1894 THE MICROSCOPE. 79 



ton, and all the works of Francis Bacon into a political history 

 of the times of Queen Elizabeth and that this volume now pub- 

 lished is introductory thereto. He claims to do this according 

 to a system called the secret cipher which is concealed in the 

 above-named works, but he does not yet tell us how to work 

 the cipher, so that we are not able to verify any of his work. 

 In the opinion of several prominent literary and scientific men 

 of Washington whom we have consulted, we ought not to place 

 confidence in the cipher stories at present, nor until Dr. Owen 

 has seen fit to allow us to pass judgment upon his methods, or 

 until some one else has given us the workings of the ke3^s. 



This volume opens with "Sir Francis Bacon's Letter to the 

 Decipherer," in Avhich we are told something regarding the con- 

 struction of the cipher but not enough so that any one except 

 Owen has yet done any translating. A writer of this notice has 

 spent some 50 or GO hours in an effort to understand it but 

 without success. 



Our world has accepted much "history" upon the dictum of 

 the historian and may perhaps accept the declaration that 

 Francis Bacon was the son of Elizabeth, wrote all of Shakes- 

 peare, killed Shakespeare, bribed Spencer to father the Fair}" 

 Queers, knew Elizabeth to have been murdered by Robert Cecil, 

 announced the circulation of the blood in 1612, (four year's be- 

 fore Shakespeare died) while Burton made it public in 1619, — 

 the world may accept all this and much more that Owen has in 

 store, but we, as scientists, apply the scientific method which re- 

 quires all discoverers to submit for our repetition all the steps 

 of their processes before w^e assent to their claims. No dark 

 corners for us ! If Owen has confidence in his cipher, why not 

 publish it ? Because he fears some one would use it and j^ub- 

 lish the secret history ahead of him and deprive him of the 

 money to be made thereby. If he confesses to a money motive, 

 the same motive may account for the book before us as an in- 

 vention of Dr. Owen's. I^he 8 years which he says he has 

 largely devoted to Shakespeare ought to have fitted him for such 

 a task. But we intimate no belief; we merely suspend judg- 

 ment until put in possession of the secret methods of the cipher. 



G. W. Rafter, one of our valued contributors, has recently" 

 written a book on Sewage Disposal which has been published 

 by Van Nostrand. We have not 3^et seen a cop}^ 



