The Book Shelf 



The Way Life Begins, by Bertha C. Cady and Vernon M. Cady. 



American Social Hygiene Association, 105 W. 48th Street, 



New York City. $1.00 

 This very interesting and beautifully illustrated volume is a 

 scientific and logical introduction to sex education. It is for 

 parents and teachers essentially, although, if it should fall into 

 the hands of a child, it could do nothing but good. However, 

 the material is arranged so as to be given in a series of lessons 

 which in the case of plants should be illustrated by observation. 

 The first chapter is a sermon that should be taken to heart 

 on the deeper meaning of nature-study. The first lesson is a 

 charming one on the pollenation of the lily including the carrying 

 of the pollen from flower to flower by moths. This study forms 

 a basic lesson in reproduction. The next lesson is the life story 

 of the Cecropia moth. There follows this the story of the fertili- 

 zation of the eggs of fish through the agency of the milt, — as 

 impersonal a story as that of the pollenation of the lily. The next 

 natural step involves a more personal relation of the parents, 

 as illustrated in the life histories of the frog and toad. Then 

 comes the mysterious inner history of the egg traced from its 

 beginning to the hatching of the chick. This leads up to a study 

 of the rabbit which gives a complete history of the fertilization of 

 the ovum of the mammal, stress being placed upon the fact that 

 the reproductive organs of the male and female are essentially 

 alike in origin and thus shows that the development of sex is 

 nature's way of dividing the labor of reproduction. After these 

 lessons the step to the origin and growth of the human embryo is 

 but a short one and this chapter is written with detailed and 

 straightforward information. 



Mrs. Cady was formerly a very successful nature-study teacher 

 in the Oakland, Cal., schools and was thus peculiarly fitted for her 

 part in this important voltmie. The last chapter deals with 

 nat lire-study and the personal problems of life and should be 

 be read by every one. She makes it very plain that when the 

 child is young and without sex consciousness is the time when it 

 should become familiar naturally with the methods of reproduc- 

 tion in plants and lower animals. A child thus trained is ready 

 for the revelation of its own origin and as Mrs. Cady well says 

 when we are thus trained " we shall no longer thmk of sex reproduc- 

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