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plants, such as coffee, tea, cotton, sugar cane, rice, maize, orange, 
palms, and spices. Finally comes the topic, “The Life of 
Plants.” This part, which deals with plant physiology, is re- 
peated in the seventh year in connection with chemistry 
The author of the article under review considers it is 
a crime to postpone the essentials of natural science till the child 
has reached the age of fifteen or thereabout; to make natural 
science elective in the preparatory schools is almost as bad. 
The new program of the primary school provides for an addi- 
tional 100 hours in biology. In the middle school (connecting 
the primary school with the gymnasium) a thorough drill is given 
in classification of typical plants of Norway. About 21 forms 
“At the end of the middle 
(as 
almost 
are used, divided into nine families, 
school the child, now at the age of 14-15 years, is able to take 
any given plant and classify it, and describe its life history.” 
For this work there is available a text-book (Sérensen’s “ Botanik 
for Middelskolen”’) which is “beautifully illustrated and con- 
tains 16 colored plates and 195 text figures.” The price of this 
book is 49 cents. 
An equal amount of zoology is given every student before he 
leaves middle school. In addition to principles of human anat- 
omy, physiology and the regular course in hygiene, special in- 
struction is given in maintenance, nutriment, hygiene in a broader 
sense, ventilation, heating of rooms, bacteriology, cleanliness, 
dress, first aid, sport, dance, endurance, bathing, care of sick, ete. 
“The Norwegian educators recognize that an educated person 
must not be totally ignorant of such fundamentals as here re- 
ferred to; that it is just as necessary to know the elements of 
botany and zoology, chemistry and physics, as to know the funda- 
mentals of physiology and arithmetic; that the time for the intro- 
duction and the teaching of these sciences is when the person is 
young.” 
Cat Menace to Bird Life-—TVhe New York State Conservation 
Commission, Albany, New on has recently circulated a state- 
ment calling attention to the large extent to which our bird life is 
menaced by cats. Since birds feed upon insect pests and weed- 
seed, this matter is of much importance to those who are inter- 
