LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



who crowned a well-earned reputation for 

 scientific attainments with his remarkable 

 bequest for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men. Three portraits of 

 Mr. Smithson and a view of his tomb at 

 Genoa lend attractions to the work. 



The volume contains, of Smithson's sci- 

 entific writings, twenty-seven papers, mostly 

 on chemical subjects, which were published 

 in the " Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of London," and Thomson's "Annals of 

 Philosophy," between 1791 and 1825, with 

 reviews of the scientific character of the 

 papers by Professor Walter R. Johnson 

 and J. R. McD. Irby. Mr. Smithson left, in 

 addition to these papers, several hundred 

 manuscripts, scraps, and notes on many sub- 

 jects, which were destroyed in the fire at 

 the Smithsonian Building in 1865. 



Eeport on the Culture of the Sugar-Beet 

 AND the Manufacture of Sugar there- 

 from IN France and the United States. 

 By William McMurtrie, E. M., Ph. D., 

 Superintendent of Agriculture in the 

 United States Section, and Agent and 

 Representative of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, at the Paris Ex- 

 position of 1878. Washington: Govern- 

 ment Printing-office. 1880. Pp. 294. 



Mr. McMurtrie took advantage of his 

 visit to the Paris Exposition to secure full 

 information concerning the methods of cul- 

 ture of the beet and manufacture of sugar 

 followed in France, and the same is given 

 here, with additional information from other 

 countries in Europe. The conditions most 

 favorable to the success of the beet-sugar 

 enterprise appear to be a mean temperature 

 of not more than 70 and a minimum av- 

 erage rainfall of above two inches during 

 the summer months. Tables, with illustra- 

 tive charts, are given, showing in what parts 

 of the United States these conditions exist. 

 Full detailed reports are added of the prog- 

 ress and present condition of the sugar-beet 

 culture in the New England States, particu- 

 larly in Maine. The machinery used in 

 making the sugar is illustrated by descrip- 

 tive cuts. 



Sanskrit and its Kindred Literatures. 

 Studies in Comparative Mythology. By 

 Laura Elizabeth Poor. Boston : Rob- 

 erts Brothers. 1880. Pp. 468. Price, $2. 

 The object of the author has been to 



interest people in the study of all literature 

 VOL. xviii. 54 



on the new basis which has been laid by 

 the sciences of comparative philology and 

 comparative mythology ; to show that liter- 

 ature is one and continuous ; that the same 

 leading ideas have arisen at epochs appar- 

 ently far separated from each other; and 

 that each nation, however isolated it may 

 seem, is, in reality, a link in the great chain 

 of development of the human mind. The 

 most prominence is given to Sanskrit as 

 the oldest and nearest to the foundation of 

 the Aryan literatures, which is viewed in its 

 Vedic and Buddhist aspects, and in the light 

 of the greatest works in either branch. A 

 notice of the ancient Persian literature and 

 the Zendavesta follows, after which are 

 chapters on Greek mythology, poetry, drama, 

 philosophy, and history, Latin and Keltic, 

 Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and German lit- 

 eratures, mediaeval hymns and ballads, the 

 mythology of Slavonic literature, and the 

 modern poetry of Europe. 



High Schools. By B. G. Northrop, Secre- 

 tary of the Connecticut Board of Educa- 

 tion. Syracuse, N. Y. : Davis, Bardeen 

 & Co. Paper. Pp. 26. Price, 25 cents. 



Mr. Northrop in this pamphlet es- 

 says to answer the objections that have 

 been urged during a few years past against 

 the continuance of the public high schools. 

 To the objection that they are an excres- 

 cence on our school system, aside from 

 the design of its founders, he i-eplies that 

 they have been maintained in Massachu- 

 setts for a longer time and on a broad- 

 er scale than in any other state of the 

 world, the first law establishing them hav- 

 ing been passed in 1647. He urges that 

 the high school lifts up all the schools of 

 lower grades by giving increased efficiency 

 to them through its standard of admission, 

 which presents a strong stimulus to studi- 

 ousness and fidelity. It is true that only a 

 small proportion of college students have 

 received their preliminary training in the 

 hish schools, but it is claimed on the other 

 side that the interest of a large proportion 

 of the students in higher education was first 

 excited in the high schools, and that they 

 have gone out from them to the academies 

 where they have received their special prep- 

 aration. That the high schools have not 

 a communistic tendency, as some assert, is 

 proved by the fact that communism prevails 



