Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/870

850 plan in the stellar section of this treatise by giving as complete a review as he could of the various theories which have been advocated with regard to the Milky Way and the distribution of stars and nebulæ. 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 characteristic of the author. The volume is indexed, and the illustrations comprise 31 plates and 472 wood-cuts.

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 materials 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 numerous other features that aid in deciphering, and in deciding as to the age and genuineness of a given document. The author describes 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 Phœnician, and the Greek. Among the materials need 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 convenient 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 papyrus from those on vellum. He considers first the book hand on papyrus, next the cursive hand on the same material, then the uncial hand on vellum, and lastly the mediæval minuscule writing. A similar course is taken in tracing the history of Latin palæography: The two branches of majuscule writing—capitals and uncials—form the first division, then come the modified uncial, mixed hands, and the half-uncial. Roman cursive writing is next taken up, descriptions of the national minuscule hands derived from it follow, and the history is brought down to include English charter hands of the fifteenth and sixteenth 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 possible a really instructive book on this subject at a moderate price. These facsimiles enable 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 volume has an index, and a list of the principal palæographical works used or referred to by the author is appended.

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 substantial cardboard case.

The Celestial Handbook is intended as a companion to the planisphere, and has been compiled especially for the use of amateurs