OlTOBKR 30, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



557 



include its status in England at the period 

 of the production of the play and narratives 

 showing its adaptability to swindling credu- 

 lous persons at all periods. The editor then 

 points out the originality of Jouson and his 

 slight indebtedness to previous writers; he 

 also draws a picture of Simon Forman, a 

 notorious London quack flourishing in Jon- 

 son's day, who probably furnished the author 

 one of the characters of the play (Subtle). 



The editor gives many instances of the 

 swindling operations in recent times by pre- 

 tended alchemists, especially dwelling on the 

 tricks of Morrell and Harris in Xew York, of 

 Pinter in London, and of the Kev. Mr. Jer- 

 negan, of Connecticut (in connection with the 

 fraudulent extraction of gold from sea water), 

 and he gives references to the daily press for 

 particulars. Elsewhere he names the three 

 principal branches of astrology and refers to 

 some of the modern aspects of this pseudo 

 science. In a note on Jonson ' taking in of 

 shaddows with a glass ' he writes of catop- 

 tiomancy, and refers to the notorious KcUey 

 who acted as ' skryer ' for Dr. Dee, in Queen 

 Elizabeth's day. 



Following the text are one hundred pages 

 of notes, partly taken from preceding editions, 

 notably Gifford and Whalley; a bibliography 

 of works consulted, in which one misses the 

 names of Hermann Kopp (' Geschichte der 

 Chemie,' 4 vols., 1843, ' Die Alchemic in 

 alterer und neuerer Zeit,' 2 vols., 1886), of 

 William Johnson (' Lexicon ehymicum,' Lon- 

 don, 1652), and the ' Chymicall Dictionary,' 

 bound with Michael Sandivogius" ' Xew Light 

 of Alchemie ' (London, 1650), but perhaps 

 these were not accessible to Dr. Hathaway. 



There is also a glossary of fort.y columns, 

 and finally an inde.\-. Each section is marked 

 by thorough work and painstaking study on 

 the part of the editor; the glossary in par- 

 ticular may be of much assistance in exialain- 

 ing archaic and obsolete terms in the alchem- 

 ical writings of other authors than Jonson. 



The notes refer to passages in a variet.v 

 of languages, show judicious selection and a 

 wide acquaintance with literature. The deep 

 study of alchemical jargon has familiarized 



the editor with incomprehensible gibberish to 

 such an extent that he himself is not always 

 perfectly clear. (See note on page 288, last 

 three lines.) And he is sometimes tempted 

 to substitute conjectures for more definite in- 

 formation, especially in discussing the signifi- 

 cation of impossible words. 



Dr. Hathaway shows the relations which 

 Jonson's comedy bears to John Lyly's ' Galla- 

 thea,' printed in 1592, to Gower's and Chau- 

 cer's well-known poems, to Lydgate's ' Seerees 

 of old Philisoifers ' and to the principal 

 metrical treatises on alchemy preserved by 

 Elias Ashmole in his ' Theatrum Chemicum 

 Britannicum' (London, 1652), from which he 

 gives many citations. 



The editor has been very successful in 

 demonstrating that ' Nothing in Jonson is 

 done at random.' The whole work is credit- 

 able to the editor, and for its typographical 

 excellence to the publisher. 



Hkxuy Carrington Bolton. 



blatchlev's orthoptera ok ixwaxa. 

 Tx the Twenty-seventh Annual Report 

 of the Department of Geology and Nat- 

 ural Eesources of Indiana, 1902, Mr. W. 

 S. Blatchley, State Geologist, has de- 

 voted over 350 pages to tlie Orthoptera of 

 his state, and under this modest title has 

 given us one of the best pieces of entomo- 

 logical work that has come to us during the 

 present year. Not only are all of the species 

 known to the author to occur in the state 

 fully described, some of them for the first 

 time, but he has given in connection therewith 

 every scrap of information relating to them 

 that he has been able to obtain, cither by ob- 

 servation, correspondence or found recorded 

 in entomological literature. The list includes 

 148 species, many of which are figured, the 

 illustrations consisting of 121 figures, one 

 colored an<l two uncolored plates, which with 

 a full bibliography and synonymy, keys to 

 families, genera and species found in Indiana, 

 sections relating to the external anatomy of 

 the order, natural enemies, life zones of In- 

 diana, a glossary of terms used in the text, 

 together with a full index, gives the work a 



