NEW VOLUME OF THE "ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA." * THIS is the
first of a series of eleven volumes which are to supplement and bring up to date the ninth edition of the Encyclopmdia Britannica, converting it, in fact, into a tenth edition. With a highly commendable energy, the publishers have arranged that the whole of this very considerable addition should be made in the course of this year. It is already in a very forward condition. Specimens of articles as late in the alphabetical order as "S" and " T " are included in a. large pamphlet which has been forwarded to us along with the volume now under review. There is a long list of distin- guished contributors, and the editorial supervision, to judge from the names of the directorate, is all that could be desired. In short, the undertaking is being conducted with equal enterprise and intelligence, and with a liberal use of all avail- able resources. It will not, we hope, be considered discourteous if we add that the promoters seem to be not unconscious of their own deservings.
The purpose of the supplementary volumes is primarily to give such new or newly developed knowledge as has been acquired since the publication of the ninth edition. The first volume of this appeared, it will be remembered, in 1875, the last in 1889. This gives more than a quarter of a century for change or discovery in soma provinces of knowledge, and not less than half of that time in all. The mere figures are enough to justify, or we might say necessitate, this great effort to supply what will be, at least for a time, an adequate text-book in general knowledge. Incidentally there has been an oppor- tunity of repairing omissions, accidental or deliberate, in the edition of 1875-89. There will now be biographies of living persons of distinction, a practice which has evidently established itself and to which it is useless to object. (Biographies of deceased celebrities were always a part of the scheme.) In. this volume we have memoirs of Charles Francis Adams, the third of a line of distinguished American statesmen (died 1886), of the two Alcotts (father and daughter), and of Matthew
• The Encyclopadia Brit:maize. No. I of the New Volumes. " Aachen"— " Australia." London A. and C. Black, and The Times. Arnold, the last by Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton. This is not the occasion for criticising Mr. Watts-Dunton's appreciation. There are some to whom Arnold seems one of the finest literary types that this country has ever pro- duced. These will think the present appreciation in- adequate. Mr. Watts-Dunton is clearly not an " Arnoldite." In that, it must be conceded, he has the vast majority of readers on his side. The "few," however, are firmly con- vinced that they are "fit" and, on the ponderantur non numerantur principle, not inconsiderable. We must take leave to protest against the portrait which accompanies the memoir. It is really nothing less than libellous. Of omissions which have not been made good we see one notable instance in the Emperor Aurelian. He was certainly one of the strongest of Roman soldiers.
Among subjects that concern the well-being of the people we find "Adulteration." The last twenty-six years have been eventful in this matter, and the last word has not yet been said. Meanwhile some advance has been made, and it only needs that the occasional supineness of local authorities should be stirred into action for the attainment of a fairly satisfactory condition of affairs. Somersetshire, which in 1890 took one sample for analysis for every 379 inhabitants, reached almost an ideal when the percentage of adulterated articles was only 36; while Oxfordshire, which contented itself with a total of twelve analyses (one for 14,963), had to put up with a percentage of 41.7. The paragraphs on "Milk" and "Butter" may be specially commended to the attention of our readers. (The article, we should say, is from the pen of Dr. Otto Heiner.) Advances in agriculture are represented by two important articles, one on "Agricultural Machinery," by Mr. F. O. Skinner, of Washington, U.S. (in the States and in Canada the use of machinery is vastly in advance of any- thing to be found in the United Kingdom), and the other on "Agriculture," by Mr. Fream (for the United Kingdom) and Dr. Charles W. Dabney (for the United States). The most striking feature in Mr. Fream's article is his treatment of the subject of livestock. The growth of cereals is not a branch of the subject which can be regarded with any satisfaction. Our average is high (30.15 bushels per acre of wheat as against 121 in the States), but it must be considered that only the most suitable land is retained under cultivation for this pur- pose. On the other hand, the development of good breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep is treated in a way that gives plea- sure as well as instruction. The illustrations are quite admir- able. We see that the exports of livestock in 1900 amounted to nearly a million pounds ; nor was this total largely in- creased by the exigencies of the war, the average of value of horses falling in that year below the average of 1896-1900 by about 275,000. (The maximum was 2842,106 in 1898, and the minimum £671,332 in 1896.)
