278 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



comparative leaf -surface is often increased, 

 their form modified, and their composilion 

 changed. Their period of growth is also 

 shortened, and they are enabled to develop 

 at a lower temperature. These variations, 

 if useful, may be accumulated by selection 

 and inheritance." 



Second Annual Report of thk Bureau of 

 Statistics of Labor of the State of 

 New York, for the Year 1884. Charles 

 F. Peck, Commissioner. Albany : Weed, 

 Parsons & Co. Pp. 521. 



The attention of the Bureau during the 

 year included in the report was directed 

 chiefly to the investigation of the prevalence 

 of child-labor in the manufactories of the 

 State, in which, in spite of adverse circum- 

 stances growing out of the defects of the 

 law under which the inquiries were con- 

 ducted, and of the difficulty of getting em- 

 ployers to give information, a great many 

 valuable statistics and much important tes- 

 timony have been collected. The facts re- 

 late to the employment of children ; its in- 

 fluence upon their physical development ; 

 the opportunity afforded in connection there- 

 with for moral and educational training ; 

 and its relation to the social, commercial, 

 and industrial prosperity of the State. A 

 considerable portion of the report is devoted 

 to the subject of compulsory education, the 

 importance of securing the enforcement of 

 the law prescribing it, and the means of ac- 

 complishing it. An article on " Hygiene of 

 Occupation," by Dr. Roger S. Tracy, of New 

 York, is also included in the report. In the 

 appendix are given a report on Pullman, 

 Illinois ; the memoranda of a committee 

 visit to the houses of cotton-mill operatives 

 in Fall River, Massachusetts ; the labor laws 

 of New York ; and extracts from the labor 

 legislation of other States and of England. 



ABC Book. By Francis A. March. 



Boston : Ginn & Co. 20 cents. 

 Phonetic First Reader. By T. R. Tick- 



ROY. Cincinnati : Van Antwerp, Bragg 



& Co. 25 cents. 

 Anglo - American Primer. By Eliza B. 



BcRNZ. New York: Burnz & Co. 15 



cents. 

 Pronouncing Orthography. By Edwin 



Leigh. 

 American Phonetic Primer. By Elias 



LoNGLEY. New York : E. N. Miner. 25 



cents. 



First Book in Phonetic Reading. Second 

 Book. Third Book. Fourth Book. 

 Fifth, or Transition Book. By Isaac 

 Pitman. New York. Fowler & Wells 

 Co. The set, 26 cents. 



An article in the September number of 

 the " Monthly " having caused some inquiry 

 for phonetic primers, a number of these 

 books are here noticed. They have the 

 common object of making easy the first part 

 of the process of learning to read by re- 

 moving the difficulties of silent letters, and 

 letters with several powers, to a later stage. 

 The authors make the claim, and support it 

 by abundant evidence, that children learn 

 to read books in phonetic spelling, and then 

 master the ordinary print, in less time than 

 is commonly spent on the ordinary print 

 alone. It is claimed, further, that in learn- 

 ing to read by the phonetic method the 

 child's reasoning powers are stimulated, 

 while if taught in the old way it forms at 

 the outset a habit of dependence on the 

 teacher which impedes all future progress. 

 Some of these books recognize thirty-six, 

 the others forty or forty-one, simple sounds 

 in the English language, besides four or five 

 diphthongs; and, as the common alphabet 

 contains only twenty-three effective letters, 

 it is variously extended by new letters and 

 digraphs. Longley uses seventeen new let- 

 ters ; Pitman thirteen, with digraphs for the 

 diphthongs ; Vickroy eleven, with eight di- 

 graphs ; while Mrs. Bumz uses but three, 

 depending largely on familiar digraphs. Dr. 

 Vickroy's reader has on the title-page a note, 

 signed by Professor March as president of 

 the Spelling Reform Association, in which 

 he cordially recommends the book. As Mr. 

 Pitman's books are published in England, 

 the pronunciation which they represent dif- 

 fers slightly from American usage. Thus 

 the vowel sound in lair is not distinguished 

 from that in layer ; been is represented as 

 rhyming with seen, etc. Pitman and Long- 

 ley use the continental vowel-scale, Mrs. 

 Bumz the English, while March and Vick- 

 roy skillfully avoid conflict with either. Mrs. 

 Burnz retains duplicate ways of represent- 

 ing several sounds, and a few other irregu- 

 larities of the old spelling, claiming as com- 

 pensation that her spelling departs less from 

 the common mode than any other, and hence 

 that a person whose education went no fur- 

 ther than the phonetic stage could spell a 



