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DATA SCIENCE
FOUNDATIONS
Geometry and Topology
of Complex Hierarchic Systems
and Big Data Analytics
Chapman & Hall/CRC
Computer Science and Data Analysis Series
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SERIES EDITORS
David Blei, Princeton University
David Madigan, Rutgers University
Marina Meila, University of Washington
Fionn Murtagh, Royal Holloway, University of London
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Published Titles
®
Computational Statistics Handbook with MATLAB , Third Edition
Wendy L. Martinez and Angel R. Martinez
R Graphics
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DATA SCIENCE
FOUNDATIONS
Geometry and Topology
of Complex Hierarchic Systems
and Big Data Analytics
Fionn Murtagh
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Contents
Preface xiii
vii
viii Contents
Bibliography 187
Index 203
Preface
This is my motto: Analysis is nothing, data are everything. Today, on the web, we
can have baskets full of data . . . baskets or bins?
Jean-Paul Benzécri, 2011
This book describes solid and supportive foundations for the data science of our times,
with many illustrative cases. Core to these foundations are mathematics and computational
science. Our thinking and decision-making in regard to data can follow the insightful ob-
servation by the physicist Paul Dirac that physical theory and physical meaning have to
follow behind the mathematics (see Section 4.7). The hierarchical nature of complex reality
is part and parcel of this mathematically well-founded way of observing and interacting
with physical, social and all realities.
Quite wide-ranging case studies are used in this book. The text, however, is written in an
accessible and easily grasped way, for a reader who is knowledgeable and engaged, without
necessarily being an expert in all matters. Ultimately this book seeks to inspire, motivate and
orientate our human thinking and acting regarding data, associated information and derived
knowledge. This book seeks to give the reader a good start towards practical and meaningful
perspectives. Also, by seeking to chart out future perspectives, this book responds to current
needs in a way that is unlike other books of some relevance to this field, and that may be
great in their own specialisms.
The field of data science has come into its own, in a highly profiled way, in recent times.
Ever increasing numbers of employees are required nowadays, as data scientists, in sectors
that range from retail to regulatory, and so much besides. Many universities, having started
graduate-level courses in data science, are now also starting undergraduate courses. Data
science encompasses traditional disciplines of computational science and statistics, data
analysis, machine learning and pattern recognition. But new problem domains are arising.
Back in the 1970s and into the 1980s, one had to pay a lot of attention to available memory
storage when working with computers. Therefore, that focus of attention was on stored
data directly linked to the computational processing power. By the beginning of the 1990s,
communication and networking had become the focus of attention. Against the background
of regulatory and proprietary standards, and open source communication protocols (ISO
standards, Decnet, TCP/IP protocols, and so on), data access and display protocols became
so central (File Transfer Protocol, gopher, Veronica, Wide Area Information Server, and
Hypertext Transfer Protocol). So the focus back in those times was on: firstly, memory
and computer power; and secondly, communications and networking. Now we have, thirdly,
data as the prime focus. Such waves of technology developments are exciting. They motivate
the tackling of new problems, and also there may well be the requirement for new ways of
addressing problems. Such requirement of new perspectives and new approaches is always
due to contemporary inadequacies, limitations and underperformance. Now, we move on to
our interacting with data.
This book targets rigour, and mathematics, and computational thinking. Through avail-
able data sets and R code, reproducibility by the reader of results and outcomes is facilitated.
Indeed, understanding is also facilitated through “learning by doing”. The case studies and
xiii
xiv Preface
the available data and software codes are intended to help impart the data science phi-
losophy in the book. In that sense, dialoguing with data, and “letting the data speak”
(Jean-Paul Benzécri), are the perspective and the objective. To the foregoing quotations,
the following will be added: “visualization and verbalization of data” (cf. [34]).
