LITERARY NOTICES. 



565 



First-Year Arithmetic-Teacher's Manual, 

 and First- Year Text-Book. By James 

 H. Hoose, A. M., Ph. D. Syracuse, New 

 York: C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 156. Price, 

 35 cent*. 



This work is based upon Pestalozzi's 

 system of teaching elementary numbers, and 

 is designed for pupils in the first grade, or 

 first year of public schools. It appears to 

 have grown out of work that was accom- 

 plished by teachers with pupils of the grade 

 for which it is designed, and to be in effect 

 simply a transcription of the record of that 

 work as kept by the teachers from day to 

 day, for application to other classes. By 

 it, it is claimed, pupils may lea r n to compute 

 numbers with accuracy and readiness, with- 

 out a slate; to express themselves with 

 facility and intelligence in the forms of 

 arithmetical language; and to think pa- 

 tiently, vigorously, and accurately, and have 

 a becoming confidence in their own powers. 



Astronomy corrected. By H B. Phil- 

 brook, Counselor-at-Law. New York : 

 John Polhemus. Pp. 55. 

 This little volume, says the author, " is 

 respectfully submitted to the reading world, 

 in order to remove the errors that have so 

 long deluded mankind in reference to as- 

 tronomical problems." These " errors " re- 

 late to the creation and the causes of the 

 motions of the solar system, to Laplace's 

 nebular hypothesis, and Newton's gravita- 

 tion. It is not new to have the law of 

 gravitation assailed, nor is it entirely novel 

 to have the portion in regulating the universe 

 that has been assigned to it referred to the 

 interstellar ether. Mr. Philbrook is, we be- 

 lieve, the first to tell us precisely how the 

 ether acts. 



Lowest Forms of Water Animals. By N. 

 d'Anvers. New York: G. P.Putnam's 

 Sons. Pp. 59. Price, 50 cents. 



This is one of the " Science Ladders " 

 series of illustrated natural history readers, 

 the special purpose of which is to teach the 

 great laws of the animal kingdom in lan- 

 guage simple enough to be intelligible to 

 every child who can read. It teaches what 

 an animal is and what protoplasm is, and 

 describes the rhizopoda, sponges, infusoria, 

 hydras, medusae, sea-anemones, coral, pol- 

 yps, polyzoa, and " some tiny creatures with 

 water-works." 



Compendium of the Tenth Census, June 1, 

 1880. Washington: Government .Print- 

 ing-Office. Part I, pp. 924 ; Part II, pp. 

 817. 



The scope of the census of 1880 was 

 greatly enlarged, and its machinery was 

 much changed from that under which the 

 previous censuses were taken. The infor- 

 mation collected by it has been much more 

 extensive, more varied, and presumably 

 more accurate than has been gathered for 

 any other decade in the history of our coun- 

 try. Opportunity was given to begin the 

 inquiries in departments admitting such 

 anticipation, several months before the first 

 of June, and thus to give a more careful 

 and exhaustive character to the investiga- 

 tion ; and the work of making the enumer- 

 ations was given to persons especially ap- 

 pointed for it, and not to officers who al- 

 ready had other duties. Except as to 

 churches, libraries, and private schools, the 

 statistics of which have been delayed in 

 compilation, the tables embraced in the 

 " Compendium " touch all the general class- 

 es of statistics which will be embraced in a 

 more detailed form in the more extended 

 publication of the series of quarto volumes. 

 Part I contains the statistics of population 

 and agriculture ; Part II, those of manufac- 

 tures ; power used in manufactures ; mining, 

 railroads, steam-craft, canals, telegraphs, 

 and telephones ; occupations ; fisheries ; for- 

 eign parentage ; areas, dwellings, and fami- 

 lies ; Alaska ; life-insurance ; fire and ma- 

 rine insurance ; valuation and taxation ; 

 public indebtedness ; newspapers and peri- 

 odicals ; public schools ; illiteracy ; defec- 

 tive, dependent, and delinquent classes ; and 

 mortality. 



Geological Survey of New Jersey. An- 

 nual Report of the State Geologist for 

 1882. By George H. Cook. Camden, 

 New Jersey: F. F. Patterson. Pp. 191, 

 with Map. 



The topographical survey has been con- 

 tinued over 480 square miles, chiefly in the 

 highland country of the northern part of the 

 State. The whole area covered by this sur- 

 vey up to the present time is 1,740 square 

 miles. Progress is also reported of the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 which, when completed, it is hoped in the 

 next season, will cover 5,326 of the 7,576 



