LITERARY NOTICES. 



701 



of four principal parts, in the first of which 

 'the author considers the sources of elec- 

 tricity hydro- and thermo-electric batteries 

 and machines and also various apparatus 

 for transforming currents, under which 

 heading he places accumulators or second- 

 ary batteries. The second part is devoted 

 to electric lamps regulators, candles, and 

 those producing light by incandescence. In 

 the third division the subject of telephones 

 and microphones is taken up, and all the 

 later forms of these pieces of apparatus are 

 described. In the fourth and final part 

 there are considered various applications of 

 electricity, such as devices for indicating 

 fire-damp in coal-mines, fire-alai*ms, etc., the 

 electrical transmissional power, electro-mo- 

 tors, and electric distribution. 



"While the book will be found in many 

 respects an excellent popular resume of the 

 subject, it is not without defects, and lacks 

 the completeness which a work of this char- 

 acter should at the present time possess. 

 The daily as well as the technical press has 

 familiarized most persons interested in the 

 subject with the various types of lamps 

 which have so far been developed, and the 

 questions of interest now are mainly those 

 of cost and the conditions upon which elec- 

 tric lighting in general depends. Much of 

 the description of different forms of lamps 

 of the same class might, therefore, have been 

 dispensed with such, for instance, as the 

 various forms of candles and the lamps of 

 imperfect contact, neither of which promise 

 to have much of a future before them and 

 been given with advantage to incandescent 

 lamps employing a carbon filament. The 

 treatment of this class of lamps is, to say 

 the least, meager, and that of the workers 

 in this field far from satisfactory. One 

 would hardly get a correct idea of the rela- 

 tion of Mr. Edison's work to the present 

 successful results by the author's presenta- 

 tion of it. The treatment of the problem 

 of distribution is hardly as full and com- 

 plete as might be desired, or the work of 

 M. Marcel Deprez in this direction as clear 

 and as full as it should be. The work on 

 the whole is, however, a very readable one, 

 and will give those unacquainted with the 

 recent advances in the industrial applications 

 of electricity a fairly good idea of what has 

 been so far accomplished. 



An Etymological Dictionary of the Eng- 

 lish Language. By the Rev. Walter 

 W. Skeat, M. A., of the University of 

 Cambridge. New York : Macmillan & 

 Co. Pp. 799. Price, $2.50. 



This work may be regarded as in certain 

 senses a pioneer in the field of literature 

 to which it relates. The aim of the author 

 has been to furnish students with materials 

 for a more scientific study of English ety- 

 mology than is commonly to be found in 

 previous works on the subject. The older 

 dictionaries were rich in quotations illustra- 

 tive of the words they defined, but their ety- 

 mologies were defective and of the crudest 

 kind, being in most cases thoroughly un- 

 scientific guess-work, and most likely wrong. 

 In many instances, Mr. Skeat says, he has 

 found evidence that the dictionary-makers 

 manufactured words for the express pur- 

 pose of deriving others from them. The 

 earlier editions of "Webster's " Dictionary " 

 gave the corresponding words and the one 

 under consideration from a great number of 

 languages, without any discrimination based 

 upon the possibility of their having or not 

 having a real relation with the English 

 word. Such comparison was, perhaps, in- 

 teresting as a curiosity, but was confusing 

 to etymological students, and could give no 

 clew to the derivation of the word. Better 

 work has been done in the later editions of 

 "Webster, in which Dr. Mahn's etymologies 

 deserve and receive commendation ; but the 

 plan of the work, says Mr. Skeat, " does 

 not allow of much explanation of a purely 

 philological character." In preparing his 

 work the author has been guided by certain 

 canons, a few of which, such as commend 

 themselves to the general reader, are : Be- 

 fore attempting an etymology, ascertain the 

 earliest form and use of the word, and ob- 

 serve chronology, observe history and ge- 

 ography, observe phonetic laws. The whole 

 of a word, and not a portion only, ought to 

 be reasonably accounted for; mere resem- 

 blance of form, and apparent connection in 

 sense between languages which have differ- 

 ent phonetic laws, or no necessary connec- 

 tion, are commonly a delusion, and are not 

 to be regarded ; and it is useless to offer an 

 explanation of an English word which will 

 not also explain all the cognate forms. The 

 attempt is made to give the exact history of 



