Obituary Notices of Astronomers. By Edward Dunkin. (Williams and Norgate.)—Mr.
Dunkin, who was Hon. Secretary to the Royal
Astronomical Society from 1871-1877, publishes these notices, which were for the most part written for the annual reports of the Council. They number twenty-four in all, and include some illustrious names, among which we may mention those of the two Herschel, Donati, and Leverrier. Less known to the world in general, but scarcely less honoured by the student of astronomy, are Delaunay, Robert Main, of the Radcliffe Observatory, Von Littrow, and Giovanni Santini, of Padua.
M. Dolaunay was at the Paris Observatory when the Commune reigned in that city. Some curious extracts from his diary during the last days of the siege are given, and display science in a very embarrassing relation with practical life. The soldiers of the Com- mune demanded instruments wherewith to observe the motions of their antagonists, and seem to have been scantily satisfied with the explanation that the telescopes which swept the heavens were not available for that object. The building was a position of military importance, and had a very narrow escape, the insurgents having actually made preparations for burning it, when it was occupied by the attacking army. On Friday, May 26th, M. Delaunay enters in his diary, " L'Observatoire &ant entibroment delivre, je quitte Paris, pour alter voir ma m6re." This eminent man of science was drowned in 1872, by the upsetting of a pleasure-boat at Cherbourg. It is a curi- ous proof of bow science, like all other human affairs, is dependent for its progress on individual genius, that Delaunay's premature death left the practical working out of his" Th6orie do la Lune" a task which there is little prospect of seeing completed. It was hoped, says Mr. Dunkin, whom we thank for his interesting volume, "that the calcula- tions might be found in such a state as to allow another skilled mathe- matician to complete the task, and thus preserve to astronomy the fruit of so long and laborious an undertaking. But all this is now very doubtful. The master-mind, who alone was acquainted with all the details and singularities of the investigation, is no more, and it is be- lieved that difficulties have arisen which may possibly be too groat to overcome."
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