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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his pupils, yet either is certainly better 

 fitted to judge what shall be taug-ht 

 as physiology than the indifferent 

 legislator or the reckless reformer. 



From the point of view of the 

 temi)erance cause itself the case seems 

 little better. The false notions of 

 physiology that this kind of instruc- 

 tion is calculated to foster are sure 

 sooner or later to react. The child 

 learns the pseudo facts. They are so 

 striking and so frequently reiterated 

 that he remembers them. But at a 

 later period he discovers that some 

 of them are doubtful, that others 

 were greatly exaggerated, and that 

 not a few were wholly erroneous. 

 Further study will only confirm this 

 conclusion, when it is not unlikely 

 that he will go to the other extreme 

 and reject all he has learned on the 



subject as unworthy of respect a 

 state of mind the very opposite of 

 the one intended. But this is not the 

 worst of it. The discredit into which 

 it tends to bring the study of physi- 

 ology itself is still more unfortunate. 

 The widespread ignorance of this 

 subject is responsible for a vast 

 amount of suffering and disease, 

 much of which might be avoided 

 and some perhajDS removed were a 

 knowledge of physiology more gen- 

 erally diffused. To convey such 

 knowledge uncolored and without 

 exaggeration is a worthy object ; but 

 to falsify it, calling the falsification 

 science, and compel its acceptance as 

 such by authority of law, is veiy 

 much like causing the state to join 

 hands with the counterfeiter, and is 

 scarcely entitled to more respect. 



SPECIAL BOOKS, 



In three consecutive volumes of the International Education Series an 

 abundant supply of material is furnished to the kindergartner or the 

 mother who would use kindergarten methods.* The first consists of fif- 

 teen of Froebel's essays which, in the original tongue, were collected into 

 a volume by Dr. Wichard Lange. From these essays may be learned 

 Froebel's own ideas of the significance of the first five "^ gifts " of the kin- 

 dergarten. The ball, he says, gives the child a welcome opportunity to 

 contemplate, to grasp, and to possess a whole; it develops the muscular 

 sense and the control of the muscles of the hand and arm: and the vari- 

 ous plays with the ball in which the mother may lead the child tend to 

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 highly instructive: the one having each part of its surface of the same 

 form as every other part, standing on a point, and easily movable, the other 

 with sharp edges and corners, resting on a broad base, and reqviiring some 

 force to move it. From the cube, variously divided, the child learns the 

 ideas of parts making up a whole, of one form appearing in different sizes, 



* Friedrich Froebel's Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. Translated by Josephine Jarvis. Pp. 

 337, 12mo. 



The Mottoes and Commentaries of Friedrich Froebel's Mother Play. Translated by Henrietta R. 

 Eliot and Susan E. Blow. With an Introduction. Pp. 316, 12mo. 



The Songs and Music of Friedrich Froebel's Mother Play. Prepared and arranged by Susan E. 

 Blow. Pp. 272, 12mo. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.50 each. 



