1 86 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 31I 



which so little is generally known. The second article, " America: 

 the World's Puzzle in Geography," is a study by Rev. William 

 Barrows, D.D. President James C. Welling, of the Columbian 

 University, Washington, D.C., repHes to Gen. Wilcox in an article 

 on " The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence ; " the well- 

 known author, J. G. Rosengarten, contributes " Du Pont De 

 Nemours ;" Gen. Alfred E. Lee discourses upon " German Family 

 and Social Life ; " Mr. Maturin L. Delafield writes of Col. Henry 

 Beekman Livingston ; and Annie E. Wilson gives an authoritative 

 paper entitled " Thrilling Adventure of a Kentucky Pioneer." 



— " The Century Dictionary " is to contain some features new 

 in dictionaries, one of which is the entry of every thing in the one 

 alphabetical order, abbreviations and foreign phrases as well 

 as common words. While the plan of the work excludes bio- 

 graphical and geographical names, yet such adjectives as " Chinese," 

 " Darwinian," etc., derived from proper names, will find place, and 

 be fully defined. A great point with the new dictionary is its en- 

 cyclopedic treatment of words. It will not stop at definitions, but 

 is said to go into particulars about things to a greater extent than 

 any other book except an encyclopEedia, and it gives the informa- 

 tion in a condensed, usable form. Such terms as " Bright's 

 disease," " Tweed Case," " electric light," etc., are defined under 

 the words "disease," "case," "electric," etc. Under "case" 

 there are twenty-seven entries of such terms as " Dred Scott 

 Case," " Tichborne Case," etc., in addition to the etymologies 

 and definitions usually to be found in a dictionary. Such 

 terms as " credit mobilier," " bankruptcy laws," " crossed checks," 

 " clearing-house system ; " the names of foreign administra- 

 tive divisions, such as " arrondissement ; " legislative bodies, like 

 the " Cortes " and " Bundesrath ; " parties and classes, such as 

 "Anarchist," "Nihilist," "Chartist," "Fenian," "Carbonari," 

 etc., — will be fully defined in " The Century Dictionary ; " and it 

 is even understood that the new use of " barrel " (" the money, 

 especially when the sum is large, supplied by a candidate in a 

 political campaign for campaign purposes, but especially for 

 corrupt purposes, etc.") has found a place. 



— In the twenty-four years since the late Mr. N. Triibner began 

 to carry out, under the title of The American a7id Oriental 

 Literary Record, the idea of supplying periodically, not only lists 

 of books published in the various countries of the East and 

 throughout the whole of the American continent, as well as of 

 European works bearing upon those countries, but also literary in- 

 formation on books and their authors, the value and usefulness of 

 the Record have been fully recognized throughout the literary 

 world. The growing importance and rapid spread of scientific 

 research in the United States on the one hand, and the ever-in- 

 creasing interest which literary men in England take in the history, 

 antiquities, and civilization of the East on the other, have made it 

 appear desirable to the publishers to expand the original design of 

 the Record by assigning ample space to literary and scientific 

 articles on subjects within its scope. They are making this de- 

 parture with the greater confidence of success, as there is no other 

 periodical in the English language which offers such a solid and 

 comprehensive programme ; and, while they inyite the co-opera- 

 tion of scholars in the special departments to which their studies 

 are directed, they look forward for continued support to the 

 literary public generally, who have for so many years accorded to 

 the Record their signal approbation and patronage. With a view 

 to securing, as far as practicable, the indispensable superintendence 

 by a competent and experienced editor, of the Oriental section of 

 the expanded issue, they have made arrangements with Dr. Rost, 

 of the India office, to undertake the editorial management ; and 

 they are confident, that, in intrusting this department to his care, they 

 can rely upon its being directed with impartiality and independ- 

 ence of judgment. In addition to personal notices, such as obitu- 

 aries and literary notes of works projected or in progress, the pub- 

 lishers intend to devote more space to reviews, independent articles 

 on Oriental subjects, and more especially to periodical statements 

 as to the advance made in the various fields of Oriental research, 

 so as to make the Record a depository of information concerning 

 the current state of Eastern literature in all its branches. It is 

 proposed as a first and tentative venture to issue six numbers 



annually, which will be published regularly in the middle of every 

 alternate month, each issue to be a full record of the events of the 

 two preceding calendar months. But the publishers hope that 

 they will soon be enabled to issue the Record monthly. This, of 

 course, will depend upon the success of their venture. The price 

 of the new series, the first number of which will appear on the 

 iSth of March, 1889, will be ten shillings per annum, payable in 

 advance, or two shillings per number. 



