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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



similar book on Prussian schools. Mr. Par- 

 sons spent a summer in the study of the 

 French school system, and has presented a 

 clear and comprehensive report on the sub- 

 ject. It is accompanied by a special paper 

 on primary instruction in France. The two 

 reports illustrate the educational systems of 

 the two leading countries of Europe which 

 pay the closest attention to elementary 

 schools. Published by C. W. Bardeen, Syra- 

 cuse, N. Y. 



A valuable and well-arranged manual of 

 the Geography of Africa South of the Zam- 

 besi, with notes on the industries, wealth, and 

 social progress of the states and peoples, by 

 William Parr Greswell, is published by a 

 London house which is represented in New 

 York by Macmillan & Co. The author al- 

 leges as a reason for the being of his work 

 that the country is marked by the display of 

 the power of European colonization. It " has 

 ceased to be a country of mere sporting ad- 

 venture or of aimless wanderings. It is 

 gradually being identified with the European 

 system ; and by recent international conven- 

 tions and agreements, under the Salisbury 

 Government, boundaries have been assigned 

 and frontiers surveyed which are likely to be 

 permanent and beneficial to all contracting 

 parties on the east as well as on the west 

 coast." A large proportion of the space is 

 taken up with the account of Cape Colony as 

 the largest of the colonies and countries, 

 and as having many features common to all. 

 Maps are given of Cape Colony, Natal, and 

 British South and Central Africa. Price, $2. 



Mr. W. Lee Beardmore, author of The 

 Drainage of Habitable Dwellings (Macmillan 

 & Co., $1.50), has for many years past made 

 a special study of the science of house 

 drainage. In writing the articles, for British 

 technical journals, of which the book has 

 been composed, he touched briefly upon 

 what has been done in an insanitary manner 

 in the past, and pointed out what should be 

 done to render a dwelling thoroughly sani- 

 tary in its drainage arrangements. While 

 some critical readers may think he has not 

 gone deep enough into the theory or into 

 the practice, he hopes he has made a hearty 

 endeavor to place before the public what 

 should be done in order to have a truly habi- 

 table dwelling. 



In Humanity in its Origin and Early 



Growth (Open Court Publishing Company, 

 Chicago, $1.50), the author, E. Colbert, has 

 endeavored to trace out a few of the salient 

 points in the early unfolding of man and his 

 thought, principally in those ages which pre- 

 ceded the writing of history ; to show some of 

 the states of development by which man was 

 evolved from merely inanimate matter, and 

 more especially those by which he rose from 

 the level of his immediate predecessor in the 

 scale of progress ; then to sketch the widen- 

 ing out of the human mentality from the in- 

 fantile phase to that of the child in knowl- 

 edge, at which point it is left for history to 

 take up the thread of the narrative. The 

 principal object has been to discover primi- 

 tive ideas about the causation of events and 

 the constitution of things, and to show that 

 to a great extent man's religious creeds and 

 ceremonies, with much of his philosophy, 

 grew out of notions which appear to have 

 been first entertained as a result of observing 

 the stars. 



The first number has appeared of the 

 Journal of the United States Artillery, pub- 

 lished under the authority of the staff of the 

 Artillery School. As the name of the journal 

 implies, it is devoted to the interests of the 

 artillery. The present number contains arti- 

 cles on sea-coast guns and steel armor, field 

 practice, the English proving-grounds at 

 Shoeburyness, the determination of the ve- 

 locity of projectiles by sound phenomena, 

 book notices, and abstracts of the contents 

 of service periodicals. 



The Department of Agriculture publishes 

 a Report on the Agriculture of South Amer- 

 ica, with maps and the latest statistics of 

 trade, which has been prepared under the 

 direction of the statistician, Almont Barnes, 

 a gentleman whose long residence in South 

 America as United States consul, and subse- 

 quent study of the condition and progress of 

 the South American countries, well qualify 

 for the work. The several countries of the 

 continent are considered each in its separate 

 chapter, with discussions of all the points 

 connected with the general subject. 



A preliminary report on Timber Physics, 

 compiled by B. E. Fcrnow, chief, and pub- 

 lished by the Forestry Division of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, contains ample 

 statements concerning the purpose, theory, 

 and practical application of the timber tests 



