January i8, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



51 



proofs are read by more than sixty people. For seven years not 

 fewer than a hundred persons, and sometimes more, have been 

 working upon this dictionary. Trained readers have been search- 

 ing the fields of English literature for words, and uses of words, 

 and quotations. Over two thousand authors will be quoted ; and 

 it is understood that American books, and even the current litera- 

 ture of the magazines, have been liberally drawn upon. The 

 growth of the English language at the present day is astonishing. 

 It is said that the new " Encyclopedia Britannica " alone furnished 

 ten thousand new words to be defined in the " Century Dictionary." 

 These were generally technical words, which had been coined 

 by the writers of articles in the " Encyclopajdia ; " but nevertheless 

 they are now born into the language, and are liable to be met with 

 in any one's reading. The new dictionary will contain definitions 

 of probably two hundred thousand words, and these without in- 

 cluding any useless compounds. Thousands of quotations, from 

 the vast store which the readers have gathered, will help to illus- 

 trate the uses of these words. The work is encyclopedic ; that is, 

 encyclopedic in the sense that it gives, in addition to definitions 

 and the etymological history of words, a very great amount of de- 

 tailed information which has hitherto been found only in the ency- 

 clopEcdias, and often not even in them. There will be about six 

 thousand cuts in the text, the subjects of which have usually been 

 chosen by the experts in charge of the special departments. They 

 have been drawn, whenever possible, from the object itself, and 

 engraved under the supervision of the Art Department of The 

 Century Company. The engravings are said to be of a higher class 

 than have yet found place in any work of this character. It is un- 

 derstood that all rights have been obtained for the issue of this 

 dictionary throughout the English-speaking world, and that it will 

 be published in England simultaneously with its issue in this coun- 

 try. 



— Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. are about to follow Mr. Be- 

 sant's " Eulogy of Richard Jefferies " with a volume of Jefferies's 

 uncollected papers, under the apt title of " Field and Hedgerow," 

 in which will appear the latest essays of the Englishman who best 

 continued the tradition of White of Selborne. Among the subjects 

 are "Hours of Spring," " The Makers of Summer," and " Time of 

 Year," which are treated with the sympathy and the knowledge 

 that lead a critic to call Jefferies " the English Thoreau." 



— The article on " Walter Scott at Work," by E. H. Woodruff, 

 in the February Scribtier's, will contain facsimiles of many inter- 

 esting pages from the proof-sheets of " Peveril of the Peak," with 

 the pithy criticisms of Ballantyne and replies of Scott on the mar- 

 gin. This literary treasure was purchased in London twenty years 

 ago by Ex-President Andrew D. White of Cornell, who furnishes 

 an introduction to the article. Bishop Potter of New York, in an 

 essay which will appear in the same number, on " Competition in 

 Modern Life," says, " Let us understand, then, that competition — 

 a strife to excel, nay, if you choose, downright rivalry — has a just 

 and rightful place in the plan of any human life. A prize-fight is 

 probably the most disgusting spectacle on earth, but it has in it just 

 one moment which very nearly approaches the sublime ; and that 

 is when the combatants shake hands with each other and exchange 

 that salutation as old as the classic arena, ' May the best man win.' 

 It is the equitable thing that the best man should win." George 

 H. Jessop, the playwright, will contribute the story of an Irish out- 

 rage, called " The Emergency Men," told from the landlord's point 

 of view. C. D. Gibson, of Life, will illustrate it. In an article on 

 " The Physical Development of Women," which Dr. D. A. Sargent 

 of Harvard College will contribute, he says, " At the present time 

 women as a class have more leisure than men for self-improvement, 

 and we must look to them to help on the higher evolution of mind 

 and body, not only in perfecting themselves, but in helping to per- 

 fect others. Already three-fourths of the school-teaching force in 

 the United States is composed of women, and they will soon be in 

 the majority as instructors in physical training. The gospel of 

 fresh air and physical improvement is being slowly imbibed by our 

 best families, and the stock of fine specimens of physical woman- 

 hood is slowly and steadily improving." W. C. Brownell, whose 

 articles on " French Traits " have received a great deal of discrim- 

 inating praise, will contribute the last of the group, which discusses 



" The Art Instinct." The essays, with several not heretofore 

 printed, will soon be published in book-form. Thomas Sergeant 

 Perry will describe an interesting collection of Grsco-Egyptian 

 portraits discovered in 18S7 near Fayoum. Professor Ebers be- 

 lieves that some of them were painted three or four centuries be- 

 fore the Christian era. The article is to be fully illustrated from 

 photographs of the originals. 



