328
��Publishers^ Department.
��[May,
��PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT.
��A Short History of Our Own Times. By Justin McCarthy, m.p. One volume, pp. 448. Harper and Brothers : New York. 1884.
The brilliant History of Our Own Times, in two volumes, by the same author, and published four years ago, has now been presented to the public in a reduced size. While it was nec- essary to leave out many of the striking and rhetorical passages in the process of condensation, which formed so pleasing a portion in the larger work, the strictly historical matter remains unchanged. His history, beginning with the accession of Queen Victoria, in 1837, and extending to the general election, in 1880, the date of the appointment of the Honorable W. E. Gladstone to the premiership of Eng- land, covers a period of intense in- terest, and with which every intelligent person should be familiar. Mr. Mc- Carthy's work is destined to be, for some time to come, the standard account of English affairs for the last fifty years.
One of the most valuable reference works of recent publication is The Epitome of Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History. By Carl Ploetz. Translated from the German, with extensive additions, by William H. Tillinghast, of the Harvard University library. One volume. pp. 61S. Houghton, Mifflin, and Company: Boston. 1884.
The author of the original work, Professor Doctor Carl Ploetz, is well known in Germany as a veteran teacher and writer of educational books which have a high reputation, excellence, and
��authority. With regard to the present work, it should be observed that it has passed through seven editions in Ger- many. As a book of reference, either for the student or the general reader, its tested usefulness is a sufficient guar- anty for its wide adoption in the pres- ent enlarged form. The scope of The Epitome may be summarized as fol- lows : Universal history is first treated by dividing it into three periods. First, ancient history, from the earliest his- torical information to the year 375 a.d. Second, mediseval, from that date to the discovery of America, in 1492. Third, modern history, from the last date to the year 1883.
We have received from the author, the Honorable Samuel Abbott Green, M.D., a pamphlet entitled " Notes on a Copy of Dr. William Douglass's Almanack for 1743, touching on the subject of medicine in Massachusetts before his time." It is specially inter- esting to the members of the medical fraternity, as well as to antiquaries.
Correction. — The article upon Lovewell's fight at Pigwacket, printed in the February number of the Bay State (page 83), contained a trifling error, but one which deserves correc- tion. It is stated that the township of land with which the General Court, in 1774, rewarded the services of the troops under Lovewell, was subse- quently divided, forming the towns of Lovell and New Sweden. The mis- take was upon the name of the latter town. It should have been written Sweden. New Sweden is the recent Swedish colony of Aroostook County.
I. B. c.
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