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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
good, book of its kind, and that it is by tbe same author as that of, perhaps, 
the best-known manual of physics. It is carefully prepared by the English 
editor, who has discharged his task of translation very well indeed ; there 
being, as far as we have seen, an utter absence .of any of that peculiar 
French idiom so objectionable in a translation. The book is nicely printed, 
and its illustrations are, in our estimation, the very best part of the whole 
volume. These are excellently done, and are no less in number than 414. 
We fancy we notice a few errors here and there in the optical illustrations ; 
but they are defects by the absence of special rays rather than otherwise. 
In the next edition, too, it would be as well if Dr. Atkinson would look 
it over carefully, so as to avoid those errors which are absolutely inevitable 
in the first. We would point to one, for example, that certainly appears 
so to us. It is on p. 339, eight lines from the bottom. The author, 
speaking of the immense value of the spectrum analyses, says that u their 
extreme delicacy constitutes them a most valuable help in the quantitative 
analysis of the alkalies,” &c. Surely he meant qualitative in this case. 
There, are others also in the volume, but of much less importance. 
Altogether, the translation is very creditable to the editor. 
ESSAYS ON ASTRONOMY.* 
M R. PROCTOR has so long and so frequently contributed papers to our 
columns that we suppose our readers will think we are prejudiced in 
his favour. It is not so, however. We see Mr. Proctor’s good qualities, 
and we see his faults also j but the latter are so very small in comparison 
with the former that they are almost insignificant. He has eminently the 
faculty — the too dangerous acquirement in the case of a scientific man — of 
writing. Let him take up any subject which he understands, and he is 
able to write there and then a long paper on the subject. Whilst most 
men would require to collect material, and, having done so, to arrange it, 
and, having settled the matter, would have considerable difficulty in com- 
mitting their thoughts to paper, with Mr. Proctor it is done at once. This 
gives him a great advantage over his fellow-workers. But it has its disad- 
vantages. It leads a man to contribute something to nearly every journal, 
and this is what Mr. Proctor does, and it is where, we think, he errs. If 
even it be granted that in the majority of cases he is but popularising that 
which he has aired in scientific arenas at an earlier date, he is, at all events, 
doing that which the majority of scientific men refrain from, and which is 
generally thought to give a man a character for light thinking rather than 
for serious heavy work. However, in the essays before us at present this 
idea will not occur to anyone. They are all serious papers, a few taken 
from our own pages, and others from various other journals, the majority of 
* a Essays on Astronomy : a series of papers on Planets and Meteors, the 
Sun and Sun-surrounding Space,” &c. ; preceded by a sketch of the life and 
work of Sir John Herschel. By Richard A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S. 
London: Longmans, 1872. 