Our approach is influenced by how the leading social scientist, Pierre Bourdieu, used the
most effective inductive analytics developed by Jean-Paul Benzécri. This family of geomet-
ric data analysis methodologies, centrally based on correspondence analysis encompassing
hierarchical clustering, and statistical modelling, not only organizes the analysis method-
ology and domain of application but, most of all, integrates them. An inspirational set of
principles for data analytics, listed in [24] (page 6), included the following: “The model
should follow the data, and not the reverse. . . . What we need is a rigorous method that
extracts structures from data.” Closely coupled to this is that “data synthesis” could be
considered as equally if not more important relative to “data analysis” [27]. Analysis and
synthesis of data and information obviously go hand in hand.
A very minor note is the following. Analytics refers to general and generic data process-
ing, obtaining information from data, while analysis refers to specific data processing.
We have then the following. “If I make extensive use of correspondence analysis, in
preference to multivariate regression, for instance, it is because correspondence analysis is a
relational technique of data analysis whose philosophy corresponds exactly to what, in my
view, the reality of the social world is. It is a technique which ‘thinks’ in terms of relation,
as I try to do precisely in terms of field” (Bourdieu, cited in [133, p. 43]).
“In Data Analysis, numerous disciplines need to collaborate. The role of mathematics,
although essential, is modest, in the sense that one uses almost exclusively classical the-
orems or elementary demonstration techniques. But it is necessary that certain abstract
conceptions enter into the spirits of the users, the specialists who collect the data and who
should orientate the analysis according to fundamental problems that are appropriate to
their science” [27].
No method is fruitful unless the data are relevant: “analysing data is not the collecting
of disparate data and seeing what comes out of the computer” [27]. In contradistinction
to statistics being “technical control” of process, certifying that work has been carried out
in conformance with rules, there with primacy accorded to being statistically correct, even
asking if such and such a procedure has the right to be used – in contradistinction to that,
there is relevance, asking if there is interest in using such and such a procedure.
Another inspirational quotation is that “the construction of clouds leads to the mastery
of multidimensionality, by providing ‘a tool to make patterns emerge from data’” (this is
from Benzécri’s 1968 Honolulu conference, when the 1969 proceedings had the paper, “Sta-
tistical analysis as a tool to make patterns emerge from data”). John Tukey (developer of
exploratory data analysis, i.e. visualization in statistics and data analysis, the fast Fourier
transform, and many other methods) expressed this as follows: “Let the data speak for
themselves!” This can be kept in mind relative to direct, immediate, unmediated statistical
hypothesis testing that relies on a wide range of assumptions (e.g. normality, homoscedas-
ticity, etc.) that are often unrealistic and unverifiable.
The foregoing and the following are in [130]. “Data analysis, or more particularly ge-
ometric data analysis is the multivariate statistical approach, developed by J.-P. Benzécri
around correspondence analysis, in which data are represented in the form of clouds of
points and the interpretation is first and foremost on the clouds of points.”
While these are our influences, it would be good, too, to note how new problem areas of
Big Data are of concern to us, and also issues of Big Data ethics. A possible ethical issue,
entirely due to technical aspects, in the massification and reduction through scale effects
that are brought about by Big Data. From [130]: “Rehabilitation of individuals. The context
Preface xv
model is always formulated at the individual level, being opposed therefore to modelling at
an aggregate level for which the individuals are only an ‘error term’ of the model.”
Now let us look at the importance of homology and field, concepts that are inherent
to Bourdieu’s work. The comprehensive survey of [108] sets out new contemporary issues
of sampling and population distribution estimation. An important take-home message is
this: “There is the potential for big data to evaluate or calibrate survey findings . . . to help
to validate cohort studies”. Examples are discussed of “how data . . . tracks well with the
official”, and contextual, repository or holdings. It is well pointed out how one case study
discussed “shows the value of using ‘big data’ to conduct research on surveys (as distinct
from survey research)”. Therefore, “The new paradigm means it is now possible to digitally
capture, semantically reconcile, aggregate, and correlate data.”
