Denominations.

Religions of the World.

The latest edition of Mulhall (1898) gives the following as the best available statistics regarding the religious populations of the various countries of the world:

Ministers.

Spanish America.

Australia.

West Indies.

Asia and Africa.

Total for the World, United States omitted

*Includes 440,000,000 Pagans.

2,480,000 1,030,000
6.600,000 3,100,000]

194,016,000|88,166,600]

670,000 194,000,000 *644,370,000 |6,655,400 200,000,000|1,009,868,000

Religious Denominations in the United States.

JANUARY 1, 1902.

The following statistical tables, showing the number of ministers, churches and communicants in the United States at the close of the year 1901, were compiled by the Christian Advocate, through whose courtesy they are reprinted:

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.-Continued.

These statistics do not include Roman Catholic, Hebrew, nor non-Evangelical Church schools (except in Maryland). There are about 750,000 scholars in Roman Catholic Sunday-Schools, and about 225,000 in others not counted. This would leave from 7,000,000 to 9,000,000 youths, between four and sixteen years, in the United States, not in Sunday-Schools of any denomination.

According to publishers whose houses make a specialty of issuing Bibles, the circulation of this book is steadily increasing, and more copies are being sold each year than during the year preceding. The American Bible Society alone issued more than 1,500,000 Bibles last year, while the British and Foreign Bible Society turned out more than 5,000,000 copies. A little more than one-half of the Bibles published in this country are sold within the United States, most of the cheaper kind for use in mission schools. The American Bible Society has succeeded in publishing an entire Bible to be sold as low as 15 cents, and a New Testament for 5 cents. In England a Bible may be bought for sixpence and a New Testament for one penny. The American Society sells at cost, and the British Society at below cost. Since the American occupation of the Philippines the Bible has reached a circulation of nearly 80.000 copies, where scarcely one copy was used before. The British and Foreign Bible Society prints the Bible in 400 languages and dialects, but about 30 per cent of the issue is in English. The Oxford University Press is noted for publishing the most popular and the finest edition of the Bible--the Bagster. The output of Oxford Bibles is rated at 20,000 copies a week, and although a premium of one guinea is offered to any person who can point out a printer's error in any edition, the bill for printer's errors has never averaged more than five guineas a year. In the public libraries in New York the call for Bibles is mostly for old texts, though at the time of Jewish holidays Hebrew Bibles are in great demand.

List of Roman Catholic Popes.

(According to Gerarchia Cattolica.)

1. ST. PETER, of Bethsaida in Galilee, resided first at Antioch, then at Rome, where he was martyred June 29, in the year 67, having governed the Church from that city for 25 years, 2 months and 7 days.

How the Pope Ts Elected.

On the eleventh day following the death of the Pope the Cardinals hold religious services in the Church of St. Peter at Rome and then adjourn to the Vatican, where they meet in conclave to elect the late Pope's successor. The Cardinal-Dean opens the proceedings by administering the oath of secrecy concerning their proceedings, and then the Cardinals are permitted to receive their friends until evening. when they are shut up in their cells. These cells are carefully guarded and no person is allowed near them, except they be on business connected directly with the conclave, in order that no intruder may communicate with the occupants or obtain information which might be of value to the outside world or to persons interested in swaying the action of the Cardinals. The Cardinals, however, are not permitted to suffer for lack of comforts while in their cells. They are allowed two servants each to attend to all their wants, and are served with such food as they desire. Their meals are passed into the place in hampers, but even these are searched at the entrance to make sure that nothing of contraband character is smuggled in. Besides the servants, four barbers, two sacristans, two masters of ceremonies, a carpenter, a mason and several other persons are permitted to remain in the household.

In the morning the Cardinal-Dean sings the mass of the Holy Ghost, at which all the Cardinals receive communion, after which the voting begins. Each Cardinal approaches the altar, and after taking an oath prescribed for the ceremony, places his ballot in a receptacle prepared for it. Three Cardinals who act as tellers count the ballots when all have been deposited. A two-thirds vote is necessary to elect the Pope, and, if a choice is not made on the first ballot, the Cardinals continue to vote until a candidate receives the requisite number, but only one ballot is taken in one day. Upon the announcement that no candidate has been elected, the Cardinals return to their cells until the following morning, when another ballot is taken. Thus the election may be prolonged many days, or it may be decided in a single sitting.

