276 



THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY 



Any book, therefore, giving an account of 

 experiments in this direction will be wel- 

 comed by all persons interested in the sub- 

 ject ; and such a book we have now before 

 us. The author, who has been for some years 

 superintendent of public schools in James- 

 town, New York, in it gives an account of 

 his introduction of manual training there, 

 together with a detailed exposition of the 

 system of training itself. Mr. Love is, of 

 course, an enthusiastic advocate of industrial 

 training, and a firm believer in its great use- 

 fulness, lie holds that " it ranks in impor- 

 tance with the study of numbers or language, 

 in the benefits it confers on its recipients." 

 He notes the fact that some children dislike 

 books, while they are fond of activity ; and 

 such children, he says, arc made more in- 

 terested in their school-work by the intro- 

 duction of manual exercises. The system 

 was introduced into the Jamestown schools I 

 on a small scale in 18H, and has been , 

 largely extended since, with the approval of 

 the school authorities and of the people of 

 the town. I 



The greater part of Mr. Love's volume 

 is devoted to an exposition of the exercises 

 that are practiced in the Jamestown schools, 

 the subject being illustrated by a great 

 number of diagrams. In the lower grades 

 the exercises are the same for both boys 

 and girls, and are of a very simple charac- 

 ter, such as building with blocks, slat-plait- 

 ing, paper-folding, mat -weaving, etc. In 

 the grammar and high schools they consist 

 of carpenter-work for the boys, sewing and 

 cooking for the girls, and printing for both 

 sexes. And here we see one of the difficul- 

 ties that the system has to contend with— 

 that of introducing a sufficiently diversified 

 industry. Every girl should know some- 

 thing of cooking and sewing, though these 

 things ought to be taught her at home ; but 

 very few boys can be cither carpenters or 

 printers, and, though a little knowledge of 

 carpenter-work may be useful in some other 

 industries, this can hardly be said of i)rint- 

 ing. More boys will become farmers than 

 anything else, and it is hard to see how 

 farming or any branch of it can be taught in 

 the public schools. We make these remarks 

 not by way of criticism, but to point out 

 one of the dinicullies attending the intro- 

 duction of maimal training. Meanwhile, a 



work like this that shows experimentally 

 how to overcome any of those difficulties 

 will be welcomed by all who are interested 

 in the subject. 



A History of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences (formerlv the Lyceum of Natu- 

 ral Historv). By Herman Le Roy Fair- 

 child, Recording Secretary. New York : 

 Published by the author. ISS?. 

 This book owes its origin to a vote of 

 the Academy, passed in June, 1886, author- 

 izing and requesting the secretary to pre- 

 pare such a manual. It was intended at 

 first to make a short paper that might be 

 included in a volume of the Academy's 

 "Transactions"; but the author found an 

 unexpected amount of material, and so ex- 

 panded his essay to a volume of two hun- 

 dred pages. The work has been approved 

 by the Council of the Academy, and is now 

 I published in a limited edition of five hun- 

 dred copies. It gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the origin of the society, which oc- 

 curred in February, 1817, though the Ly- 

 ceum, as it was then called, was not char- 

 tered until the next year. A list of the 

 original members is given, and also a list cf 

 the present members. The progress of the 

 society is duly recorded, separate chapters 

 being given to the subjects of the library, 

 collections, and publications, and biogra- 

 phies are given of several of the leading 

 members. The author remarks that " the 

 resident membership of the society has 

 never been large," a fact which he attributes 

 to the absorption of the people of the city 

 in commercial affairs, and their consequent 

 inattention to pure science. It is gratify- 

 ing to leavn. however, that the number of 

 members at the present time is larger than 

 ever before, and there is reason to hope 

 that the American people will ere long give 

 more earnest attention to science. The book 

 is well printed, and will be welcome to all 

 members and friends of the Academy. 



BoDYKE : A Chapter in the History of Irish 

 Landlordism. By Henry Norman. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1 887. 

 This work is an account of the eviction 

 of several families of Irish tenants at Bo- 

 dyke for non-payment of rent. The author 

 was an eye and ear witness of much that he 

 records, and seems to have taken consider- 



