With the view of remedying this manifold and increasing inconvenience, we are glad to be able to take advantage of a comprehensive project recently set on foot in France, emphatically the land of Popular Science. The well-known publishers MM. Reinwald and Co., have made satisfactory arrangements with some of the leading savants of that country to supply an exhaustive series of works on each and all of the sciences of the day, treated in a style at once lucid, popular, and strictly methodic.
The names of MM. P. Broca, Secretary of the Société d’Anthropologie; Ch. Martins, Montpellier University; C. Vogt, University of Geneva; G. de Mortillet, Museum of Saint Germain; A. Guillemin, author of “Ciel” and “Phénomènes de la Physique;” A. Hovelacque, editor of the “Revue de Linguistique;” Dr. Dally, Dr. Letourneau, and many others, whose cooperation has already been secured, are a guarantee that their respective subjects will receive thorough treatment, and will in all cases be written up to the very latest discoveries, and kept in every respect fully abreast of the times.
We have, on our part, been fortunate in making such further arrangements with some of the best writers and recognised authorities here, as will enable us to present the series in a thoroughly English dress to the reading public of this country. In so doing we feel convinced that we are taking the best means of supplying a want that has long been deeply felt.
The volumes in actual course of execution, or contemplated, will embrace such subjects as:
- SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. [Ready.
- BIOLOGY. [In November.
- ANTHROPOLOGY. [In December.
- COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY.
- ASTRONOMY.
- PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY.
- ETHNOGRAPHY.
- GEOLOGY.
- HYGIENE.
- POLITICAL ECONOMY.
- PHYSICAL AND COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY.
- PHILOSOPHY.
- ARCHITECTURE.
- CHEMISTRY.
- EDUCATION.
- GENERAL ANATOMY.
- ZOOLOGY.
- BOTANY.
- METEOROLOGY.
- HISTORY.
- FINANCE.
- MECHANICS.
- STATISTICS, &c. &c.
All the volumes, while complete and so far independent in themselves, will be of uniform appearance, slightly varying, according to the nature of the subject, in bulk and in price.
When finished they will form a Complete Collection of Standard Works of Reference on all the physical and mental sciences, thus fully justifying the general title chosen for the series—“Library of Contemporary Science.”
“This is a translation of the first work of a new French series of Popular Scientific Works. The high character of the series, and also its bias, may be inferred from the names of some of its writers, e.g. P. Broca, Ch. Martins, C. Vogt, &c. The English publishers announce that the present volume will be followed immediately by others on Anthropology and Biology. If they are like their precursor, they will be clear and well written, somewhat polemical, and nobly contemptuous of opponents.... The translator has done his work throughout with care and success.”—Athenæum, Sept. 22, 1877.