LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



corned by all persons interested in the min- 

 eral resources of this country. 



It is the most comprehensive work of 

 this nature which has ever been put before 

 the public. All puzzling measurements of 

 quantity, etc., are reduced to the metric sys- 

 tem, and the student can readily examine 

 the progress of the different industries, from 

 their earliest conception to the present time. 

 The articles on aluminum, tin, chronology of 

 the gold and silver industries, and the plati- 

 num group of metals are very important ad- 

 ditions to the exhaustive statistical body of 

 the work. The histories of the progress of 

 metallurgy, assaying, etc., are also ably 

 treated ; and in the various papers on cop- 

 per we have a perfect encyclopaedia of the 

 history, progress, values, and modes of pro- 

 ducing this metal, which can not fail to be 

 of great benefit to everybody interested in 

 industrial progress. 



Considering the ambitious plan of the 

 compilation it is somewhat unfortunate that 

 provision was not made for articles upon the 

 mes of the precious and other metals, with a 

 few tables showing their quantitative appli- 

 cations. Iron, lead, and nickel occupy a con- 

 siderable portion of the work, and a won- 

 derful amount of information can be learned 

 about these metals and the progress of their 

 production from the exhaustive tables that 

 accompany the text. The onyx industry is 

 rather summarily treated ; but it appears 

 that a difficulty existed in obtaining suffi- 

 cient important data to make that article 

 more interesting. Mr. Roth well is to be 

 congratulated upon the very useful volume 

 which he and his assistants, Messrs. Bene- 

 dict, Ingalls, Church, Hofman, etc., have pro- 

 duced. 



Old and Xew Astronomy. By Richard A. 

 Proctor, completed by A. Cowper Ran- 

 tard. London and New York: Long- 

 mans, Green & Co. Pp. 816. Price, $12. 



At the time of the author's death, in 1888, 

 about half of this volume had been published 

 in parts, and about one third more was writ- 

 ten, though incompletely. Mr. Proctor in- 

 tended it to be the great work of his life, and 

 to this end had been collecting material for 

 more than twenty years before he began its 

 publication. The chapters which he left in 

 manuscript have been completed by Mr. A. 



Cowper Ranyard, Mr. Proctor's successor as 

 editor of Knowledge, who has also written 

 the part on the stars needed to fill out the 

 plan of the work. As implied in its title, 

 " Old and New," this treatise essays to give 

 the notions of ancient astronomers as well as 

 the present state of the science. The author 

 has made a practice also of telling when, 

 where, and by whom important discoveries 

 and advances in our knowledge of the heav- 

 ens have been made, and in this way has 

 added much of the charm of narrative to his 

 book. The large type, many illustrations 

 and maps, and fine paper also contribute to 

 make the volume an attractive one. The 

 frontispiece consists of three views of pyra- 

 mids, and in the first chapter, devoted to 

 Ancient and Modern Methods of Observing 

 the Heavenly Bodies, the use of the pyra- 

 mids and other structures of masonry for 

 this purpose is explained. In the same chap- 

 ter are described the quadrants and astro- 

 labes of the middle ages, and the most mod- 

 ern transit and equatorial instruments as 

 well. The shape of the earth is the first 

 subject taken up after the description of 

 instruments. Under this head the various 

 proofs that the earth is round are given, and 

 the processes employed for measuring its 

 curve are set forth. The third chapter is de- 

 voted to Apparent Motions of the Sun, Moon, 

 and Planets, and is copiously illustrated with 

 charts and diagrams. The author next de- 

 scribes the True Mechanism of the Solar 

 System, and here has occasion to dip quite 

 deeply into history in order to give the suc- 

 cessive approximations to the truth arrived 

 at by the early astronomers. He follows 

 this account with a statement of the meth- 

 ods that have been devised for measuring 

 and weighing the solar system. The sun, the 

 moon, and each of the planets are fully de- 

 scribed, a notably interesting chapter being 

 made on sun-spots and solar prominences un- 

 der the title The Sun's Surroundings. When 

 his labors were broken off by his unexpected 

 death Mr. Proctor had written nothing on 

 the stars, the nebulae, or the Milky Way, 

 though it was known that he intended to 

 make these sections a special feature of the 

 book. It was in this department of astrono- 

 my that his own work was of most original 

 and lasting character. Mr. Ranyard has 

 sought to follow out the author's general 



VOL. XLIII.- 



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