Wilhelm Olbers, sein Leben und seine Werke

Abstract

THE first volume of this work, published in 1894 (NATURE, li. p. 74), contained the collected scientific papers of Olbers; the present one gives the first half (1802–19) of his correspondence with Gauss. These old letters will nearly all be read with great attention by any one interested in the history of astronomy during the early part of this century, as the two correspondents were equally devoted to theoretical and practical astronomy, and discussed new publications and new discoveries in all their bearings. Many readers will perhaps think with the reviewer that here and there some parts of the letters might with advantage have been omitted, and that the editor when leaving out ephemerides of comets and minor planets might have gone further, and have omitted many results of observations, &c., which have been published elsewhere. Wilhelm Olbers, sein Leben und seine Werke. Im Auftrage der Nachkommen herausgegeben von Dr. C. Schilling. Zweiter Band. Briefwechsel zwischen Olbers und Gauss, Erste Abtheilung. Pp. viii + 767. 8vo. (Berlin: Springer, 1900.)