PREFACE. 



THE new features introduced in the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA of last year are 

 continued in the present volume, and some novelties will also be found in its 

 pages. The account of the War in Egypt is accompanied by an unusually clear, 

 full-page map, made for this work, and by illustrations of scenes on the Nile. The 

 Franco-Chinese War in Tonquin is recorded, with illustrations, in the article on 

 China. The reader will also naturally turn to the article on Afghanistan, where 

 two great European powers seem likely to come into conflict. The always inter- 

 esting subject of Arctic Exploration is illustrated with a map, and a landscape at 

 the farthest point that has yet been reached by voyagers toward the pole. The 

 engravings on steel this year represent President Cleveland, the King of Italy, 

 and General Gordon, who perished at Khartoum. That of the President is 

 accompanied by a carefully prepared biographical sketch. Among the other por- 

 traits are those of Yice-President Hendricks, Fanny Elssler, Sir Bartle Frere, 

 Henry Fawcett, Arnold Guyot, Charles O' Conor, Wendell Phillips, Arthur 

 Wellesley Peel (the new Speaker of the British House of Commons), Charles 

 Reade, General Stewart, and General Todleben. 



Our Astronomical article is contributed by Prof. Simon Newcomb, of the 

 Washington Observatory; and our articles on Chemistry, Metallurgy, and 

 Physiology, as usual, by Dr. Youmans. The construction and work of the 

 Microscope, not very recently written upon for any cyclopaedia, are here treated 

 fully, and brought down to date, with more than forty illustrations, by Dr. R. H. 

 Ward, one of the best microscopists in the United States. Botany another 

 science not recently treated by cyclopedists is contributed by Prof. Dudley, of 

 Cornell University. The manias for Bicycling, Skating, and Tobogganing are 

 recognized and discussed, with illustrations, by good authorities. The article 

 on the Skate is especially interesting, as it exhibits the development of the 

 instrument from the bone-skates of prehistoric man to the latest improved 

 roller-skates. The Tonic Sol-fa System of Music is set forth by the Presi- 

 dent of the American Association, Prof. Theodore F. Seward ; and the Ocarina, 

 a new and peculiar musical instrument, is described and pictured. The disease- 

 theory of Micro-Organisms is given with its latest developments. The other 

 scientific subjects include Liquefaction of Gases, Cholera, the new disease called 

 Miryachit, the new anaesthetic Cocaine, and what, perhaps, is most immediately 

 important of all Sanitary Science. The last-named article ifl contributed by 



