240 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No 348 



— The following incidents are from an interesting illustrated 

 paper by Dr. J. Emmet O'Brien of this city, in The Century for 

 Septembsr, on " Telegraphing in Battle : " " In Butler's advance 

 on the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad, May 7, a line was car- 

 ried along with the column to within sight of that road, and 

 worked until Beauregard struck us at Drewry's Bluff, on the 1 6th, 

 when Gen. Butler ordered his chief operator to ' bring the line 

 within the intrenchments.' In these trenches one night Maynard- 

 Huyck was awakened from sleep, not by the familiar voice of his 

 instrument, but by the shriek of a Whitworth bolt, a six-pound 

 steel shell, which passed through the few clothes he had doffed, 

 then ricochetted, and exploded beyond. Congratulating himself 

 that he was not in his 'duds ' at the moment, the boy turned over 

 and slept through the infernal turmoil of an awakening cannonade 

 until aroused by the gentle tick of the telegraph relay. We used 

 no ' sounders ' in those days at the front. In illustration of the 

 sensibility of hearing acquired by the military operators for this 

 one sound, the writer may be pardoned another personal incident. 

 At Norfolk, in April, 1863, he happened to be alone in charge of 

 the telegraph when Longstreet with a large force laid siege to 

 Suffolk. In the emergency he remained on duty, without sleep, 

 for three days and nights, repeating orders between Fort Monroe 

 and the front. Toward morning on the third night he fell asleep, 

 but was aroused by the strenuous calls of the fort, and asked why 

 he had not given ' O. K.' for the messages just sent. He replied 

 that none had been received. ' We called you,' said the opera- 

 tor at the fort ; ' you answered, and we sent you two messages, but 

 you failed to acknowledge them.' The despatches were repeated 

 and forwarded, when, on taking up a volume of Scott's novels, 

 with which he had previously endeavored to keep awake, the 

 writer was astonished to find the missing telegrams scrawled 

 across the printed page in his own writing, some sentences omit- 

 ted, and some repeated. It was a curious instance of somnam- 

 bulism." 



— Funk & Wagnalls will publish this month a work entitled 

 "The Life- Work of the Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin." The 

 writer, Florine Thayer McCray, who is a personal friend of Mrs. 

 Stowe. received permission two years ago to write this work from 

 both Mrs. Stowe, and her son, Rev. C. E. Stowe, and received valu- 

 able assistance from them and other members of the family. It is 

 to be finely illustrated, and contains about 450 pages. The Pub- 

 lishers' Weekly is informed, that, while this work dwells at some 

 length on the history of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," — that masterpiece 

 which thrilled the world and contributed so largely toward the 

 overthrow of American slavery, — it also gives an interesting 

 account of Mrs. Stowe's habits, travels, methods of work, and re- 

 views and commentaries upon the numerous other books that fell 

 from her facile pen. The forthcoming work is likely to have a 

 wide circulation. 



— Macmillan & Co. publish early in October " Pen Drawing and 

 Pen Draughtsmanship," by Joseph Pennell. The work will contain 

 numerous photogravures and other illustrations, including examples 

 after Sir Frederick Leighton (president Royal Academy), E. J. 

 Poynter, Frederick Walker, Randolph Caldecott, George Du Mau- 

 rier, Linley Sambourne, Harry Furniss, William Small, W. L. 

 Wyllie, Charles Keene, Ford Madox Brown, Frederick Sandys, E. 



A. Abbey, Alfred Parsons, Walter Crane, Hugh Thomson, Arthur 



B. Frost, Blum, Madame Le Maire, Rico, Cazenova, Lhermitte, 

 Menzel, and numerous other well-known artists. The same firm 

 also announce the following for publication : a new volume of 

 poems by Lord Tennyson ; a new volume of essays by Professor 

 Huxley; "The Elements of Politics," by Professor Henry Sidg- 

 wick ; " Problems of Greater Britain," by Sir Charles Dilke ; "Wild 

 Beasts, and their Ways in Asia, Africa, America, from 1845 to 

 1888," by Sir Samuel W. Baker, with illustrations; "On Style: 

 with Other Studies in Literature," by Walter Pater ; " Royal Edin- 

 burgh : her Saints, Kings, and Scholars," by Mrs. Oliphant, with 

 illustrations by George Reid ; " The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," 

 by W. Holman Hunt, with illustrations ; " Cults and Monuments 

 of Ancient Athens," by Miss Jane Harrison and Mrs. A. W. Ver- 

 rall, with numerous illustrations ; " A History of the Later Roman 

 Empire from Arcadius to Irene, A.D. 395-800," by John B. Bury ; 



" The Development and Character of Gothic Architecture," by 

 Professor Charles H. Moore, with illustrations ; " Eminent Women 

 of Our Times," by Mrs. Fawcett ; " Letters of Keats," edited by 

 Sidney Colvin ; " The Cradle of the Aryans," by G. H. Rendall ; 

 " The Makers of Modern Italy : Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi," by J. 

