564 



NATURE 



[October 15, 189; 



one of the first medical libraries, if not the first, in 

 the world, containing much more medical literature 

 than is to be found in the libraries of the richer English 

 corporations, the Royal Colleges of Physicians and 

 Surgeons, or of the more learned and active Societies, 

 such as the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, or, 

 indeed, in the British Museum or Biblioth^que Nationale. 

 And though the Washington Library is of comparatively 

 recent date, going back only some thirty years, yet it 

 contains a very fine collection of books both of the fif- 

 teenth and sixteenth centuries ; and at the same time the 

 great difficulty of the maker of a catalogue to a modern 

 library, viz. the immense mass of the newspaper and 

 periodical literature of to-day, has been fairly faced and 

 overcome. During the past year, 287 periodicals have 

 been added to the list of those that are taken in, raising 

 the total number to about 7500, of which at least 3900 are 

 current. The vast aggregate of articles in these are duly 

 catalogued, each under the head of its subject-matter. It 

 is not surprising, therefore, that we should find 80 of 

 these large square folio pages filled in the present volume 

 with entries under the heading Phthisis, 78 under Puerperal 

 Diseases, 67 under Pregnancy, and 56 under Pneumonia. 

 Even as devoted entirely to a lesser matter like the pulse, 

 there are catalogued 150 volumes and 350 articles in 

 periodicals. . The care with which the records of the 

 smallest steps in the past history of medicine have been 

 preserved is shown by the accumulation of twenty-five 

 editions of the "Pharmacopoeia" of the Royal College 

 of Physicians of London from the years 1657 to 185 1, 

 Under such headings as Psychology, we may see the 

 wide range also of the larger subjects embraced in the 

 Library, for the collection under this heading begins with 

 many expositions of Aristotle, and does not neglect Plato, 

 but takes in also the recent books of modern authors, 

 such as the last edition of Herbert Spencer's " Principles 

 of Psychology" and Taine's " De ITntelligence." The 

 eleventh volume of this magnificent catalogue brings us 

 to within measurable distance of the end ; from the 

 analogy of lesser works, in fact, it seems probable it may 

 be completed in three or at most four volumes, and it 

 will then be a great monument among modern catalogues, 

 and in its articles under subject titles form a most valu- 

 able dictionary to all who are seeking a clue to the 

 complete historical study of medicine and surgery. 



A. T. Myers. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Dictionary of Political Economy. Edited by R. H, 

 Inglis Palgrave, F.R-S. Part L Abatement — Bede. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., 1891.) 

 This is a first instalment of what promises to be a very 

 valuable addition to the English library of political 

 economy. The plan of the work is laid down on broad 

 lines, and includes not only articles dealing with strictly 

 economic subjects, and explanations of legal and business 

 terms, but good (though necessarily brief) accounts of 

 historical events bearing on economic history, such as the 

 establishment and downfall of the ateliers nationaux in 

 Paris in 1848, and biographical notices of deceased writers 

 whose life and work has had any connection with the 

 development of economic theory or practice. That the 

 biographical section of the dictionary is conceived in a 

 liberal spirit is sufficiently proved by the fact that the first 

 part, now under review, includes notices of Addison and 



NO. I 146, VOL. 44] 



Thomas Aquinas ; the claim of the former to a place in a 

 dictionary of political economy is based in the main on 

 the fact that he held an official position in the Government 

 of his time as one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade. 

 This rather remote connection with economics may be 

 open to criticism ; and it remains to be seen whether 

 Mr. Palgrave will include in his dictionary the honoured 

 names of William Wordsworth and Robert Burns. It is 

 not, however, desirable to say anything in the way of 

 criticism which should tend to narrow the scope of the 

 work. Its interest and vitality depend, to a large degree, 

 on its broad inclusiveness. 



The biographical articles are particularly well done, and 

 we would single out that on the late Mr. Bagehot for 

 special commendation. It gives not only the dry facts of 

 his career, but presents a living picture of a peculiarly 

 fascinating personality, and also a very just estimate of his 

 place in, and services to, economic literature. Among the 

 most important articles in the present instalment of 

 the dictionary may be mentioned that on agricultural 

 communities, by Prof J. S. Nicholson, and thit on banks. 

 The former gives an admirable summary of the conditions 

 of life in existing village communities in Russia and India, 

 and also a digest of the results arrived at by the researches 

 of Sir Henry Maine, Mr. Seebohm, and M. de Laveleye, 

 as to the existence of various forms of village communities 

 in the remote past in our own and other countries. The 

 article on banks gives an historical sketch of the 

 development of banking in various countries, contributed 

 by different writers, each with special knowledge of his 

 own portion of the subject. Thus we have brought 

 together within the compass of a few pages an account of 

 the land banks and the Schulze Delitsch credit banks of 

 Germany, the savings banks (trustee and Post-office) of 

 England, and the popular banks of Italy. 



The names of the contributors to the present volume, 

 and also those who have promised their assistance in the 

 preparation of the rest of the work, are a guarantee of 

 its high value to all students of social and economical 

 subjects. 



South Africa, from Arab Do7nination to British Rule. 



Edited by R. W. Murray, F.R.G.S. With Maps, &c. 



(London : Edward Stanford, 1891.) 

 One of the objects of this book is to bring out the con- 

 trast between Portuguese rule in South Africa and the 

 influence exerted by England. The contrast is certainly 

 striking enough ; and it is shown most clearly, as in the 

 present work, by a simple statement of historic facts. In the 

 first chapter. Prof Keane sketches the career of the Portu- 

 guese in the various South African regions they have domin- 

 ated. This is followed by translations from the " Africa " 

 of Dapper, a Dutch writer of the seventeenth century, 

 showing that at that time the Portuguese stationed on 

 the African coasts made no effort to acquire extensive 

 knowledge of the interior. The editor then records the 

 main facts relating to the Dutch and English settlements 

 in the south, and the recent movements northward to 

 Bechuanaland, Matabeleland, and Mashonaland. Mr, J. 

 W. Ellerton Fry, late of the Royal Observatory, Cape 

 Town, Lieutenant of the British South African Com- 

 pany's expeditionary force, gives an account of what he 

 himself observed during the march into Mashonaland in 

 1890; and much information with regard to the east 

 coast of Africa at Beira, Pungwe, and the Zambesi is 

 presented in notes from the diary and correspondence of 

 Mr. Neville H. Davis, late surveyor and hydrographer to 

 the Queensland Government, who, in 1890, accompanied 

 an expedition sent to East Africa to discover whether 

 there was any mineral or other wealth in concessions 

 granted by the Mozambique Company. The book has 

 not been very systematically planned ; but it brings 

 together so many facts which are not readily accessible 

 elsewhere, that it cannot fail to interest readers whose 



