plains; no religion more curiously interesting to the theologian than its parallel but wholly distinct systems, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and the religion of the Parsees; no people whose hunger for spiritual life, interpreted by the outery of their own poets, has made a field so attractive to the missionaries of the Cross. Look at it from what point of view you choose that of the tourist, the hunter, the scholar, the merchant, the theologian, or the Christian worker-India is the richest country of the world. This is the land which M. Louis ROUSSELET opens to the American reader, with the aid of Lieutenant-Colonel Buckle as a translator, and Scribner, Armstrong, and Co. as publishers. The volume contains 317 illustrations and six maps. Of the illustrations over one hundred are fullpage. They are all admirably executed, and in an artistic point of view the volume is characterized by something of the gorgeousness of the country which it describes. This is its excuse for a binding almost too ornate. The work is the result of six years' study of the land, its monuments, religious beliefs and symbols, and its history and native civilization. To modern India-the India which Great Britain has made | or marred, the only India which the ordinary tourist ever sees any thing of, the India of railways, hotels, and telegraphs-M. Rousselet pays very little attention. His enthusiasm was aroused by, and his attention is concentrated upon, what we may call Indian India, to distinguish it from European India. He not only made the entire circuit of the peninsula, he pursued his travels into the heart of the country, and traveled north almost to the heart of the Himalayas, and quite to the borders of Cashmere. He became thoroughly familiar, also, with the social life of the people. He seems to be a man of rare tact, and that winning and flexible character so peculiar to the Frenchman, and to have been able to commend himself to the good graces of the Indians of all ranks, perhaps the more readily from the contrast which he presented to the austere, reserved, and cold-blooded Englishman. He thus succeeded in entering private houses, witnessing domestic and other fêtes, penetrating even into temples ordinarily closed to the stranger, and thus obtained the materials for a picture of the inner life of the people, and in some instances of scenes and features which are so rapidly disappearing before the spirit of progress, which has pervaded even India, that they may probably never be seen again. He writes purely as a narrator; looks upon all that he sees with the eye of sympathy; commends rather than criticises; and though his pictures of Indian life, character, and religion may be somewhat less coldly accurate than if they had been written in a more critical spirit, they are really more truthful, because they represent not merely the outward semblance, but also the inner heart of India and her peoples. In Old New York from the Battery to Bloomingdale (G. P. Putnam's Sons) Mrs. GREATOREX and M. DESPARD conduct the reader the entire length of Manhattan Island, for the purpose of showing him, not the prosaic pride of its present, but the picturesque beauties of its past. letterpress in such a work as this is no small test of the literary capacity of the writer, and M. Despard fulfills his difficult task well. His descriptions are simple; historic sketches are The woven very naturally into his pages; and he is at once content to fill a second place, and not indifferent or careless because it is subordinate; for the real value and attractiveness of this work depend upon the illustrations. In Part I., which lies before us-the work is to be completed in ten parts-there are six full-page pictures, etchings by H. Thatcher from pen drawings by Mrs. Greatorex. She is a true artist, and proves herself to have the soul of art by her rare appreciation of beauty in very common and even uninteresting objects. The view looking up the lower end of Broadway, through the leafy arch of the trees of the Battery, is a genuine picture; so is the tumble-down old rookery which she tells us is the old Jersey ferry-house. Of all the myriads who daily pass and repass St. Paul's, we doubt whether a score ever recognize the quiet placid beauty of the old church-yard, which Mrs. Greatorex has not only seen and felt, but so interpreted as to make others, far less royally endowed, recognize also. In execution the work is not altogether satisfactory. A certain vigorous roughness enters into and forms part of the charm of etchings; but these are foggy and ill defined, at least in some notable cases, lacking that vigor and clearness of contour and color which so remarkably characterize the best specimens of Hamerton's analogous work. Stronger lines and fewer of them would produce a better effect, and correct the dimness and irresolution which are the chief, if not the sole, faults of these otherwise admirable designs. We all recognize in the bird an element of romance. Its flight is the very poetry of motion. Its wing beats are rhythmical. But it requires genius to discover and disclose to others, as JULES MICHELET has done in his last book, The Insect (Thomas Nelson and Sons), the same poetry, romance, divinity, which he so successfully interpreted in his pen pictures of the bird and the mountains. If we desired to inspire in any one a love of science, we would commend to him one of these volumes of Jules Michelet. He