Limitations, though, are clear [108]: “Although randomization in some form is very
beneficial, it is by no means a panacea. Trial participants are commonly very different
from the external . . . pool, in part because of self-selection”. This is because “One type of
selection bias is self-selection (which is our focus)”.
Important points towards addressing these contemporary issues include the following
[108]: “When informing policy, inference to identified reference populations is key”. This is
part of the bridge which is needed between data analytics technology and deployment of
outcomes. “In all situations, modelling is needed to accommodate non-response, dropouts
and other forms of missing data.”
While “Representativity should be avoided”, here is an essential way to address in a
fundamental way what we need to address [108]: “Assessment of external validity, i.e. gen-
eralization to the population from which the study subjects originated or to other popula-
tions, will in principle proceed via formulation of abstract laws of nature similar to physical
laws”.
The bridge between the data that is analysed, and the calibrating Big Data, is well
addressed by the geometry and topology of data. Those form the link between sampled data
and the greater cosmos. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of field is a prime exemplar. Consider, as
noted in [132], how Bourdieu’s work involves “putting his thinking in mathematical terms”,
and that it “led him to a conscious and systematic move toward a geometric frame-model”.
This is a multidimensional “structural vision”. Bourdieu’s analytics “amounted to the global
[hence Big Data] effects of a complex structure of interrelationships, which is not reducible
to the combination of the multiple [effects] of independent variables”. The concept of field,
here, uses geometric data analysis that is core to the integrated data and methodology
approach used in the correspondence analysis platform [177].
In addressing the “rehabilitation of individuals”, which can be considered as address-
ing representativity both quantitatively as well as qualitatively, there is the potential and
relevance for the many ethical issues related to Big Data, detailed in [199]. We may say
that in the detailed case study descriptions in that book, what is unethical is the arbitrary
representation of an individual by a class or group.
The term analytics platform for the science of data, which is quite central to this book,
can be associated with an interesting article by New York Times author Steve Lohr [146]
on the “platform thinking” of the founders of Microsoft, Intel and Apple. In this book
the analytics platform is paramount, over and above just analytical or software tools. In his
article [146] Lohr says: “In digital-age competition, the long goal is to establish an industry-
spanning platform rather than merely products. It is platforms that yield the lucrative
flywheel of network effects, complementary products and services and increasing returns.” In
this book we describe a data analytics platform. It is to have the potential to go way beyond
mere tools. It is to be accepted that software tools, incorporating the needed algorithms,
can come to one’s aid in the nick of time. That is good. But for a deep understanding of
all aspects of potential (i.e. having potential for further usage and benefit) and practice,
xvi Preface
“platform” is the term used here for the following: potential importance and relevance, and
a really good conceptional understanding or role. The excellent data analyst does not just
come along with a software bag of tricks. The outstanding data analyst will always strive
for full integration of theory and practice, of methodology and its implementation.
An approach to drawing benefit from Big Data is precisely as described in [108]. The
observation of the need for the “formulation of abstract laws” that bridge sampled data
and calibrating Big Data can be addressed, for the data analyst and for the application
specialist, as geometric and topological.
In summary, then, this book’s key points include the following.
One major motivation for some of this book’s content, related to the fifth item here, is
to see, and draw benefit from, the remarkable simplicity of very high dimensions, and even
infinite dimensionality. With reference to the last item here, there is a very nice statement
by Immanuel Kant, in Chapter 34 of Critique of Practical Reason (1788): “Two things fill
the mind with ever newer and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and lasting that
reflection is concerned with them: the starry sky over me, and the moral law within me.”
• Chapter 1 relates to the mapping of the semantics, i.e. the inherent meaning and sig-
nificance of information, underpinning and underlying what is expressed textually and
quantitatively. Examples include script story-line analysis, using film script, national
research funding, and performance management.
• Chapter 2 relates to a case study of change over time in Twitter. Quantification, includ-
ing even statistical analysis, of style is motivated by domain-originating stylistic and
artistic expertise and insight. Also covered is narrative synthesis and generation.
