278 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the possession of various historical so- 

 cieties, the diaries of John Hull and Judge 

 Sewall, and various town histories and other 

 historical works. Numerous specific refer- 

 ences to sources are given in foot-notes. 

 Appendixes contain a list of prices of labor 

 and commodities in different years from 1630 

 to 1789, examples of early accounts, remi- 

 niscences of Samuel Slater, the first cotton 

 manufacturer in America, etc. An index of 

 fifty pages makes all the references to any 

 topic easily accessible. 



Outlines of General Chemistry. By Wil- 

 helm Ostwald, Professor of Chemistry 

 in the University of Leipzig. Translated 

 by James Walker, D. Sc. London and 

 New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 396. 

 Price, $3.50. 



This is a work on chemical philosophy 

 adapted to college students who have some 

 acquaintance with descriptive chemistry. An 

 especially notable feature of it is the pains 

 taken by the author to make his subject 

 plain, and to give the student just ideas in 

 regard to the relative importance and trust- 

 worthiness of the results which the science 

 has thus far attained. To this fact the large 

 size of the volume is chiefly due. As it is 

 not designed for those who intend to go into 

 the higher aspects of the science, the higher 

 mathematics has not been employed. An- 

 other feature of the work is the connected 

 account it gives of the discoveries of van't 

 Hoff in regard to solution and those of Ar- 

 rhenius concerning electrolytic dissociation, 

 made within the last three or four years, and 

 not yet generally recognized by English- 

 speaking chemists. The translating is evi- 

 dently well done, but the inconvenient Ger- 

 man style of index is retained. 



The papers and discussions found in the 

 Circular of Information No. 2, issued by 

 the United States Bureau of Education in 

 1889, are especially valuable to those inter- 

 ested in the question of educational meth- 

 ods. In The Relation of Manual Training 

 to Body and Mind, Prof. "Woodward gives an 

 outline of the work undertaken in the St. 

 Louis Manual Training School. This de- 

 partment of Washington University has been 

 in operation nine years, and the verbatim 

 reports of parents show that the students 



are not only physically benefited by this sys- 

 tem, but accomplish as much mentally and 

 develop greater zest for acquirement than 

 when trained merely in an intellectual direc- 

 tion. Dr. Harris, treating of the psychology, 

 gives his reasons for preferring the drill in 

 reading, geography, arithmetic, and espe- 

 cially grammar, to any discipline in tool-work. 

 He insists upon the distinction between 

 higher and lower faculties ; that " we do not 

 get at the true reality by sense perception 

 but by thought " " man elevates himself 

 above the brute creation by his ability to 

 withdraw his attention from the external 

 world of the senses and give attention to 

 forces, causes, principles." The province of 

 the school, therefore, is to make the pupil 

 master of the tools of thought, to furnish 

 him " with means for availing himself of the 

 mental products of the race." Superintend- 

 ent Seaver gives, as a result of experience, 

 that " such instruction takes a strong hold 

 on the minds of a large class of boys who 

 are either not so well reached, or not reached 

 at all, by the subjects and methods of teach- 

 ing current in the older high schools." Other 

 suggestive papers are those on Psychology 

 in its Relation to Pedagogy, by Dr. Butler ; 

 How can Manual Training be introduced into 

 Ungraded Schools ? by Prof. Allen ; and The 

 State and Higher Education, by Superin- 

 tendent Campbell and Prof. Adams. The 

 discussions on the training of teachers and 

 on the value of examinations will tend to 

 alter the gauge of any narrow-minded edu- 

 cator who may read them. 



A History of Education in Alabama, pre- 

 pared by Willis G. Clark, is the subject of 

 Ciruclar of Information Ko. 3, 18S9. This 

 is the eighth monograph in the series, and, 

 apart from its historical and local worth, 

 it is deserving of study as an exhibit of in- 

 tellectual growth remote from well-recog- 

 nized centers. The fact that Alabama has 

 possessed a State institution of learning for 

 seventy years, supplying from one of her 

 professors a President for Columbia Col- 

 W e the late Dr. Barnard and that How- 

 ard College, in the same State, has furnished 

 Harvard with a Professor of Hebrew and 

 Assyrian, shows that the East and North do 

 not monopolize thoroughness in scholarship. 

 It is well to learn that " the Southern city 

 of Mobile, in 1S53, could boast of a public- 