imparts all the attributes of soul to these little creatures. He writes of them less in the spirit of a modern scientist than in that of a Hebrew prophet and poet. He transforms even the spider, and awakens at once our pity for his misanthropical loneliness and our respect for his patient industry. This poetic, sympathetic, spiritual character of his observations and descriptions is indicated by some of his titles-"Compassion;" "The Orphan: its Feebleness;""The Home and Loves of the Spider." His general divisions are threefold-Metamorphosis; Mission and Arts of the Insect; Communities of Insects. His material is his own personal and painstaking observations of their habits and methods. Sometimes, perhaps, his imagination perceives what the unaided eye could not see. Sometimes his deductions are those of a poet rather than of a purely scientific scholar. But he sees much of the true life of this insect world which men generally do not see; and what some will perhaps call imagination would be more justly entitled insight. There are few men who would feel remorse for having killed a bee that had invaded their sleeping-room, and still fewer who would have watched the stunned intruder with pitying eyes till he recovered his consciousness, came back to life, and sprang away at a bound. There are few, therefore, that would have detected the calcula- which deserve pointing out and correcting; and ting cunning of the bee. There is a special ad- that all circumstances of life, however trivial they vantage in the insect world as a theme of study, may appear, may possess those alternations of in that it requires no instruments but eyes, and the conic and pathetic, the good and bad, the no preparation but patience. Light a lamp on | joyful and sorrowful, upon which walk the days a summer evening in the country, open the win- and nights, the summers and winters, the lives dow, and in twenty minutes your table will be and deaths, of this strange world." This is incovered with the material for your investigations. deed "the truth of things," and this divine truth Then watch. Read Michelet's The Insect first; would suffice to impart the flavor of genuine poin it are abundant suggestions of points for your etry to these simple legends even if there were study. You will be astonished, if you pursue not, as there are, marked literary excellences, your investigations in his spirit, to find how much especially a notably smooth poetic form, and very there is of poetry, and how much of real mental considerable vigor in character drawing. But the and moral life, in the bugs that have hitherto peculiar charm, the characteristic magnetism, aroused only your repugnance or your fear. The of the book is in the broad human sympathies 140 illustrations by Giacomelli are exquisite-which pervade its pages. The illustrations are only inferior to those of The Bird because the characterized by vigor both of conception and extheme is less capable of artistic variety and beauty. The same artist illustrates Mrs. TRIMMER'S History of the Robins (Thomas Nelson and Sons). The same study of nature is apparent in the great variety of pictures, in all of which birds, in most of which robins, are almost the sole figures. The book itself, under guise of a story, conveys to children, for whom it is especially written, valuable information respecting the nature and habits, the life, food, and dangers, of our common garden birds, and, what is perhaps more important, can not fail to awaken the hearty sympathy of youthful readers for the feathered tribe. The boy that reads this book will never rob a nest, or stone a robin, or use one as a mark for his shotgun, unless he is a confirmed and irredeemable burglar and assassin-of birds. ecution. Mabel Martin, by J. G. WHITTIER (J. R. Osgood and Co.), is substantially a reproduction of the "Witch's Daughter," published some years ago in Home Ballads. It now appears in an illustrated edition, with designs by Mary A. Hallock, J. J. Harley, A. R. Waud, and T. Moran, engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The song is a quiet song, and the singer a sweet but calm singer, whose story is a simple one of bitter sorrow cured by love. The artists have in this respect caught the spirit of the book, and the pictures are quiet in tone, as befits the theme and the poet. It is characteristic of Whittier to give, as a portrait of the witch, one "who turned, in Salem's jail, Her worn old Bible o'er and o'er When her dim eyes could read no more." The Dresden Gallery (George Routledge and And it is characteristic, perhaps equally characSons) ranks among the finest illustrated books teristic, of Mary Hallock to give a picture of of the season. It contains fifty examples of the the old woman to whom your heart instantly old masters, selected from the famous Dresden warms. The conventional old hag is neither'in Gallery, reproduced by photography, which the picture nor in poem. Even in the representation title-page entitles "permanent," as a guarantee of her execution the stern spirit of the Puritans against fading. Titian, Correggio, Holbein, Paul has been caught and preserved by an illustration Veronese, Rubens, Vandyck, and Rembrandt are which does not lack strength, yet does not posamong the artists represented. The selection em-sess a single hideous feature or figure. The volbodies a large variety of theme and treatment, as well as of schools and of individual