SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 361 



subject which comes to hand. Once a week a well-selected bundle 

 of American newspapers is sent to the Vatican ; and the Pope and 

 those that surround him know not only what is going on in the 

 United States, but they are familiar with the calibre and character 

 of the men who make laws and enforce them. It is so in England 

 also. In addition to his correspondence in the British Empire, he 

 follows with eager interest the reports in the various newspapers, 

 not only of the doings of Parliament, but of royalty as well, the 

 progress of the church, and the cause of labor. Much the same 

 plan is followed in Germany ; in fact, from every corner of the 

 world each week is sent to the Holy Father newspapers, books, 

 and magazines containing important discussions. A great many 

 of these are filed away for future reference. The books that in- 

 terest Leo the most are those of a religious, political, and philosoph- 

 ical nature. He cares nothing for fiction, and rarely spends an 

 hour in glancing at novels ; but if he should like to read novels, or, 

 in fact, books of any kind, he has only to walk into the magnificent 

 library attached to the Vatican, for there is not a mail arriving in 

 Rome that does not bring books of all sorts of types from all sorts 

 of authors and publishers. A great many of these the Pope never 

 sees, and many of them are sent to the cardinals who surround him 

 for an opinion of their merits or demerits. But it may be said, 

 taking it all in. all, that the Pope has as wide a field to select from 

 as, if not wider than, any man in Europe ; and he resembles Mr. 

 Gladstone in this, that he is quite willing to spend an hour or more 

 with a magazine or book, if in the end he can find something that 

 is worth remembering. He has a wonderful memory, and, although 

 his eyes are dimmed and his hand trembles, he is still as vigorous 

 mentally as he was when he was elected to succeed Pius IX. 



— Part V. of the "New English Dictionary," edited by Dr. 

 Murray, has just appeared from the Clarendon Press. It com- 

 prises the words from " cast" to " clivy," and contains, in all, 8,371 

 words, of which 5,966 are " main words." It comprises all the 

 words begiuning with ch, which, as the editor remarks, " contains 

 more words than j, k, or q, and more than x,y, and z put to- 

 gether." Many of the words here dealt with have an interesting 

 form-history, which is treated with the same fulness and accuracy 

 that have characterized all previous work of the kind in this dic- 

 tionar.y. The verb "cast" fills five pages, — the largest space re- 

 quired by any word yet reached ; and the other strong verbs, of 

 which the present instalment contains quite a number, are treated 

 with similar fulness. The scientific terms comprise the important 

 groups beginning with " cerebro-," " chalco-," " chiro-," "chloro-," 

 together with many others. One of the most interesting features 

 of this part of the dictionary is the large group of words relating 

 to the Christian church, including " Christ " and its derivatives, 

 " church," " catholic," " clergy," "cherub," and many more, all of 

 which are treated with great fulness of detail and wealth of illus- 

 tration. It is somewhat singular that the origin of "church'' is 

 still uncertain, the derivation from Greek, nvpiaKjdv, meaning " of 

 the Lord," which the editors adopt, being admittedly uncertain. 

 The system of spelling and pronunciatiou adopted in. the diction- 

 ary, though not always such as we should prefer, is in the main 

 judicious, and remarkably free from hobbies. To criticise such a 

 work as this would require almost as great a combination of talents 

 and information as has been employed in its preparation, while to 

 praise it is superfluous ; and we will therefore commend it anew 

 to our readers without further comment. 



— The January Magazine of Americati History opens its 

 twenty-third volume. A portrait of William Cullen Bryant forms 

 the frontispiece, and a paper by the editor treats of his place in 

 American history. " A Rare Picture of Early New York," painted 

 on the panel of an old Dutch war-vessel, a view never before pub- 

 lished, is a contribution from the collector Dr. Thomas Addis Em- 

 met. "Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mrs. Stowe," an extract from the 

 new work of Mrs. McCray, is entertaining, and is also illustrated ; 

 then from Hon. J. O. Dykman there is a sketch of " St. Anthony's 

 Face " on the Hudson, with a picture of that piece of natural sculp- 

 ture. Of interest for every thoughtful reader is the study, by Hon. 

 Gerry W. Hazleton of Milwaukee, entitled " Federal and Anti- 

 Federal ; " next following, Hon. James W. Gerard shows, in the 

 longest paper of the number, " The Impress of Nationalities upon 



the City of New York." A paper, " Ralph Izard, the South Caro- 

 lina Statesman," comes from the pen of Dr. Manigault of Charles- 

 ton, which, with "American Republics — Their Differences," by- 

 George W. Pavey, completes the group of contributions. 



