Code. $B % WHO Bi. Compiled and published by the Hsinmin Telegraphic Code Company, Shanghai, China. Billion Words. $15.
This book of over 700 pages is the first comprehensive code of Chinese ever published for telegraphic messages. Mr. 8. OE. Yin, the author and compiler, finding that the ordinary cipher code was inadequate and expensive conceived the idea of a more comprehensive work. The result is the production of the large, well bound volume before us. Dr. Alex Ting who writes the introduc tion says:
"The over 100,000 phrases and sented: ces are arranged under the headings, legal, administrative, shipping, carry: ing, family, medical, religious, scientific, ete., which' are again subdivided into minor topics. For a book of phrases and sentences on various topics this seems the only possible arrangement... Instead of having to find a cipher for each individual word used, the draughtsman has only to find the cipher for a whole phrase or sentence, and for facilitating his search he has only to ascertain from the table of contents where any given phrase falls."
The code is intended only for those who understand Chinese. If it proves useful, an English-Chinese edition will be prepared so that "a merchant in the heart of Szechuan may correspond with the shippers at Manchester or with the financiers of Wall Street, though neither can speak the language of the other.""—The book has the endorsement of Mr. Frank Gates, who says: "In my opinion no business firm using the cables should be without copy and in adding my testimonial I wish both the users and compilers of this code every success.""
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.