— The Electrical World, March 2, says : " Last week we 

 reached our highest water-mark, up to that time, in an issue of 72: 

 pages, the size and contents being such as to bring in upon us 

 overwhelming congratulations from friends and readers all over 

 the country. Marking as it did the close of our fifteenth year, the 

 issue was naturally taken as a good exemplification of the great 

 growth of electrical science and industry in the period since the 

 first number was published in 1874 ; and we felt that at so memo- 

 rable a milestone on the road of progress we might fairly take the 

 advice once given by a famous statesman after a noteworthy 

 achievement, and ' rest and be thankful.' But we are called upon 

 this week once more to meet larger demands, and, rising to the oc- 

 casion, we now put forth a number containing no fewer than 96 

 pages, or a gain of 24 pages over the previous record of a single 

 week before. We cannot but call attention to a stride so tremen- 

 dous. There is no need for us to enlarge upon it, or to emphasize 

 its importance as evidence of the enterprise of electrical journalism 

 in America, and the vast extent attained by the department repre- 

 sented in the arts and sciences. The number speaks for itself,- 

 from the first line to the last, and, big as it is, we know that every 

 page will be turned and read with interest." Notwithstanding the 

 fact that a full report of the Electric Light Convention was given, 

 the current electric news was not neglected. 



— The Forum for March contains the first of a series of essays- 

 on the fine arts. It is by Charles Elliot Norton, and is an attempt 

 to give a definition of the fine arts, — a task of no small difficulty. 

 The author thinks they may be defined as " the arts of expression 

 in forms of beauty created by the imagination," and supports this 

 view by an able discussion. He holds that these arts are " the only 

 real test of the spiritual qualities of a race ; " and he has some very 

 uncomplimentary but, we fear, very true remarks about the defi- 

 ciencies in this respect of the American race. Another article 

 in the Forum which at first attracts attention is that by Cardinal 

 Manning on " The Bible in the Public Schools ; " but the article 

 itself is disappointing. It is little more than a tirade against the 

 public schools themselves as being irreligious ; and, as for the read- 

 ing of the Bible in the public schools of this country, he opposes it, 

 though he is glad it is read in the schools of England. Mr. St.. 

 George Mivart has an article on " Darwin's Brilliant Fallacy," 

 in which he reiterates his well-known views in opposition to the 

 theory of " accidental variations," holding that a new species arises 

 from " pre-ordained, definite variations due to the spontaneous re- 

 action of the innermost nature of^an organism." The article con- 

 tains nothing particularly new, but in another paper the author 

 promises to consider the subject of human reason, and to show 

 that its origin *is not explainable by Darwinism. Besides these 

 papers, the Forum has one by Miss Kate Stephens on " Advanced 

 Education for Women," showmg the rapid progress that such edu- 

 cation is making ; another by Dr. Bacon, advocating the delivery 

 of letters by carriers from every post-office in the Union ; and other 

 articles on various topics, which We have not space to particularize. 



— Roberts Brothers will soon publish a new edition of " A Mod- 

 ern Mephistopheles," which first appeared in the No Name Series. 

 The author's name, Louisa M. Alcott, is now printed on the title- 

 page for the first time. It was one of the famous No Names, the 

 authorship of which was never guessed by any one. The story 

 resembled Hawthorne's style so much, that at its publication many 

 attributed it to him. Appended to the volume is another story 

 called " A Whisper in the Dark," — a story written many years ago,, 

 but which never appeared in book-form. 



— The Revue Scientifique proposes to open its columns to a 

 symposium of facts relating to heredity in man. Its object is to^ 

 collect reliable instances of unusual cases of heredity, and to sub- 

 ject the material thus gathered to a rigid analysis, in the hope o£ 



