12 AUGUST 1893, Page 24

Astronomy for Every-Day Readers. By B. J. Hopkins. (Philip and

Son.)—This little book is commended by a highly interesting notice of the writer, a self-educated man, who has acquired a large knowledge of the subject on which he writes. At the age of fourteen, he had formed a theory on comets, which Professor Stokes thought worthy of a correspondence. In 1877—he was born. in 1802—Lord Lindsay gave him a telescope, with which he began to observe. In 1882, he sent a paper on the great comet of that year to the Astronomical Society, and in the following year was elected a Fellow. All his work he did under severe conditions of labour, and at one time under the still more trying circumstances- of want of employment. The book will be found a reiulable and useful manual of the subject.