186 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
ordinarily intelligent person outside tlie domain of science. Hence, we 
think, the two translators are to he thanked for having performed an ex- 
ceedingly arduous task with remarkable skill ; and our gratitude is also due 
to Mr. Huggins, for having helped them with his good advice and with 
suggestions as to the introduction of several papers which give an increased 
value to the work. It is a book which, for the general reader, deals with 
spectroscopy in all its various applications, and with the several questions 
in astronomy and general physics which have relation to it. Thus we find 
that the editors have introduced papers by Mr. Stoney on the cause of the 
interrupted spectra of gases, and by Professor Young on the lines in the 
spectrum of the chromosphere, and that they have reproduced Angstrom’s 
maps of the solar spectrum, some of Mr. Brother’s photographs of the 
corona, and certain of the solar prominences as depicted by Professor Respighi. 
Thus we have everything that bears on the subject brought together into 
one handsome volume, which is absolutely one mass of illustrations, exclu- 
sive of the several admirable page plates which illustrate the volume. And, 
while we are on this part of the subject, we do not think that too high 
praise can be awarded to the artist who produced the exquisite plate of the 
solar prominences observed by Respighi in 1870. These are undeniably the 
most artistic plates which we have seen upon the subject, and great credit 
is due to their artist. But, besides these, a number of other excellent 
plates are spread throughout the volume; those of the total eclipses of 
August 1868 and August 1869, and of Angstrom’s map of the solar spec- 
trum, being especially to be commended. 
We think it was wise of Mr. Huggins to express his dissent from many of 
the views laid down by the author ; for we fear that, in not a few cases, 
he will be found of a different opinion from the great mass of the leaders 
on the subject. Mr. Huggins especially differs from the author in his views 
on “the influence of temperature and density on the spectra of gases,” 
and he expresses his regret that the author in his plates should have re- 
versed the spectra from the position usually given them. Still he speaks 
well of the book as a popular treatise, and as such we essentially consider 
it. In this respect it is an admirable and extensive work, well illustrated 
and translated ; and, being intended for the general public, it enters into a 
number of connected elementary questions which would not be found 
elsewhere. We recommend it as a capital volume for those who desire to 
know something about a science as vast as it is novel. 
SHORT NOTICES. 
A Monograph of the British Graptolitidce , by H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., 
Professor of Natural History in University College, Toronto. Blackwood 
and Sons, 1872. — This monograph we have just received. It seems a most 
valuable essay upon a group which is too little studied. Prof. Nicholson, 
however, has with Mr. Carruthers and Mr. Charles Lapworth, Mr. John 
Hopkinson, and Mr. W. Hellier Baily, done much, to explore the group. 
In this work, which covers nearly 150 pages, and has nearly 100 illustra- 
