SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 413. 



will thus consist of seventeen volumes." It 

 is further stated that the price is to be £18 

 for the set, with varying prices for individual 

 volumes, from ten to thirty-five shillings. 



An examination of the present volume shows 

 that the scheme of classification differs ma- 

 terially from that followed commonly in this 

 country. Numbers of four figures, from 0000 

 to 9999, are assigned to subdivisions of the 

 subject as follows: 0000 to 0999, general 

 (including philosophy, history, biography, 

 periodicals, etc., general treatises, addresses, 

 pedagogy, institutions, nomenclature) ; 1000 

 to 1999, external morphology and organogeny 

 (including teratology) ; 2000 to 2999, anatomy, 

 development and cytology; 3000 to 3999, physi- 

 ology; 4000 to 4399, pathology; 4400 to 4999, 

 evolution; 5000 to 7999, taxonomy; 8000 to 

 8999, geographic distribution; 9000 to 9999, 

 plankton. Ecology (spelled ' oecology ') ap- 

 pears as an item under physiology, coordinate 

 with growth, irritability, symbiosis, para- 

 sitism, etc. Paleobotanical papers are to be 

 distributed under their appropriate heads and 

 marked with a dagger (f). The pages de- 

 voted to the scheme of classification are 

 printed in English, French, German and 

 Italian. Following these is a topographical 

 classification, for use in geography, geology, 

 botany, zoology, etc., and which is apparently 

 as satisfactory as any which might be adopted, 

 although open to some criticism in details. 



The authors' catalogue covers eighty-four 

 pages, and includes 1,922 entries. This is 

 followed by the subject catalogue, in which 

 the arrangement outlined above is followed. 

 This part of the book requires 240 pages, and 

 apparently includes many titles not entered 

 in the first list. As these are all papers pub- 

 lished in the year 1901, and as we are prom- 

 ised a second part of the botany volume ' in 

 the course of a few months,' it will be seen 

 that the need of such a work as this is im- 

 perative. 



In some quarters there appears to be a dis- 

 position to find fault with this catalogue on 

 account of alleged sins of omission and com- 

 mission, and also in regard to its plan of 

 classification and some of its details. While 

 there may be truth in these criticisms, it 



should be borne in mind that, in part, they 

 come from those who are not experts in bibli- 

 ography, and who are, therefore, not fully con- 

 versant with the difficulties of a complete 

 classification. It will be well for us to re- 

 member that it is much easier to find faults 

 in any proposed system than to suggest one 

 which will not contain as many objectionable 

 features. No doubt this catalogue will be of 

 great value to scientific workers. Let us be 

 thankful for it; let us buy it; let us use it; 

 and let us trust that year by year it may 

 grow better. Even if not quite what many 

 of us desire, it is a very good piece of work 

 — better, no doubt, than we ourselves could 

 have made it. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The University of Nebraska. 



Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of 

 Musical Instruments of All Nations. I. 

 Europe. New York, The Metropolitan Mu- 

 seum of Art. 1902. 8vo. Pp. xxsv + 

 302; pi. 53. 



Some months ago (Science, June 13, 1902) 

 attention was directed to the fii'st part of a 

 catalogue of the 2,800 musical instruments 

 in the New York Museum. The catalogue of 

 the European instruments, apparently about a 

 thousand in number, has just been published 

 and proves to be a remarkably fine piece of 

 work. In the preparation of it Mrs. Brown 

 has had the assistance of Mr. A. J. Hipkins 

 and Eev. F. W. Galpin, both of England, 

 whose previously published works show that 

 no more competent authorities in England 

 or America could have been called in. The 

 former was associated in several investiga- 

 tions with the late A. J. Ellis, the translator 

 of Helmholtz, and has written much on the 

 history of the piano, etc.; and both have co- 

 operated in the historical exhibitions that 

 have taken place in England. For this cata- 

 logue Mr. Hipkins wi'ote a special introduc- 

 tion to the keyboard instruments, while Mr. 

 Galpin identified many of the instruments, 

 made the classification, wrote the prefaces to 

 its several parts and added many notes. 



The classification impresses the reader as 

 simple and practical : it begins with ' Class 



