REVIEWS. 
67 
we believe that the result of his study of it will he his nearly entire con- 
viction of the inadequateness of the theory of Panspermy. But whatever he 
may think of this part of the hook, he cannot fail to he pleased with the 
work as a whole, and he will, we doubt not, appreciate the remarkably good 
English of the translator, and the very great enterprise of the eminent pub- 
lishers who have introduced the book into Great Britain. 
THE SUN.* 
O E all the discoveries which have been made during the present century 
in the department of astronomical physics, very few are more remark- 
able than those which have been made concerning the sun. The solar spots 
and the solar prominences have, during the last ten years or so, occupied the 
attention of European and American astronomers, and the hypotheses which 
have been started in explanation of these phenomena have been as numerous 
as conflicting. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that a work should be 
published upon the solar phenomena as a whole ; indeed, the only thing to 
be wondered at is that such a work should have made its appearance in 
France and not in England, where the labours of De la Hue, Huggins, Loewy, 
Stewart, Lockyer, and Stoney have done so much to advance our real know- 
ledge of the constitution of the sun. M. Guillemin, the author of the work 
which Dr. Phipson — a former contributor to these pages — has introduced to 
the English public, is an old friend of English popular astronomers. His 
work on u The Heavens,” translated some time ago by Mr. Lockyer, is 
familiar to most educated persons, and, as it deserves to be, is a favourite. 
The work on the sun will, we trust, be equally well received, for it is an ex- 
cellent summary of what has been discovered of the nature and motions of the 
sun from the earliest times to the remarkable spectroscopic researches which, 
in 1868, revealed to us the true character of the solar prominences. M. 
Guillemin has had a vast series of facts to collect and describe, and he has 
discharged the task taken up by him conscientiously and successfully, pro- 
ducing not merely a dry record of the history of astronomical research, but 
a most seductive and forcible sketch of the progress of solar science. The 
book is well illustrated and well written, and he must be a dull man indeed 
who cannot find in its pages much, not only to interest and instruct him, in 
the ordinary sense of the word, but also to lift his mind above the mere 
commonplaces of life to the contemplation of that grandest of all great 
secrets, the cause and end of celestial phenomena. In his labour of trans- 
lator Dr. Phipson has performed his duty creditably. The book reads like a 
work written in English, and not simply rendered from another tongue. 
We have not space to discuss any of the problems treated upon by the 
author ; but we would especially direct attention to his analysis of the dif- 
ferent theories — of KirclihofF, Faye, and others — as to the constitution of the 
photosphere. The judicial manner in which he contrasts all without leaning 
* 11 The Sun.” By Am6d<$e Guillemin. From the French by T. L. Phip- 
son, Ph.D. London : Bentley, 1870. 
