9 2 THE NA TURE- S TUB Y RE VIE IV [ 4 : 3 -m a * . , iqoS 



order to maintain the interest and avoid the effect of annual review of the 

 same subjects, Professor Gulick has endeavored to supply for each year 

 some distinctive and separate topic in hygiene. For example, in the first 

 volume ("Health") some very simple hygiene of the skin is presented. 

 In the second volume ("Emergencies") such things as burns and scalds 

 are discussed. In the third volume ("Town and City") the skin is pre- 

 sented as a conveying agent. In the fourth volume ("Physiology"') the 

 general functions of the skin will be discussed, and in the fifth volume 

 ("Control") the skin will be discussed as a nervous organ. Thus there are 

 five different phases of the subject. This is certainly an interesting at- 

 tempt at gradation of the subject-matter of physiology and hygiene. 

 Probably more interesting and more important than this is the fact that 

 the author has found it possible to say very little about internal organs in 

 the first four books of the series, and this will meet with the hearty approval 

 of very many teachers of science whose experience has led them to doubt 

 the advisability of discussing internal organs very extensively with young 

 pupils below the seventh or eighth grades. The books deserve careful 

 consideration by teachers, because they evidently contain many sugges- 

 tions which may help in solving the present problems connected with 

 physiology and hygiene in the elementary schools. 



NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE NOTES 



[Editor's Note. This department will be conducted by Chester A. 

 Mathewson, of the High School of Commerce, New York City. Notes 

 and suggestions may be sent to him in care of the editor of The Review.] 



"The Country Boy" is the appealing title of a leaflet issued by the 

 Massachusetts Civic League. The author is George E. Johnson. He calls 

 attention to many things now done for children in cities, and points out 

 that the needs of the country child are no less pressing. 



"The free plays of the earlier years are continuing, on a larger, more 

 venturesome scale. Passion for nature, which lies in every normal child's 

 breast at this age [8 to io years], impels him to press beyond his former 

 narrow bounds. He must search the earth and appropriate what he finds. 

 It is the beginning of the apple-stealing period. This passion for nature, 

 if rightly guided, will lead to a higher and better appreciation of the world 

 and of his own relation to it. But this passion needs direction, needs a 

 headquarters for information and inspiration. Only rarely is such fur- 

 nished the country boy, who, therefore, often remains impoverished amidst 

 incalculable wealth and opportunity. The country play-ground can 

 easily provide a 'back-yard fish-pond,' aquarium, insect cages, aviary, and 

 menagerie, which would furnish more information, interesting study, and 

 incentive to look for things, probably, than the city park and menagerie 

 can furnish city children, because the former fall directly in the line of the 

 child's activities and experiences, and because they are largely of his own 

 creation. But, without these aids and wise direction of the passion for 

 nature, the vast majority of village boys miss entirely the scientific 

 interest, loving appreciation, and moral inspiration that ought to result 



