iv PREFACE. 



not be ignored by a faithful chronicler of the time. Those who are curious as to its 

 history should read not only the article " Christian Science," but that entitled " Meta- 

 physics, American," which also is in this volume. 



v The material and scientific advances are recorded in the regular articles on 

 ''Chemistry," "Metallurgy," "Physics," and "Physiology"; and the reader should 

 look also at the special articles on "Explosives," "Steel Cars," and "Voting 

 Machines," and perhaps at the curious array of information under "Gold Nuggets." 



The notable event of the year in the United States was the presidential election, 

 of which a full account is presented, with the platforms of all the parties that entered 

 into the contest. The usual decennial Federal census was taken in June, and the 

 population figures will be found in the articles on the several States, showing the 

 population of each county. Very few of the other results of the census have been 

 compiled, and therefore they can not be presented in this volume. From this subject 

 we are naturally led to the Australian colonies, which have just federated themselves 

 in a union closely modeled on that of the United States. The story of the federa- 

 tion, which went into effect Jan. 1, 1901, is told at length in " Australasia." 



England has a new monarch, and we give a full -page portrait of him and a brief 

 sketch of his life in the article on his kingdom. And last year England lost one of 

 the most picturesque and original of all her authors and one of the most interesting 

 of men John Raskin, of whom we present an extended biographical sketch, largely 

 in his own words, and a beautiful portrait. Our own country lost one of its ablest 

 statesmen and financiers in John Sherman, and the story of his life is here told by 

 his friend and assistant secretary of the treasury, with a full-page portrait engraved 

 for this work. There are also sketches and portraits of the new Yice-President and 

 the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. 



Among the eminent dead of the year, of whom sketches may be found in this 

 volume, accompanied in some instances by portraits, are the actors Charles H. Hoyt, 

 Edward S. Marble, and Frank Mayo ; the artists William H. Beard, Francis B. Car- 

 penter, Frederick E. Church, Jasper F. Cropsey, Thomas Faed, John S. Sargent, and 

 William L. Sonntag; the authors Richard D. Blackmore, Clarence Cook, Stephen 

 Crane, Archibald Forbes, Lucretia Hale, Richard Hovey, James Martineau, Moses 

 Coit Tyler, and Charles Dudley Warner; the clergymen Cyrus A. Bartol, Thomas 

 K. Beecher, A. J. F. Behrends, Edward McGlynn, Richard S. Storrs, and Richard 

 II. Wilmer; the educators Henry Barnard, Charles F. Dunbar, Sigmund Fritchel, 

 Burke A. Hinsdale, Joseph Jessing, George W. Northrup, Olaf Olsson, and William 

 L. Wilson ; the jurists Cnshman K. Davis, William C. Endicott, and David M. Key ; 

 the naval officers John W. Philip and Montgomery Sicard ; the physicians William 

 A. Hammond, Oliver P. Htibbard, Lewis A. Sayre, Edwin O. Shakespeare, and 

 Alfred Stille; the scientists Frank H. dishing, Thomas Egleston, James E. Keeler, 

 St. George Mivart, and Fairman Rogers ; the soldiers William W. Averell, Zenas R. 

 P.lis>. (Justave P. Cluseret, Jacob D. Cox, Petrus Joubert, Emerson H. Liscum, and 

 John G. Parke; the statesmen Count Benedetti, John A. Bingham, Paul Falk, 

 John J. Ingalls, Edward John Phelps, and the Duke of Argyll ; the capitalists Collis 

 1'. lluntingtoii and Henry Villard ; the journalist Oswald Ottendorfer, the circus 

 performer Dan Rice, the chess player William Steinitz, and King Humbert of Italy. 



The illustrations include two colored plates, four full-page pictures in black and 

 white, and an unusual number in the text. 



The volume closes with an index covering this and the four that preceded it. 



NEW YORK, April 4, 1901. 



