72 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Nov. 25, 1881. 



Seventhly, tlic saint' circles appear to draw further ajiart 

 along the region 2rrf, itc. 



But it will lie found that the illusion varies in amount 

 for corresponding parts of ditlennt portions of the figure ; 

 Olid that, OS in the simpler case illustrated in Fig. 8, the 

 different jiarts of the tigure seem to vary Lu shape as the 

 picture is turned round. 



AUTHOES AND PUBLISHERS.* 



THIS work, -we are told in the preface, is intended 

 chielly for those who for the first time are about to 

 commit their literary productions to the press, and who are 

 unacquainted with the prtvailLng practices in regard to 

 printing and publication. " The information contained in 

 it will, no doubt, be more or less familiar to experienced 

 authors.'' This may be so, but all the same, it is a work 

 wliich every author, whether experienced or not, should 

 undoubtedly possess. And, unless we mistake, it is a 

 work in which the general public will find much to interest 

 them. It is described as a rudimentary handbook, giving 

 just those particulars concerning paper, printing, binding, 

 and jiublishing, the preparation of copy, the correction of 

 proofs, the embellishment and illustration of books, and 

 the relations of publishers and their clients, &c., with 

 which an author requires to be acquainted. The publishers 

 have endeavoured to touch upon eveiy point which is 

 likely to arise between the period of the preparation of 

 the manuscript for the press and the actual publication of 

 the book, presenting at the same time a precise and accu- 

 rate account of the mechanical details of printing. There 

 arc also most valualile notes on advertising, re\iewing, and 

 the law of copyright. 



I am myself tolerably familiar with the matters dealt 

 ■with in this work. At least, I have -written nearly fort)' 

 ■works, which have been published for me by five or six 

 firms, with all of which I have had pleasant relations. 

 Yet even for so old a hand as myself, the work before me 

 is full of interest. When I began to write, it would have 

 been still more valuable to me. It would have taught me 

 one lesson, at any rate, which many have only learned by a 

 rather dear experience. Publishers have made mistakes, 

 ■we know ; but, as a rule, the advice of an experienced 

 publisher should be followed by a comparatively inex- 

 perienced author, and it should always be carefully ■weighed. 

 I Well remember how thoroughly mistaken I supposed 

 Messrs. Longmans to be when the)- advised me to print no 

 more than a thousand cojiics of my first work — " Saturn 

 and its System." I had put so much hard -work into that 

 treatise, had filled so many pages with long and complex 

 calculations, had drawn the illustrations so elaborately, 

 that 1 thought many thousands must needs care for my 

 book, and buy it if it were not too dear ; while if but a 

 thousand copies were printed, it must of necessity be rather 

 dear. When they told me that very few cared for fornuihe 

 and diagrams, for the "great inequality" of Jupiter jukI 

 Satuni, and so forth, I thought they underestimated the 

 intelligence of the general reader. Tliat was sixteen years 

 ago, and the first edition of "Saturn and its System" is 

 only just approaching exhaustion. + They knew, and I 

 did not, what was best and wisest 



• " Authorship and Publication : A Conciae Guide to Autliors in 

 matters relating to I'rinting and I'ubliahinp, including the Law of 

 Copyriplit and a Bibliograjihical Appcudii." (London : Wjman 

 t Sons.) 



+ I was pratified to learn a few years since, from a criticism of 

 Wr. Goo. Uoldcn (then of the Washington Observatory, now of Ann 



The advice of publishers abotit advertising, selection of 

 journals to -which a Viook should be sent for review, and 

 other matters of that sort, is nearly always sound, and is 

 always based on sound consideration.s. When advertising 

 is left entirely to publishers, they are apt, in some cases, to 

 be a little extra\agant, so far as my experience goes. At 

 least, I liave found two books, separately published by one 

 firm, .selling no better than t-wo precisely similar books, 

 pulilished under similar conditions at another time, by 

 another firm, which were much less expensively advertised. 

 But the selection among so many serials as exist, of those 

 in which a publication should Ijc advertised, is so difficult, 

 and requires so much experience, that the author does 

 wisely to avail himself of his publishers' ad\ice in this 

 respect. 



The choice of a title is a point which authors wovdd 

 not care to leave entirely to their publishers ; yet more 

 than one of my own books bear titles which were either 

 invented by the publishers, or modified at their suggestion. 

 In the work before us, many curious illustrations of 

 authors' mistakes and weaknesses on this point are given. 

 The most curious, perhaps, are the titles selected by Puritan 

 writers, whose title-pages exhibit such eccentricities as 

 these : — 



" Egps of Charity, laved by the Chickens of the Covenant, and 

 boiled in the Water of Divine Love. Take ye and eat." 



'■ Some fine Biskets baked in the oven of Charity, carefully con- 

 served for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit, 

 and the Sweet Swallows of Salvation." 



" A Eeaping Hook, well tempered for the Ears of the Coming 

 Crop." 



" Hooks and Ejes for Believers' Breeches." (May we infer, by 

 the way, that in the seventeenth century hooks and eyes were used 

 " iu this connection " — that is, where buttons and button-holes are 

 used in ova time ?) 



" High-heeled Shoes for Dwarfs iu Holiness." 



The matter relating to choice of paper, sizes of type, 

 and corrections (this last especially) should be carefully 

 studied by all who write or intend to write books. Others 

 will find it interesting and instructive. 



"Authorship and Publication" is eminently readable 

 throughout. Technicalities are avoided -where possible, and 

 explained where they cannot be avoided. There is an 

 amusing collection of technical expressions for the variotis 

 names used to define correctly difl'erent degiees of anony- 

 mity in authorship, the student of which will be able 

 thenceforward to distinguish an allonym from an anonym^ 

 and a cryptoni/m from a bouslrophedoii. 



1.M1TATI0N Flowebs MADE WITH LiQCiD FiLMs. — A pretty experi- 

 ment has been recently described by the well-known Belgian 

 physicist, M. Plateau. Ho bends fine iron -wire so as to present the 

 contour of a flower of six petals. The central ring, to which the 

 petals are attached, is supported on a forking stem, which is stuck 

 in a piece of wood. After oxidising the wire slightly with weak 

 nitric acid, the flower is dip])ed in glyceric liquid, so as to receive 

 films in the petals and the central part. It is then turned np, placed 

 on a tabic near a window, and covered with a bell jar. For a little 

 while it ai)i)ear8 colourless, but soon a striking play of colours 

 commences. In the experiment M. Plateau describes, the flower 

 continued showing modifications of colours for ten hours, when dusk 

 stopped observation. JJext morning several pet.ils had burst. The 

 li()uid used was of very mediocre quality. M. I'luleau recommends 

 preparation of the liquid thus : — Dissolve a fresh piece of Marseilles 

 soap, cut Uj) into small pieces, in 40 parts by weight of hot distilled 

 water. Filter after cooling, and mix thoroughly three volumes of 

 the solution with two of Price's glycerine. The solution should be 

 left at rest till all air bubbles are gone. — The Times. 



.\rbor), in which he rather severely denounced a book of mine, 

 wliich is still in manuscript and was then unwritten, that the sales 

 of my fir.<t book had been so great as to tempt me to seek a fortune 

 by writing scientific treatises. Otherwise I should have thought 

 the book had involved a rather heavy loss. But we should always 

 believe what we see in print. 