artists. Tragedy, comedy, peace, war, repose, action, sacred and domestic scenes, are intermingled. MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER'S Proverbial PhiEach picture is accompanied with a very brief losophy (James Miller) is one of those books condescription, and a paragraph respecting the artist, cerning which the popular verdict and the criticwhich gives, however, little more than his birth al verdict are directly opposed. The critics all and death and school of art. Something more laugh at it, the people will read it. This edition of biographical and critical matter would have is accompanied with sixteen full-page illustraenhanced the value of the work for the great tions, mezzotint. We judge that they have been body of readers. As it stands, it is a fine col-adapted to the text, not drawn for it, and they lection of photographic reproductions of remark- are decidedly old-fashioned in style, as perhaps able works by remarkable artists. Farm Legends, by WILL CARLETON (Harper and Brothers), does not rival in humor or pathos its predecessor and companion volume, Farm Ballads, by the same author. It is the law of literature that the cream always rises to the top, and the first skimming is the best. But, comparisons forgotten, the reader's heart will warm to the writer on the perusal of the preface, and it certainly will not be chilled by reading the poems which follow. "In this book the author has aimed to give expression to the truth that with every person, even if humble or debased, there may be some good worth lifting up and saving; that in each human being, thongh revered and seemingly immaculate, are some faults ume is worthy to compare with Longfellow's Hanging of the Crane, of last year, which in size and general structure it resembles. befits a very old-fashioned poem. Both in a literary and an art point of view the work recalls the Christmas books of thirty or forty years ago. |—A companion to it is Half Hours with the Poets (James Miller). The book is a new edition of what is a deserved favorite. The illustrations, which are steel, belong to a school now gone by, but the plates are in a good condition, and the impression clear and distinct. -Bishop Heber's Poetical Works (James Miller) will never grow old. Mr. Miller's red-line edition is neatly printed, and contains a few steel page illustrations, which are hardly worthy the poet's numbers. "The Mountain of the Lovers" (E. J. Hale and Son) is the first and the largest poem in a new volume by PAUL H. HAYNE. It is founded on | travelers are ordinarily served with there. The an old legend of the miscalled chivalric age, so introduction contains a biographical sketch of the poet tells us, though to us the legend is new. Goldsmith. The poems chosen are "The TravThe tragic end is unexpected and disappointing. eller," "The Deserted Village," and "RetaliaLove so heroic, so self-restrained, so masterful, tion." The notes, which are literary and critshould have proved more than a match for blind ical, are wisely placed in an appendix. The malignant passion. But for that the old chron- volume is fully illustrated. icler, not the new, is responsible. "The Venge- Dr. J. P. NEWMAN'S Thrones and Palaces of ance of the Goddess Diana" is also an ancient Babylon and Nineveh (Harper and Brothers) is legend in verse; the rest of the pieces in the a fascinating book of travels, and fully and finebook are short poems. Mr. Hayne is familiarly illustrated. Though in part it carries us to to most American readers as one of our most scenes which previous writers have made familpopular verse writers. His imagination sees iar, yet parts of the course are rarely traveled by clearly, and his descriptions, especially of exter- American tourists. There is abundant opportunal scenery and circumstance, are pictorial-as nity for romance, and Dr. Newman loses no such the perilous ascent of the doomed lovers; his opportunity. He spices his narratives with that fancy is chaste, and his ornamentation refined exaggeration of coloring which characterizes alrather than profuse; but the quality which im- most invariably the most entertaining story-tellpresses us as predominant in his verse, perhaps er, but without awakening any suspicion of his because of the contrast to most of modern liter-integrity as a historian. He infuses into his narature, especially that written for our papers and periodicals, is its perfect finish. Every word is well chosen and well placed. The verbal perfection of his verse belongs to the school of which Moore and Byron were exemplars. rative a strong and, on the whole, healthful feeling. His simple faith is quite charming; sometimes it approximates the amusing. It is well enough, perhaps, to chant from Paradise Lost in the full assurance that he is standing in the identical Garden of Eden, pardonable to build a poetic sentiment for the dust of Ezra, at his traditional tomb, on very slender rabbinical authority, and even allowable to glory in the sacred ruins of the tower of Babel, small as is the ground for identifying the ruins of the temple of Belus with that probably long-since demolished structure. But there are points beyond which credulity ceases to be a virtue; and when he suggests that there may have been a foundation in fact for the Arabian Nights, hints at a historical Sindbad the Sailor, and discovers in a supreme moment of wonderful excitement "the lion's den into which Daniel was thrown"-" a depression four feet deep," and identified