SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



505 



SCIENTIFIC LITEEATUEE. 



a:sitarctica. 



The great national antarctic expedi- 

 tions of Great Britain and Germany 

 are now on their way to the southern 

 hemisphere, the Discovery having set 

 sail from Cowes on August 6, and the 

 Gauss from Kiel on August 11. Those 

 who wish to follow intelligently the re- 

 sults of the explorations of the next 

 three years will want to know what has 

 been already accomplished, and there 

 are fortunately two books giving the 

 necessary information. A little while 

 since, The Macmillan Company pub- 

 lished in America a translation by Mr. 

 A. Sonnenschein of Dr. Karl Fricker's 

 excellent work on the 'Antarctic 

 Regions.' With true German thorough- 

 ness, he begins with the conjectures of 

 Aristotle and follows the history of 

 discovery to the recent expeditions. 

 The book is elaborately illustrated with 

 maps and photographs. Still more im- 

 portant is the 'Antarctic Manual' pre- 

 pared for the use of the British ex- 

 pedition. Under the auspices of the 

 Royal Geographical Society and 

 through the initiative of Sir Clements 

 Markham, Dr. George Murray, the 

 director of the civilian scientific staff, 

 has compiled a volume of 600 pages, 

 giving information likely to be of use 

 in the conduct of the expedition. The 

 contributors are the most eminent Brit- 

 ish men of science. Lord Kelvin 

 writes on atmospheric electricity and 

 Professor Schuster on the aurora; Pro- 

 fessor Darwin on tidal observations 

 and Professor Glazebrook on the 

 pendulum. The contributors on the 

 natural sciences include Professors Bon- 



ney and Gregory, and Messrs. Lydek- 

 ker, Boulenger, Fletcher and Murray. 

 Then a number of older articles are re- 

 printed, the 'Narrative' of Charles 

 Wilkes, the 'Journal' of Dumont 

 d'Urville, etc. The work has been pre- 

 pared for the officers of the expedition, 

 but a limited edition will be sold to 

 the public through Mr. John Murray. 



INVENTIONS. 

 'Twentieth Century Inventions; 

 A Forecast,' by George Sunderland 

 (Longmans, Green & Company) is a 

 readable, sober and profitable book 

 which is entirely free from the exag- 

 gerations which mark most efforts in 

 this direction. The author takes the 

 ground that the germs of future inven- 

 tions are already formed and that 

 future progress is but the evolution of 

 present tendencies. Thus he develops 

 a new form of steam engine from the 

 principles of the construction of the 

 aneroid barometer, a new form of 

 railroad from the rope cableway, and 

 a new method of typesetting from the 

 linotype machine. It is a curious fact 

 that some of his proposed methods 

 have not only been invented, but 

 actually used in this country; for in- 

 stance, the inclined movable staircase, 

 electric motors for house elevators, 

 electric heating, and the generation of 

 power by wave action have already 

 been shown to be possible if not fea- 

 sible economically. The author is sound 

 in his general ideas of evolution, but it 

 may be possible that the century will 

 witness inventions which he and we 

 cannot imagine. 