• Those two chapters comprise Part I, relating to film and movie, literature and docu-
mentation, some social media such as Twitter, and the recording, in both quantitative
and qualitative ways, of some teamwork activities.
• The accompanying website has as its aim to encourage and to facilitate learning and
understanding by doing, i.e. by actively undertaking experimentation and familiarization
with all that is described in this book.
• Next comes Part II, relating to underpinning methodology and vantage points.
xviii Preface
Paramount are geometry for the mapping of semantics, and, based on this, tree or
hierarchical topology, for lots of objectives.
• Chapter 3 relates to how hierarchy can express symmetry. Also at issue is how such
symmetries in data and information can be so revealing and informative.
• Chapter 4 is a review chapter, relating to fundamental aspects that are intriguing, and
maybe with great potential, in particular for cosmology. This chapter relates to the
theme that analytics through real-valued mathematics can be very beneficially com-
plemented by p-adic and, relatedly, m-adic number theory. There is some discussion of
relevance and importance in physics and cosmology.
• Part III relates to outcomes from somewhat more computational perspectives.
• Chapter 5 explains the operation of, and the great benefits to be derived from, linear-
time hierarchical clustering. Lots of associations with other techniques and so on are
included.
• The focus in Chapter 6 is on new application domains such as very high-dimensional
data. The chapter describes what we term informally the remarkable simplicity of very
high-dimensional data, and, quite often, very big data sets and massive data volumes.
• Part IV seeks to describe new perspectives arising out of all of the analytics here, with
relevance for various application domains.
• Chapter 7 relates to novel definitions and usage of the concept of information.
• Then Chapter 8 relates to ultrametric topology expressing or symbolically representing
human unconscious reasoning. Inspiration for this most important and insightful work
comes from the eminent psychoanalyst Ignacio Matte Blanco’s pursuit of bi-logic, the
human’s two modes of being, conscious and unconscious.
• Chapter 9 takes such analytics further, with application to very varied expressions of
narrative, embracing literature, event and experience reporting.
• Chapter 10 discusses a little the broad and general application of methods at issue here.
Part I
3
4 Data Science Foundations
• Great masses of data, textual and otherwise, need to be exploited and decisions need
to be made. Correspondence analysis handles multivariate numerical and symbolic data
with ease.
Various aspects of how we respond to these challenges will be discussed in this chapter,
complemented by the annex to the chapter. We will look at how this works, using the
Casablanca film script. Then we return to the data mining approach used, to propose that
various issues in policy analysis can be addressed by such techniques also.
and economic development policy. We will discuss initial work on the application to policy
decision-making in Section 1.3 below.
1.5 Strasser
.
.
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.
Factor 2, 15% of inertia
. . Ilsa Renault
. .
. . .
0.5
. .
. .
.
NotRicks . .
Other .
Laszlo .
. . Rick Int
. . .
. . .
0.0
. . .
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. . .
. .
.
.
. Night
−0.5
. RicksCafe
. .
Ext
.
.
−1.5 −1.0 −0.5 0.0 0.5
FIGURE 1.1: Correspondence analysis of the Casablanca data derived from the script.
The input data are presences/absences for 77 scenes crossed by 12 attributes. Just the 12
attributes are displayed. For a short review of the analysis methodology, see the annex to
this chapter.
interrelationships between characters, other attributes, and scenes, for instance closeness of
Rick’s Café with Night and Int (obviously enough).
Book Gossip—
Aileen Aroon, by Dr Gordon Stables, 63
Anglo-Saxon Literature, by Mr John Earle, Rawlinson Professor
of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford, 411
Arminius Vambery, his Life and Adventures, 207
Athole Collection of Dance Music of Scotland, by Mr James
Stewart Robertson (Edradynate), 208
Chapter of Science; or, What is the Law of Nature? by Mr J.
