Apkil 17, 1885. J 



SCIENCE. 



317 



THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 

 OF LONDON. 



This society, the most important astronomical 

 organization in existence holding frequent meetings, 

 had its anniversary session on Feb. 13, on which 

 occasion the principal event was the presentation of 

 the gold medal to Dr. William Huggins for his spec- 

 troscopic researches, as already announced. The 

 1 Monthly notice ' which gives account of this meet- 

 ing is usually the most interesting number for the 

 year, and the present issue is not disappointing in 

 this regard. The society, which was organized about 

 the year 1820, is possessed of a good degree of wealth, 

 aggregating considerably more than a hundred thou- 

 sand dollars, of which about seventy thousand are 

 pecuniarily remunerative. Not a small amount of 

 the society's property is in the shape of astronomical 

 and other instruments of precision, a catalogue of 

 which is regularly published, and embraces this year 

 a list of a hundred and twenty-one entries. The 

 publications of the society have now reached the 

 forty-fifth volume of ' Monthly notices,' and of 

 the ' Memoirs ' the forty-eighth. The second part of 

 this latter volume is now in press, and is announced 

 to contain Mr. Seabroke's fourth catalogue of micro- 

 metric measures of double stars, Professor Pritchard's 

 determination of the relative proper motion of forty 

 stars in the Pleiades, Mr. Knobel's observations of 

 Mars in 1884, and two memoirs relative to the moon, 

 — the one by Mr. Neison on the corrections required 

 by Hansen's ' Tables,' and the other by Gogou on an 

 inequality of long-period in its motion. 



The council of the society record the loss by death, 

 during the year, of fifteen fellows and one associate: 

 an exceptional number of these are men of wide 

 reputation, and the obituary records are exceptionally 

 well written. We note only Henry George Bohn, 

 John Henry Dallmeyer, Isaac Todhunter, Francis 

 Diedrich Wackerbarth, Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm 

 Klinkerfues, Marian Kowalski, and Johann Friedrich 

 Julius Schmidt. In general, the ' Proceedings of ob- 

 servatories ' are not more interesting than formerly ; 

 and, of the twenty-one institutions reported, a small 

 number appear to be gradually fossilizing, while at 

 two or three an extraordinary degree of activity is 

 evinced. American astronomers will find slender 

 cause for complaining at the council's " Notes on some 

 points connected with the progress of astronomy 

 during the past year; " for about one-half of the sec- 

 tion of twenty-seven pages devoted to this history is 

 occupied with the work of Americans in the advance- 

 ment of this science. The important ' points ' com- 

 mented upon are Professor Newcomb's researches in 

 mathematical astronomy, Professor Safford's inves- 

 tigation of Greenwich planetary observations, star 

 catalogues by Dr. Gould and Dr. Grant, Dr. Back- 

 lund's investigation of the motion of Encke's comet, 

 Dembowski's measures of double stars, Professor 

 Pickering's work with the meridian photometer, 

 Dr. Huggins's photography of the solar corona 

 without an eclipse, Professor Langley's researches in 



atmospheric absorption, and the conclusions of the 

 International prime-meridian conference. 



At the conclusion of the anniversary meeting, Mr. 

 Edwin Dunkin was re-elected president of the society ; 

 and Professor Adams, Professor Cayley, Dr. De la 

 Kue, and Mr. Stone were elected vice-presidents. 



JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. 



This abridged volume will be welcomed 

 with great pleasure by all who have enjo}'ed 

 the larger work, for it puts into one's hands 

 a vade mecum. The life of Maxwell is worth 

 pondering upon ; and it is a peculiarity of 

 all that he has ever written upon science, 

 that some minds can draw inexhaustible nour- 

 ishment from his essays and letters. Many 

 will miss portions of the larger volume ; but, in 

 return for what has been omitted, the editors 

 have given three important letters from Clerk 

 Maxwell to Faraday, and one of Faraday's to 

 him. The volume also contains letters to Dr. 

 Huggins on the structure of comets. His let- 

 ter to Faraday, upon the latter'sidea of lines 

 of force, shows clearly how strongly the new 

 conception had taken possession of his mind. 

 In this letter he says, — 



" You have also seen that the great mystery is, not 

 how like bodies repel and unlike attract, but how 

 like bodies attract by gravitation. But if you can 

 get over that difficulty, either by making gravity the 

 residual of the two electricities or by simply admit- 

 ting it, then your lines of force can ' weave a web 

 across the sky,' and lead the stars in their courses, 

 without any necessarily immediate connection with 

 the objects of their attraction." 



It is highly interesting to read the letters 

 which passed between these distinguished men. 

 It was perfectly natural for Maxwell to express 

 his physical ideas in mathematical language ; 

 while Faraday, unversed in mathematics, 

 could nevertheless express his conclusions in 

 a logical shape, which were the translations 

 into ordinary language of the results of Max- 

 well's equations. In one place Faraday 

 writes, — 



" There is one thing I would be glad to ask you. 

 When a mathematician, engaged in investigating 

 physical actions and results, has arrived at his con- 

 clusions, may they not be expressed in common 

 language as fully, clearly, and definitely as in math- 

 ematical formulae ? If so, would it not be a great 

 boon to such as I, to express them so, translating 

 them out of their hieroglyphics, that we also might 

 work upon them by experiment ? " 



The life of James Clerk Maxwell; -with selections from his 

 correspondence and occasional writings. By Lewis Campbell, 

 M.A., LL.D., and William Garnett, M.A. New edition, 

 abridged and revised. London, Macmillan, 1884. 16+421 p. 8°. 



