298 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 306- 



— Instead of enlarging the Writer and increasing its price, as 

 its publisher had planned, he will publish a companion monthly, to 

 be called the Author. The first number is promised Jan. i, and 

 will contain selected and original matter of special importance to 

 writers. 



— For young people, the ' Children's Stories of the Great 

 Scientists,' by Henrietta Christian Wright (New York, Scribner), 

 equals in interest the author's two previous books, which have 

 attained popularity as supplementary readers. It deals, in a sim- 

 ple, entertaining manner, with sixteen of the great men of science, 

 giving a brief, readable account of their lives and of what discov- 

 eries they made. The narratives are fresh and animated, having 

 that graphic picturesqueness which is rarely found in the treat- 

 ment of such topics. The portraits of Galileo, Newton, Franklin, 



Parson-s. They will publish on the 14th, in their popular Young 

 People Series, another volume by Kirk Munroe, entitled ' Crystal 

 Jack & Co.,' but which also includes a shorter story, ' Delta Bixby ; ' 

 Mr. Howells's new novel. ' Annie Kilburn ; ' and Walter Besant's 

 ' All Sorts and Conditions of Men.' 



— The committee on publication of the Grolier Club, New York,- 

 announces in The Publishers' Weekly of Dec. 8, that, owing to un- 

 avoidable delays in the editifig. and in the preparation of suitable 

 type and engraved ornaments, it has been impossible to issue, as 

 early as anticipated, the long-promised new edition of the ' Phil- 

 obiblon.' This work, it may be interesting to note, was written by 

 Richardus d'Aungerville, an English prelate, called also Richard de 

 Bury, who was born at Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, in 1281. He 

 was educated at the University of Oxford, and entered the order of 



From ' Children^ s Stori> 



LOUIS AGASSIZ. 

 ^ 0/ the Great Scientists,' 



Agassiz, Faraday, Darwin, and others, reflect excellently the char- 

 acters of the men. These short biographical chapters contain a 

 large amount of information on almost every branch of science. 



— D. Appleton & Co. have now ready ' The Household History 

 of the United States and its People, for Young Americans,' by Ed- 

 ward Eggleston. A school edition of this work was published last 

 September. 



— " The book of the week," says G. W. Smalley in the Tribune 

 for Dec. 2, is " Earl Stanhope's ' Notes of Conversations with the 

 Duke of Wellington.' This little volume abounds in anecdotes of 

 the most interesting kind ; interesting, above all, as giving the 

 diike's opinions in his own words on people and events in his own 

 time." 



— Harper & Brothers published last week the handsomely bound 

 book of 'Old Songs,' illustrated by Edwin A. Abbey and Alfred 



Benedictine monks. On the accession to the throne of Edward 

 III., whose instructor he had been, he was promoted to various 

 offices of dignity, and was finally made bishop of Durham, as well 

 as lord high chancellor and treasurer of England. At Oxford he 

 founded a library for the use of the students, which he furnished 

 with the best collection of books then in England ; and for the 

 keepers of this library he wrote the ' Philobiblon,' which contains 

 directions for the management of the library, and an elaborate eu- 

 logy of learning, and the most charming treatise on the love of 

 books, in Monkish Latin, which was first printed at Cologne, 1473, 

 then at Spires, 14S3, and finally at Oxford, 1599. In his researches 

 abroad. Professor West of Princeton discovered in the various pub- 

 lic libraries of Europe a number of early manuscripts of the ' Phil- 

 obiblon,' and has made an exhaustive study and collation of these, 

 adopting the reading which, upon comparison, seemed to him au- 

 thentic. The result, it is hoped, has been the production of a text 

 and translation which will probably hereafter be considered as the 