Stuart, Professor of Mechanics, 62
Diseases of Field and Garden Crops, by Worthington G. Smith,
825
Expansion of England, by Mr J. R. Seeley, Professor of Modern
History, 62
Guide to Methods of Insect Life, and Prevention and Remedy of
Insect Ravage, 271
Introduction to the Study of Modern Forest Economy, by Dr J. C.
Brown, 825
Killin Collection of Gaelic Songs, by Mr Charles Stewart, 824
London Cries; Chap-book Chaplets; and Bygone Beauties,
published by Messrs Field and Tuer, 63
More Bits from Blinkbonny, by ‘John Strathesk,’ 824
Norman Conquest, by Mr William Hunt, 411
Photography for Amateurs, by Mr T. C. Hepworth, 824
Practical Taxidermy, by Montague Brown, F.Z.S., 825
Shetland and the Shetlanders, by Sheriff Rampini, 271
Sprigs of Heather, or the Rambles of ‘Mayfly’ with Old Friends,
by Rev. John Anderson, D.D., 208
Whitaker’s Almanac for 1884, 63
Miscellaneous Articles of Instruction
and Entertainment.
Abe, Story of, 817
Acorns, Under the, 657
Acrobats, 318
Advertisers Again, Among the, 94
Almanacs, Romance of, 23
Amateur ‘Cabby,’ an, 778
America, European Emigration to, and its Effects, 641
American Newspapers on Themselves, 714
Amusements in Germany, Popular, 634
Ancient and Modern Statues, the Largest, 470
Ancient People, an, 430
Anglo-Indian Chaplain, Recollections of an, 792
Animal Life, Studies in, 822
—— Memorials and Mementoes, 285
Antipathies in Animals—
i. Horses, 85
ii. Dogs, 590
Architecture, Stained Glass as an Accessory to Domestic, 359
Army Schools, 494
Arsenic in Domestic Fabrics, 799
Artificial Jewels, 731
Ashburnham Collections, the, 341
Back from ‘Eldorado,’ 573
Bank of England, Curiosities of the, 737
Bird Migration, 481
Birds of Spring, 129
Bonded Warehouses, London, 58
Break-neck Venture, a, 588
Bridge, the Haunted, 814
British Museum, New Mediæval Room at the, 693
Brompton Cemetery, In, 753
Buried Alive, 222
Bushranger, Interviewed by a, 650
‘Cabby,’ an Amateur, 778
Calls before the Curtain, 135
Cameo-cutting, 224
Cave-chapels, 513
Charr of Windermere, the, 406
Chewton-Abbot, 280, 295, 315
Children, Over-educating, 366
Christmas Trees, 748
Cigars, 709
Circulating-library Critics, 81
Cliff-houses of Cañon de Chelly, 40
Coin Treasures, 249
Coins Wearing Away? Are our, 393
Colds, Common, 175
College, Queen Margaret, 555
—— Rooms, My Old, 262
Colonel Redgrave’s Legacy, 780, 793, 811
Colour-sense, 44
Commercial Products of the Whale, 566
Conversation, the Art of, 442
Cooking Classes for Children, 775
Cooking-stoves, Gas, 367
‘Corners,’ 289
Correspondence Classes, 555
Cricket, Umpires at, 399
Curiosities of the Bank of England, 737
Curiosities of the Electric Light, 140
—— —— —— Microphone, 373
—— —— —— Peerage, Some, 305, 326
Curiosity in Journalism, a, 200
Cycling, Progress of, 335
Cyprus Locusts, 801
Dauphins, False, 662
Death-claims, How Life-offices pay their, 97
Decisions, Some Legal, 423
Deer-forests, Scottish, 721
Detective Police, Our, 337
Dinner-parties Out of Doors, 673
Dishes, Some Queer, 230
Distillation in Ireland, Illicit, 644
Dwarfie Stone, Legend of the, 667
Eastern Trading, Some Instances of, 463
Edicts, Ancient Rock-hewn, 486
Educational Pioneer, an, 699
‘Eldorado,’ Back from, 573
Electric Light, Curiosities of the, 140
Electricity and Gas, the Future of, 625
—— for Nothing! 453
——, Lighting Collieries by, 496
Elephants, the Moulmein, 638
——, Trimming the Feet of, 240
Emigration to America, European, 641
English Law, Familiar Sketches of—
Marriages; Settlements; and Breaches of Promise to
i.
