1873-] Notices of Books. 515 



with him there by me in 1864, and noticed as untenable in my 

 " Life and Work" book published in 1867. 



M. Dufeu has indeed added something to Hekekyan Bey's 

 original matter, such as the " Longitude of the Great Pyramid," 

 "the proof that it was never cased," and his own alleged " coffer 

 measures," — but they are precisely the most flagrantly erroneous 

 parts of the whole book. 



Piazzi Smyth, 



Astronomer Royal for Scotland. 



The Moon:, her Motions, Aspect, Scenery, and Physical Condi- 

 tions. By Richard A. Proctor, B.A. With three Lunar 

 Photographs by Rutherford, and many Plates, Charts, &c. 

 London : Longmans, Green, and Co. 1873. 8vo. 394 pp. 

 The admirable works on Astronomy written by Mr. Proctor 

 during the last few years possess many features which make 

 them peculiarly acceptable to this period — a period marked in 

 the history of Science as one in which a general desire is mani- 

 fested by all classes to obtain accurate, and at the same time 

 popular, knowledge of the universe. These works are eminently 

 popular ; they are pleasantly written, the abstruse treatment of 

 difficult subjects is avoided, and the illustrations are abundant 

 and novel. The author aims specially at original treatment ; he 

 does not merely give the reader a compilation, after the manner 

 of the generality of popular scientific writers, but he introduces 

 extended descriptions of various phenomena, and frequently 

 supplies information existing only in the memoirs of some 

 learned Society, or not to be found elsewhere. This was no less 

 noticeable in the last book of Mr. Proctor's (" The Sun ") which 

 we reviewed in this Journal, as in the present. Between the 

 appearance of these works less than four years have intervened, 

 yet in this time our author has published some three or four 

 works which have taken their place among the popular scientific 

 literature of the day, and which bear upon them the stamp of much 

 earnest and accurate work. 



The work before us is divided into six chapters, which treat 

 respectively of — (1) The Moon's Distance, Size, and Mass; 

 (2) The Moon's Motions ; (3) The Moon's Changes of Aspect, 

 Rotation, Libration, &c. ; (4) Study of the Moon's Surface ; 

 (5) Lunar Celestial Phenomena; (6) Condition of the Moon's 

 Surface. These are followed by Tables, and an Index to the 

 Map of the Moon. 



The first chapter opens with an account of the view of the 

 Ancients regarding the moon, and the mode of measuring her 

 distance from the earth. From this we learn that Aristarchus 

 of Samos calculated the distance of the moon (by an unknown 

 method) at two millions of stadia, or about 236,000 miles, 



