LITERARY NOTICES, 



419 



New York). It contains advice on all the 

 subjects usually comprised in a health 

 manual grouped under two heads — the pre- 

 vention of disease and the care of the sick. 

 In the latter department are some directions 

 which the layman is probably not expected 

 to use himself, for, in another place, the 

 author says that " so soon as unmistakable 

 signs of disease are perceived, a physician 

 should be called." The readableness of the 

 volume has been increased by putting into 

 it bits of description and accounts of ways 

 and customs in other countries. 



Mr. Horatio Hale publishes a Manual of 

 the Oregon Trade Language, or Chinook 

 Jargon (London : Whittaker, 3s.), written to 

 form part of a volume of linguistics, the 

 work of several contributors, which is not 

 yet published. The author's first study of 

 the subject was made in 1841, when, as a 

 member of a United States exploring expe- 

 dition, he undertook an account of the eth- 

 nology of the Oregon region. He found the 

 jargon to comprise about two hundred and 

 fifty words ; the number had nearly doubled 

 in 1863, when the dictionary of George Gibbs 

 was published, since which time no material 

 change seems to have been made in the lan- 

 guage. In regard to the present volume, 

 Mr. Hale says, in his prefatory note, " Com- 

 prising, as will be seen, a complete grammar 

 and dictionary, with specimens of colloquial 

 and narrative phrases, songs, hymns, a ser- 

 mon, etc., it is intended to afford a manual 

 for the use of travelers and settlers in the 

 region where it is spoken, as well as an op- 

 portunity for philologists to study the con- 

 struction of a genuine international speech 

 now current, with the best results, among 

 populations in various stages of civilization, 

 speaking more than twenty distinct lan- 

 guages, and diffused over a territory nearly 

 half as large as Europe." 



A new solution to the problem of an in- 

 ternational language is offered by Augustin 

 Knofach in a pamphlet entitled Sound- Eng- 

 lish (New York : Stechert, 25 cents). The au- 

 thor first sets forth the reasons why English 

 is more desirable as an international speech 

 than any artificial language, and asserts 

 that the only obstacle to such use is its ab- 

 surd, illogical spelling. He then illustrates 

 some of the irregularities of English spelling, 



and answers the stock objections to any 

 change in a vigorous and interesting style. 

 In the second part of the pamphlet, Mr. 

 Knoflach presents his method of writing 

 English. It is a phonetic system, the de- 

 ficiencies in our present alphabet being sup- 

 plied by new letters. Long vowels are 

 printed in heavy or full-face type. Besides 

 giving the exact sound of each word, Sound- 

 English also indicates the accent. Syllables 

 containing long vowels are generally accent- 

 ed, so the full-face type is a mark of accent. 

 Where this rule does not apply, a consonant 

 is printed in full-face to mark the accent. 

 All capitals are discarded ; they are not 

 needed at the beginning of sentences, and 

 proper names are distinguished by the con- 

 text, as in spoken language. One advantage 

 claimed for this system is that type-writers 

 can be easily modified to write it, the heavy 

 letters being made by holding the space-bar 

 and striking the key twice. An appendix 

 in dialogue form answers objections to 

 Sound-English. 



A system of metrology designed to su- 

 persede the metric as well as the remaining 

 old systems is set forth by the Hon. Edward 

 Noel, in a book entitled Natural Weights 

 and Measures (London : E. Stanford, 2s. Qd.). 

 Its linear unit is an ell of about twenty-five 

 inches, which is one ten-thousandth of the 

 semi-diameter of the earth — the measure 

 used by astronomers for expressing the im- 

 mense celestial distances. The foot would 

 be half an ell and would contain twelve 

 new inches. All other measures and the 

 weights would be derived from the linear 

 unit, as in the metric system. They would 

 be given the names now used for the old 

 weights and measures. The proposed sys- 

 tem differs from the metric in preferring 

 duodecimal division in linear and weight 

 measure, and binary division in surface and 

 capacity measure. The author finds much 

 to say in favor of the United Kingdom, the 

 United States, and Russia adopting the 

 "natural" system together, and he says it 

 well. By description and in tables he pre- 

 sents the system from every point of view, 

 and makes out a very able plea in its behalf, 

 both on practical and on sentimental grounds. 



Mary Boole, the author of Logic taught 

 by Love (A. Mudge & Son, Printers, Bos- 

 ton), says of her own production; "This 



