THE AMERICAN BOTANIST ill 



Just as this number goes to press, we are in receipt of 

 advance copies of "Experimental General Science" by Wil- 

 lard N. Clute. Although several texts in general science 

 have appeared during recent years, they have not convinced 

 the author that the demand for books of this character has 

 been fully met, and he therefore offers his own views on the 

 subject. Teachers generally have come to no agreement 

 as to exactly what should constitute a course in general 

 science. A large number would skim the cream from the 

 special sciences, teaching a sort of elementary science com- 

 posed of the interesting parts of botany, zoology, geology, 

 chemistry, and the like, and leaving" the husks for the regu- 

 lar teachers of such subjects. The present book takes the 

 view that general science should concern itself with the 

 general principles underlying all science and find illustra- 

 tions of these principles in the child's immediate environ- 

 ment without regard to their bearing on the other sciences. 

 Accordingly the book discusses the structure and compo- 

 sition of matter and the effect of different forms of energy 

 upon it, thus involving combustion, change of state, radi- 

 ation, evaporation, pressure, light, color, sound, and many 

 allied matters. A sufficient amount of physiology is also 

 included to meet the demands of certain State laws on this 

 subject. Practically all books on general science are de- 

 signed principally for recitation purposes, but the author 

 believes that the child should learn by doing, not by recit- 

 ing about it, and the course he suggests, as the name of the 

 book indicates, is largely an experimental one in which the 

 student is directed how to investigate nature's laws for 

 himself. At the end of each section of the book, there are 

 a large number of questions and directions for experiments, 

 the text itself being considered to be largely explanatory. 

 In consequence, the student is usually able to carry on much 

 of the work without the aid of the teacher. In the author's 



