PREFACE. 



IN the present volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, the eighth of the New 

 Series, some improvements have been introduced which it is hoped will add to 

 its attractiveness and usefulness. The subjects treated have been subdivided 

 with unusual care, and the use of full-face type for the heads and sub-heads 

 brings them out more distinctly, and renders it easier for the reader to turn at 

 once to the exact piece of information which he seeks. Increased attention has 

 been given to illustration. The accounts of the wars in Egypt and Tonquin 

 are each accompanied by a full-page map ; another full-page map exhibits the 

 annual rainfall in every part of the United States, and a colored map shows the 

 new time-system recently adopted; there is a large view of the Cantilever 

 Bridge at Niagara, one of the German National Monument on the Niederwald, 

 and one of the new Capitol at Albany ; the improvements in the use of gas and 

 electricity are fully illustrated ; and some strange and important discoveries in 

 the aberration of sound as used for fog-signals are represented by curious dia- 

 grams. Portraits of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Speaker Carlisle, Peter 

 Cooper, Gustave Dore, General Gordon, Hicks Pasha, Mario the singer, General 

 Sheridan, Alexander H. Stephens, Wagner the composer, and other celebrities, 

 appear in their proper places. 



The report of the proceedings of Congress has been made unusually full, as 

 a means of ready reference to several subjects of national interest which will be 

 discussed in the Presidential canvass of 1884. 



A brief summary of the events of the year, in chronological order, is a new 

 feature, serving to refresh the reader's memory as to numerous occurrences 

 which could not be treated at length in a work like this. The paper-on the 

 "Composition and Nutritive Yalue of Foods," and that on the " United ' States 

 Fish Commission," with instructions for the propagation and preservation: of 

 fish, will be found especially instructive and practical, 



Mr. Alphonso A. Hopkins, Prohibition candidate for Governor of New 

 York in 1882, gives a full history of prohibition,, from the earliest times- to-the 

 present day a subject that is rapidly making for itself a place in political and 

 legislative affairs ; while the editor of the Salvation Army's publications gives 

 an Authoritative account of that strange movement in the religious world!. The 

 recent advances in chemistry, surgery, and other sciences are noted, and the 

 present condition of each of the great denominations of Christians is set forth. 



