LITERARY NOTICES. 



249 



Spencer. Can it be that they are really in 

 such a desperate way in that camp ? 



Annual Record of Science and Industry 

 FOR 1873. Edited by Spencer J. Baird. 

 New York: Harper & Bros. 714 pp., 

 12mo. Price $2.00. 



This volume presents a very large 

 amount of valuable and interesting infor- 

 mation in compact form, being in fact a 

 history of progress in science and art for 

 the year. The main part of the book is 

 prefaced with a brief summary of the year's 

 progress. The matter is presented in di- 

 visions named according to their nature, in 

 general scientific terms, as Mathematics and 

 Astronomy, Terrestrial Physics, and Mete- 

 orology, etc. Much important knowledge 

 bearing directly on the ordinary affairs of 

 life is to be gleaned from the divisions on 

 Agriculture and Household Economy. For 

 instance, the latter contains some valuable 

 facts about lightning and lightning-conduct- 

 ors. Chimneys should be kept clean, as 

 one lined with a thick layer of soot is dan- 

 gerous, being apt to conduct the current of 

 electricity into the house. The costly cop- 

 per rods now so popular are condemned, 

 and the ordinary galvanized iron wire. No. 

 4, recommended instead. A conductor, to 

 be effective, should have no joints nor acute 

 angles, and the lower end should rest in the 

 ground, while the upper should be tipped 

 with a gilded or polished point. Conduct- 

 ors are also likely to become impaired 

 from use, and therefore need occasional ex- 

 amination and repairing. In the division 

 oi" Materia Medica, a simple and effectual 

 method is given for distinguishing real from 

 apparent death. This is in simply tying 

 a tight ligature around a finger of the sup- 

 posed corpse ; if death is only apparent, the 

 end of the finger will shortly become red. 



About meteors and comets, we are told, 

 Prof. Proctor has concluded that comets 

 are detached masses of matter thrown off by 

 planets like Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus, 

 while in a molten condition. Meteors are 

 fragmentary parts of disintegrated comets. 

 The inflammatory character of meteors has 

 also been established. In May, 1873, two 

 men in North Germany observed a falling 

 meteor strike against a church-tower, and 

 rebound with loud detonation to a house- 

 top. The house soon became enveloped in 



flames, which spread and destroyed several 

 adjoining buildings. The most startling 

 statement, probably, comes from Secchi, 

 the great ItaUan astronomer. This is that 

 the sun varies in size. Secchi's hypothesis 

 is, that the sun's photosphere as seen by us 

 is a gaseous envelope, continually, and per- 

 haps periodically, changing in apparent 

 size. 



The Kindergarten Messenger. Edited by 

 Elizabeth P. Peabodv. Monthly, 24 

 pages, $1.00 per year. 19 FoUen Street, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



The name of Froebel is becoming as fa- 

 miliar in connection with a method of child- 

 culture called the Kindergarten, as was the 

 name of Pestalozzi a few years ago in con- 

 nection with the method of school instruc- 

 tion by objects. Froebel's course, like the 

 college curriculum, runs through four years, 

 from three to seven, of the child's life. His 

 idea is not only to furnish objects so as to 

 influence early impressions, but to combine 

 action with observation, and make play- 

 studies available in the first steps of educa- 

 tion. Froebel, motherless from his earliest 

 recollections, and then having the experi- 

 ence of a step-mother who neglected him, 

 was drawn by a powerful sympathy to 

 children, whom he thought are generally 

 neglected, and was moved to do something 

 to beautify and enrich their opening lives. 

 That his devices were ingenious, and his 

 own practice probably successful, may be 

 freely admitted, and it must be acknowl- 

 edged also that he dedicated himself to a 

 noble work ; but to what extent he struck 

 the true principles of the management of 

 children is not so clear. Certain it is that 

 many of his followers made but sorry work 

 in their endeavors to carry out his system. 

 Long interested in this question of the first 

 steps in education, and having heard much 

 of Froebel's new dispensation, we sought 

 out a Kindergarten school in London sev- 

 eral years ago which was conducted by 

 teachers trained at the feet of the master. 

 The method was there in all its novelty, and 

 it was obvious enough that it contained 

 many excellent features ; but, alas ! the trail 

 of the school-room was over them all. It 

 had become a routine, and although march- 

 ing, singing, and various activities, were a 

 part of it, there was the same mechanical 



