SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 559 



Mr. Gerhard recommends the isolation of the building' so far as practicable, 

 fii-eproof coustruclion, using brick and terra cotta in preference to stone 

 and avoiding exposed ironwork, the use of incandescent electric lights, 

 proper storing of scenery, removal of rubbish, etc. If a fire does start, the 

 building should be so divided as to localize it. The stage should be sepa- 

 rated from the auditorium by a tire wall. The proscenium opening should 

 be fitted with a fire-resisting curtain, closing as nearly as possible hermet- 

 ically. There should be as few other openings in this wall as possible, and 

 all of them kept closed by fire doors. The safety of the spectators and stage 

 people can be best provided for by having adequate exits. All other devices 

 Mr. Gerhard ranks as subordinate. The exits, he says, should be arranged 

 so as to widen as they approach the outside of the building. There should 

 be no stinting of exits for the occupants of the galleries, who have often 

 been suffocated in large numbers by the rising smoke and hot gases of com- 

 bustion. Many other measures for preventing or restricting the damage 

 done by fires are named by Mr. Gerhai^d, and he describes with consider- 

 able detail what he deems the best appliances for putting out theater fires 

 before they have gained much headway. The volume is made up of three 

 papers prepax-ed for difi'erent occasions, hence there are some repetitions in 

 it. This not very serious fault doubtless could have been wholly or largely 

 removed by a moderate amount of editing. A list of books and magazine 

 articles on theater construction and protection is appended. Every theater- 

 goer should read the volume, so that he may know when he is in a safe 

 house, and should never again allow the most seductive bill to tempt him 

 into a death-trap. 



It is a strong presumptive recommendation of Mr. Parri/s Evolution of 

 the Art of Music* that it was nine years in preparation. The examination 

 of the book reveals throughout evidences of the thorough study and care- 

 ful work implied by that term of years, and of efi'ort to go to the bottom of 

 the subject. The author seems to have found a firm basis for his deductions, 

 and expresses them clearly and distinctly, without any of the hazy uncertain- 

 ty and vague indefiniteness that mark the majority of attempts to analyze 

 music and make them far from satisfactory. The origin of music is found 

 in natural or spontaneous vocal expressions of feeling and sensibility, such 

 as are common to all sentient beings. Man has developed and extended 

 them and formulated them according to his stage of culture, and the purpose 

 in this book is to point out how and by what steps he has done this and 

 brought musical expression to its present high condition. These utterances 

 pass within the range of art when they take any definite form, just as 

 speech begins when vague signals of sound give place to words. When 

 these musical figures become definite enough to be remembered, scales are 

 formed, or series of notes which stand in some recognizable relation to one 

 another in respect of pitch. The connection of music, or vocal, with danc- 

 ing or muscular expression of feeling gives rise to rhythm, and we have 

 all the elements of the art. The scales, ancient and modern, and of various 

 races, are described and analyzed. A step higher than the primitive frag- 

 ments of tune and rhythm of savage music the fij-st stages of musical 

 development is folk music, in which an appearance of orderliness and 



* The Evolution of the Art of Music. By C. Hubert Parry. New York : D. Appleton & Co. (In- 

 ternational Scientific Series.) Pp. 3i2. Price, 81.75. 



