850 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



plan in the stellar section of this treatise by 

 giving as complete a review as he could of 

 the various theories which have been advo- 

 cated with regard to the Milky Way and the 

 distribution of stars and nebulae. A feature 

 of the book is the explanatory notes at the 

 foot of nearly every page, and in these notes, 

 throughout Mr. Proctor's chapters, are often 

 to be found vigorous criticisms of words, 

 things, and men which are notably charac- 

 teristic of the author. The volume is in- 

 dexed, and the illustrations comprise 31 

 plates and 472 wood-cuts. 



Handbook of Greek and Latin Paleogra- 

 phy. By Edward Mattnde Thompson, 

 D. C. L., etc. The International Scientific 

 Series, Vol. LXX. New York: D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co. Pp. 343. Price, $1.75. 



The general reader will begin to have 

 some fellow-feeling with the delver among 

 ancient manuscripts after he has read this 

 book, and learned something about the ma- 

 terials and implements used by scribes of 

 different periods, the successive changes in 

 the forms of the alphabetic characters, the 

 various styles of handwriting characterizing 

 different times and localities, and the numer- 

 ous other features that aid in deciphering, 

 and in deciding as to the age and genuine- 

 ness of a given document. The author de- 

 scribes the Greek and the Latin alphabets, 

 and gives charts showing the forms of script 

 letters at different periods, and how the Latin 

 alphabet was derived from the Egyptian 

 hieroglyphs, through the hieratic, the Phoe- 

 nician, and the Greek. Among the materials 

 used to receive writing he enumerates leaves, 

 bark, linen, clay, metals, both plain and waxed 

 wooden tablets, papyrus, skins, parchment, 

 vellum, and finally paper. The letters were 

 scratched on waxen tablets with a sharp- 

 pointed stylus ; on papyrus they were traced 

 in ink with a reed. The old form of a book 

 was the roll. After the practice of hinging 

 two or more tablets together in a " codex " 

 arose, vellum books took on this more con- 

 venient shape. The further transition to the 

 modern bound volume was easy. Naturally 

 the ancient scribes sought to diminish their 

 toil by abbreviations and contractions of 

 words. These abbreviations form one of the 

 chief difficulties that a person meets with 

 when he begins to read Latin and Greek 



manuscripts, and a large number of them are 

 explained by Mr. Thompson. In describing 

 the several styles of Greek writing Mr. 

 Thompson divides manuscripts written on pa- 

 pyrus from those on vellum. He considers 

 first the book hand on papyrus, next the cur- 

 sive hand on the same material, then the un- 

 cial hand on vellum, and lastly the mediaeval 

 minuscule writing. A similar course is taken 

 in tracing the history of Latin palaeography : 

 The two branches of majuscule writing — 

 capitals and uncials — form the first division, 

 then come the modified uncial, mixed hands, 

 and the half-uncial. Koman cursive writing 

 is next taken up, descriptions of the national 

 minuscule hands derived from it follow, and 

 the history is brought down to include Eng- 

 lish charter hands of the fifteenth and six- 

 teenth centuries. In these chapters, which 

 constitute two thirds of the work, is seen a 

 striking instance of the aid which physical 

 science is giving to all branches of research 

 and endeavor. Photographic engraving, by 

 means of which the author puts before his 

 readers actual facsimiles of a large number 

 of styles of ancient writing, alone makes pos- 

 sible a really instructive book on this subject 

 at a moderate price. These facsimiles en- 

 able us to compare, side by side, specimens 

 from manuscripts which lie scattered in the 

 different libraries of Europe, and which could 

 never have been brought together. The vol- 

 ume has an index, and a list of the principal 

 palatograph ical works used or referred to by 

 the author is appended. 



Poole Brothers' Celestial Planisphere. 

 Drawn and compiled by Jules A. Colas. 

 Price, $3. — Poole Brothers' Celestial 

 Handbook. Compiled and edited by 

 Jules A. Colas. Pp. xiv + 1 10. Price, 

 $2. Chicago : Poole Brothers. 



The planisphere published by Messrs. 

 Poole Brothers consists of the usual map of 

 the constellations on a disk nineteen inches 

 and a half in diameter, revolving under a 

 screen. A skeleton screen is used, so that 

 besides the constellations visible in the sky 

 nearly all the others on the map can be seen. 

 Disk and screen are mounted on a heavy 

 sheet of cardboard, which slips into a sub- 

 stantial cardboard case. 



The Celestial Handbook is intended as a 

 companion to the planisphere, and has been 

 compiled especially for the use of amateurs 







