PREFACE. 



THE present volume has a peculiar interest in that it records the history of 

 the closing year of the greatest of all the centuries the century of steam, elec- 

 tricity, photography, and anaesthetics ; of railways and telegraphs, sewing machines, 

 typewriters, telephones, phonographs, armored ships, and smokeless powder. Many 

 readers, on opening the volume, will naturally turn first to the article entitled " Nine- 

 teenth Century, Important Events of the," where they will find a rapid chronological 

 survey, showing not, indeed, everything that has happened since the death of 

 George Washington, but the principal significant and suggestive events. And this 

 is supplemented by a review of the events of Queen Victoria's long reign, which 

 closed with the century. 



Among the beneficent advances of the closing years of the century none is more 

 worthy of note than the now widespread practice in the care of the sick of sup- 

 plementing the skill of the physician with the skill of a specially educated nurse. 

 This subject is treated fully in the present volume under the title "Nurses, Trained." 

 And a similar interest attaches to the growing habit of giving liberally for the endow- 

 ment of charitable, religious, and educational institutions. What was done in this 

 way in 1900 may be seen by a glance at the article " Gifts and Bequests." Another 

 advance of recent years is set forth in " Yisual Instruction," a subject here presented 

 in cyclopaedic form for the first time. The greatest examples of visual instruction 

 are afforded by the world's fairs, now so common that not many years pass without 

 one. The beautiful exposition held in Paris in 1900 is here described, with illus- 

 trations. 



At the same time, instruction by alphabetical means has progressed at its usual 

 pace, and we present an interesting article on the public libraries of the United 

 States, written by a veteran in the service, which is full of significant statistics, and 

 is illustrated with portraits of some of our most eminent librarians. Our circulating 

 libraries still show a preponderance of fiction, though the proportion of this to more 

 solid reading is steadily decreasing ; and in the book world the past year has been 

 marked by phenomenal sales of half a dozen novels. This curious occurrence is dis- 

 cussed by an able critic under the title " Fiction, American." There is also a devel- 

 opment of education which is attained by reaching backward through the centuries 

 and reading the monuments of vanished races. Those who take an interest in this 

 will look at our regular article on " Archaeology " and also at the special article on 

 the " Congress of Christian Archaeology." 



The regular articles on the great religious denominations, showing their growth 

 and work in the year, are full as usual, and to them is now added the new one 

 on "Christian Science." Whatever any one may think of this manifestation, its 

 believers and supporters are now so numerous and so definitely organized that it can 



