250 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 303 



the Neo-Latin languages of southern Europe, contributed by twen- 

 ty-five speciahsts. The originator and digester of this literary enter- 

 prise has evidently secured the best talent obtainable for the purpose, 

 and the wealth^of information contained in the 853 pages of the 

 handsome volume is simply overwhelming. The almost infinitely 

 numerous dialects are examined as carefully as the literary form of 

 each Romance language, and whole pages are devoted to the his- 

 tory and literary history of the dialects, and the metrics, stylitics, 

 and philologic transmission of the principal languages from their 

 earlier stages down to our times. Attention was also paid to those 

 extinct tongues which have or may have influenced the formation 

 of the Neo-Latin languages, as Oscan, Umbrian, Etruscan, Celtic, 

 Basque, etc. Prof. G. Grober, W. Schum, A. Tobler, and others have 

 furnished treatises of more general import upon Romance studies, 

 whereas the French and Provencal was treated grammatically by H. 

 Suchier, Italian by Fr. d'Ovidio and W. Meyer, and Spanish by G. 

 Baist. The second volume will be devoted especially to the history 

 of the different literatures of the Romance tongues. 



— Beginning Jan. 5, Prof. W. O. Crosby will give a course of ten 

 lessons before the Teachers' School of Science of the Boston Soci- 

 ety of Natural History. 



— The Geological Survey of Kentucky has just published a re- 

 port on Bath and Fleming Counties by W. M. Linney, which is ac- 

 companied by a good geological map. A detailed geological 

 description of the counties, and notes on their mineral products, 

 mineral waters, and agricultural resources, are given. An appen- 

 dix contains notes on the rainfall at Sharpsburg from January, 1859, 

 to September, 1S85. The Preston Ore Banks in Bath County are 

 treated at some length. 



— The New England Meteorological Society proposes to have a 

 loan exhibition of meteorological apparatus, photographs, etc., at 

 the Institute of Technology, Boston, in connection with its four- 

 teenth regular meeting in January, 1889. For this purpose the 

 society invites contributions of meteorological apparatus, photo- 

 graphs, and charts and specimens. Articles should be sent to A. 

 Lawrence Rotch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 

 by prepaid mail or express, not later than Jan. 12, 1S89, and pref- 

 erably immediately. Communications regarding the exhibition 

 should be marked " Loan Exhibition," and addressed to A. Law- 

 rence Rotch, Blue Hill Observatory, Readville, Mass. 



— The American Forestry Congress convenes at Atlanta, Ga., on 

 the 29th of November, and the annual meeting of the Association of 

 Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations occurs at Knoxville, 

 Tenn., Jan. i. 



— Notwithstanding the considerable difficulties which have been 

 met with in the digging of a canal to connect the Obi with the Yen- 

 isei, and the want of money for the completion of the undertaking, 

 the work of connecting the two great arteries of navigation in Sibe- 

 ria is still advancing. Nature says that in the summer of the 

 present year a boat 56 feet long and' 14 feet wide, taking 3* feet of 

 water, was drawn from the Obi into the Yenisei with a load of 40 

 tons of flour. The two rivers are 630 miles apart. 



— N. M. Prjevalsky, the famous explorer of Central Asia, died 

 at Vyernyi when preparing his fifth expedition to Tibet. Prjeval- 

 sky, in his four expeditions to Central Asia, has laid the foundation 

 of our knowledge of these remote regions. On his first expedition 

 he explored Mongolia and the country of the Tangutes. The Rus- 

 sian Geographical Society awarded him the great Constantine 

 medal for this expedition ; but, however important the results were 

 to the science of geography, they were far excelled by those of the 

 second expedition, on which he rediscovered the Lob-nor. His 

 principal aim in all these journeys was to reach Lhassa. On his 

 third journey, when the obstacles presented by deserts and difficult 

 mountain-ranges were overcome, and the explorer was approaching 

 Lhassa, he had to turn back, as the Dalai Lama forbade him to 

 enter the great Buddhistic capital. On his fourth journey he ex- 

 plored the upper Hoangho, but was unable to penetrate into Tibet. 

 He returned by way of East Turkestan. The object of his fifth 

 journey was to reach Lhassa, and it appeared as though the politi- 



cal situation would be favorable to the enterprise. His untimely 

 death will be regretted by all geographers. Prjevalsky was only in 

 his fiftieth year. His energy and love of travel and exploration 

 were indomitable, and undoubtedly important results would have 

 accrued from his further work. He has shown how to explore the 

 highlands of Central Asia; and, although he himself is gone, he 

 leaves a number of enthusiastic followers, who have accompanied 

 him during his journeys, and who will undoubtedly continue his 

 great work. 



