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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 317 



assistant professor of economics and statistics, presents a skeleton 

 of nineteenth century history down to 1889, and is based on copi- 

 ous references to standard works, and to important articles in the 

 leading reviews. 



— John Delay, New York, calls attention to the fact that the 

 volumes in his new library of Gleanings from Foreign Authors are 

 to be published at 30 cents, instead of 50 cents as previously adver- 

 tised. 



— Apropos of the arrival in the American market of his " Souve- 

 nirs d'un Homme de Lettres," it is said that Daudet is suffering 

 from a hopeless nervous malady of the kind which wrecked Heine's 

 life, and it is feared he may not be able to accomplish much more 

 work. 



— Mr. Ivan Panin, Wellesley, Mass., will print his lectures on 

 Russian literature, delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, in 

 a style uniform with his translations from Pushkin, as soon as he 

 procures enough subscribers at §2 per volume. Names should be 

 sent to the above address before April i. 



— The Publishers' Weekly announces that Mr. Samuel C. East- 

 man of Concord, N.H., while spending the summer in Denmark, 

 translated, under the author's encouragement and supervision. Dr. 

 George Brandes' " Impressions of Russia." Dr. Brandes was in- 

 vited to deliver a course of lectures in French before the literary 

 clubs of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and while there he was given 

 remarkable facilities for studying the people and institutions of the 

 country. His views are extremely lively and entertaining, and his 

 frankness of criticism is so pronounced that the book was placed 

 on the black list by the censor. The chapters on Russian litera- 

 ture are fresh and full of information, and the work is a decided 

 addition to our knowledge of an extraordinary country. Mr. East- 

 man's translation will be shortly published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. 



— The Fortcm for March begins its new volume with an ar- 

 ticle by Cardinal Manning, showing the evils of compulsory educa- 

 tion, and opposing the reading of the Bible in the public schools. 

 Dr. George P. Fisher of Yale University will write a refutation of 

 Cardinal Manning's conclusion. A paper by Professor W. S. 

 Scarborough, a negro, will explain the aspirations and hinderances 

 of the negro in the South. 



— Peter Paul & Brother, Buffalo, will publish immediately "The 

 Champions of Agrarian Socialism, and their Teaching," from the 

 German of the Rev. V. Cathrein, S.J. 



— Brentano Bros, announce that they will publish shortly " Where 

 the Trout Hide," giving a detailed description of a newly opened, 

 easily acessible, and beautiful country, whose waters teem with 

 brook trout, black bass, and land-locked salmon, by Kit Clarke, an 

 angling enthusiast. 



— It is said that Mr. Du Chaillu's book on the Norsemen has 

 practically been reset for the sixth time, the author having made 

 ■discoveries and revisions which involve important changes and addi- 

 tions. The whole work, which has 1,200 beautiful illustrations, 

 will probably appear next month. 



— A volume which promises to be of interest to Scotsmen and 

 their descendants in this country will shortly be issued from the 

 office of the Scottish American, New York. It contains a series 

 of essays illustrative of Scottish life, history, and character, gathered 

 together under the title of " Scotland and the Scots." The author, 

 Mr. Peter Ross, has long been a diligent student of the history of 

 the Scottish race on this side of the Atlantic ; and in the opening 

 essay, " The Scot in America," is given a succinct account of how 

 the people of that nationality have aided in all the religious, mili- 

 tary, educational, national, political, and other movements which 

 make up the history of North America. Among the other essays 

 are " The Scot Abroad," " Scottish Characteristics," " Scottish 

 Sports," " Scottish Superstitions," and " Freemasonry and Robert 

 Burns." 



— J. B. Lippincott Company have in press the third revised and 

 rewritten volume of " Chambers's Encyclopedia," which will be 

 complete in ten volumes ; a " Life of Henry M. Stanley," by Rev. 



