538 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



dent is left to observe and describe it and 

 trace its connection with the principle it 

 illustrates. In this work precision and con- 

 ciseness of statement are required, and the 

 reports are subjected to critical examination 

 by the teacher. With each copy of the 

 book there goes a separate slip stating how 

 much apparatus and chemicals are needed 

 for every ten students taking this course of 

 practice. 



While in its main features the manual 

 is introductory to a more extended course, 

 it may still be used with profit by students 

 who have no time or opportunity for sub- 

 sequent study. 



Lessons in Elementary Chemistry : Inor- 

 ganic and Organic. By Henry E. Ros- 

 COE, B. A., F. K. S., Professor of Chemis- 

 try in Owens College, Manchester. New 

 edition. New York : Macmillan & Co., 

 1878. Price, $1.50. 



This text-book, which was first published 

 in 1SR9, conforms to the metric system of 

 weights and measures, and the centigrade 

 thermometric scale. The most important 

 facts and principles of modern chemistry 

 are so presented as to give the pupil exac- 

 titude of knowledge, without which science 

 in schools is worthless. The work was re- 

 vised in 1875, and important changes were 

 made in the organic portion, while the whole 

 Dook was brought up to the level of the sci- 

 ence of the day. The present edition, among 

 other alterations and additions, adopts, for 

 the combining weights of the elements, num- 

 bers derived from Sta's accurate experi- 

 ments, oxygen being taken at 15'96 instead 

 of 16. In ordinary calculations, however, 

 the older numbers, for the sake of sim- 

 plicity, are still employed. 



Christ's Words as related to I^^cience, 

 Law, Government, History, Philoso- 

 phy, Religion, and Universal Human 

 Experience. By Prof. J. B. Turner, of 

 Jacksonville, Illinois, author of " Three 

 Great Races of Men," " Essays on Me- 

 teorology," " Industrial Education," etc. 

 Springfield, Illinois : H. W. Rokker. Pp. 

 425. Price, $2.50. 



This is an able and vigorous work by an 

 earnest believer in the religion of Christ, 

 the object of which is to cleave through the 

 body of dogmatic theology that has been 

 accumulating for centuries, and get at those 



simple teachings that are embodied in the 

 words of the founder of the Christian faith. 

 " What is it that Christ really taught, and 

 that constitutes the essence of his religion ? " 

 is the problem that Prof. Turner puts before 

 him and undertakes to solve. The task he 

 has ventured upon opens a very broad field 

 of inquiry, embracing various departments 

 of knowledge. Prof. Turner does not claim 

 to be an expert in all these branches of 

 learning, but only to have considered them 

 with reference to one controlling idea — how 

 far they have been employed to obscure the 

 elementary inculcations of the Master. The 

 author is both a firm believer and a vehe- 

 ment doubter. He says he " does not believe 

 that all or most of the current ideas of either 

 religion or science, of philosophy, law, or 

 history, are true, or in accord with the teach- 

 ings of Christ. It will be forever impossi- 

 ble to harmonize such a medley of false as- 

 sumptions with each other or with the facts 

 of being, either natural or spiritual." It 

 being thus assumed as out of the question 

 to bring the chaotic schemes of belief into 

 reconciliation, the sincere Christian has no- 

 thing left but to find out for himself that 

 which is essential in his religion, and Prof. 

 Turner avows no other object than to aid 

 him in this work. 



The author remarks : " What Christ actu- 

 ally said may be one thing; what the world 

 has been catechised < r thumb-screwed into 

 the belief that he said may be quite anoth- 

 er." How natural it is for the meanings 

 of Scripture to have been distorted in the 

 long ages of ignorance and prejudice, dur- 

 ing which they have been a matter of con- 

 flict, is well illustrated by Prof. Turner in 

 an example which everybody can under- 

 stand. He says: "If in half a century 

 our national Constitution, written in our 

 native tongue, consecrated to the broadest 

 liberty, could be perverted so that union, 

 fraternity, and justice, were synonymous 

 with the right of domination of white over 

 colored men; and if our Legislatures, our 

 courts, our army and navy, our literature, 

 schools, and churches, our very psalms and 

 prayers, could be marshaled and used for 

 the defense of one of the most infamous 

 forms of slavery the world has ever seen, 

 what may not have been done during the 

 ages of barbaric ignorance, with the records 



