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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2
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page 79
Will our friends in all parts of New Zealand and Australia kindly send us (by book post, open) newspaper cuttings, with authority and date, of all press items of interest? Our paper is the only one in the Australian colonies that makes an attempt to systematically record such items, which will be of increasing interest in years to come, and we wish our record to be as complete as possible. Our exchanges are now so numerous that we are not able to look them all through; many of our good friends send us daily papers when the weekly issue would better answer our purpose, and save us much time: and we are very liable to overlook interesting items. Annotations in MSS. will pass by book post, so long as the matter is for bona fide publication.
A billion is the second power of a million, or 1,000,000,000,000. That the term signifies a second power is evident by the « bi. » A trillion is the third power, or a million billions. In French numeration, for some unaccountable reason, a « billion » is a thousand millions—a mixed amount, and a trillion is a thousand « billions. » The French system is extensively adopted in America, and « a billion dollars, » or « a billion letters » passing through the post in a given time, looks big. English writers, however, should avoid the error. Sir George Grey recently said that New Zealand would some day have « a billion inhabitants. » Some one has calculated that this would allow for each three square yards, including lakes and snowy mountains. Probably Sir George's billion was a French one. A recent school arithmetic admits both kinds of numeration. The large billion, it says, is convenient in astronomical and other calculations where great numbers are required—the smaller one in ordinary, matters! This is nonsense. As an instance of the rapid manner in which the two schemes diverge, we may mention that an English quintillion equals a French nonillion. To express an English decillion 60 ciphers are required, and for a French decillion, 33.
The death of the Rev. E. P. Roe, briefly noted by us last month, would seem to many like the loss of a personal friend. As a writer, he did not take the highest rank; but his stories were really written as sermons, intended to reach a wider congregation than his living voice could ever influence. And the result was that in a few years from the publication of his first book the obscure army chaplain had the English-speaking world for his congregation. His writings are distinguished by a deep love of nature, and one of his tales—Nature's Serial Story, beautifully illustrated by American artists, is as delightful in its way as White's Natural History of Selborne. Up to 1871, when he was pastor of a small country parish in the State of New York, he had never thought of writing anything but his sermons. Business (he has told us) took him to the city on the day of the great Chicago fire. He was unusually excited by the newpaper reports, and acting on a sudden impulse, took the first train to the West, arriving in Chicago the day after the fire was extinguished. He walked among the ruins of the city, saw the distress of the homeless people, and listened to innumerable stories of ruin, loss, and hairbreadth escapes. The idea of writing a story fixed itself in his mind, and the result, in a few months, was Barriers Burned Away, which in a single year yielded him a royalty of $25,000. Over a million copies of his books have been sold in the United States, besides vast numbers in England and the Colonies.
In the death, at a comparatively early age, of Professor Proctor, the world has lost one of its most prominent and industrious men of science. His versatility was remarkable; while, as a mathematician and astronomer he had no rival. He has influenced astronomical science, by his discoveries and theories, to a greater extent than any other scientific man of the present century. He exhibited a wonderful grasp of the conditions of complex physical problems, and a keen perception of paradoxes and fallacies. His patient industry is exhibited in many of his works—one example being his chart of 324,000 stars, which he constructed as a preliminary to his enquiries and investigations regarding the form of the galaxy. If in this respect no positive result was obtained, he at least fully exposed the fallacy of theories formerly in favor. Unfortunately his best works—notably his grand treatise on Saturn—did not pay, and he felt compelled to direct much of his attention to popular scientific literature, which, while making him widely known, possessed no very special value. Seven years ago he started the periodical Knowledge, in which his poorest work is to be found, inasmuch as he wrote dogmatically on subjects so far outside his sphere as philology, ethnology, and Scripture criticism. However, he never lost sight of his great aim—the production of a standard book on his favorite science, which should embody the latest discoveries and conclusions; and this work had made some progress through the press at the time of his lamented death.