LITERARY lYOTICUS. 



115 



tions is concluded in this volume by an exami- 

 nation of the chemical action of burniug-lenses 

 and mirrors." 



The volume is well printed in clear t3-pe, 

 on good paper, and contains a fine steel 

 portrait of Dr. Draper — much the best 

 likeness of him that we have ever seen. It 

 contains various woodcuts to illustrate ex- 

 periments which the reader will find a use- 

 ful accompaniment to the text. 



Handbook of Modern Chemistry, Inorgan- 

 ic AND Organic, for the Use of Stu- 

 dents. By Charles Meymott Tidy, M. 

 B., F. C. S. Philadelphia : Lindsay & 

 Blakiston. Pp. 780. Price, $5. 



This seems to be a very good practical 

 treatise on chemistry, for the use of stu- 

 dents in colleges and laboratories. It is 

 well condensed, and judiciously classified. 

 The author says concerning the work : 



"I venture, therefore, to plead my apology 

 for the publication of these outlines of chemis- 

 try. Within three months of graduating— in 

 other words, when ' fresh from the schools' — I 

 was appointed Joint-Lecturer on Chemistry with 

 the late Dr. Letheby, at the London Hospital, 

 consequently my first lecture-notes were pre- 

 pared when familiar by practical experience 

 with the wants of a student. Year by year these 

 notes have been added to, and, to some extent, 

 rewritten; nevertheless, except in c few in- 

 stances, I have strictly adhered to the general 

 plan I first adopted. I submit these lecture- 

 notes to the profession as the joint experience 

 of a student and a teacher." 



Sound: A Series of Simple, Entertaining, 

 and Inexpensive Experiments in the 

 Phenomena of Sound, for the Use of 

 Students of Every Age. By A. M. May- 

 er, Professor of Physics in the Stevens 

 Institute of Technology. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 181. With nu- 

 merous Illustrations. Price, $1. 



This volume is the second in Prof. 

 Mayer's " Experimental Science Series for 

 Beginners," the first volume of which, that 

 on " Light," appeared a few months ago. 

 The " Experimental Science Series," as the 

 author states, originated in the earnest and 

 honest desire to extend a knowledge of the 

 art of experimenting, and to create a love 

 of that noble art which has worked so much 

 good in our generation. All attempts, how- 

 ever, to extend the knowledge of cxperi- 

 mental science will fail unless these endeav- 

 ors on the part of scientific men are second- 



ed by our teachers ; hence Prof. Mayer 

 while writing these books, has been con- 

 stantly actuated by the desire (o assist teach- 

 ers to become experimenters. " These little 

 books," Prof. Mayer remarks in his preface, 

 " will show how many really excellent ex- 

 periments may be made with the outlay of 

 a few dollars, a little mechanical skill, and 

 patience. This last commodity neither I 

 nor the school can furnish. The teacher is 

 called on to supply this, and to give it as 

 his share in the work of bringing the teach- 

 ing of experimental science into our schools. 

 AVhen the teacher has once obtained the 

 mastery over the experiments, he will never 

 after be willing to teach without them ; for, 

 as an honest teacher, he will know that he 

 cannot teach without them. Well-made 

 experiments, the teacher's clear and simple 

 language describing them, and a free use of 

 the blackboard, on which are written the 

 facts and laws which the experiments show 

 — these make the best text-books for be- 

 ginners in experimental science. Teach the 

 pupil to read Nature in the language of 

 experiment. Instruct him to guide with 

 thoughtfulness the work of his hand, and 

 with attention to receive the teachings of 

 his eyes and. ears. Youths soon become 

 enamored of work in which their own hands 

 cause the various actions of Nature to ap- 

 pear before them, and they find a new de- 

 light in a kind of study in which they re- 

 ceive instruction through the doings of 

 their hands instead of through the reading 

 of books. The object of this second book 

 of the series is to show how to make a con- 

 nected series of experiments in sound. 

 These experiments (a hundred and thirty in 

 number) are to be made with the cheapest 

 and simplest apparatus that the author has 

 been able to devise, and they have been ar- 

 ranged so that one leads naturally to the 

 making and understanding of the next." 

 And it must be added that much of the ap- 

 paratus needed for making the experiments 

 is such that the student himself may con- 

 struct it at trifling expense. So much for 

 the method and principle of the work — a 

 method which compels the student con- 

 stantly to employ his own mental faculties of 

 comparison, generalization, etc., and to be, 

 in fact, a discoverer of the truths of science, 

 not a mere passive recipient of instruction. 



