i84 



NATURE 



[April 14, 1910 



service. Although it is some sixty years ago since a 

 certain measure of medical inspection of school- 

 children was initiated in Paris, and Great Britain has 

 been so slow to adopt a provision the value of which 

 has been appreciated by many other countries for 

 many years, the work has been started in this country 

 with such zeal and enthusiasm that we promise very 

 shortly to have established throughout these islands a 

 scheme which will compare favourably with that of 

 any other country. But it is essential to the best 

 results that there should be a better knowledge of 

 the demands of school hygiene among medical men 

 who are- called upon to work in connection with the 

 schools, and also among the teachers; and suitable 

 manuals upon this subject are therefore of great value 

 and importance. The present work is so suitable in 

 many respects that it is to be hoped that in a future 

 edition more explicit information upon many of the 

 practical details of school hygiene, which are wanting 

 in the present volume, will be included. 



MODERN SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY. 

 (i) Narrative Geography Readers. By G. F. Bos- 

 worth. Book i., pp. viii + 133; book ii., pp. viii + 

 145. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) 

 Price IS. each. 



(2) A Systematic Geography of Europe. Bv G. W. 

 Webb. Pp. viii + 96. (London: Methuen and Co., 

 1910.) Price IS. 



(3) Narratives Selected from Peaks, Passes and 

 Glaciers. Edited by G. Wherry. Pp. iii + 156. 

 (Cambridge : University Press, 1910.) Price is. 



(4) Cambridge County Geographies : Cheshire. By 

 T. A. Coward. Pp. x + 207 + maps. (Cambridge: 

 University Press, 1910.) Price is. 6d. 



(5) An Elementary Practical Geography for Middle 

 Forms. By F. Mort. Pp. 91. (London : Blackie 

 and Son, Ltd., 1909.) Price 2s. 



(6) A School Economic Atlas. By Dr. J. G.Bartholomew, 

 with Introduction by Prof. L. W. Lyde. Pp. xii + 

 64. (Oxford : The Clarendon Press, 19 10.) Price 

 25. 6d. net. 



A SET of new school books in geography suggests 

 -^^ the possibility of finding from an examination 

 of their contents the main lines along which instruc- 

 tion in this subject is tending at the present time to 

 crystallise. 



With a single exception the books named above 

 differ considerably from those in school use ten to 

 fifteen years ago : they suggest developmen'^ in three 

 directions, the first being that of the story told to 

 beginners, the others, for older pupils, being the 

 scientific methods of actual investigation by the pupil 

 from the raw material of geographical records, and 

 of considering the results of special study as placed 

 together in a monograph, if such a word may be used 

 in this modest connection, or of considering the actual 

 experiences described by the traveller. 



The single exception, Mr. Webb's "Systematic 

 Europe " (2), recalls the old t3-pe of text-book, with 

 its tit-bit collection of facts, of which the following is 

 a specimen : — " Elche is famous for its date palms " 

 (p. 32). Less than one-fifth of the book is given to a 

 NO. 21 I I, VOL. 8^1 



general survey of the Continent, and the remainder 

 is a fairly systematic treatment of the separate coun- 

 tries. Many of the facts seem to be unimportant; 

 others are such as a good pupil might reasonably be 

 expected to find out for himself from a modern atlas, 

 provided he had had some little training in investiga- 

 tion. The attempts in the large-type matter to trace 

 causal connections are not always happy, as, for ex- 

 ample, in regard to the Gulf Stream, which is 

 described as washing the western shores of Scandi- 

 navia, and to the Fohn effect, which is called a wind. 



The "Narrative Readers" (i) set forth, in the first 

 place, facts concerning the lives of children in other 

 lands, and from the stories of their habits and sur- 

 roundings the author passes to the stories of such 

 interesting things as the whale fishery, Captain 

 Cook's voyages, or the mutiny .of the Bounty. The 

 child is frequently referred to an atlas, but it would 

 probably be better if the reference were to a globe 

 which could be presented as a model of the earth. 



At a certain stage of development it is more impor- 

 tant that the child should be able to do things for 

 himself than that he should memorise facts presented 

 to him by an adult; and it is probable that no school J 

 subject provides a means for work of this nature so * 

 easily and so universally available as geography, hence 

 the development of practical work in this subject. 

 For this the main requirement is a good atlas, and 

 the Clarendon Press is to be congratulated that the 

 first venture in the provision of an atlas is one so likely 

 to be largely adopted as the one under review (6). 

 The child who works through the ample supply of 

 material in the spirit outlined in Prof. Lyde's intro- 

 duction will be well equipped as a thinker in terms of 

 geography. From the point of view of scientific 

 accuracy it would perhaps be helpful if some numerical 

 values were added to the statistical diagrams relating 

 to the main products of economic importance, and 

 also that the values given should be either triennial 

 or quinquennial averages ; possibly future editions will 

 be improved in these directions. Many additional 

 facts are given in the introduction in a concentrated | 

 and technical language, presumably for the benefit of 

 the teacher. 



Before such an atlas can be used the pupil should 

 have had some preliminary training in the making 

 of similar maps, and for this purpose are provided 

 for schools those books of practical geography of 

 which Mr. Mort's is one example. Although it deals 

 with contouring, with climate, and with vegetation, 

 this book illustrates markedly the indefiniteness of 

 the boundaries of school geography, for some of the 

 earlier work suggested should probably be called 

 observational nature-study, while much of the plane- 

 tabling is surveying work which would, to many 

 teachers, appear to be beyond the scope of a school 

 course. Mr. Mort's book is not entirely "heuristic," 

 as he tells many facts which the pupil might be ex- 

 pected to find out for himself. 



It is not possible in practical exercises of this nature 

 to cover the entire ground of geographical studies, 

 and therefore the pupil is provided with two other 

 kinds of text for reference or special study. The first 



