292 
POPOLAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
getting that the appearance of the sky is constantly shifting, and though 
such maps show the relation of the several constellations to each other, 
they by no means show the position of the stars on any particular night. 
iSIr. Proctor may exclaim with Moliere, Nous avons change tout cela. He has 
constructed his maps for every night in the year, and by the employment of 
ordinary expressions instead of the astronomical ones to indicate the position 
of the constellations, he has managed to make star-gazing not only a simple, 
but a most satisfactory pursuit. We remember, when we were students, 
working out the stars with Lardner’s books ; but what a luxury such a 
beautiful series as those of Mr. Proctor’s would have been to us. We com- 
mend these maps to the notice not only of intending students of the hea- 
vens, but to every one ; for every educated person ought to be familiar with 
the constellation.s. Mr. Proctor has done a great deal already to popularize 
astronomy by his writings, as he has also achieved much by his original 
investigations to advance our knowledge of the heavenly bodies ; but this 
last work, elementary as it may seem, gives him his greatest victory, by 
enabling him to surpass himself. 
CHEMICAL CHANGES OF CAEBON.* 
CROOKES has in this volume reprinted Dr. Odling’s excellent 
JjJ- lectures delivered to a juvenile auditory at the Ro3'al Institution. Did 
he do well to reprint them ? ^^’e think not : and for this reason, that in their 
present shape thej^ do an injustice to one of the most accomplished and elo- 
quent chemists of the present age. The lectures were given to a number of 
young people, and the general propositions laid down were enforced by abun- 
dant experiment, and by the adoption of a colloquial style of expres.sion, which, 
of course, involved the employment of short sentences and not unfrequent 
repetition. Now experiment cannot be reproduced in the printing press, 
and reiteration is hardly pardonable in a book; and yet Mr. Crookes has 
published these lectures as they were given — with the repetitions and without 
the experiments. We ourselves have read the lectures with the greatest 
interest and pleasure, and have been surprised at the way in which Dr. 
Odling got over the great difficulty of explaining abstract principles to young 
people. But we have heard others condemn the book, and w^e can under- 
stand that this condemnation is owing to the circumstances above referred 
to. On the whole we are disposed to think that the book will prove of 
great service, but we cannot help thinking that it is rather unfair on the 
part of some of our “critical” brethren to blame Dr. Odling for the style 
of composition. As oral lectures they were excellent. 
• “A Cour.««e of Six T.ectures on the Cliemical Changes of Carbon.” By 
W. Odling, M.B., F.R.S. Reprinted from tlie ('hcmical Ncius] with notes 
by W. Crookes, F.R.S. Ivondon, Longmans, 18G9. 
