REVIEWS. 
413 
may almost say insolent tone, in which our author sets on one side the 
opinions of men like Sir J. Herschel, Madler, and others, in some cases 
without even saying whose opinion it is which he thus rejects. One sen- 
tence of the preface is so characteristic in this respect, that we quote it in 
full: — “As it has been in general assumed, entirely without any founda- 
tion, that the moon can have no atmosphere of any appreciable importance, 
it has been considered desirable to point out how entirely baseless this 
yiew is, and to show not only that the moon may possess an atmosphere rela- 
tively little inferior to the earth’s, but also that the entire evidence we 
possess on this subject is strongly favourable to the moon possessing such an 
atmosphere.” We need hardly say that Air. Neison entirely fails to carry 
out this vaunt, or that the great astronomers whose opinions he so cavalierly 
sets on one side have not adopted baseless views or made assumptions 
11 entirely without any foundation.” We believe Mr. Neison is a compara- 
tively young man, and he has manifestly much to learn about the conve- 
nances of scientific writing. Will he pardon us if we point out that whereas 
it is perfectly legitimate and proper for any man to advocate views opposed 
to those held by the highest authorities, it is altogether improper to assert 
of the opinions of such men that they are 11 utterly baseless,” “ entirely 
without foundation,” and so forth. Even the wisest, as we all know, may 
err, but only the most foolish would adopt opinions without a particle of 
evidence in their favour, and the great men whom Mr. Neison professes to 
controvert were not foolish by any means. 
To indicate the character of Mr. Neison’s reasoning on these matters it will 
only be necessary to remark that after expressing the opinion that the surface 
density of the moon’s atmosphere may be equal to about l-300th part of 
the density of our earth’s atmosphere, he maintains that this exceedingly 
rare air would decrease considerably the heat of the lunar day and the cold 
of the lunar night. It is true he believes that immense quantities of aqueous 
vapour rise into the upper strata of the lunar atmosphere, interrupting 
the solar heat, and “ preventing the solid body of the moon ever rising 
above its mean value ” (whatever that may mean), while 11 in the same way 
the fall of the lunar temperature during the long lunar night would be pre- 
vented by a similar cause ” — a most astounding assertion in the presence of 
the established laws of physics and of what is known about the moon’s 
condition. 
The selenographical portion of the work may be divided into two sections, 
first, the maps and descriptive matter : secondly, the formulae. The former 
section is on the whole good, but would have been much improved if the 
maps had been more uniform in character ; as it is, some details are intro- 
duced which would require a good telescope to show them, and some omitted 
which a very moderate telescopic power would reveal. The formulae are for 
the most part useless to selenographers. Those who can follow them as they 
appear — of whom we may be permitted to doubt whether Mr. Neison him- 
self is one — could have no occasion for them in this book ; but those not 
sufficiently acquainted with mathematics to obtain all the formulae necessary 
for selenographical work, would most assuredly not be benefited by this 
section of the work, which does not possess a single explanatory plate or 
woodcut, though it extends over nearly fifty pages. 