H. W. Little; and " Examples, Rules, Tables, and References " for 

 engineers, etc., by John Richards (subscription). They will also 

 add to their medical li.st a " Cyclopsedia of Diseases of Children," 

 edited by Dr. J. M. Keating, to be in four volumes, sold by sub- 

 scribtion ; a new edition of the " Elementary Treatise on Human 

 Anatomy," by Professor Joseph Leidy ; " The CHnical Diagnosis 

 of Non-Surgical Diseases," by Dr. Rudolf von Jaksch of Vienna, 

 translated by Dr. Cagney of London ; and a fifth volume in their 

 " Practical Lessons in Nursing," devoted to " Diseases and Injuries 

 of the Ear." 



— A. Flanagan, 185 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, has issued a 

 game of cards entitled " Literary Whist, or. Games of Great Men," 

 prepared by N. O. Wilhelm. In playing the dozen or more games 

 that may be played with these cards, it is expected that one may 

 soon become acquainted with the lives, the works, and the charac- 

 teristics of the world's greatest poets, prose writers, statesmen, 

 warriors, scientists. Most of the games are simple enough for a 

 child, or may be made abstruse for the learned. The set consists 

 of 100 cards, 3! x 3* inches. There are 26 " books " to be made 

 or obtained. These are of poets, indicated by key-word P. ; prose 

 writers, key-word P.W. ; soldiers. So. ; statesmen, St. ; scientists, 

 Sc. Contemporaries of the same class are in the same book. 

 Prominent traits and works are given with each name, so that in 

 playing these games one acquires valuable knowledge while passing 

 away a pleasant hour. 



— Dr. H. A. Hare of the University of Pennsylvania has is- 

 sued through P. Blakiston, Son, & Co., Philadelphia, his essay on 

 "Mediastinal Disease," to which the Medical Society of London 

 awarded the Fothergillian medal for 1888. 



— Henry Worthington, 88 Liberty Street, this city, announces 

 that he will furnish free, upon application, a handsomely illustrated 

 catalogue descriptive of steam-pumps, pumping-engines, and 

 hydraulic machinery. 



— We learn from Engineering that the long-continued experi- 

 ments which have been conducted on board the " Nettle " at Ports- 

 mouth, with the view of determining the respective merits of com- 

 pound armor and of solid steel armor as a protection for battle- 

 ships, have just been brought to a close. Only two Sheffield 

 manufacturers sent in compound samples for competition ; but the 

 number of steel plates forwarded for trial amounted to eight, from 

 as many makers, being two less than were expected. The ten- 

 inch plates were attacked by steel and Palliser projectiles, at a 

 range of thirty feet ; and although two of the solid steel armor- 

 plates, at least, underwent the crucial ordeal with satisfactory re- 

 sults, the superiority remained with the steel-faced armor now 

 adopted in the English Navy. 



— In experiments recently made in France on the elasticity of 

 cork, it was found that disks of that substance, when submitted to 

 a pressure of 1,100 kilograms per square centimetre, were com- 

 pressed to one-fifth their thickness, and recovered their original 

 dimensions in exactly ten minutes after the pressure was removed. 



— The announcement recently made, that Professor Kruss of 

 Munich had succeeded in decomposing nickel and cobalt, proves to 

 be erroneous. What he has really done is to obtain from these 

 two elements a third one, which existed in them as an impurity. 



— In the March Atlantic, history is possibly the strong point, 

 there being a paper on those two brave Scots, " The Keiths," by 

 Hope Notnor, and one of Mr. Fiske's papers upon " Ticonderoga, 

 Bennington, and Oriskany." Mr. Frank Gaylord Cook writes an 

 article upon " Some Colonial Lawyers and their Work ; " while a 

 theme of a more recent day is treated in " Personal Reminiscences 

 of William H. Seward," by Samuel J. Barrows, and his wife Isabel 

 C. Barrows. The paper is especially interesting, since Mr. Barrows 

 was private secretary to Mr. Seward, and Mrs. Barrows also acted 

 temporarily in the same capacity. In this connection, Stuart F. 

 Weld's consideration of " The Isthmus Canal and our Govern- 

 ment " should be mentioned, and a review of Professor Bryce's book 



, on " The American Commonwealth." Mr. James's serial, " The 

 Tragic Muse," abounds in studies of personality, and Mr. Hardy's 

 " Passe Rose " is interesting. The first part of a negro story called 



