LITERARY NOTICES. 



115 



It is to correct errors like this, which 

 are wide-spread' and do serious injustice 

 to Mr. Spencer, that we have thought 

 it necessary to go carefully into the 

 subject, and furnish the evidence on 

 which Mr. Spencer's claims to original- 

 ity are founded. 



PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE CHEMICAL 

 CENTENNIAL. 



It was fitting that, at the Priestley 

 centennial of the discovery of oxygen 

 gas, two of the grandest achievements 

 of modern science should have been 

 called into requisition, to make the 

 event known far beyond the circle of 

 those who participated in the occasion. 

 The telegraph reported the doings to 

 all the contemporary world who cared 

 about them, and the photograph pre- 

 served many of its interesting featuros 

 pictorially, for the benefit of future 

 generations. It was the general wish 

 of those present that photographs 

 should be made of the house which 

 Dr. Priestley built and in which he 

 died, and of the collections of his sci- 

 entific apparatus. We are happy to see 

 that this desire has been complied with, 

 and a series of pictures taken, which 

 represent the objects of chief interest 

 in the celebration. No. I. is a group of 

 chemists, representing 72 figures of the 

 scientific men who attended the cen- 

 tennial meeting; No. II. Dr. Priestley's 

 residence, showing the house and lab- 

 oratory ; No. III. Copy of a rare old 

 engraving, showing the fury of the mob 

 which destroyed Priestley's house in 

 Birmingham ; No. IV. Priestley's chemi- 

 cal apparatus ; No. V. His electrical ap- 

 paratus ; No. VI. His physical apparatus. 

 These three groups are from the Loan 

 Exhibition. No. VII. Interior view of 

 the Loan Exhibition; No. VIII. Head- 

 stone of Priestley's grave. These pho- 

 tographs are mounted on eight by ten 

 Bristol board, price 50 cents each, or 

 $3.50 for. the set of eight. They may 

 be ordered from Louis H. Laudy, School 

 of Mines, Columbia College, New York. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Building of a Brain. By Edward 

 H. Clarke, M. D. 153 pages. Price, 

 $1.25. Boston : J. R. Osgood & Co. 



Dr. Clarke did the country a service 

 last year, by publishing his little volume 

 entitled " Sex in Education," in which he 

 called attention to some physiological points 

 in the school-experience of girls, in such a 

 way as to provoke half a score of replies, 

 and to bring the subject very effectually 

 before the public. He took ground against 

 co-education, or the subjection of girls to 

 the same conditions of study as boys, and 

 showed how that system works serious and 

 extensive injuries to the female constitution. 

 The little volume now issued, while it is not 

 a formal reply to his critics, pursues the 

 subject of the physiological basis of educa- 

 tion. Instead of dealing with mind as an 

 abstraction, he takes up the brain in which 

 it is embodied, and shows how mental devel- 

 opment is, at bottom, really a process of 

 " brain-building." Metaphysical vagueness 

 is here escaped, and we have to deal with 

 tangible and definite results that are de- 

 pendent upon established laws. The body is 

 thus brought into account, and we see how 

 education, ' or mental development, is so 

 deeply complicated with physiological con- 

 ditions, that these can never be neglected 

 in the intelligent consideration of mental 

 culture. 



At the close of this special essay, Dr. 

 Clarke appends a mass of valuable testi- 

 mony in regard to the practical workings 

 of the system of co-education. The short 

 article in our preceding pages, which we 

 have entitled " Educated to Death," is taken 

 from this portion of Dr. Clarke's book. By 

 direction of the State Board of Health of 

 Massachusetts, Dr. F. Winsor, of Winches- 

 ter, collected some valuable statistics on 

 " School Hygiene," and the effects of co- 

 education formed one feature of the inves- 

 tigation. Circulars were sent to physicians, 

 teachers, and others in the State, soliciting 

 information in answer to questions. Re- 

 plies were received from one hundred and 

 sixty persons, of whom one hundred and 

 fifteen are stated to be physicians ; nineteen, 

 physicians and members of school commit- 



