LITERARY NOTICES. 



133 



almost at a single sitting. But these power- 

 ful instruments of precision in mental work 

 are absolutely necessary if physics is to be 

 taught for the purpose of mental training. 



Professor Trowbridge aims to raise the 

 standard in the elementary study of physi- 

 cal science, and to make its acquisitions of 

 permanent value. He introduces nothing 

 that can ever have to be unlearned. He has 

 selected for experimental and mathematical 

 demonstration the fundamental truths in the 

 several branches of the science of physics, 

 which must endure, however great the future 

 advances may be. If the student masters the 

 treatise, he has a solid foundation upon which 

 all future advances must be based. He has 

 omitted all that can not be considered as 

 fundamental ; and any laboratory manual 

 which may be published in the future must 

 include the principal experiments of this 

 text-book. 



Its appearance at this time is especially 

 opportune, as it meets something like an 

 emergency in the higher education. It is 

 designed for the use of high schools, and 

 also " preparatory schools for college ," and 

 there is just now a vigorous effort to raise 

 the standard of science-study in the period 

 of preparation for college. Here Greek and 

 Latin have had almost exclusive attention, 

 but there is a growing demand for a better 

 pre-collegiate grounding in science. "The 

 New Physics," if properly used, will insure 

 this result. It will give a more valuable dis- 

 cipline than the dead languages ; and, while 

 there will be as much hard work as in the 

 grinding of Greek, it will not be repulsive 

 work. By enlisting the active as well as 

 the reflective powers there will be a greater 

 variety of interest in the exercises, so that 

 the course of the student, though arduous, 

 will be pleasurable. It is a fallacy to make 

 disgust at painful study an evidence of its 

 disciplinary value ; and one of the great 

 advantages which we may expect from the 

 broader and more liberal pursuit of science- 

 studies in the future will be to make educa- 

 tion more attractive than it has been in the 

 past. 



Hand-Book of the Dominion op Canada, 

 By S. E. Dawson. Montreal : Dawson 

 Brothers. Pp. 335, with Pocket Map. 



The "Hand-Book" was prepared for the 

 meeting of the British Association at Mont- 



real, and therefore devotes more attention 

 than is usual in guide-books to the scientific 

 aspects of the country and its economical 

 prospects. Opening with a general account 

 of the Dominion, its physical features, sta- 

 tistics, enterprises of all kinds, and the con- 

 dition of science, literature, and art within 

 it, it devotes the sections that follow to 

 more full and detailed accounts of Nova 

 Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Bruns- 

 wick, Quebec, the lower St. Lawrence, the 

 Labrador coast, Ontario, Manitoba, and 

 British Columbia. A geological map of 

 Montreal and its environs is given, in con- 

 nection with a chapter on that subject. 



Excessive Saving a Cause of Commercial 

 Distress. ' By Uriel H. Crocker. Bos- 

 ton : W. B. Clarke & Carruth. Pp. 40. 

 Price, 50 cents. 



The author of this monograph, which he 

 characterizes as " a series of assaults upon 

 accepted principles of political economy," 

 is a prophet whose efforts have not been 

 appreciated by the press. Ue is so unfor- 

 tunate as to hold views contrary to the 

 fashionable ones, and which, consequently, 

 whether they be well founded or not, can 

 not be admitted to the best places in the 

 paper. The substance of these views is, 

 that if the public refuse to buy goods that 

 are in the market or are makinar for it, deal- 

 ers and manufacturers who are dependent 

 on the sale of them must suffer distress 

 which will eventually overtake the whole 

 community. A few of the essays he has 

 written in support of this theory have been 

 published ; others have been declined or 

 sent to the waste-basket. All are given in 

 this volume. 



Electrical Appliances op the Present 

 Day. By Major D. P. Heap, U. S. A. 

 New York : D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 287, 

 with Plates. 



Major Heap was sent out by the Secre- 

 tary of War to visit the Electrical Exhi- 

 bition in Paris in 1881, and collect such 

 information respecting it as would be of 

 interest and value. The exhibition was 

 complete in nearly every detail except in 

 the application of electricity to torpedoes, 

 concerning which the inventors of every 

 nation preferred to keep their own secrets 

 from those of other nations. It was par- 



