1882 .] Analyses of Books. 555 
as in England. It is well to teach youth that this persecuted 
creature is not merely innocent but positively useful to man. 
The cockchaffer receives a considerable share of notice, as 
being in France much more numerous, and consequently more 
destructive than in our colder climate. As a means of turning 
them to account, it has been proposed in Germany to eat them ! 
We fear our appetite and our courage would fail us in the experi- 
ment. A curious instance of their tenacity of life is given on the 
authority of Pouchet. A numberof them having been submerged 
in water for forty-eight hours, and having to some extent entered 
into decomposition, if we may judge from the offensive smell 
and the discolouration of the water, revived on being taken out 
and exposed to a temperature of 77 0 F., and the next day four- 
fifths of them flew away. 
The modern scourge of France, the phylloxera, is described at 
length. The authoress appears to have but little faith in the 
various schemes devised for combatting this frightful pest. 
Notwithstanding a few questionable statements and the some- 
what archaic classification which here and there comes to the 
surface, Madame Meunier’s work is well suited to the readers 
for whom it is intended. 
Studies of Venus Transits. An Investigation of the Circum- 
stances of the Transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882, originally 
forming part of “ The Universe and coming Transits.” By 
Richard A. Proctor. London : Longmans and Co. 
Transits of Venus, as the general public has been to some 
extent aware since Captain James Cook’s first voyage, are of 
great scientific importance, as furnishing astronomers with one 
of the chief means of ascertaining that capital point, the distance 
of our earth from the sun. Such opportunities are rare, and 
when they occur are, or should be, eagerly and intelligently 
utilised. The present generation is in this respedf eminently 
favoured. A transit took place on December 8th, 1874, and on 
December 6th next another will occur, which will be carefully 
studied by parties of qualified observers sent out by different 
governments to the most favourable stations. After this year 
no other transit of Venus will occur until the year 2004, a date 
naturally beyond the personal concern of any person now living. 
The treatise before us is a portion of a larger work entitled 
“ The Universe and the coming Transit.” Some parts of the 
subjedf-matter had previously appeared in the “Journal of 
Science,” the “ Spediator,” and especially in the “ Monthly 
Notices of the Astronomical Society.” 
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