POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



141 



of permanent consequence, or as such as can 

 not be offset by things unfavorable ; and he 

 mentions as an opposing condition of great 

 magnitude the enervating effect of the 

 Southern climate. He points to the region 

 within the limits of the Ai)palachian Moun- 

 tain system, where the climate partakes to a 

 greater or less degree of the characteristics 

 of that of the Northern States, as the most 

 propitious region for the establishment of 

 the cotton manufacture of the South. The 

 Record expresses the belief that the delight- 

 ful and salubrious climate of the Piedmont 

 region of the Carolinas lacks nothing needful 

 for successful manufacturing operations. 



German Schools. According to a sum- 

 mary of the German school system by Prin- 

 cipal Ernest Richard, of the Hoboken Acad- 

 emy, the people's school (Volksschule) com- 

 prises a course of eight years in the common 

 branches, with natural history, geography, 

 history, and religion, from which everything 

 that belongs properly to the competency of 

 special schools is carefully kept out. The 

 spirit of these schools, however, changes, 

 according to the relative strength of liberal 

 or reactionary tendencies in the spirit of the 

 times. In many States a compulsory course 

 in the Fortbildungsschule, or continuation 

 school, has been introduced, to attend which 

 employers are obliged to give all their em- 

 ployed below a certain age leave of absence. 

 The course in these schools is generally an 

 enlargement of the subjects taught in the 

 people's schools, with a view to the future 

 occupation of the pupils. In the city they 

 try to give instruction most useful for the 

 prospective mechanic, while in agricultural 

 districts the future needs of the farmer are 

 of leading influence in shaping the course of 

 study. Girls are trained in domestic econ- 

 omy and prepared for their future position 

 of wives and mothers. Special trade schools, 

 or industrial or commercial schools, adapted 

 to the special occupations of the place, are 

 also open to the boy who has completed his 

 people's school course. From these element- 

 ary schools, with a variety of other schools 

 which one may attend, the pupil passes to 

 the secondary schools the Ober-Reahchule 

 the Realgymnasium, and the Gymnasium ; 

 or the schools of science and modern lan- 

 guages ; of these with Latin added ; and the 



humanistic school. These schools are in 

 nine grades, M'hich all have Latin names, 

 from Prima superior (the highest) to Sexta 

 (the lowest). At the close of the complete 

 secondary course the Abiturienten Exam en 

 takes place, an examination of maturity for 

 work in the imiversity and the highest tech- 

 nical schools of university rank. The uni- 

 versity is considered the soul, the life-giving 

 element of education. Its proper province, 

 even more than preparation for a profession, 

 is, as Prof. Virchow has shown in his rec- 

 toral address published in the August Month- 

 ly, the search for truth for the sake of truth, 

 the production of new knowledge, the pro- 

 viding of material for the progress of civili- 

 zation in all its branches. No matter what 

 the political constitution of the State may 

 be, it is free ; and the professor's right to 

 teach what in his conviction is the truth is 

 not limited. 



Accuracy of American School Books. 



The results of an offer recently sent out by 

 the manufacturers of an article of popular 

 use of a prize for the detection of errors in 

 school books are very creditable to the ac- 

 curacy and thoroughness of American text- 

 books. The conditions of the offer required 

 that the book be in the English language 

 and actually used in some school, and the 

 error one susceptible of proof, and taught 

 in lectures or lessons, and not merely a typo- 

 graphical mistake, or an error inadvertently 

 made in spelling or grammar ; it should not 

 be one that had already been corrected in 

 later editions ; it should not be a disputed 

 question of history or opinion ; and should 

 be usually recognized by the publisher of 

 the book on submission to him as an error. 

 Two hundred and thirty-five answers were 

 received to the offer, representing one hun- 

 dred and sixty-eight alleged errors. The 

 greatest number of errors thirty-eight 

 were alleged to appear in geographies ; next 

 wei'e histories, twenty-one ; arithmetics, nine- 

 teen ; grammars, sixteen ; natural history, 

 twelve ; readers, ten ; chemistries, eight ; 

 languages, etymology, civil government, sev- 

 en each ; geometries, four ; geologies and 

 miscellaneous criticisms, two each ; defini- 

 tions, zoologies, books on English, anatomies, 

 astronomies, botanies, drawing- books, trigo- 

 nometries, and political economies, one each. 