Marry, 102
ii. Parent and Child, 377
iii. Master and Servant, 490
Episodes of Literary Manuscripts, 283
Erratic Pens, 313
Errors in Domestic Medicine, Common, 299
European Emigration to America, and its Effects, 641
Explosion, Story of a Vast, 705
Fairs, Old Provincial, 598
Falkland Islands, a Peep at the, 110
False Dauphins, 662
Fellow-passenger, My, 252, 263
Florida, Concerning, 797
Food-notes, Some, 287
Foresight of Insects for their Young, 587
Forestry and Farming, 720
—— Exhibition, Edinburgh, 1884, International, 193
Fortunes, Sudden, 241
French Detectives, 48
Frendraught, the Fire of, 52
Fuel, a New, 671
Furniture Saleroom, In a, 379
Gas Cooking-stoves, 367
——, the Future of Electricity and, 625
Gentleman of the Road, a, 429
Germany, Popular Amusements in, 634
Girls, Wives, and Mothers, 33
Glacier Garden, a, 785
Gold, 209
Gold-fields, the Transvaal, 177
Good-natured People, Mischief done by, 111
Gordon’s College, Aberdeen, 183
‘Grand Day,’ 561
Greenroom Romance, a, 471
Grouse, 529
Gum-arabic and the Soudan, 640
Hampstead Heath, 65
‘Happy Ever After,’ 161
Haunted Houses, Rationale of, 397
Health, Our, 113, 234, 401
Heroines, 492
Highland Glen, In a, 511
Holiday, a River, 545
‘Home! Sweet Home!’ 173
Home-nursing, 417, 549, 609, 725
Homing Pigeon, the, 245
Honey-bee, Something about the, 409
Hospitals and Dispensaries, London, 518
Housewives, Hints for, 447
Humorous Definitions, 475, 669
Hush-money, 143
In a Flash, 520
India, Musk-rat of, 703
Indian Jugglers, 604
—— Snakes, 214
Insects, Foresight of, for their Young, 587
Ireland, Illicit Distillation in, 644
Island, a Solitary, 719
——, an Interesting, 347
Jaffa to Jerusalem, From, 321
‘Jerry-building’ in the Middle Ages, 464
Jewels, Artificial, 731
Joint-stock Companies and ‘Limited Liability,’ 577
Journalism, a Curiosity in, 200
‘King Country, the,’ 637
—— of Acres, a, 12, 29
‘Kitchen Kaffir,’ the, 117
Knowledge, a Little, not Dangerous, 616
Last of the Stuarts, the, 600, 617
Law, Sketches of English, 102, 377, 490
Legal Decisions, Some, 423
Life, Prolonging, 427
Life-assurance and Annuities, Post-office, 257
Lifeboat Competition, 459
Life-offices, How they pay their Death-claims, 97
Lighting Collieries by Electricity, 496
‘Limited Liability,’ Joint-stock Companies and, 577
Literary Beginners, Another Word to, 49
Literary Manuscripts, Episodes of, 283
—— Self-estimates, 220
Locusts, Cyprus, 801
London Bonded Warehouses, 58
—— Hospitals and Dispensaries, 518
London, Nature around, 225
——, Remains of Ancient, 654
——, Sanitary Inspection of the Port of, 534
Love, Concerning, 156, 333
Maiden Speeches, Parliamentary, 150
Man and Nature, 608
Manufactures, Noxious, 239
Marine Station, a Scottish, 465
Marriage, the Net of, 432
Marsala, a Sample of, 795
Mediæval Room at the British Museum, New, 693
Medicine, Common Errors in Domestic, 299
Microphone, Curiosities of the, 373
Migration, Bird, 481
Miner’s Partner, the, 138, 152, 168, 185
Miss Marrable’s Elopement, 188, 198
