REYIEWS. 
85 
the literature of the subject. He theorises, indeed, occasionally, but in this 
feeble fashion : — “ If we look at our maps we shall see the parts of one 
continent that jut out agree with the indented portions of another. The 
prominent part of Africa would fit in the opposite opening between North 
and South America, and so in numerous other instances. A general rending 
asunder of the world would seem to have taken place when 1 the foundations 
of the great deep were broken up.’ ” He surpasses even this, however, when 
he says that “ it may not be going too far to see in the stars a, (3, and 
y Arietis an emblem of the blessed Trinity.” We think it is going a 
great deal too far, unless the writer’s object were to raise a laugh. But, 
Mr. Johnson being a clergyman, this can hardly be the case. 
THE TRANSIT OF VENUS.* 
W E have here two books before us, both dealing with that remarkable 
astronomical phenomenon, which, we have learnt from the papers of 
about three weeks ago, has been so well observed at most of the English 
stations. The two works are somewhat different, the one being a slight 
sketch of the subject, well done, of course, but still very popular; the other 
is a fuller account of the history of the phenomenon, and deals more scien- 
tifically with the entire question. The former is the account given by 
Professor G. Forbes ; the latter is from the pen of that well-known and 
careful worker, Mr. R. A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S. This work extends 
over 250 pages, and is very full on the subject of Transits, giving a 
minute account of these phenomena as they occurred in 1639, 1761, and 
1769. Then there is a chapter on Transits and their Conditions, which 
enables the reader the better to comprehend that upon the present transit. 
Mr. Proctor discusses these under the heading of “ Places for Observing 
the Early and Late Beginnings of the Phenomena,” and “ Places for Ob- 
serving the Early and Late Endings ” ; and lastly, “ Places for Observing 
the Greatest and Least Deviations.” He approves of the fact that most of 
the astronomers adopted the Delislean as well as the Halleyan method. 
Professor Forbes has not set himself so severe a task; still he has done 
his work admirably, and we doubt whether not a few readers will prefer his 
book to that of Mr. Proctor, through its easy, familiar style and the absence 
of all abstruse questions. Both authors discuss the question of the so-called 
“ black drop,” though we confess that neither seems to have hit upon the 
whole cause, though Mr. Proctor seems to have most nearly accounted for it. 
Mr. Forbes’s account of the experimental mode of observing an artificial 
transit proposal by the Astronomer-Royal is full of interest. Both books 
will have to be read by the astronomer. 
* “The Transits of Venus; a Popular Account of the Past and Coming 
Transits.” By R. A. Proctor, B.A. London : Longmans, 1874. 
“ The Transit of Venus.” By George Forbes, B.A., Professor of Natural 
Philosophy in the Andersonian University. London : Macmillan & Co., 
