320 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 409 



each successive instalment of the dictionary it has become more 

 and more clear that the original estimates were too small, both as 

 regards the total of pages in the completed book and the wealth of 

 words and other lexicographical raateiial which it would contain. 

 The number 6,500, which was announced as the limit for the pages, 

 must be increased to at least 7,000, and the number of words de- 

 fined will be considerably in excess of the 300,000 at first promised : 

 for the words contained in the first four volumes now published 

 (two-thirds of the work, 4,880 pages) are in round numbers 

 153,000; and, if we may suppose that the same fulness will char- 

 acterize the letters remaining to be treated, the total cannot fall 

 far short of 325,000. An examination of the vocabulary of " The 

 Century Dictionary" will show that only those words, derivatives. 

 and compounds are admitted which have an established place in 

 the language or require definition. Had the editors not been con- 

 servative in this particular, their list would doubtless have been 

 increased to 250,000 words. The fourth volume illustrates the 

 technical and scientific character of the dictionary. Beginning 

 with the letter 3f, one meets the prefix macro-, followed in quick 

 succession by nieso-, ineta-, micro-, mono-, and many others of 

 greater or less importance, from which are formed groups of 

 hundreds of technical terms, most of which have come into ex- 

 istence during the last ten or fifteen years. The same is true of 

 the other letters, especially of P, which, indeed, owes its size (660 

 pages) very largely to this wealth of scientific material. The 

 treatment of technical words, too, is on a broad scale in this vol- 

 ume, as is well illustrated by the definitions of magnesia, magnet 

 (and its derivatives), mammalia, man (in its etymology), marble, 

 metamorphism, meter, microscope, mirror, mode (in its musical 

 sense), muscle, nervation, operation, opening (in chess), orchestra, 

 Orchidece, pianoforte, etc. The same fulness marks the definitions 

 of common names of animals and plants, as of mackerel, mildew, 

 minnow, partridge, pine, etc. ' ' The Century Dictionary " is first 

 a dictionary of the English language, and after that an encyclo- 



pedic dictionary. Take, for example, the common English word 

 put. It occupies seven columns of the dictionary, and its treat- 

 ment includes 17 definitions and 169 special phrases, which are 

 illustrated by 190 quotations ranging from the earliest period of 

 English literature to the present day, the definitions and quota- 

 tions together exhibiting the word in every important phase of its 

 idiomatic use. This treatment of put, liberal as it is, is in no 

 sense encyclopedic, but is strictly lexicographic, being necessitated 

 by an attempt really and thoroughly to define the word. It sim- 

 ply shows what an amount of information about common words 

 the editors of "The Century Dictionary" are bringing to light. 

 The facts thus exhibited by the word put are perhaps even more 

 strikingly shown by make, with 83 definitions, 159 phrases, and 

 126 quotations, and by pass, with 72 definitions, 30 phrases, and 

 137 quotations. These, of course, are among the most striking 

 instances of the kind ; but what is true of them is true on a 

 smaller scale of the treatment of nearly every common word in 

 the volume. The hook abounds not only with fresh discussions of 

 old words, and new definitions of familiar words illustrated by apt 

 quotation?, but also with words which have been in the literature 

 of the language for perhaps scores of years, but which are new in 

 the sense that no dictionary has before recorded them. There 

 are many illustrations of special interest in this fourth volume. 



— A seasonable subject is discussed by Dr. William H. Flint in 

 bis article on "Children's Coughs," in the December number of 

 Babyhood. The writer divides all coughs into harmless and seri- 

 ous ones, and gives many hints which will enable mothers to dis- 

 tinguish one class from the other. Dr. Yale, the medical editor, 

 furnishes an article on "What may be done to prevent Diph- 

 theria." 



— In the second volume of the Science in Plain Language 

 Series, William Durham of the Royal Society of Edinburgh writes 

 interestingly on the general subject of astronomy, describing in 



ed at Editor's Offic 



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SCUDDEB, H. E, Pabl's and Folk Stories. Part I. 

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THE LABRADOR COAST. 



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^JUST PUBLISHED. 



RACES AND PEOPLES. 



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