382 Edward Livingston Yomaans : 



the International Scientific Series. This was a favorite 

 sclieme of Mr. Younians. He realized that popular scien- 

 tific books, adapted to the general reader, are apt to be 

 written by third-rate men who do not well understand their 

 subject; they are apt to be dry or siiperficial or both. No 

 one can write so good a popular book as the master of a 

 subject, if he only has a fair gift of expressing himself and 

 keeps in mind the public for which he is writing. The 

 master knows what to tell and Avhat to omit, and can thus 

 tell much in a short compass and still make it interesting ; 

 moreover, he avoids the inaccuracies which are sure to 

 occur in second-hand work. Masters of subjects are apt, 

 however, to be too much occupied with original research to 

 write popular books. It was Mr. Youman's plan to induce 

 the leading men of science in Europe and America to 

 contribute small volumes on their special subjects to a 

 series to be published simultaneously in several countries 

 and languages. Furthermore, by special contract with 

 publishing houses of high reputation, the author was to 

 receive the ordinary royalty on every copy of his book 

 sold in every one of the countries in question, thus antici- 

 pating international copyright upon a very wide scale, and 

 giving the author a miich more adequate compensation for 

 his labor. To put this scheme into operation was a task of 

 great difficulty, so many conflicting interests had to be 

 considered. Mr, Youmans brilliant success is attested by 

 that noble series of more than fifty volumes, on all sorts of 

 scientific subjects, written by men of real eminence, and 

 published in England, France, Italy, Germany, and Kussia, 

 as well as in the United States. 



A word is all that can be spared for other parts of our 

 friend's work, which deserve many words and those care- 

 fully considered. His book on "Household Science" is 

 not the usual collection of scrappy comment, recipe, and 

 apothegm, but a valuable scientific treatise on heat, light, 

 air, and food in their relations to every-day life. In liis 

 "Correlation of Physical Forces" he brings together the 

 epoch-making essays of the men who have successively 

 established that doctrine, introducing tliem with an essay 

 of his own in which its liistory and its philosophical 

 implications are set forth in a masterly manner. In his 

 book on the "(hilture demanded by Modern Life" we have 

 a similar collection of essavs Avith a similar excellent 