beyond doubt by the fact that it contains "a lion of dark gray granite, ten feet long and as many high, standing over a man with outstretched arms"-the reader does not need to know that the lion was a common emblem of Babylonish power in order to read with amused incredulity the account of our traveler's emotions. Dr. Newman pursued an unusual course, starting from Bombay, sailing up the Persian Gulf, thence up the Tigris to Bagdad, and thence traversing Mesopotamia and Northern Syria, ending his journey at Iskenderoon, not far from the ancient Tarsus, in Cilicia. A more entertaining book of travel through this region we have never read; but it is entertaining because its author is not critical, and we do not advise our readers to accept too unquestioningly his surmises as to traditional sites of sacred The Sunlight of Song (George Routledge and Sons) is a collection of sacred and moral poems, with original music and illustrations. We have no opportunity-so late do we receive the book to try its music; but among the composers we observe some of the best modern English ballad writers. The songs are nearly, if not quite, all religious in their character, and a great improvement on the sentimental productions with which the piano is too often profaned. The illustrations are fine; some of them are exquisite. The whole book is an inspiration, especially to the family which closes the Sabbath with a service of home song-and what close could be better? -The Shepherd Lady, and other Poems, by JEAN INGELOW (Roberts Brothers), is a very attractive volume. It is printed on thick paper, with wide margin and red line. The illustrations are designed by Arthur Hughes, Mary A. Hallock, G. Perkins, J. A. Mitchell, W. L. Sheppard, F. O. C. Darley, and Sol Eytinge. There is considerable difference in the value of these illustrations, and in some instances the engraver has done the artist scant justice, but in its entirety the book is a worthy testimonial to the poet. The portrait is fine, and the face is one to make a fine portrait.-Famous Painters and Paintings, by Mrs. JULIA A. SHEDD (J. R. Osgood and Co.), is practically a biographical dictionary of famous artists. It is arranged in chronological order, so that the reader may trace the rise and progress of art, but a classified index at the end gives the means of pursuing inquiries respect-places. ing any artist. The articles are very brief-too brief, indeed a smaller type, less white paper, and more matter would have made a more useful book. The eighteen illustrations-reproductions by the heliotype process-of remarkable works by a few of the more famous artists greatly enhance the value of the present edition. Professor W. J. ROLFE, whose edition of the Merchant of Venice, etc., was so admirably prepared, sends out a small companion volume, Select Poems of Oliver Goldsmith (Harper and Brothers). The form is very convenient-the book can be slipped into an overcoat pocketand is better reading in the cars than such as Family Records (Henry Hoyt) is a book for mothers and maiden aunts. It contains, besides pages for journalizing, one for each member of the family, with a blank for every important act in his life, from getting his first tooth to his marriage and his first child.--Story of the Hymns, by HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH (American Tract Society), is partly poetical, partly biographical, partly bibliographical. It is an account of the origin of hymns of personal religious experience, the value of which is often very considerably enhanced by a knowledge of their genesis. Mr. Butterworth is an enthusiast in this department of hymnology, and his book gives abundant evi dence of being written con amore.—Church Dec- | the real charm of the book is in its true poetic oration (E. P. Dutton and Co.) is peculiarly spirit and its beautiful though subtle teaching appropriate to Christmas. It gives practical of Christian goodness.-The Mysterious Island directions-first a very good list, with brief de- dropped from the Clouds (Scribner) is another scriptions, of the principal emblems and their of JULES VERNE's impossible and popular stomeanings, including the flowers for the different ries. The illustrations are striking in compofeast days, and then practical instructions how sition but imperfect in execution.-The Big to trim and decorate the church. Much of the Brother, by GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON (Putbook will be equally useful in home decorations. nam), is a romantic story of wild adventure in -John Todd: the Story of his Life (Harper and Alabama and Mississippi during the Indian wars Brothers) is "told mainly by himself." Though of 1813. It is harmlessly sensational.--The Dr. Todd never kept a journal, his letters and Realm of the Ice King (Putnam) is an English published writings had so much of his own per- reprint, giving, for the benefit of the children, sonal experience in them that his son, the editor with fair illustrations and an excellent map, an of this volume, has found it practicable to weave account of the various explorations in the arctic from these materials a story practically autobio-zone, from those of the Norsemen to the present graphical. He has done his work well. The day. It is a book to be cordially commended story, though a quiet and in some respects a to the boys, who will not think adventures the humble one, is well worth the telling.-Travels less interesting because they are real.