POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



425 



Lewis, A. H., D.D. A Critical History of the 

 Sabbath and Sunday in the Christian Church. Al- 

 fred Centre, N. Y. : American Sabbath Tract So- 

 ciety. Pp. 583. $1.25. 



Thoughts by Ivan Panin. Boston : Cupples, 

 Upham, & Co. Pp. S5. 50 cents. 



Letters and Journal of J. Stanley Jevons. Edit- 

 ed by his Wife. London : Macuiillan & Co. Pp. 

 4T3. $4. 



Starr, Louis, M. D. Diseases of the Digestive 

 Organs in Infancy and Childhood. Philadelphia : 

 P. Blakiston, Son, & Co. Pp. 835, with Colored 

 Plate. $2.50. 



Walioth, Wilhelm. The King's Treasure-House. 

 A Romance of Ancient Egypt New York : W. S. 

 Gottsberger. Pp. 353. 



First Annual Report of the Commissioner of La- 

 bor. Industrial Depressions. Washington: Govern- 

 ment Printing-Ottice. Pp. 435. 



Report of Operations of the United States Life- 

 Saving Service to June 30, 18S5. Washington : 

 Government Printing-Office. Pp. 423. 



Clarke, I. Edwards. Industrial and High Art 

 Education in the United States. Washington : 

 Government Printing-Office. Pp. 842. 



Flint, Austin, M. D. Medicine of the Future. 

 New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 37. $1. 



Hammond, William A., M. D. A Treatise on 

 Diseases of the Nervous System. Eighth edition, 

 with Corrections and Additions. New York: D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. 945. $5. 



Outlines of Geology. By James Geikie. LL. D., 

 F. R. S. London : Edward Stanford. 188(5. Pp. 

 427, with 400 Illustrations. 



George, Henry. Protection or Free Trade. New 

 York : Henry George & Co. Pp. 350. 



Curtmann, Charles O., M. D. Dr. F. Beilstein's 

 Lessons in Qualitative Chemical Analysis. St. 

 Louis, Mo. : Druggist Publishing Company. Pp. 

 200. 



Wilder, Salem. Life : Its Nature, Origin, De- 

 velopment, and the Psychical related to the Phys- 

 ical. Boston : Rockwell & Churchill. Pp. 350. 

 $1.50. 



Behrends, A. J. F., D. D. Socialism and Chris- 

 tianity. Hew York: Baker & Taylor. Pp. 303. 

 $1.5'J. 



Macleod, Henry Dunning. The Elements of 

 Economics. Vol. II, Part 1. New York : D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co. Pp. 37G. $1.75. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The Chicago Public Schools. Mr. James 

 R. Doolittle, Jr., President of the Board of 

 Education of Chicago, in his report for the 

 school year lS84-'85, considers briefly but 

 with vigor many interesting points in con- 

 nection with the school system of that city, 

 which are well worth the attention of school 

 officers generally. He regards the school as 

 a progressive institution, which should look 

 to the future rather than to the past, and, 

 while it takes advantage of all that has been 

 gained, should be on the watch to discover 

 whatever may help to make it more efficient 

 in accomplishing its object which should 

 be to give youth facility to adjust them- 

 selves to the duties and exigencies of life. 



The board has determined that every one of 

 the grammar-schools shall have a library, 

 concerning the constitution of which the 

 President remarks: "None of the books 

 should be beyond the ordinary capacity of 

 grammar-school children. In fact, they 

 should be much easier to comprehend and 

 master than the other books of the course, 

 otherwise the library would fail to attract 

 the children. None of the books should 

 contain anything the children ought not to 

 read, and none should be so difficult that 

 they may not be read with pleasure and in- 

 terest." The president is justly alarmed at 

 the increase of near-sightedness with the 

 advance of age in the school, the rate of 

 which is shown to rise in Chicago from 4 "09 

 per cent at six years of age in the Ogden 

 School to 27*08 per cent at twenty years in 

 the North Division High-School; but he 

 can suggest no remedy except improved 

 lighting and the most legible text-books. 

 Concerning " practical education," a whole- 

 some conservatism will serve as the sheet-an- 

 chor of safety. . . . The principal object of 

 education is to instruct the pupil how to 

 learn ; to enable him to comprehend, in a 

 way, the new things which encounter him 

 when his school days are over. Up to this 

 point, which, in the case of the child edu- 

 cated in the common school, will never be 

 very high in an educational aspect, all the 

 pupils should go, boys and girls alike. 

 Drawing and book-keeping in its simple 

 form might well be taught, for they are 

 useful to every one. It is lamentable that 

 nothing is taught, short of the high-school, 

 concerning the organs and functions of 

 the human body. A considerable portion 

 of the work required of the pupils ap- 

 pears highly artificial, and of question- 

 able utility. A tendency is observed to 

 teach a mass of unimportant facts, which 

 the pupils will certainly, and had better, 

 forget, and a disposition to compel them 

 to absorb and assimilate ideas bej'ond the 

 ordinary comprehension of childhood. 

 These things " may furnish an opportunity 

 for precocity to shine, but do not facilitate 

 the normal development of the intellect- 

 ual powers." The practice of ascertain- 

 ing the relative standing of pupils by the 

 rapidity with which they answer questions, 

 or perform certain operations, is highly un- 