— The Open Court of Nov. 15 contains a discussion of 'The 



Marriage Problem,' by Prof. E. D. Cope. In the December 



number of The Chaiiiauguan are to be found ' Gossip about 

 Greece,' by J. P. Mahaffy, M.A., of Dublin University ; ' Pericles,' 

 by Thomas D. Seymour, M.A., of Yale University ; ' Greek Myth- 

 ology,' by James Baldwin, Ph.D.; ' Sunday Readings,' selected by 

 Bishop John H. Vincent, D.D., LL.D.; ' The Circle of the Sciences, ' 

 by Prof. A. P. Coleman, Ph.D., of Victoria University; 'The In- 

 dians of the United States,' by J. B. Harrison ; ' The Red Cross,' 

 by Charles Barnard ; ' The Bessemer Steel Rail,' by J. C. Bayles ; 

 ' The Charities of Buffalo,' by J. W. Bashford, Ph.D.; ' Count 

 Tolstoi's Theories,' by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu ; ' The Yankee 

 Privateer,' by Arthur Hale ; ' Lost Explorers and Expeditions,' by 

 Lieut. Frederick Schwatka; 'The Moravian Mecca," by Bishop 

 John F. Hurst, LL.D.; 'Talks on Memory,' by Prof. Wilbert W. 

 White ; ' Louisa May Alcott,' by Harriet Prescott Spofford ; ' Sci- 

 entific Temperance ' (a symposium of letters from eminent physi- 

 cians), and ' The Dinner of Callias,' translated from the Symposium 

 of Xenophon, besides the usual editorial and C. L. S. C. depart- 

 ments. The Saranac and Lake Placid regions of the Adiron- 



dacks, as they appear in mid-winter, will be described in the 

 Christmas Scribner's by Hamilton Wright Mabie. 



— A vocabulary to the first six books of Homer's 'Iliad,' by 

 Prof. Thomas D. Seymour of Yale College, is to be published in 

 March, 1889, by Ginn & Co. This vocabulary has not been com- 

 piled from other dictionaries, but has been made from the poem 

 itself. The maker has endeavored to be concise, — to give nothing 

 but what is important for the accurate and appreciative reading of 

 the 'Iliad,' — and yet to show the original and derived meanings 

 of the words, and to suggest translations which should be both 

 simple and dignified. A confident hope is felt that the concise 

 form of this vocabulary will save much time for the beginner in 

 Homer. More than twenty woodcuts, most of which are new in 



this country, illustrate the antiquities of the 'Iliad.' D. C. 



Heath & Co. have recently issued ' Hodgkin's Studies in English 

 Literature,' which gives full Usts of aids for laboratory method (a 

 separate pamphlet is issued for each author) ; ' Fontaine's Histori- 

 ettes Modernes,' Vol. I., being short and easy stories for beginners ; 

 and ' Van Daell's Leander's Masrchen,' with notes for elementary 

 or rapid sight-reading. The same firm will soon add to their series 

 of French texts for schools and colleges, ' La Belle Nivernaise, 

 Histoire d'un Vieux Bateau et de son Equipage,' by Alphonse 

 Daudet, with 6 illustrations ; and ' Bug Jargal,' by Victor Hugo, 

 — both edited by James Boielle, senior French master at Dulwich 

 College, England ; also Scribe's ' Le Verre D'Eau ' and Lamar- 

 tine's ' Jeanne D'Arc' (these last are to be edited by A. Barrere, 

 professor of modern languages in the Royal Military Academy, 

 Woolwich, England) ; also a translation of Paolo Mantegazza's 

 'Testa, a Book for Boys,' — a companion book to DeAmicis's 

 ' Cuore.' The translation will be made under the supervision of 

 Prof. L. D. Ventura of Boston, and of the Sauveur Summer School 



of Languages. Messrs. Ginn & Co. will have ready about Dec. 



15 a new edition of Allen & Greenough's ' Latin Grammar.' The 

 revision of eleven years since has stood the tests of every-day use ; 

 but from the day of its publication the book has been studied to 

 find where it could be made better in either great or little points, 

 and the results of this study are given in the present revision. 

 With Collar and Daniell's ' Beginner's Latin Book.' the new ' Gram- 

 mar ' and the new ' Cassar,' ' Cicero,' and ' Virgil,' followed and 

 supplemented by Collar's 'Practical Latin Composition' (now in 

 the printer's hands), and the forthcoming College Series of Latin 

 Authors, with many other texts, teachers in this department will 

 find most serviceable Latin text-books. 