-Ada and in Portugal, by JOHN LATOUCHE (G. P. Put- Gerty (American Tract Society) and Fred and nam's Sons), is artistically attractive. The il- Jennie (Carters) are two stories for girls in their Instrations are photographs, apparently from In- early teens. They are decidedly religious in dia-ink sketches, and are wonderfully soft and their character.-For the same class of readers beautiful. The ground is not much traveled: are two series, "Miss Ashton's Girls," by J. H. why not as much as Spain it would be difficult MATTHEWS (Carters), and the “Say and Do Seto say. The author's accounts of the people are ries," by Miss WARNER (Carters). Both are demore satisfactory than his descriptions of the cidedly religious in their purpose, the former scenery. The former he judges at once intelli- teaching by the characters and incidents of the gently and sympathetically, the latter he appre- stories, and the latter by the more direct means ciates better than he describes. But despite of conversation and precept.-We are glad to some obvious literary defects, chiefly, perhaps, read another volume from KATHARINE WILLgrowing out of the fact that he took no notes and IAMS. How Tiptoe Grew (American Tract Sowrote wholly from memory, his book is decided- ciety) is as good as the original Tiptoe, which is ly more interesting and instructive than the av- high praise.—Proud Little Dody (American Tract erage volume of European travel.-The "Little Society) is by a well-known and deservedly faClassics" (Osgood) and "The Bric-a-Brac Series" vorite authoress, SARAH E. CHESTER. Dody is (Scribner) we have hitherto referred to in notices a companionable little girl, notwithstanding her of individual volumes. For busy men and tired pride.-A Story-Book for the Children (Osgood) women the first series will give in entertaining is a collection of sixteen short stories by Mrs. form a very fair knowledge of some of the chefs- DIAZ. The illustrations greatly vary in their d'œuvre of the best writers, English and Ameri- merit.-Mice at Play, by NEIL FOREST (Robcan, especially of fiction; the latter, in an anec-erts), is a story of very genuine children, whose dotal way, gives similar information concerning capers keep their seniors in perpetual perplexity. the lives of English littérateurs. Either set makes This story and Jolly Good Times, by P. THORNE an attractive and useful addition to the home li- (Roberts), are decidedly entertaining reading; brary. The same may be said of J. S. C. AB- but how would it be if our real children copied BOTT's series of "American Pioneers and Patri- the pranks?-Miss ALCOTT's Eight Cousins; or, ots" (Dodd and Mead), the last volume of which the Ant-Hill, is better reading for the aunts than is Columbus. This series promises to do for the cousins. Excessive reverence for their elders American history something the same service is not one of the faults of modern juveniles.that has been so well done for English and Nine Little Goshings, by SUSAN COOLEDGE (RobFrench history by the Abbott "Red Histories." erts), are short stories, the plots for which are The great pile of children's books before us suggested by certain of Mother Goose's meloadmonishes to exceeding brevity; but this Liter- dies. Both in the plan and in its execution Miss ary Recorder can not wholly omit the children at Cooledge has exhibited the same kind of ingethe Christmas season. Among their distinctive- nuity which made The New-Year's Bargain so ly illustrated books especially notable are Splen- unique.-James Miller seems to have a mission did Times, by M. E. SANGSTER (American Tract to rescue from oblivion books too good to perish. Society), adapted to the younger children, spright- Robin Hood and his Merry Men, CAROVE's Story ly, and with those inimitable character portraits without an End, ANDERSEN's Dream of Little which only German art can produce; Frisk and Tuk, and GRIMM's Fairy Tales are children's his Flock, by Mrs. D. P. SANDFORD (E. P. Dut- classics.-Somewhat of a soberer type than our ton and Co.), who is to be congratulated on the average American children's books, and more literary skill with which she has adapted her after the model of Miss Edgeworth's stories, are story to the illustrations, which are of English three series published by Porter and Coates: the origin; Doings of the Bodley Family in Town "Willow Vale Library" and the "Magnolia Liand Country (Hurd and Houghton), by the au-brary," by Mrs. HoFLAND, and the "Leila Sethor of Stories from my Attic-a decidedly unique ries," for older children, by ANN FRASER TYTLER. combination of prose and poetry, fact and fan- From George Routledge and Sons we receive cy, old and new pictures; the cover is odd and ingenious; the silhouettes on the inside of the cover and fly-leaves are curiosity-provoking; but a number of attractive illustrated books for the children, characteristically English in both art and literary contents; more sober but also first rank in children's literature.-The Young Ladies' Book is a very useful manual of amusements, exercises, studies, and pursuits. Its object is to teach young ladies something to do, both in useful employment and in recreation; it begins with nursing the sick, it ends with directions for a picnic.