— The January issue of Th-e Quarterly Journal of Econotnics^ 

 published for Harvard University, will contain articles by Professor 

 Hart of Harvard, on American cities, discussing their rise, the 

 causes of their growth, their population, the foreign element ; by 

 Professor Hadley of Yale, on the effects of the prohibition of pools- 

 by the Interstate Commerce Act ; by Professor Giddings of Bryrv 

 Mawr, on the theory of interest, a solid contribution to economic 

 theory ; by E. Cummings, describing the exhibition on social sub- 

 jects at the Paris Universal Exposition ; and by A. de Foville of 

 Paris, on the economic movement in France, the revival of the pro- 

 tectionist feeling, and the legislation on railroads. In addition, 

 there will be varied notes and memoranda, and the usual bibliog- 

 raphy of recent economic publications. 



— E. & F. N. Spon have just issued a third edition of " Brown's- 

 Manual of Assaying Gold, Silver, Copper, and Lead Ores," by- 

 Walter Lee Brown, B.Sc, thoroughly revised and corrected. This- 

 manual is a l2mo of 488 pages, with 94 illustrations, colored plate, 

 and flexible covers. It is devoted to the assaymg of the ores of 

 the four metals mentioned, but principally to those of gold and sil- 

 ver. Every step is clearly defined, from the crushing of the rough 

 ore to the weighmg of the final particle of gold obtained. The 

 important features of this, as compared with the first edition, are,, 

 increase in matter and illustrations ; the expansion of the crucible 

 process to almost ninety pages : full charges in the scorilication' 

 process ; detailed notes on the colors of scorifiers (with a colored 

 plate) and cupels, after work ; the stating of all charges in assay- 

 tons, grams, and grains ; and more complete articles on the assay 

 of gold and silver bullion, and volumetric analysis of copper ores. 

 The book is a practical treatise, free from technicality, and as such 

 will be of value to every one interested in mining or assaying, 

 whether an expert or an investigator. 



— We have received from C. W. Bardeen of Syracuse, N.Y., a 

 series of " Papers on School Issues of the Day," Nos. I.-VII. They 

 were originally read at the meeting of the National Educational 

 Association at Nashville, Tenn., last July, and contain much inter- 

 esting matter. The largest of the pamphlets, and the one most 

 likely to attract attention, is that on " Denominational Schools,"^ 

 being a discussion by Cardinal Gibbons and Bishop Keane of the 

 Roman Catholic Church on the one side, and Edwin D. Mead and 



' John Jay on the other. The ablest part of the discussion, in our opin- 

 ion, is the essay by Mr. Mead, who has evidently given the subject a 

 good deal of thought and study ; but the Roman Catholic view of 

 the subject was ably presented by Bishop Keane, and there are 

 many points of interest in Mr. Jay's paper. All persons interested 

 in the subject should read this pamphlet. The two next of the pa- 

 pers before us are by William T. Harris, on "The Educational 

 Value of Manual Training," and on " Art Education the True 

 Industrial Education." The former is the report of a committee 

 appointed at a previous meeting of the Educational Association, 

 of which Mr. Harris was chairman. It deals but little with the 

 economic aspects of manual training, and treats of its educational 

 or disciplinary value only, which it deems of a low order. The 

 paper on " Art Education " is the work of Mr. Harris himself, and 

 insists on the importance of artistic training of a high order, even 

 for industrial purposes. The paper on " Methods of Instruction 

 and Courses of Study in Normal Schools," by Thomas J. Gray, is 

 largely technical, and therefore of less general interest than some of 

 the others ; but it was highly commended by those who listened to 

 it. ■ B. A. Hmsdale discussed the subject of " Pedagogical Chairs 

 in Colleges and Universities," maintaining the -importance of such 

 chairs and their appropriateness in such institutions. The last 

 of our pamphlets is by Charles Foster Smith, on " Honorary De- 

 grees as conferred in American Colleges." The author shows that 

 such degrees are now conferred without regard to merit or achieve- 

 ment, and rightly holds this to be a pernicious practice ; but he has 

 little that is new to suggest in the way of remedy. All these papers 

 give evidence of the recent awakening of thought in this country 

 on educational themes. 



