52 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 311 



who is an English woman and a thorough French scholar. One who 

 has had the privilege of glancing over the proof-sheets of Max 

 O'Rell's book pronounces it the brightest thing he has done, and 

 predicts that it will make a much greater sensation than " John 

 Bull and His Isle," great as was the commotion caused by that 

 clever skit. In giving his impressions of society in the United 

 States, Max O'Rell is often severe, but always kind. He makes a 

 number of statements, however, that are going to call forth con- 

 tradictions in various quarters, and are likely to stir up some strong 

 criticisms. Each of the great cities that he visited — Philadelphia, 

 Boston, Chicago, etc. — is honored by a special chapter. Ameri- 

 can women are also so honored, and their beauty is highly compli- 

 mented ; but this will hardly atone in their eyes for the charge 

 brought against them of being badly dressed. Altogether tjje book 

 is very lively reading, and will unquestionably excite the interest of 

 every American citizen who wants to know what a keen-eyed, intel- 

 ligent, and witty Frenchman has to say of him and of his country. 



— Although the privilege of reprinting in book form the series of 

 papers on " Authors at Home," which appeared in The Critic, was 

 requested by a number of publishing-houses, it was the good for- 

 tune of Cassell & Co. to secure it. These articles are not mere 

 gossiping sketches. While they are bright and interesting, they 

 have the advantage of authorization as to facts of biography, as 

 each author selected the person to write of him, or gave his ap- 

 proval where the selection was made by the editors. Messrs. Cas- 

 sell & Co. wish to call attention to the fact that they intend to issue 

 three editions of this book, — a thing unusual in the book-trade. 

 The iirst will be a regular library edition at §1.50, while the other 

 two will be " limited " to one hundred copies each. One of these 

 will be an edition de luxe, on heavy paper with generous margin, 

 and handsomely bound, while the other will be on large paper 

 especially prepared for " extra illustrating." 



— Lee & Shepard will publish at once " Aryas, Semites, and 

 Jews, Jehovah and the Christ," by Lorenzo Burge, author of 

 " Pre-Glacial Man." 



— George Routledge &; Sons will publish shortly translations of 

 Daudet's " Recollections of a Man of Letters," and Guy de Mau- 

 passant's "SurL'Eau" ("Afloat"). Both volumes will be illus- 

 trated. 



— Cupples & Hurd have in preparation a new edition of " The 

 Naturalist's Guide," by C. J. Maynard ; and also a new work by 

 the same author entitled " Eggs of the Birds of the United States," 

 illustrated by the author, to be issued in monthly parts. 



— Charles Scribner's Sons have in press Dr. James McCosh's 

 " First and Fundamental Truths : a Treatise on Metaphysics," 

 which is regarded as the crowning philosophic work of this vener- 

 able author's long and fruitful life. They have also in hand a vol- 

 ume of musical essays by Henry T. Fink, the musical critic of the 

 New York Evening Post, and author of " Romantic Love and 

 Personal Beauty ; " a limited edition of 500 copies of Lester Wal- 

 lack's " Memories of Fifty Years;" and the Dudleian lecture on 

 " The Validity of Non-Episcopal Ordination," delivered at Har- 

 vard University, on Oct. 28 last, by Professor George Park Fisher. 



— Macmillan & Co. have in press a new work on Darwinism, by 

 Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, which promises to have much scien- 

 tific significance. The first volume in their new English Men of 

 Action Series will be " Gen. Gordon," by Sir William Butler. A 

 volume will be issued each month. 



— Harper & Brothers have just ready "A Latin Dictionary for 

 Schools," by Charlton T. Lewis, the editor of " Harper's Latin 

 Dictionary." It is not an abridgment, but an entirely new and in- 

 dependent work, designed to explain every word or phrase in the 

 Latin literature commonly read in schools ; viz., the complete works 

 of Cffisar, Terence, Cicero, Livy, Nepos, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, 

 Juvenal, Phsedrus, and Curtius, the Catiline and Jugurtha of Sal- 

 lust, the Germania and Agricola of Tacitus, and a feW words found 

 in some extracts of Florus, Eutropius, and Justinus. The original 

 meaning of every word is first given, and then the modifications 

 which it underwent in usage. The editor has preferred illustrations 

 drawn from the earliest authors read by the students, — Cesar's 

 Gallic War, Cicero's Orations against Catiline, and the first books 



of Vergil's /Eneid. The general plan of the work was not finally 

 adopted until after consultation with thirty of the leading Latin 

 scholars and teachers in the country. 



