250 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



listlessness with which we were familiar 

 uuder the old ways. We do not generalize 

 from this single instance, but we gather 

 from an examination of Miss Peabody's 

 tracts that there has been not a little rough 

 and crude work in the attempt to carry out 

 Froebel's plan. But the merit of this re- 

 former is independent of the perfection of 

 his method. He has done the world incal- 

 culable service by fixing its attention, first 

 and clearly, upon a subject of the greatest 

 importance, and the attempts to carry out 

 his method can hardly fail to lead to some- 

 thing better. Miss Peabody is among the 

 pioneers of the movement in this country, 

 and she has worked like a saint in the 

 cause. Her little periodical deserves to be 

 liberally sustained. Kindergarten schools 

 are spi'inging up in various places, and their 

 managers will need all the enlightenment 

 they can get. But, whether schools be es- 

 tablished or not, the literature of the sub- 

 ject abounds in valuable suggestions that 

 may be made available in home education. 

 For it is here after all that the main inter- 

 est must centre, and to us the highest value 

 of the movement is its possible result in 

 giving us more competent and better-in- 

 structed mothers. We note not without 

 apprehension the growing disposition to in- 

 voke State agency in the establishment of 

 this new order of educational institutions. 

 Should this plan succeed, and the new 

 schools be, moreovei*, subjected to the pi-in- 

 ciple of " compulsory education," as by the 

 logic of the case they must, the situation 

 will become interesting. To the extent in 

 which the Kindergarten idea becomes the 

 rival of family nurture and is resorted to 

 by mothers to escape their responsibilities, 

 it will be injurious ; but, in so far as it has 

 the contrary effect and educates mothers as 

 well as children, it will prove a boon to 

 society. 



First Lessons in the Principles op Cook- 

 ing. By Lady Barker. London : Mac- 

 millan & Co. 101 pp., 18mo, price 50c. 



This little book treats of the chemical 

 composition of food ; the effect on the hu- 

 man body of the different substances used 

 as such ; of the modes of preparing cer- 

 tain kinds of food in conformity with their 

 action ; and of the principles of diet. In 

 the first part is shown what elements are 



necessary to make animal or vegetable sub- 

 stances fit for food, and what substances 

 possess those elements in the highest de- 

 gree. The second part explains easy and 

 economical methods of making bread, cook- 

 ing vegetables, meats, etc., and building and 

 keeping up kitchen-fires. The third part 

 enforces the truth that the body is bene- 

 fited not by the quantity of food eaten, but 

 by the quantity digested, and goes on to 

 show what kinds of diet are best adapted 

 to the digestive organs of persons in differ- 

 ent occupations. The book contains much 

 information that is valuable to the house- 

 keeper. 



Fuel. By C. William Siemens, D. C. L., F. 

 R. S., and John Wormald, C. E. New 

 York : D. Van Nostrand. 81 pp., ISmo, 

 price 50c. 



This work comprises two addresses de- 

 livered before the Council of the British 

 Association. The first part discusses the 

 nature of fuel, the source whence it is de- 

 rived, the best methods of using it economi- 

 cally, the coal question of the day, and solar 

 heat. Fuel is defined as any substance 

 capable of entering into combination with 

 another substance and giving rise to heat 

 in the act, and it is shown to be derived 

 from solar energy acting upon the surface 

 of our earth. The subject is handled in a 

 scientific manner, and has a direct practical 

 bearing on economy of the use of fuel in 

 manufactures, transportation, and the house- 

 hold. The second part ostensibly com- 

 pares the value of artificial fuels with coal, 

 but is little more than an enumeration of 

 the various attempts that have been made 

 within the past hundred years to produce 

 an artificial fuel. 



We are informed by the Boston Globe 

 that the forthcoming work of Mr. John 

 Fiske, to be simultaneously published in 

 England and this country, is nearly com- 

 pleted, and will be issued early next autumn. 

 Those who have been interested in his lect- 

 ures will be gratified to learn that these 

 are to be reproduced in a carefully-revised 

 form, with much new matter which will 

 give his work a comprehensive character 

 It will be in two volumes, comprising nearly 

 a thousand pages, under the title of " Out- 

 lines of Cosmic Philosophy based on the 