" Aeronautics " is a subject in which we expect, and find, the record of a great advance. The twenty-seven years since 1885 have been fertile in experiments of this class. There are two classes of air machines, the dirigible balloon and the flying machine. At present the former holds the superior place—it surpasses its rival in "performance and safety "—but the flying machine has been greatly developed of late years, and if it makes equal progress in the future it will solve the problem of aerial progression. The root idea of the thing has been changed from the flapping wing to the aeroplane. Too much must not be looked for. Birds, the flying machines of Nature, cannot contend against a gale, and we must be content to keep our air-ships as well as our water-ships in harbour when the storm-cone has been hoisted.
The subject of " Armies " has been entrusted to Major. General Maurice (British). Major M. Nathan (British Colonial), and Sir J. J. H. tx'ortiun (ludian), other writers dealiug with the establishments and systems of foreign countries. t.t is a curious illustration of how rapidly the latest statement of facts becomes superseded. General Maurice, writing in November, 1901. says, "the pay of the soldier has been slightly improved." Since that time a further improvement, which may fairly be said to supersede the epithet "slight," has been made. In other respects the article brings up our information to the latest available detail. Where everything is interesting in a high degree it is difficult to choose specimens. Here are some significant contrasts. At Waterloo a battalion of a thousand had forty-two subalterns on parade ; at Thiefontein (March 19th, 1900) the Buffs had one officer per company. The difference is emphasised by the change in tactics. The Waterloo battalion had a front of five hundred paces ; in South Africa a single company often had a front of double the length. Of course this tends to economy. Expenditure, indeed, has been transferred from the top to the bottom of the scale. In 1870 there were three hundred and seventy- four Generals of all grades, now there are a hundred and nine, and the lucrative colonekies have been abolished. The prospects of the officer are narrowly limited ; only the clergy have less to look forward to. It is interesting to note how much better paid they were in the Commonwealth days. It is too large a subject to enter upon here, but we imagine that the most effective armies of history were those that were the most fully officered.
Among the historico-geographical articles the most im- portant is "Africa." There is much to add to what a writer had to tell his readers seven-and-twenty years ago. Explorers have been busy, and statesmen have been yet busier. It is to this section of the subject that the largest portion of space has been accorded. Mr. E. Heawood has fourteen pages for "Physical Geology," Professor A. H. Keane two and a half for "Ethnology," and Dr. J. Scott-Keltie twenty-two for "Recent History." It is impossible to follow the story, full as it is of significant details. But we may give some striking figures, showing the "Spheres of Influence" in 1875 and.
1900 :— 187.5.
Square Miles. 1900.
Square Miles.
British Africa 241,461 2,713,910 French „ 168,250 3,804,974 Portuguese,, 34,387 790,120 Spanish „ 853 169,150 German „ . 933,380 Italian
188,500
Independent Africa figures with 1,491,000 square miles, and out of this the Congo Free State counts 900,000. The freedom of the Congolese with their amiable Belgian administrators is a doubtful quantity. The French total is enormous, but it includes nearly two million square miles for the Sahara. On the other hand, Egypt and the Soudan are counted under the head of Turkish Africa. They amount together to a little more than a million. This territory may be reckoned to Britain at least as legitimately as Tunis is reckoned to France. The general aspect of the matter is not unsatisfactory; if we were to go into detail, and compare the relative values of the British, French, and German spheres, we should find still less to complain of.
We must be content with a bare mention of two articles which indicate the progress of physical discovery in an ha- portent direction,—" .,Ether," by Dr. Larmor, and "Argon," by Lord Rayleigh.
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