REVIEWS. 
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least, such a treatise as would encourage the study of astronomy. But 
hooks have been published, which, whatever their shortcomings, ought to 
have engendered a love for astronomical pursuits, and we trust that to some 
slight extent they have been successful in this respect. May not the rea- 
son, or one of the reasons, lie in the supposition that our climate, cloudy 
skies, foggy air, and a condition of things productive of discomfort to the 
English amateur, is unfavourable to astronomical pursuits ? We merely 
ask the question in order that amateurs may be assured that they may 
engage to advantage in the study of the heavenly bodies even in this 
country. We feel positive that if it were generally known thkt even with 
a cheap telescope a patient observer may make most important discoveries, 
the field of workers would soon become enlarged. Now this effect we think, 
is likely to be achieved by the splendid volume which has been issued by 
the Clarendon Press. Mr. Chambers is one whose previous labours in the- 
departments of astronomy and meteorology highly qualify him for the task 
he has undertaken, and few we think will be disappointed with the work 
he has now given us. a Descriptive Astronomy ” is a large book, extending 
over nearly 900 pages, and abounding in excellent, and some of them novel, 
illustrations. There is hardly any division of his subject which the author 
has omitted the discussion of — unless, indeed, that of solar-spectrum- 
analysis — and he gives as his reason for this omission that the time has 
not yet come for regarding this branch of physics as a section of astronomy. 
There is some truth in this, and a good deal of sound sense, for it shows 
that the author wishes his treatise to be regarded as solid and accurate 
rather than sensational and startling. We wish we had room for a full 
analysis of Mr. Chambers’s book, of which we are able to give no more than 
the most outlinear notice. We therefore all the more strongly urge our 
readers to take it up and examine it for themselves. It deals with the sub- 
ject in its entirety. Abstract considerations are as much as possible, 
avoided, except where their introduction is absolutely necessary; but all 
phenomena are carefully described, and the most recent discoveries find a 
record in Mr. Chambers’s pages. The advice to workers is eminently good,, 
being simple and practical, and such as the “ intending” astronomer requires. 
The history of the science and the mode of construction of the several 
apparatus are also given. Finally, there is a well-arranged series of astro- 
nomical tables. With one of Browning’s cheap telescopes and a copy of 
Mr. Chambers’s “ Descriptive Astronomy,” even the amateur may look 
forward to establishing his fame as a student of the heavens. 
POPULAR SCIENCE, par excellence. 
S IR JOHN HERSCHEL is said to be our best popular scientific writer^ 
and certainly his volume of lectures bears high testimony to the accu- 
racy of the general belief. The lectures, which he has here reprinted, are 
certainly the most interesting, instructive, and intelligible essays on scientific 
* “Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects.” By Sir John F. W. Her- 
schel, Bart., K.H. London : Alexander Strahan. 1867. 