 A. R. Marriott ; " A Reputed Changeling ; or, Three Seventh 

 Years Two Centuries Ago," by Charlotte M. Yonge ; " The Rec- 

 tory Children," by Mrs. Molesworth, with illustrations by Walter 

 Crane ; " Text-Book of Physiology," by Professor Michael Foster, 

 with illustrations, fifth edition, largely revised, in three parts ; 

 ■' Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism for Begin- 

 ners," by Professor Andrew Gray, abridged edition ; " Thermody- 

 namics of the Steam Engine and other Heat Engines," by Cecil H. 

 Peabody of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; a new part 

 (Vol. II., Part II.) of " A New Dictionary, founded mainly on the 

 Materials collected by the Philological Society," edited by Dr. J. A- 

 H. Murray ; also Vol. III., Part I. (beginning with the letter E), 

 edited by Henry Bradley, of the same work. A new edition of 

 Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," by Mr. John Saunders, assisted by 

 Dr. Furnivall, is promised shortly. The Chaucer Society has per- 

 mitted its EUesmere manuscript cuts of the Tale-tellers to be used 

 in the book. It was originally published in three of Charles 

 Knight's " Weekly Volumes," and carries on the story of every tale 

 by prose bits between the extracts, making it as easy to read as a 

 modern novel. 



— After writing about fairy-stories for years, Mr. Andrew Lang 

 has now taken to writing them himself. Messrs. Longmans, Green, 

 & Co. will shortly publish his " Prince Prigio," with illustrations by 

 Gordon Browne. The prince is a great-grandson of the Giglio of 

 Thackeray's " Rose and the Ring ; " and many of the old fairy- 

 tricks serve a new purpose in Mr. Lang's story. 



— There are ten articles in the October Magazine of American 

 History. The frontispiece is a portrait of the late Samuel L. M. 

 Barlow, accompanied with a poetical tribute from George Ticknor 

 Curtis ; also a sketch of the great lawyer by the editor. The open- 

 ing article of the number, " The Romantic Beginnings of Milwau- 

 kee," by Roy Singleton, is one of those contributions which help to 

 make American history grow more real and inviting to all classes : 

 it is illustrated with portraits of some of the founders of Milwaukee. 

 Following it is a study entitled " Georgia, the only Free Colony — 

 How the Negro Came," by Professor H. A. Scomp of Emory Col- 

 lege. Then comes " Kings, Presidents, and Governors of Georgia, 

 1732-1889," by Col. Charles C. Jones, jun., LL.D., of Georgia, 

 which places material of curious significance on record. Opportune 

 at this moment is a paper by Dr. George H. Moore of Lenox 

 Library, on " The Discovery of America by Columbus," describing 

 the celebrations in Boston and New York a hundred years ago, and 

 showing the part taken in them by the Tammany Society. " The 

 Antiquity of the Tupper Family," by Professor Tupper, is readable. 

 " The Financial Condition of New York in 1832," contributed by 

 Susan Fenimore Cooper, includes a letter written by J. Fenimore 

 Cooper; " A; Trip to Niagara in 1S35 — Miss Caroline Spencer's 

 Journal," gives views of the methods of travel and the sights to be 

 seen in western New York fifty-four years ago ; and among the 

 shorter articles is a tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes on his eigh- 

 tieth birthday. 



— Bulletin No. 3 of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 " Silos and Ensilage," is an account of some preliminary work done 

 in 1888 in the study of the silo question. It includes an illustrated 

 description of the silo of the station, hints respecting the culture 

 and harvesting of corn for silage, and the report of a feeding ex- 

 periment in which corn-silage was contrasted with sugar-beets. 

 Bulletin No. 4, " Small-Fruits at the Ohio Experiment Station," 

 gives the results of this season's experiments with strawberries, 

 raspberries, and blackberries, also of an experiment showing the 

 effect upon the keeping-quality of early and late picking of apples. 

 Bulletin No. 5, " Wheat at the Ohio Experiment Station," gives the 

 results of this season's experiments with wheat, including thick and 

 thin seeding, early and late sowing, methods of sowing, and a com- 

 parison of sixty-five differently named sorts of wheat. Any of- 

 these bulletins will be sent free to any Ohio farmer on application 

 to the experiment station, Columbus, O. 