— Messrs. Dodd, Mead, & Co. have issued a catalogue of books, 

 including some of exceeding rarity, such as perfect specimens from 

 the presses of William Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Richard 

 Pynson ; a unique copy of the original folio edition of Ben Jonson's 

 works, printed on large paper, with autograph inscription ; the 

 original quarto edition of Sidney's " Arcadia ; " also the original 

 manuscript of W. H. Ireland's " Shakesperian Forgeries" (num- 

 bering 174 lots), together with other desirable rare and choice 

 books. This firm is at all times ready to price, and desirous of 

 purchasing, good books. They are paying special attention to rare 

 books, especially those relating to the early history of America, and 

 would be glad to hear from any one who has books of real value, 

 of which the owner may for any reason wish to dispose. 



— Messrs. Cupples & Hurd, Boston, announce for immediate publi- 

 cation " The Eggs of North American Birds," by C. J. Maynard. 

 Such a book has long been needed by students on oology, for there is 

 no work upon the subject by any American author which can be called 

 complete. The book begins with the descriptions of the eggs of 

 the water-birds, and the species are numbered as in the " List of 

 the American Ornithologists' Union," the nomenclature being the 

 same so far as it is there given ; but every species and subspecies 

 that have been described up to date are included, considerably 

 augmenting that list. All known eggs are described, and the de- 

 scription of each is given so clearly as to render it readily distin- 

 guishable. In case of rarities, this is often accomplished by compar- 

 ison with some well-known species, or with the figured type, of 

 which there are eighty, contained in ten plates, carefully drawn on 

 stone by the author, and accurately colored by hand by Airs. May- 

 nard. The dimensions of the largest and smallest of a large series 

 of the eggs of each species, number of eggs deposited, nesting- 

 time, breeding-range, and description of nests, are given. At this 

 late day, it is perhaps needless to state that the author has pursued 

 his usual course in preparing the text of the work, and has never 

 used a technical term when a simple one would answer. As a 

 consequence, the descriptions are at once available to all classes of 

 students. The work will be complete in eight parts, each part 

 containing a description of seventy species, more or less, and at 

 least one or two hand-colored plates. The entire work, it is ex- 

 pected, will be completed by the ist of May, 1889. Sold only by 

 subscription. 



— Edward Allen Fay's " Concordance of the Divina Commedia " 

 (Boston, Little. Brown, & Co.) is published under the auspices of 

 the Dante Society, of which James Russell Lowell is president, and 

 Charles Elliott Norton is vice-president. It was reviewed at length 

 in the Nation for Oct. 25, 1888. The reviewer closed by saying, 

 " Dr. Fay has put on the titlepage of his book the motto ' In che i 

 gravi labor gli sono aggrati.' It well denotes the loving and accu- 

 rate care with which he has performed his heavy task. His book 

 — the first of its kind in centuries — is not for a day : full genera- 

 tions of lovers and students of Dante will place it on their shelves 

 beside the ' Divina Commedia.' " 



— Max O'Rell's book on the United States, which has been 

 awaited with so much eagerness, will be published toward the end 

 of this month by Messrs. Cassell & Co. It will be issued in Paris 

 and London at about the same time. M. Calmann Levy, who 

 publishes the book in France, has already taken advance orders for 

 forty thousand copies ; the English outlook is quite as good ; and 

 in this country there is every reason to anticipate a sale far exceed- 

 ing that of England or France. Messrs. Cassell & Co. have paid 

 M. Blouet (Max O'Rell) the largest lump sum that has ever been 

 paid a foreign author for the right of publication in this country. 

 The title of this book is "Jonathan and His Continent ; Rambles 

 through American Society," by Max O'Rell and Jack Allyn. The 

 work of translating has been admirably done by Madain Blouet, 



