278 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



phrases. The book is not large, and will 

 not carry the pupil very far ; but, as far as 

 he goes with it, he will be on a solid founda- 

 tion, and will know what he has learned. 

 (The Author, New York.) 



Owis and Cavalry, by Major E. S. May, 

 R. A. (Roberts, $1.25), may serve as a text- 

 book for military schools or find a place in 

 the library of any one who has an interest in 

 military affairs. Much of the matter that it 

 contains has been given by the author in lec- 

 tures at the famous English military school 

 at Woolwich, but little, if any, of it is too 

 technical to be appreciated by the civilian. 

 The work is mainly devoted to the employ- 

 ment of horse artillery, and especially its 

 cooperation with cavalry. The teachings of 

 the book are illustrated by many details of 

 historic battles, some of which are accom- 

 panied by maps, and there are sketches of 

 the careers of noted European artillery offi- 

 cers, with portraits of several. In a closing 

 chapter, on machine guns, the author cau- 

 tions his readers not to expect from any 

 mechanical contrivance what can be accom- 

 plished only by courage and skill. 



The thirty-eighth volume of the Interna- 

 tional Education Series is a description of 

 Tlie School System of Ontario, prepared by 

 the Hon. George W. Ross, Minister of Edu- 

 cation for the province (Appletons, $1.50). 

 It includes the general organization of the 

 system, the regulations in regard to school 

 premises, the training and qualifications 

 of teachers, inspection, religious instruction, 

 text-books, libraries, and the special rules 

 concerning high schools and the provincial 

 university. The book is far from being a 

 mere compilation of laws. Thus, in the 

 chapter on the general organization, the pol- 

 icy of having an educational system under 

 the control of a political head is freely dis- 

 cussed, and in various cases the purpose of 

 a regulation or the way in which it has 

 proved to operate is given. Criticisms that 

 have been made upon some features of the 

 system are stated and answered. Since Ro- 

 man Catholics are more numerous than 

 Protestants in some localities in Ontario and 

 in most parts of the adjoining province of 

 Quebec, denominational schools are a part 

 of the system. The first chapter and the 

 last are historical, describing the rise and 



growth of Ontario's schools. The volume 

 is offered to educators in the United States 

 in the belief that they will be aided by a 

 study of the plan for popular education that 

 has been worked out by a people of similar 

 origin with ourselves, but who have had a 

 different history. 



The Fifteenth Annual Report of the 

 United States Geological Survey covers a year 

 following one of reduced appropriations. In 

 the preceding year field work was almost 

 stopped, and the energies of the force were 

 devoted to preparing accumulated material 

 for permanent record or publication. The 

 advanced condition of ofiice work thus ob- 

 tained and an increase of funds made it 

 possible to prosecute a large amount of field 

 work in the year 1893-'94, nearly all of 

 which was tributary to the preparation of 

 the geologic atlas of the United States. The 

 reports of the director and the chiefs of di- 

 visions are accompanied by six papers : On 

 the geology of common roads, by Nathaniel 

 S. Shaler ; the Potomac formation, by Lester 

 F. Ward ; the geology of the San Francisco 

 peninsula, by Andrew C. Lawson ; the Mar- 

 quette iron-bearing district, by Charles R. 

 Van Hise and William S. Bayley ; granitic 

 rocks in the Piedmont plateau, by G. H. 

 Williams ; and central Maryland granites, by 

 C. R. Keyes. At the close of the year cov- 

 ered by this volume Major J. W. Powell re- 

 tired from the direction of the national geo- 

 logic work which he had carried on for a 

 quarter of a century. 



It is an unflattering illustration of the 

 tone of our civilization that President Eliot 

 should have felt called upon to argue seri- 

 ously in his address at Chautauqua last sum- 

 mer and in the Atlantic Monthly that war is 

 not desirable. The unreasoning outburst of 

 indignation against Great Britain which we 

 have witnessed during the past year does not 

 speak well for the American balance of 

 mind. These facts make peculiarly timely 

 the publication by the Putnams in their 

 Questions of the Day Series of Atnerica and 

 Europe: A Study of International Relations, 

 which contains three papers bearing directly 

 upon these points by three eminent American 

 publicists. In the first of these papers. The 

 United States and Great Britain, Mr. David 

 A. Wells shows to our shame that it should 



