The Sun : its Planets and their Satellites. A Course
of Lecture& upon the Solar System, read in Gresham College, London, 1881-2. By Edmund Ledger. (Stanford.)—Gresham College is generally regarded as an educational Nazareth, from which little good is expected. In the coming reform of the Corporation of London, doubtless, something will be done to carry out the spirit of the will of the liberal founder. Mr. Ledger has done right to address his lectures to a larger audience than is likely to find its way to the Gresham lecture-room ; whatever they may have been in the delivery, they are at least worth reading. He has evidently put himself to much trouble in their preparation, and the result is a readable and trustworthy popular account of the- leading discoveries with reference to the Sun itself, and the planetary system of which it is the centre and sustainer. Mr. Ledger has taken special pains to master all the recent researches by means of the spectroscope, and the summary he gives of the methods and results appears to us trustworthy, up to the latest date, and is cer- tainly interesting. He has brought together a very large number of well-executed illustrations, several of them coloured (showing, among other things, the solar prominences), and many of them photographic. Any reader wishing to pursue the subject farther will find abundant assistance in the numerous references given to standard works in the various departments.
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