4i8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



practicable. The high-school of every 

 town ought to be the headquarters of 

 a Field-Naturalists' Club that shall have 

 for its object to study the natural his- 

 tory of the locality. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 



It has not been our habit in this 

 Monthly to make much parade about 

 what we are going to do, being quite 

 content with plain statements of what 

 we are doing. In this spirit we ask 

 attention to an important series of arti- 

 cles now begun on the subject of " Phys- 

 ical Education," and which may be ex- 

 pected to continue through the year. 

 Dr. Oswald is widely known to the 

 American public as a vigorous, thor- 

 oughly-informed thinker, and one of the 

 most racy, incisive, and brilliant writ- 

 ers of the period. He will treat the 

 subject from an original and especially 

 modern point of view. It is a sugges- 

 tive circumstance that in all modern 

 languages the terms corresponding to 

 what we call physical culture have ac- 

 quired a specific meaning, being applied 

 nearly exclusively to gymnastics and 

 calisthenics as a branch of practical edu- 

 cation. Yet the advocates of physical 

 training in this limited sense were the 

 first to take issue with the educational 

 methods of the mediaeval system of the 

 anti-natural school, as it has been justly 

 termed, since its exponents ignored the 

 physical interests of man as persistently 

 as they denied his right to temporal hap- 

 piness. The founders of the Turn-bund.i 

 like their Grecian pi'ototypes, held that 

 our highest physical and our highest 

 moral well-being can only be conjoint- 

 ly attained ; that health is the principal 

 condition of happiness, and the normal 

 condition of all whose mode of life is 

 not grossly at variance with the simple 

 laws which Nature proclaims in the un- 

 mistakable language of our instincts. 



These principles Dr. Oswald has ap- 

 plied to the science of Physical Educa- 

 tion in tlie widest sense of the word. 



The serial will comprise an exposition 

 of "Dietetics," the first installment of 

 which is herewith issued, to be fol- 

 lowed by chapters on " In-door Life," 

 " Out-door Life," " Gymnastics," " He- 

 reditary Influences," " Clothing," " Re- 

 medial Education," etc. 



Dr. Oswald has studied the social 

 conditions and sanitary habits of many 

 communities, having traveled in Mexico, 

 South America, and Southern Europe, 

 so that his articles will be enriched with 

 the results of wide and careful personal 

 observation; and it will be found that 

 the author has solved the problem of 

 making a scientific work as attractive 

 to the most fastidious amateur of ielles- 

 lettres as to the scientific reader and the 

 public in general. 



LITERARY NOTICHS. 



The Atomic Theory. By Charles Adolph 

 WuRTZ, Member of the French Insti- 

 tute. Translated by E. Cleminshaw, 

 F. C. S. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 344. Price, $1.50. 



There is a certain sense in which the 

 modern atomic theory may be regarded as 

 the realization of a dream or the fulfillment 

 of a prophecy, or, still better, the verifica- 

 tion of a shrewd guess inspired by common 

 reflection and common sense. The notion of 

 matter being all made up of infinitely small 

 particles or atoms was a speculation of the 

 ancient Greek philosophers which has been 

 revived in modern times, and during the 

 present century has become established as 

 a fundamental theory of chemical and phys- 

 ical science. The atomic theory has now 

 assumed a definite form, and binds into 

 unity wide ranges of facts so as to afford a 

 consistent and intelligible view of the con- 

 stitution of material things. It has been a 

 subject of acute, profound, and protracted 

 controversy, but has grown in clearness and 

 strength with time, as our experimental 

 knowledge of matter has been gradually 

 extended. The most subtle attacks upon 

 it have generally resulted in confirming it, 

 and it has been an instrument of progress 

 even in the hands of those who have doubt- 



