Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/283

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LITERARY NOTICES.
271

Archer; also "The Religion of Self-Respect," by Mrs. Lynn Linton; "A Month in Russia," by Lady Randolph Churchill; "Wrestling in Japan," by the Hon. George N. Curzon, M. P. Papers on General Boulanger, the French elections, and the German emperor are among the contents of the early numbers, and the scientific arts are represented by an article on "The Eiffel Tower," by M. Eiffel, and one on "Electric Lighting," by the Duke of Marlborough. English political problems, general sociological questions, literature, history, and biography are among the fields which "The New Review" has already entered, and Charles Bradlaugh, St. George Mivart, M. Flourens, and Andrew Lang are among the contributors not already mentioned. Its mechanical work is excellent.

Handy Lists of Technical Literature. Part I. Useful Arts in General, Products and Processes used in Manufacture, Technology, and Trades. Compiled by H. E. Haferkorn and Paul Heise. Milwaukee: National Publishing and Printing Company. Pp. 99. Price with Key, $1.25 paper; $1.50 cloth.

As one of the tools of the book trade, this series of lists can not fail to be of value. It furnishes information about a class of books, many of which are published and distributed through other than the well-known trade channels, and hence are not easily found. Part I, already issued, contains titles of books in English published since 1880 of the classes specified in its title, entered alphabetically under the author 's name, or, if anonymous, under the first word of the title. Each title is numbered, and the names of subjects are inserted in the same list, with cross-references to the titles. References are given also to articles in cyclopædias and to parts of works treating of the various subjects. The size, price, and date of each book are given, and the publisher is indicated by an abbreviation. The key consists of a list of the publishers' names for which these abbreviations stand, with addresses, each followed by the list-numbers of the books mentioned which the publisher issues or keeps on sale. An appendix to the "Handy List" consists of a selection of books of the same class published before 1880, and still kept on publishers' and jobbers' lists. Other parts to be published will include lists on military and marine affairs, engineering, mining, fine arts, building, and miscellaneous subjects.

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by George Grove. Appendix. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 306. Price, $2.25.

The large demand for this elaborate work, which now appears in a complete form, with its steady increase from the beginning, in Europe and America, are accepted by the publishers as showing that on the whole the book has fulfilled the intentions with which it started. Shortcomings were to be expected, and may be found; but with all the allowance that need be made for them, the value of the work is exceedingly great, and is far more than an equivalent return for the cost. Many of the special articles are treatises in themselves, and the biographical notices give very satisfactory accounts of the lives and works of musical men of every class, with fullness proportionate, on the average, to the importance of the subject. The purpose of the appendix, which was promised from the beginning of the publication, is to supply omissions and correct errors in the original text, furnish new information, and bring the whole up to the latest practicable dates. It is arranged alphabetically, and forms a considerable volume in itself. A copious index of the whole four volumes will shortly be published in a separate volume.

"Bulletin, No. 36," of the United States National Museum, is A Review of the Family Delphinidæ, prepared by Frederick W. True, as a contribution to the natural history of the cetaceans. The publication is the fortyseventh of a series of papers intended to illustrate the collections of the National Museum. Previous to preparing the review, Mr. True visited the European museums, in order to examine the type specimens contained in them as an essential prelude to the proper comparison of species. He there also met several zoölogists, who furnished him information; among them, Prof. Flower, who placed in his hands the proof-sheets of his own work on "The Delphinidæ." The present work differs from Prof. Flower's in that it is directed to the determination of