NATURE 



{Nov. II, 1880 



"The List of Abbreviations of Titles of Periodicals 

 prefixed to tliis volume shows the journals and transac- 

 tions which have been indexed to the present time. The 

 right-hand column exhibits the volumes or numbers 

 possessed by the Library, and, negatively, the deficiencies, 

 which it is my earnest desire to fill. The List of Abbre- 

 viations is separately paged in order that it may be bound 

 by itself, if desired, for use with succeeding volumes. 



" Some of the abbreviations of names of places, 

 especially in the United States, might have been still 

 further shortened if the Catalogue had been intended for 

 use only in this country. But an analysis, by subjects, of 

 so large a collection of medical periodicals is, necessarily, 

 useful in St. Petersburg, for example, as well as in 

 Washington, its measure of utility in any locality being 

 the e.xtent of the collection of medical periodical hterature 

 therein. Intelligibility to foreigners, therefore, has been 

 regarded as a quahty essential to the abbreviations in 

 question. 



" In indicating pagination, the rule is that where the 

 article does not exceed two pages in extent the first page 

 only is given. If it exceed two pages, both the first and 

 last pages are noted. 



"The work of preparing this Catalogue began in 1873, 

 and has been carried on persistently, and as rapidly as 

 the amount of clerical aid available and the nature of the 

 work would permit. 



"The present volume includes 9090 author-titles, 

 representing 8031 volumes and 639S pamphlets. It also 

 includes 9000 subject-titles of separate books arid 

 pamphlets, and 34,604 titles of articles in periodicals." 



The rapid progress of every branch of science, medical 

 and otherwise, and the proportionate, or perhaps we 

 ought almost to say disproportionate, increase of medical 

 and scientific periodical literature, render it exceedingly 

 difficult for the student to keep himself mi counmt with 

 the newest discoveries. The Royal Society's Catalogue 

 of scientific papers conferred an inestimable boon upon 

 scientific men, but it left much to be desired, inasmuch as 

 it gave only the names of authors, and contained no index 

 of subjects. Sometimes, too, its strict confinement to 

 periodical literature is felt as an imperfection, for in cases 

 where discoveries have been published in the form of 

 pamphlets of a few pages, one searches through the 

 Catalogue in the vain expectation of finding them. How- 

 ever, we have hitherto had nothing at all resembling it in 

 medical literature, but now we possess the first volume of 

 a work which greatly excels it both in scope and size. 

 Such defects as the volume possesses are due to the 

 imperfections of the library of which it is a catalogue, 

 and it is to be hoped that all those (and their name must 

 be legion) who profit by the use of this remarkable pro- 

 duction, will do their best to enable Dr. Billings to make 

 good the deficiencies. 



It is clear that, however complete any catalogue may 

 be at the time of its publication, the constant appearance 

 of new books and pamphlets day by day and month by 

 month must render it more and more defective. In order 

 to supplement this catalogue, and prevent this gradually 

 increasing deficiency from being felt as an evil. Dr. 

 Billings and Dr. Fletcher are now publishing the Index 

 Mcdicus, a monthly classified record of the current 

 medical literature of the world. This is published by 

 F. Leypoldt in New York, and by Triibner and Co. in 

 London. The great labour and expense involved in 

 getting out this monthly index require for it a large cir- 

 culation. At present, wc believe, it is published at a 



loss, and an increased number of subscribers is urgently 

 requested in order to permit its continuance. We there- 

 fore trust that every one who finds his time and labour 

 saved by this Index-Catalogue will show his gratitude 

 to Dr. Billings and those who have assisted him, not 

 only by helping to supply the wants of the library at 

 Washington, but by subscribing regularly to the Index 

 Mcdiciis. 



We cannot conclude this brief notice without congra- 

 tulating the United States Government on having in its 

 service such men as Dr. Billings and his able assistants, 

 Doctors Fletcher, Yarrow, and Chadwick, nor without 

 expressing the thankfulness which every medical man 

 owes to them for the great boon they have conferred on 

 medicine in printing and issuing the present Inde.x- 

 Catalogue. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE 

 Max JMiiller and ike Philosophy of Language. By 

 Ludwig Noird. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co. 

 1879.) 



THE substance of this work has already appeared in 

 the German periodical Nord mid Slid, and the 

 author here tells us that he has reproduced it in an 

 enlarged form and in an English dress in order to do full 

 justice to Max Midler's great merits in clearing the way 

 "for future investigators." He considers that eminent 

 services have been rendered to the cause of linguistic 

 studies by the writings of the illustrious Oxford professor, 

 and four out of the five chapters comprising this treatise 

 are mainly occupied in putting this somewhat obvious 

 fact in the clearest light. But he holds, in common 

 probably with Max Mi.iller himself, that the problem of 

 the ultimate origin of articulate speech has not been 

 solved in the brilliant and deservedly popular " Lectures 

 on the Science of Language." Many difficulties are there 

 removed, much light is thrown upon a great number of 

 obscure points, several abstruse questions are treated with 

 an amazing wealth of illustration, bringing them home to 

 the meanest capacity, and sundry popular views, notably 

 those stigmatised as the " Pooh-pooh " and " Bow-wow" 

 theories, are either exploded, or reduced to their proper 

 value. But the mystery of origin, the inexplicable ulti- 

 mate residuum of roots, forming the constituent elements 

 of all speech, remains almost unassailed, though distinct 

 service has undoubtedly been done by narrowing down 

 the question to this one issue. A still greater service is 

 done when the gifted writer emphatically declares that 

 these roots "are not, as is commonly maintained, merely 

 scientific abstractions, but they were used originally as 

 real words." This gave the death-blow to the Platonic 

 " types," ideas, metaphysical entities and concepts which 

 had still continued to obscure the subject, and block the 

 way like so much medieval rubbish. Herr Noird aptly 

 compares them to the ova, whence all animal and vegetable 

 life. " By their development and uninterrupted growth 

 all the known languages of the world have reached their 

 marvellous structure, and become the body of reason and 

 the instrument of mind" (p. 55). 



In the last chapter, which will doubtless be read with j 

 the greatest curiosity, the author takes up the subject | 

 where Max Midler had left it, and develops the theory on ' 



