4i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dered by the funds has been in fostering 

 among the people a desire for good schools. 

 Without the land grants, the burden of 

 maintaining free schools would have seemed 

 oppressive to the new State, but, aided by 

 the income of the funds, the people have 

 grown into a habit of taxing themselves 

 heavily for the support of education. Thus 

 the funds have made practicable a system 

 of education which without them it would 

 have been impossible to establish." 



City School Systems i\ thk United States. 



By John D. Puilbkick. Washington, 



D. C. : Government Printing-Ufficc. Pp. 



207. 



This work is Xo. 1 of the " Circulars of 

 Information" of the Bureau of Education 

 for 1885. Its author is one of the most 

 experienced of American city school super- 

 intendents, aud one who has written or said 

 a great deal on educational subjects ; and 

 in it he has presented an extensive review 

 of the principles and conditions of the edu- 

 cational organizations, generally, of all the 

 towns in our country having populations of 

 more than eight thousand or thereabout, 

 and particularly of the larger cities which 

 have the most clearly defined systems. The 

 points to which attention is chiefly directed 

 cover the administration and organization of 

 the schools ; the classes and kinds of schools; 

 the studies, supervision, programmes, and 

 supplementary reading provided for ; indus- 

 trial education ; physical and other drill ; gra- 

 tuitous instruction; gratuitous text -books 

 the tenure of office of teachers ; the sex of 

 teachers ; examinations, promotions, and ex- 

 hibitions; the question of "recess and no 

 recess," concerning which he speaks with 

 force against the abolition of recess; school 

 ages ; sufficiency of accommodation ; school- 

 houses, museums, decorations and art ; ped- 

 agogical libraries ; and coercive attendance. 



The Boys' and Girls' Pliny. Edited, with 

 an Introduction, by John S. White, LL. 

 D. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Pp. 326, with Illustrations. Price, $3. 



In this adaptation, which is the third 

 and last of a brief series of classical au- 

 thors — Plutarch, Herodotus, and Pliny — 

 which the editor has prepared for the read- 

 ing of boys and girl?, the selection is made 

 from the most interesting parts of Pliny's 



" Xatural History." As the author's science, 

 however pleasant reading it may be — and in 

 that respect it is not excelled — would not be 

 good science in the present day, it calls for 

 frequent correction ; this is given in all cases 

 where Pliny's statements have been proved 

 erroneous, except where they are so evi- 

 dently preposterous as to need no comment. 

 For his foot-notes, the editor has had re- 

 course to Cuvier, Bostock, and Ajasson, de- 

 voted students of Pliny, he says, " whose 

 work can rarely be improved upon." In the 

 introduction are given the life of Pliny and 

 his nephew's account of his death by the 

 eruption of Vesuvius. 



Twenty-five Yeaus with the Insane. By 

 Daniel Putnam. Detroit : John ilac- 

 farlane. Pp. 157. Price, 75 cents. 



The author of this book was for twenty- 

 five years Chaplain of the Michigan Asylum 

 for the Insane, at Kalamazoo, and he sets 

 forth here the results of his experience and 

 observations in that capacity. After an his- 

 torical review of the development of the 

 modern methods of taking care of the in- 

 sane, he considers their proper care in asy- 

 lums, their treatment outside of asylums, 

 depicts the opinions and feelings of patients, 

 and discusses the relations of schools, relig- 

 ion, alcohol, tobacco, and other narcotics, 

 inherited tendencies, and crime, with insani- 

 ty. He believes that asylums and hospitals 

 for the insane have done much for the relief 

 of one of the most pitiable forms of human 

 suffering, and that it is possible for them 

 to do more and better in the future. 



The Co-operative Commonwealth in its 

 Outlines. By Lawrence Gkonlcnd. 

 Boston : Lee & Shepard. New York : 

 Charles T. Dillingham. Pp. 278. Price, 

 $1. 



This book presents to the reader, in a 

 concise, logical, and readable form, the prin- 

 cipal propositions of modern socialism, from 

 the point of view of a socialist. It has been 

 written, according to the professions of the 

 author, that it may be seen that the social 

 and political phenomena in all progressive 

 countries, and particularly m our own coun- 

 try and Great Britain, are, in a perfectly 

 natural manner, evolving a new social order, 

 a social-democratic order, to which the name 

 of the " Co-operative Commonwealth " is 