When it is found that an election has been obtained the Cardinal-Deacon announces the name of the successful candidate; the Junior Cardinal-Deacon rings a bell, and the master of ceremonies enters the chapel with the secretary. The Cardinal-Dean and two Cardinals approach the successful one and ask him if he accepts the great office, and upon his signifying that he does accept it, all canopies except that over his seat are removed. The new Pope then announces to the Cardinal-Dean the name which he has selected and he is then led behind the altar, where he dons the pontifeal robes in preparation for his reception of the Cardinals. The ring of the Fisherman is then placed upon his finger, after which the Senior Cardinal-Deacon, followed by musicians and singers, proceeds to the balcony and makes official announcement of the election of the new Pope as well as the name by which he will be known. This terminates the electoral proceedings.

The A B C of Electricity.

Electricity. The name given to the unknown cause of electric phenomena.

Ampere. (1) The practical unit of electric current. (2) A rate of flow of electricity transmitting one coulomb per second. (3) The current of electricity which would pass through a circuit whose resistance is one ohm, under an electro-motive force of one volt.

Volt. (1) The practical unit of electro-motive force. (2) Such an electro-motive force as is induced in a conductor which cuts lines of magnetic flux at the rate of 100,000,000 per second. (3) Such an electromotive force as would cause a current of one ampere to flow against a resistance of one ohm.

Ohm. (1) The practical unit of electric resistance. (2) Such a resistance as would limit the flow of electricity under an electro-motive force of one volt to a current of one ampere, or one coulomb per second. Ohm's Law. The strength of a continuous electric current in any circuit is directly proportional to the electro-motive force acting on that circuit, and inversely proportional to the resistance of the circuit. Watt. (1) A unit of electric power. (2) A volt ampere. (3) The power developed when 44.25 foot pounds of work are done in a minute, or, 0.7375 foot pounds of work is done in a second. Dynamo. A dynamo-electric machine or generator.

Motor Electric.-A device for transforming electric power into mechanical power.

Magneto. (1) A magneto generator. (2) A small magneto-electric dynamo machine.

Galvanometer.-An apparatus for measuring the strength of an electric current by the deflection of a magnetic needle.

Transformer.-An induction coil employed either for raising or for lowering electric pressure.

Regulating Box.-A rheostat inserted in the field circuit of a generator or motor for regulating the current passing through the field magnetic coils.

Safety Fuse. A wire, bar, plate, or strip of readily fusible metal, capable of conducting without fusing the current ordinarily employed on the circuit, but which fuses and thus automatically breaks the circuit on the passage of an abnormally strong current.

Short Circuit.-(1) A shunt or by-path of negligible or comparatively small resistance placed around any part of an electric circuit through which so much of the current passes as to virtually cut out the parts of the circuit to which it acts as a shunt. (2) An accidental direct connection between the mains or main terminals of a dynamo or system producing a heavy overload of current.

Phase. The fractional part of a period which has elapsed since a vibrating body last passed through the extreme point of its path in the positive direction.

Direct Current.-A current whose direction is constant, as distinguished from an alternating current. Alternating Currents.-(1) Currents which flow alternately in opposite directions. (2) Currents whose directions are periodically reversed.

Multiple Circuit.-A circuit in which a number of separate sources or separate devices, or both, have all their positive poles connected to a single positive lead or conductor, and all their negative poles connected to a single negative lead or conductor.

Series Circuit.-A circuit in which the separate sources or separate electro-receptive devices, or both, are so placed that the circuit produced in it or passed through it passes successively through the entire circuit from the first to the last.

School Savings Banks in the United States.

The system of school savings banks was inaugurated in this country in March, 1885, with the sole aim of imparting to school children the business characteristic of thrift, without atttempting to teach them a business form, J. H. Thiry, of Long Island City, was the first to systematize the idea and make it practical for use in the public schools, and he has been the general director of the system ever since. There is no association among the schools, but entirely independent methods are used in the different places where the idea has been adopted.

The system suggested by Mr. Thiry, and generally used, with local modifications, is very simple. School boards do not require authorization of the State or nation to enable them to introduce the banking system into their schools. The first thing to be done on the part of the one introducing the system, after receiving permission from the School Board, is to secure the co-operation of a savings bank near the school, to receive the weekly deposits and arrange matters pertaining to them.

In most of the schools where the system has been adopted it is made a part of the regular programme. Deposits are received on Mondays at the beginning of the morning session, the pupils making their deposits as they answer to roll call. The teacher checks the amount of each deposit and credits it on a card held by the pupil.

It is calculated that more than $2,000,000 have been saved by American school children since the introduction of the system in 1885. On January 1, 1902, there were 1,479 schools in the United States where the system had been adopted, and of the 370,457 pupils enrolled, 166,578 were the depositors of $1,309,611, of which $869,878.48 had been withdrawn, leaving a balance of $439,732.52 due to depositors on the 1st of January.