SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 



711 



signed to supply to advanced classes speci- 

 mens of the less familiar German authors 

 which have been accessible only in expensive 

 volumes. Among the authors already or 

 soon to be represented are Cholevius, Gervi- 

 nus, Burger, Kurz, Goethe, and Khull. The 

 selections are printed in Roman type. 



A system of abbreviations has been pub- 

 lished by its inventor, Rev. D. A. Quinn, 

 under the title Stenotypy (the author, 125 

 Governor Street, Providence; paper, $1; 

 cloth, $1.50). It is designed as a substitute 

 for shorthand, to be used on the typewriter, 

 but there is nothing to prevent its being 

 written with the pen or printed from type. 

 The inventor claims that a hundred and 

 twenty words a minute can be written in this 

 system by an ordinary and three hundred 

 words a minute by an expert typewriter 

 operator, and that only a few hours are 

 needed for learning it in place of the many 

 weeks or months required for learning short- 

 hand. He recommends it especially for use 

 with the telegraph and for persons who read 

 addresses from manuscript, as well as for all 

 mercantile and newspaper work. The first 

 line of Hamlet's soliloquy appears as follows 

 in stenotypy : 2 B R nt 2 B T Z ' qst 6. 



The List of Books for Girls and Women 

 prepared by Augusta H. Leypoldt and George 

 lies (Library Bureau; cloth, $1 ; paper, 60 

 cents) brings helpfully together inquirers 

 and authorities in the literature of art, sci- 

 ence, and recreation. Its twenty-one hun- 

 dred works have been chosen by specialists 

 of mark, who add descriptive and critical 

 notes of refreshing independence. Although 

 the list is designed for girls and women, 

 nine tenths of its titles and fully half its 

 hints for clubs would serve boys and men 

 very gainfully. The editors state that this 

 list will probably be followed by others more 

 detailed, the aim being to pass brief, compe- 

 tent judgments on the whole working litera- 

 ture of our time. 



The Sexuality of Nature, by L. H. Grin- 

 don (Boston, Mass. : New-Church Union, 76 

 cents), attempts to prove that "Nature is a 

 system of nuptials. Everything in creation 

 partakes either of masculine or feminine 

 qualities. Animals and plants, earth, air, 

 water, color, heat, light, music, thought, 

 speech, the sense of the beautiful, the adap- 



tation of the soul for heaven all exist as 

 the offspring or products of a kind of mar- 

 riage." Under the consideration of inorganic 

 substances we find : "And again, by the mar- 

 riage of oxygen and nitrogen, two gases in- 

 visible and innocuous, nitric acid, a yellow, 

 ferocious liquid, is produced." The book is 

 a novel one, and may interest the psychol- 

 ogist. Its science, however, seems rather 

 uncertain, as the formation of a " ferocious 

 liquid," nitric acid, by the "marriage" of 

 oxygen and nitrogen, is something that has 

 not as yet been successfully accomplished in 

 the laboratory. 



Pan- Gnosticism, by Noel Winter (Trans- 

 atlantic Publishing Co.), is described on its 

 title-page as " the outlines for a methodized 

 course of thought, in which is submitted a 

 proposition transfiguring the present ulti- 

 mate conclusions of philosophy : and to the 

 effect that inscrutability is a delusion ; or, in 

 other words, that the conditions necessary to 

 absolute mystery involve an absurdity." 



A volume of short passages in prose and 

 verse from two to five to a page all relat- 

 ing to Patriotic Citizenship, has been pre- 

 pared by Thomas J. Morgan (American Book 

 Co., $1). The matter is carefully arranged 

 on a plan intended to stimulate an intelligent 

 patriotism. A large number of authors and 

 speakers, mostly American, has been drawn 

 upon, ranging in time from Edmund Burke 

 and Patrick Henry to persons now promi- 

 nent in literature and affairs. An appro- 

 priate illustration stands at the head of each 

 chapter. 



A collection of Headings and Recitations 

 for Jewish Homes and Schools, made by Isa- 

 bel K Cohen, has been issued by The Jewish 

 Publication Society of America, Philadelphia. 

 The selections are mostly poems dealing 

 with episodes in Hebrew history and legend, 

 and are drawn from the works of the best 

 English and American writers. Among the 

 names oftenest appearing are Byron, Dis- 

 raeli, Emma Lazarus, Longfellow, Charles 

 Reade, and Whittier. 



Results of Primary Triangulation, by H. 

 Gannett, is the title of Bulletin No. 122 of 

 the United States Geological Survey. The 

 triangulation of the survey is executed solely 

 for the primary control of topographic work 

 upon scales not exceeding 1 : 62,500. The 



