NA TURE 



609 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1S83 



A SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE 



Bibliothccii Historico-Naturalis et Mathematica. Lager- 

 Catalog von R. Friedlander und Sohn. (Berlin, 1883.) 



LIKE enthusiastic physicians who are charmed with a 

 " splendid case " — of Asiatic cholera, it may be — 

 which illustrates or disproves some theory which has 

 engaged their attention, there are philologists who are so 

 interested in tracing the growth of variations among dia- 

 lects by watching for and marking fresh changes in a 

 parent language under different circumstances that they 

 do not consider what an inconvenience this polyglot con- 

 dition of society is, and what a length of time and amount 

 of labour all but a gifted few have to expend in order to 

 learn even three or four of the principal languages of 

 ancient and modern times. Some considerations lead us 

 to hope that, following many other benefits that scientific 

 study has unweeningly brought to man, a unification of 

 languages also may be in store. 



As science spreads and makes way, the more indis- 

 pensable to inquirers in each country becomes the know- 

 ledge supplied by the phenomena or the intellect in all 

 others. Knowledge cannot be largely produced by a kind 

 of secret manufacture of which one country or one race 

 only knows the process. It must be patent in the older 

 sense ! Inductive science requires such a variety of ob- 

 servation of positive fact, and is so largely helped by 

 comparison of working theories, that hardly any subject 

 can be thoroughly studied without consulting both the 

 facts noted by observers and the hypotheses started by 

 philosophers in other countries. Commerce has, no 

 doubt, brought a large number of men from many parts 

 of the world into oral communication, but they are not of 

 the class who have the means or the ambition to guide a 

 language, as a majority of scientific writers are, — men who 

 must largely control the education of their country. 



But we have not arrived anywhere near the harbour of 

 a common language yet. The first step has no doubt 

 been taken by the agreement to use Greek roots for all 

 scientific terms, so many of which keep forcing their way 

 into familiar language through the utilitarian purposes 

 connected with them ; and science may claim its share 

 also in the recent and increasing disuse of the old black- 

 letter type by the Germans, and the adoption of the more 

 general Arabic character — as in this publication, to which 

 we are much pleased to call attention as a step towards 

 counteracting the inconvenience now laboured under 

 through the results of the tendency of languages to 

 diverge. We have in England a fair sprinkling of 

 libraries in which tolerably complete collections of 

 English works are to be found, and the narrow bounda- 

 ries of our crowded population make the use of them 

 pretty practicable to the working student. But only a 

 very few indeed of these contain at all complete collec- 

 tions of foreign publications ; and, without doubt, the 

 cosmopolitan studies of the Germans, their numerous 

 universities — each, as Prof. Ray Lankester reminded the 

 British Association, with a Government endowment suffi- 

 cient at least to allow an earnest worker to follow up any 

 pursuit which has raised his enthusiasm, and each as a 

 Vol. xxviii.— No. 730 



matter of course engaged to some extent in original 

 research— make their country the home and the market 

 for such a collection of books as this. The special 

 characteristic of this list is that it is restricted to science. 

 The publisher was a successful student at the University 

 of Berlin, where natural science was his favourite branch 

 An American friend persuaded him to continue his 

 studies at one of the United Scates Universities. He 

 made many friends there, but his father's death brought 

 him back to Europe, and the large family of them which 

 were left required him to give close attention to busi- 

 ness. His knowledge, however, of science, and his con- 

 nections in the United States, enabled him to get, and to 

 execute with more than usual success, large orders for the 

 different great libraries as they were successively founded 

 there. He made it the work of his life to form as com- 

 plete a collection as possible of all scientific books and> 

 publications, and the results are shown in this book, 

 printed with a care which foreign writers would seldom 

 find bestowed upon their names and upon the titles of their 

 books in an English printed catalogue, and, although 

 containing about 1250 pp., deserving to be classed as a 

 handy volume. Nearly 50,000 entries of publications on- 

 science only are made, with the most full particulars as to 

 illustrations, size, date, &c. These are divided into 169- 

 catalogues of works upon as many different subjects, upon 

 which very elaborate classification we must remark that 

 while no doubt suiting any con ulters who only wanted a- 

 choice of books upon a subject, the dividing and classify- 

 ing must add immensely to the labour expended upon it, 

 and nevertheless reduce the vilue of the catalogue to the 

 very students for whose benefit we are told that the com- 

 pilation was made, viz. workers who wanted to know 

 what upon each subject had been written in all scientific 

 countries. For, as any one who gl ,nces down the index 

 of subjects would see, there are very many books which 

 are equally appropriate to hajf a dozen of them ; and,, 

 since the same work is not repeated in list after list, it is 

 necessary to consult an unknown number of them before 

 the catalogue has answered the purpose intended. 

 Of course it is difficult also to bring so general a list 

 down to any date close upon th i< of publication, impor- 

 tant as that is to all scientifi writers especially, and the 

 omissions which may be traced in this great collection are 

 a striking evidence of the wealtl of modern scientific 

 literature. 



THE FISHERIES 01 THE ADRIATIC 

 The Fisheries of the Adriat he Fish thereof. A 



Report of the Austro-Hungarian Sea- Fisheries ; with 

 a Detailed Description of th< Marine Fauna of the 

 Adriatic Gulf. By G. L. F Britannic Majesty's 



Consul, Fiume. (London : Bernard Quaritch, 1883.) 



NO comprehensive work - till now appeared in 

 English on the sea f the Austro-Hun- 



garian Empire, and though 1 modestly refers to 



his volume as a Report meant to pave the way for a more 

 general work on the subject, 1 tnnot but regard it 



as a very valuable history ol the rine fauna and fishing 

 interests of the Adriatic. The volume contains a syste- 

 matic list of the fishes, including tl e reshwater forms of 

 the watershed of the norther tstem shores of the 



n d 



