Accord1ng to M. I. Holl Schooling, of Brussels, there is a very easy way of calculating the age to which a human being may reasonably expect to live, but it is only applicable if his present age lies be tween twelve and eighty-six years. The method is really an old one, and was originally discovered by the mathematician Demoivre, who in 1865 emigrated from France to England, and became a member of the Royal Society. The rule is this: Subtract your present age from eighty-six, divide the remainder by two, and the result will give the number of years which you may expect to live. The rule may be ap proximately correct for some ages, and represents perhaps the nearest solution of an insoluble problem at which we can arrive.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Apart lrom the beginning of Mr. Morley's important Cromwell series, and Mr. Thompson's bear biography, there is a hither to unpublished poem by the late James Russell Lowell ('•Verses Written in a Copy of Shakespeare"); the true and terrible story of the adventures of a boat-load of castaways on the Pacific is told by Mark Twain; Governor Roosevelt writes of "Military Preparedness and L'npreparedness" : and a humorously gruesome piece of realistic fiction by Dr. Weir Mitchell entitled "The Autobiography of a Quack." President Eliot of Harvard resumes his occasional contributions on "The Forgotten Millions." Fiction in short story form is furnished by Abraham Cahan, Ella D'Arcy, and Seumas MacManus.
The recent publication of Lord Rosebery's "Ap preciations and Addresses " led to a curious suit, the ••London Times" having brought an action on the ground that it was not permissible to make use of reports of Lord Rosebery's addresses which had ap peared in its columns. As all the proof-sheets were revised by Lord Rosebery's secretary, from the orig inal manuscripts, it would seem as if the author's rights, in this instance, transcended those of the newspaper reporter. But the court thought other wise, and decided in favor of •. The Times."
The chief editorial topic in the Amer1can Monthly Rev1ew of Rev1ews for November is the war in South Africa. In '•The Progress of the World " the editor gives a full exposition of the British and Boer sides of the quarrel, respectively, and Mr. Stead contributes a character sketch of Cecil Rhodes. Mr. Frederick W. Holls contributes a carefully prepared paper on ••The Results of the Peace Conference in Their Relation to the Monroe Doctrine."
LITERARY NOTES. Mr. Sylvester Baxter tells the story of "The Great November Storm of 1898," in the November Scr1bner's one of the most destructive ever known on the New England coast. President Hadley of Yale College writes an article of the most timely interest on "The Formation and Control of Trusts." Mr. Alfred Stieglitz writes of -' Pictorial Photography." In their paper on •• The Paris of Honore de Balzac," Benjamin Ellis Martin and Charlotte M. Martin de scribe the many localities and homes associated with the great French author. The stories of the number are " The Man on Horseback." by William Allen White, and " The Real One," an amusing bit of ro mantic comedy by Jesse Lynch Williams.
"The Real Problems of Democracy " by Franklin Smith, is the subject of the leading article in Appleton's Popular Sc1ence Monthly for November. Under the title "An English University," Mr. Herbert Stotesbury describes Cambridge. The curious -' kiss ing bug" epidemic is next discussed by no less an authority than Prof. L. O. Howard, chief of the Divi sion of Entomology at Washington. The subject of '• Food Poisoning " is of the first importance to every householder, and Professor Vaughan's article on this subject is so careful a study, that every housekeeper should study it carefully. The principles of •. Wire less Telegraphy " are explained and illustrated by Prof. John Trowbridge. The question of •• Improve ments in Theater Sanitation" is treated by William Paul Gerhard. In "The New Field Botany," Prof. Byron I). Halsted tells of the study of the surround ings of plants and their adaptation to them.
Amer1can readers will have an opportunity to be come familiar with the most striking work which M. Rene Bazin has thus far done, in the translation of " The Perishing Land," which is published seri ally in The L1v1ng Age, beginning in the number for November 4. The cover design of The Century Magaz1ne for November includes a portrait of Cromwell redrawn on stone by Ernest Haskell and printed in tints; while the frontispiece — also in tints — is a woodengraving from Cooper's painting of the Protector in
The November New L1pp1ncott contains a com plete novel by Mark Lee Luther, entitled •• The Liverv of Honor," and deals with the capture of Burgovne and with events in London and Cambridge which surrounded it. Almost a novel in its artistic com pleteness is " A Landlocked Sailor." by Sarah Orne Jewett. Of admirable papers, skillfully treated, there are the following: "The November Meteors," by Charles A. Young; •• The Last Victory of ' Old Iron sides.' " by George Gibbs : " Old Age Pensions from
