76 
TOPULAR SCIENCE REYIE'W. 
COFFEE-PLANTING. * 
T HIS is the second edition of a work which, of course, can have little 
interest for the great majority of our readers. Yet is it a special work, 
well done, and of considerable value to a certain number of persons. It is 
the practical experience of a gentleman who has had no less than twenty 
years’ work in the districts of Pussilava, Hewahette, and Rambodde. 
It must therefore be good, and, so far as we can judge, it is extremely full, 
and really is rather generally interesting. The author has not supplied his 
own experience alone. He has taken numerous extracts from Labories’ 
well-known treatise, which, though old, is still an excellent work. In 
addition to this, he has given the substance of various letters, and a quantity 
of matter, from Ferguson’s “Ceylon Directory,” 1864-5. Altogether he 
has tried to make his book interesting and useful, and we think he has 
succeeded. 
OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS.f 
T HIS, the second edition of Mr. Proctor’s celebrated treatise, reaches us 
too late to admit of our giving to it more than a casual notice. Still 
we must say a word or two. The preface strikes us as being not the least 
interesting portion, for therein does the author deal with those opponents 
of his ideas who have endeavoured by unfair means to take from him his 
own ideas, and who, desirous of not recognising his exposure of their errors, 
have dealt with him in a manner not characterised by that openness and 
honesty which some scientific men would have at once exhibited. We 
have read Mr. Proctor’s remarks in this part of his work with considerable 
care ; and, so far as we can see, he has (considering the treatment he has 
received from certain opponents) been not a whit too severe, while at the 
same time his arguments appear most just, and if Professor Pritchard and 
Mr. N. Lockyer do not give us some satisfactory reply, we shall of course 
be compelled, greatly to their disadvantage, to accept to the fullest degree 
the explanation Mr. Proctor has so clearly given. Among the more im- 
portant novelties in this edition we may refer to the evidence against the 
theory that the cloud-belts of Jupiter and Saturn are raised by the sun’s 
heat. He considers that the forces inherent in these planets are abundantly 
sufficient to account for the phenomena. The author also endeavours to 
demonstrate that there are laws of stars, aggregative and segregative, other 
than those laid down, and he believes that the Milky Way is not a structure 
of stars of all orders, but is, in fact, a small stream “ amidst which many of 
the lucid stars are immersed.” As regards Mr. Proctor’s last chapter, we 
can offer no opinion whatsoever. 
* “The Coffee Planter of Ceylon.” By William Sabonadiere. Second 
edition. London : Spon. 1870. 
t “ Other Worlds than Ours. The Plurality of Worlds studied under 
the light of Recent Scientific Researches.” By Richard S. Proctor, B.A., 
F.R.A.S. Second edition. London : Longmans. 1870. 
