Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/887

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student of scientific works written in foreign languages encounters many difficulties in the technical terms. They are not given in the ordinary dictionaries, or, if they are, it is as common words with common meanings, and not with any view to scientific correctness. The terms of German science are formed by the composition of native roots, and have no analogous forms in the scientific terms of other languages, and thus frequently offer a double difficulty. The meaning may be thought out, but it is often with risk to accuracy. In the absence of any German medical dictionary corresponding to Dunglison's dictionary, Dr. Cutter has been in the habit for twenty years of writing down the technical terms he met, and their definitions when they could be ascertained. He now publishes the results of these labors in this volume of three hundred double-columned pages of words and their definitions. Its value does not have to be proclaimed.

and mythology in this work are ranked together, and the writer maintains that they are both to be outgrown with the progress of knowledge. His point of view is thoroughly naturalistic; but the author protests that his book is written in no spirit of hostility to the religious sentiment of mankind. It seeks to get rid of manifest error, and is content with what remains.

is a book of old mediæval legends and stories, the authors of which nobody knows anything about, and which have been revamped and thrown into the modern market. It is claimed that there is considerable new matter about Arthur and his Knights, and that the whole contents have undergone revision so as to make them acceptable to the taste of the readers of these times. The book contains the story of Merlin, Sir Tristram, Roland, Bewulf, Guy of Warwick, the Volsungs, and many others.

begins with this number a new series of "The American Entomologist." It will be, as it was before, practical and popular, and devoted not to entomology alone, but also to other branches of science so far as they are collateral or related to entomology. Arrangements will be made for the publication of local lists and purely descriptive matter as it may be furnished, without encroaching upon the space devoted to matter of general interest.

takes the place of the "American Quarterly Microscopical Journal," and is intended to be an authoritative and trustworthy periodical for all persons interested in microscopy. Among the subjects which will be treated of at an early date is the detection of adulterations in food, and a translation of Eyferth's "Simplest Forms of Life," by the editor, is promised.

is an attempt to give in a concise form the outline of the science of economics as laid down by Mr. Mill, and as improved by writers since his time. It consists of a consideration of the laws of the production and distribution of wealth; such subjects as banking, foreign trade, and taxation being reserved for a future volume.