-Another book very full of useful information is Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century, by ROBERT ROUTLEDGE. It is almost a cyclopedia of inventions, more healthful than much of our modern American child literature. For very little folks are the Blue-beard Picture Book, with thirty-two pages of unique colored pictures; Buttercups and Daisies, a volume of rhymes and picturesthe former not embodying any remarkable poetic merit, the latter decidedly bright and pretty; Happy Child Life, with real sparkle in the rhymes, and with colored pictures very attractive. OSCAR PLETSCH has a remarkable genius for portraying children and child life.—The Golden | contains over 300 illustrations, and covers a wide Harp Album, Little Wide-Awake, and Every Boy's Annual are collections of prose, poetry, and pictures, rather too miscellaneous to take scope. It gives more credit to American inventors than many of the foreign works on kindred subjects are accustomed to do. Editor's Scientific Record. SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. UR Astronomical record for October begins of 149, discovered on the 6th inst. by Perrotin at Toulouse, and No. 150, discovered on the 18th by Watson at Ann Arbor. In the mathematical department of astronomy we should not fail to note the memoir by G. W. Hill, of Nyack, on the development of the perturbative function in periodic series. Mr. Hill occupies himself with that method of developing the perturbative function in which all the elements are left indeterminate, whereby a literal development is obtained possessing as much generality as possible. This method has been invested with additional interest, he states, on account of certain investigations arising from Jacobi's treatment of dynamical equations, and Delaunay's method in the lunar theory. The Analyst, the pages of which are enriched by Mr. Hill's memoir, is a journal devoted to pure and applied mathematics, edited by J. E. Hendricks, of Des Moines, Iowa. This is the only purely mathematical journal at present sustained in America, and it is believed that it is doing a good work in encouraging the study among us of that which lies at the foundation of all progress in the physical sciences. In publishing some observations on the planets as made at the observatory at Paris, Leverrier states that the observations of Mercury are represented by the tables of the movements of that planet with very great precision; but in the construction of these tables it has been necessary to assume that the perihelion of Mercury's orbit moves in such a manner as corresponds to the existence of one or more intramercurial planets. These planets, as is well known, have never yet been satisfactorily observed, nor is it known whether they are of the nature of asteroids or meteoric dust, nor whether, perhaps, the zodiacal light and the solar corona may not contain sufficient material to cause by their attractions the movements observed in Mercury. Secchi contributes to the Paris Academy of Sciences the full details of his observations of the solar protuberances and spots since April, 1871. This period covers fifty-five rotations of the sun around its axis. Professor Heis has published the complete details of his observations of the zodiacal light. These observations extend from the year 1817 to 1875, and their complete publication constitutes a very important contribution toward the ture and the cosmic relations of the phenomenon. A large number of the best modern observers of the zodiacal light have been stimulated to their exertions by Professor Heis's interest in the work. Among these we note Weber, whose observations have been made at Peckelot, about twenty miles east of Münster; Goldschmidt, whose observations were made in Paris; Tromholdt, in Denmark; Groneman, in Groningen; Eylert, whose observations were made during an ocean voyage from Hamburg to Buenos Ayres. The observations made by Schmidt, Jones, Neumayer, Serpieri, and others are also made use of by Heis; and, according to the careful comparison of modern and ancient observations, it would appear that there is reason to suspect little or no change in the general features of the zodiacal light during the past two hundred years. Progress is reported in the construction of the new physical observatories being erected, the one at Paris, under Janssen, and the other at Potsdam, under Sporer, Vogel, and others. A school of practical astronomy has been established by Mouchez at Montsouris. It will be open to all who have any desire to study astronomy. Special attention will be given to spectral analysis and celestial photography. In Meteorology, we take pleasure in calling the attention of both theorists and observers to the methods adopted at the observatory at Montsouris for studying what is there called the physics of the atmosphere, by which, however, is more especially meant the study of the role played by the moisture both in its invisible and in its visible state. The complete investigation of this subject is provided for by Marie Davy, the director of the observatory, by the use, first, of a large achromatic with a silvered objective and achromatic ocular, by means of which the brightness of any portion of the sky is determined. Second, a similar apparatus with unsilvered objective for determining the relative brightness of the diffused light of the sky, and the actual brightness of the solar rays; and the same apparatus is employed also for a similar object at night, to determine the transparency of the sky. Third, a modified form of Desain's thermo-electric actinometer, whence an indication as to the total quantity of the vapor of wa |