November 22, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



695 



The following evidence is ofFered with the 

 object of showing by comparison that the space 

 devoted to scientific subjects is utterly insuffi- 

 cient for the enlightenment of the general 

 public. 



Pronunciation of foreign 

 names' (exclusive of 

 Latin and Greek names ) 

 over five columns. 



Plattdeutsoh ' 

 columns. 



over four 



' Degeneration ' ( two arti- 

 cles) — less than one and 

 a-half cloumus. 



' Parthenogenesis ' o n e - 

 half column, ending vpith 

 'the whole subject is 

 obscure, however.' The 

 reader is referred to Von 

 Seibold, ' Parthenogen- 

 esis ' and to Weismann, 

 'Essays on Hereditv.' 

 Both these works are far 

 too technical to be in- 

 telligible to the general 

 reader. 



' Amphibia ' one-half col- ' Pastoral Poetry ' almost 

 umn. three columns. 



Under ' Eclecticism ' the reader is imformed 

 that a certain Dr. Newton founded the theory of 

 cellular pathology and introduced antisepticism 

 in surgery. The scientific world has given the 

 credit of the former discovery to Virchow, and 

 of the latter to Lister. Now I ask, for pur- 

 poses of information, what did Eobert S. New- 

 ton (whose biography is not given in Johnson's 

 Cyclopedia) write, or publish, upon cellular 

 pathology, prior to the publication of Virchow's 

 work in 1858 ? To credit anybody except 

 Lister with the introduction of antisepticism is 

 positively absurd. 



' Monometallism ' and ' bimetallism ' are not 

 to be found in this new cyclopsedia under the 

 proper headings ; indeed, there are not even 

 cross-references to ' money. ' 



The Johnson Cyclopaedia is advertised by 

 means of a sixteen-page circular, which bears 

 neither publisher's nor author's name, a large 

 part of it being devoted to abuse of what I have 

 found a valuable, though by no means perfect, 

 reference book, the genuine Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica. The writer of this sixteen page adver- 

 tisement wishes his readers to believe that one 

 half of the Britannica is of no use to Americans, 

 if it is to anybody. I understand that Messrs. 

 Appleton never place their name upon adver- 

 tising circulars criticising the publications of 



other firms. I ask, in all fairness, is this hon- 

 orable, or even reasonable ? 



I am not interested in any cyclopaedia, nor in 

 any publishing house, and this letter would not 

 have been written had I seen any detailed, im- 

 partial criticism of the Johnson Cyclopaedia. 

 Lawrence Irwell. 



Buffalo, N. Y. 



[Scientific subjects seem to be adequately 

 treated in Johnson's Cyclopaedia. The circular 

 mentioned by our correspondent is, however, 

 very objectionable, and the Johnson Co. should 

 take steps to prevent its further circulation. J. 

 McK. C] 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 An Atlas of the Fertilization and Karyokinesis of 

 the Ovum. By Edmund B. Wilson, Ph. D., 

 with the cooperation of Edward Learning, 

 M. D., F. E. P. S. New York, Published for 

 the Columbia University Press, by Macmillan 

 & Co. 4to with ten plates. Price $4.00. 

 This work is of a very high order, and both by 

 its merit and its opportuneness is a noteworthy 

 contribution to science. The basis of the work 

 is Professor Wilson's able investigation of the 

 early history of the ovum of one of our sea- 

 urchins {Toxopneustes variegatus, Agassiz). The 

 investigation was long and difficult, and its suc- 

 cess is due in the first instance to the patient 

 testing of many reagents until one was found 

 which preserved the living organization of the 

 ovum with a minimum of change. This re- 

 agent was a mixture of 80 parts of concentrated 

 aqueous solution of corrosive sublimate and 20 

 parts glacial acetic acid. As the eggs are very 

 minute, hundreds of them, all in the same stage, 

 were imbedded at once, and sectioned together, 

 leaving chance to determine that some of them 

 be cut in favorable planes. The sections were 

 made as thin as practicable, and were colored 

 by Haidenhain's iron haematoxyline stain, also 

 a reagent recently introduced. Of the many 

 thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands 

 of sections, the best have been sought out, and 

 about two hundred of them photographed. 

 From this collection of negatives, forty have 

 been selected and reproduced as phototypes. 



The photographs were all made by Dr. Ed- 

 ward Leaming, who in a prefatory note de- 



