397 
!88o.] Analyses of Books. 
been found to exist, and in every instance the later measurement 
has shown a greater number of feet and inches than the former ? 
It may here be mentioned that some years ago we were informed 
by a solicitor who had a very large practice in the transfer of real 
property that he had always found the size of an estate, as given 
in old title-deeds, fall most decidedly short of the results as ascer- 
tained by a recent survey. He ascribed this discrepancy to the 
inaccuracy of the old measurements, though it must be conceded 
as strange that the error should always fall in the same direction. 
It is asserted, in Capt. Drayson’s work, that since 1831 the 
equatorial diameter of the earth has grown 557+ feet and the 
polar diameter 3180 feet. The latitude of Edinburgh Observa- 
tory, as given in 1827 by Francis Baily, then President of the 
Astronomical Society, when compared with 1858, shows an 
apparent movement of 1373 yards. The Observatory of Berlin 
in 1845, as compared with 1858, differs to the extent of a mile 
and a hundred yards. The general public, and even men of 
science whose speciality lies elsewhere, must stand aghast at 
such statements, and be at a loss which is the less incredible 
supposition — that eminent astronomers should be in error on such 
a point as the latitude of an observatory, or that buildings should 
be capable of undergoing a movement of translation, amounting, 
as in the case of Edinburgh, to 40 yards per year. 
It will be remembered that the distance of the earth from the 
sun, as deduced in 1874 from the observations made on the tian- 
sit of Venus, was found greater than had been previously calcu- 
lated. This Mr. Proftor refers to the untrustworthy nature of 
Delisle’s method, whilst our author takes it as a confirmation of 
one point in his theory — the recession of the earth from the sun. 
It must be admitted that the work contains not a few errors in 
points of fadt. Thus we are told that aniline is the base of all 
the colouring-matters obtained from coal-tar ; and again that 
picric acid, peonine, azuline,&c., are aniline-colours ; that lithium 
is ranged among the non-metallic bodies, &c. We find also rea- 
soning which to us appears strangely inconclusive. The modern 
dodtrine that colour is nothing inherent in bodies themselves, but 
is merely a form of animal consciousness, is declared “ open to 
the somewhat startling objection that if true it would follow that 
there would be no rainbow if there were no human beings.” To 
us this seems no objection at all. Still the author’s views, if 
novel, are tangible ; they admit of being verified or refuted by 
observation and experiment, and to these he appeals. Hence 
we must consider his work deserving of serious attention. 
As a defedt, we feel compelled to notice the number of typo- 
graphical errors. Thus we read of albumious, oeline, naphtha- 
lian, corana, &c. A modern work is quoted as “ Kingzett on the 
Alki Trade.” 