— W. H. Morrison, Washington. D.C., has just published the 

 fourth volume of Mr. James Schouler's " History of the United 

 States under the Constitution." The period covered is 1831-47, 

 and the fifth (and perhaps concluding) volume, which will break 

 off at 1861, is now in active preparation. 



— Renan has completed the second volume of his " History of 

 the Jews." There is one more volume-to come. 



— Noah Brooks has written an article on the explorer Henry M. 

 Stanley, whose real name he claims is John Rowlands. The article 

 will appear in the February issue of the St. Nicholas, and will be 

 illustrated with a new portrait of the explorer, maps, etc. 



— The February instalment of the " Lincoln History," in The 

 Centziry Magazine, will contain chapters of peculiar interest, de- 

 scribing (i) the events leading up to the final removal of Gen. Mc- 

 Clellan ; (2) the financial measures undertaken by Mr. Chase and 

 advocated by Mr. Lincoln for carrying on the war ; (3) the relations 

 between President Lincoln and Secretaries Seward and Chase, in- 

 cluding the incident of the simultaneous resignation of the two 

 secretaries, and the manner in which Mr. Lincoln averted a politi- 

 cal catastrophe. 



— The Yankee dialect made famous in Lowell's " Biglow 

 Papers" is now scarcely to be heard in New England, save in odd 

 corners like the home of " Cape Cod Folks," or in the mountain 

 fastnesses in New Hampshire, or among the Berkshire hills. A new 

 writer, Ella Loomis Pratt, who has done some clever sketches from 

 the last-named region in the columns of the Springfield Republican 

 and other journals, has treated that life and dialect in a full-fledged 

 novel, " A Gentleman of Fairden," which is announced as a fea- 

 ture of The Literary News, New York, for 1889. It is said to 

 abound in pleasant and humorous pictures of places and people in 

 the Berkshires. 



— The Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago, have just 

 issued a little pamphlet entitled " Artificial Persons : A Philosoph- 

 ical View of the Law of Corporations," by Charles T. Palmer. 

 The author of this pamphlet is one of the few persons who think 

 that corporations do not have privdeges enough. His central 

 thesis is, that a corporation ought to have and exercise all the 

 rights and privileges that belong to a private partnership. He is 

 specially displeased with the rule of law established by the United 

 States Supreme Court, that a corporation chartered by one State 

 cannot exercise corporate privileges in another State unless char- 

 tered by that other State also. But his arguments seem to us de- 

 cidedly weak and inconclusive. A corporation owes its existence 

 to its charter ; and its members, in accepting the charter, accept 

 all the conditions and restrictions which that instrument imposes, 

 the chief of which is that they can do nothing but what their char- 

 ter gives them permission to do. Having accepted these condi- 

 tions, they have no right afterwards to complain of them. Instead 

 of being a " philosophical view," Mr. Palmer's theory strikes us as 

 both unphilosophical and impolitic. 



— The Family Mail-Bag is the title of a monthly periodical 

 published at 140 Nassau Street, New York. It is intended for the 

 amusement and instruction of the whole family, and contains an 

 interesting collection of good reading. The January number is the 

 second that has been issued. 



— Charles Waldstein's paper on " Ruskin's Work — its Influence 

 upon Modern Life and Thought," will appear in Harper s Maga- 

 zi}ie for February, with a portrait of Ruskin as the frontispiece. 

 In the same number will be printed " A Russian Village — an Ar- 

 tist's Sketch," by Verestchagin. 



— Miss Mary F. Seymour's new paper, the Business Woman's 

 Journal, which made its first appearance week before last, is devoted 

 to the interests of all women, especially those who work either 

 with brains or hands. It advocates higher education and the 

 adoption of some avocation by every woman whose time is not 

 taken up in household duties, and generally seeks to present the 

 woman's side of every question. 



