3842 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Tuer THErory OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY, with special reference 
to the introduction of system in the record of modern literature. By Frank Camp- 
bell. 8vo, pp. xvi. and 500. London: Library Bureau, 1896. 
THE main object of the present work is to demonstrate and enforce 
the responsibility of the government of each nation in the matter of 
cataloguing the literature published within its boundaries. As the 
author points out, it is impossible for any other body to do this work 
thoroughly and economically, because no other can bring pressure to 
bear upon the publishers. There is also this further reason for urging 
upon governments to discharge this obvious duty, that it is just in the 
department of State papers that the greatest confusion reigns and the 
labours of the bibliographer are most difficult. Witness Mr Camp- 
bell’s imaginary, but most lifelike, conversation between a librarian 
and a reader in some large public library. 
This main theme is treated in a series of papers which have for 
the most part been read before the Library Association and other 
bodies, and published in their journals, and in addition there are 
essays upon various collateral topics, such as “the influence and 
functions of the learned societies in regard to bibliography ”—a 
chapter which we wish their councils would all “read, mark, learn 
and inwardly digest.” 
Mr Campbell's book is eminently suggestive, and his schemes if 
carried out would reduce confusion to something approaching order. 
With the form of his work we are not so satisfied ; the plan he has 
adopted of reprinting essays leads to much repetition, and he often 
sins against his own ‘ theories of compilation ;’ but as he explains in 
the preface that illness prevented him from carrying out all his inten- 
tions, it would be ungenerous to dwell upon these defects, which are 
small in comparison with the solid value of the book. 
FLIGHT AND FLYING MACHINES 
Tur AERONAUTICAL ANNUAL FoR 1897. Edited by James Means. 8vo, pp. 178, 
pls. xviii, London: W. Wesley & Son, 1897. Price 5s. 
Tue “ Aeronautical Annual” for 1897 contains much that is valuable 
and interesting, since the contributors are nearly all of them men 
who are actively engaged in solving the great problem how flight may 
be made possible for men. First among these must be mentioned Mr 
Langley, who contributes an account of the experiments which, after 
many disappointments, ended in the manufacture of an aerodrome 
which actually rose in the air and continued rising and advancing for 
about one and a half minutes, after which it alighted rather than fell. 
As in the case of Mr Maxim’s flying machine, screw-propellers driven 
by steam-power were employed. The action of the propellers is to 
drive the machine onward: the spreading wings have a slight upward 
slope, so that the force is resolved, and there is progress not only 
onward but upward. This aerodrome, as compared with Mr Maxim’s, 
had the great advantage of being light, weighing, in fact, only about 