Missing Clue, the, 701, 702, 716, 718, 732, 749, 751, 764
Monastic England, 4
Money-borrowing, the Shady Side of, 166
Month, The: Science and Arts—59, 124, 201, 265, 348, 412, 476,
557, 620, 685, 761, 825
Moor and Loch, On, 433
Morality, Stock Exchange, 828
Mortality, Some Cheering Aspects of, 449
Moulmein Elephants, the, 638
Mr Pudster’s Return, 569, 584
Mrs Shaw, the Late Prince Imperial’s Nurse, 32
Mushrooms for the Million, 501
Musk-rat of India, the, 703
Name? What’s in a, 813
Nameless Romance, a, 541
Nature around London, 225
—— on the Roof, 385
Nettle-cloth, 145
New Zealand, Explorations in, 637
Newsmonger, the, 353
Newspapers, Curious, 591
—— on Themselves, American, 714
Norfolk Broads and Rivers, 273
Norman Seascape, a, 390
Notes on Persian Art, 808
Noxious Manufactures, 239
Occasional Notes—
Abnormal Humanity, 304
Advice to Intending Emigrants, 479
Albo-carbon Light, New, 830
Ambulance Societies, 63
American Literary Piracy, 271
Anthropometrical Laboratory at the Health Exhibition, 479
Bacchus, Discovery of Statue of, 656
Blindness in Infancy, Prevention of, 206
Burns and Scalds, 655
Canine ‘Collector,’ 415
Card-telegrams, 206
Casualties on the British Coast, 624
Chilian Argentine Andes, Exploration in the, 831
Coffee? Why do we now drink less, 303
Curious Disease, 480
Diarrhœa and Cholera, Treatment of, 560
Dissection after Death, 205
Dutch Rush, 351
Earthquake in England, Recent, 351
Electric Light in Railway Carriages, 205
Electric Lighting for Ships, Improved, 351
Electrical Tricycle, 320
Electricity as a Brake, 767
Ensilage, 829
Fastest Passage on Record, 415
French Crown Jewels, 559
Fruit-farm, a Flourishing, 207
Gas Cooking-stove, a Handy, 830
Grape and Peach in America, 207
Harbour of Refuge for East Coast of Scotland, 415
Herring Spawns, How and Where the, 206
Hydrophobia—Important Experiments, 205
Irish Female Emigration, 830
Labour and Wages in Australia, 204
Level-crossing Gates, 736
Lightning-strokes in France, 352
—— ——, Mechanical Characteristics of, 829
Lights and Lighthouses, Investigations on, 736
Marvellous Sunsets, Recent, 64
Metallic Compound, New, 415
Mummies, Making of, 767
Native Treatment of Diseases in India, 831
Novel Peal of Bells, a, 766
Oil Breakwater at Folkestone, 127
Old Westminster Houses, Last of the, 64
Old-fashioned Furniture, 320
Organ in Westminster Abbey, New, 479
Persons Killed by Wild Animals in India, 829
Postal Orders, New, 414
Railway Passengers, 830
Relics from the Holy Land, 768
Rome, Interesting Discovery at, 656
Russian Crown Estates, 204
—— Longevity, 272
Sion College, Last of Old, 830
Sowing and Harvesting, 272
Steam-ferry on the Thames, 767
Subterranean Fish, 415
Telegraph Extension, 127
Telegraphing Extraordinary, 624
Telephoning Extraordinary, 656
Trout-life, Interesting Notes on, 204
Turning Wood into Metal, 768
Uphill Railway, Another, 480
Utilisation of Sewage, 767
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.