr. Proctor repu- 

 diates the principle, so far as he is personally concerned, of exami- 

 ning detail ; but, if we mistake not, his most successful result has 



