LITERARY NOTICES. 



119 



Charles G. Putnam, M. D. ; Nathaniel B. 

 Shurtleif ; James Walker, ex-President Har- 

 vard College ; Jeffries Wyman, Professor, 

 Harvard College ; F. W. A. Argelander, Pro- 

 fessor, University of Bonn ; Elie de Beau- 

 'mont, Secretary Paris Academy of Sciences; 

 Sir William Fairbairn, F. R. S., etc. ; F. P. 

 G. Guizot ; Sir Charles Lyell. 



Of the scientific papers given, ten are 

 devoted to Chemistry and Physics, four to 

 Botany, four to Astronomy and Astronomical 

 Physics, two to pure Mathematics, etc. But 

 such an enumeration does not convey any 

 adequate idea of the amount of original 

 research represented by this volume, which 

 is in every way creditable to American sci- 

 ence, and fully equal to similar publications 

 in Europe. It is not possible within the 

 limits of our space to attempt any analysis 

 of individual papers, for a knowledge of 

 which reference must be made to the vol- 

 ume itself; but it is impossible to avoid a 

 renewed notice of the remarkable freshness 

 of the volume as a whole. It bears the 

 evidence of being the systematized results 

 of faithful woT-k in the laboratory, the field, 

 and the study, and it has in this and in 

 other respects an advantage not common 

 to all American publications of the same 

 kind. 



American State Universities. With a 

 Particular Account of the Rise and 

 Development of the University of Mich- 

 igan. By Andrew Ten Brook. 418 

 pages. Price, $3.50. Cincinnati : R. 

 Clarke & Co. 



The author of this work, in his first 

 chapter, presents a sketch of the early 

 progress of academic education in the At- 

 lantic States. Next he describes the state 

 of culture in the West at the beginning of 

 the congressional land - grant policy and 

 subsequently. The history of congres- 

 sional land-grants for universities is given 

 in the third chapter. The remainder of the 

 book is more specially devoted to the sub- 

 ject of education in Michigan, and the 

 matters treated in the successive chapters 

 are : Michigan's early condition as to cult- 

 ure and education ; early organization for 

 higher education in that Territory ; grant 

 of the present university fund, and its ad- 

 ministration by the board of trustees ; or- 

 ganization of the school system and admin- 

 istration of the endowment fund ; rise of 



I union schools ; opening of the Ann Arbor 

 University; review of the period from 1844 

 to 1852; the administiation of President 

 Tappan ; administration of President Haven 

 and his successors. Finally, the author 

 essays to forecast the future of American 

 universities. He is in favor of retaining 

 the study of ancient languages as the dom- 

 inant feature, the very backbone of the 

 university system. " The long - agitated 

 question," he says, "of the place which the 

 Latin and Greek languages should hold in 

 education, the University of Michigan set- 

 tled originally by giving them the same 

 prominence which they had in the old col- 

 leges of this country, .and the State univer- 

 sities generally have inclined to this course. 

 This action needs no comment or defense 

 beyond a statement of the reasons which 

 have been supposed to justify it. The re- 

 lation of the study of these languages to 

 that of other subjects has been greatly 

 changed by the introduction of new branch- 

 es of study, but not by any special change 

 of views in regard to the value of languages 

 themselves." Science, according to Mr. 

 Ten Brook, is of little or no importance 

 except for specialists. " Language is of 

 all studies the most practical. The useful 

 and sublime sciences, such as chemistry, 

 botany, geology, and astronomy, are of 

 little immediate use even to the learned. 

 Their main facts and generalizations are 

 indeed well employed in literature, in phi- 

 losophy, and in social life ; bid beyovd 

 these they are only to be pursued by the 

 special student^ Again, he says : " It was 

 the ancient classics, and the Hebrew and 

 Greek Scriptures in their originals, which 

 awakened Europe from the sleep of the 

 middle ages. They are adapted to just 

 that kind of work, and they will probably 

 hold their place for ages to come, as for 

 centuries past, in the course of higher edu- 

 cation." Our own views on this question 

 are fully stated in the leading editorial of 

 the present number. 



Annital Report of the Directors of the 

 St. Louis Public Schools. Pp. 398. 

 Besides the usual statistics, the various 

 annual reports contained in this volume 

 convey a large amount of valuable informa- 

 tion on school management in general. The 

 idea of having attached to the Normal School 



