SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



275 



nipresent as the barrel organ. At the fore- 

 front in bringing about this popularization of 

 sociology has been Mr. Ward's book itself. 

 It is now an important and largely patron- 

 ized department in nearly every college and 

 university in the country, has numerous 

 periodicals devoted entirely to its treatment, 

 and has even made a place for itself in the 

 daily papers. The subject is of interest to 

 every one, and is of such a nature that a little 

 careful study amply repays the student both 

 in new knowledge and as mental training. 

 This increase of general interest in sociolo- 

 gy has made a new edition of Mr. Ward's 

 book necessary. As the work was given a 

 long and appreciative review in these pages 

 in June, 1883, we shall simply refer readers 

 to that issue for further information. 



The Student's Manual of Physics* has 

 been adapted by the author, Mr. Leroy C. 

 Cooley, for use in the combined method 

 of teaching by oral instruction, text-book 

 study, and laboratory work. It contains 

 much less material than other elementary 

 text books for purely illustrative work, and 

 much more of that which is necessary for 

 systematic and successful quantitative study. 

 Throughout the book a laboratory course ac- 

 companies the text, the experiments being 

 described at the close of the numbered sec- 

 tions and set in different type. By cross 

 references and a systematic notation atten- 

 tion is directed to the facts and principles 

 that have been already studied and are in- 

 volved in the study of the subject in hand. 

 The author insists as an important feature 

 on the pains he has taken to preserve con- 

 tinuity in the discussions and a smooth flow 

 in the transitions from one subject to an- 

 other, also on his attempt to impart clear- 

 cut conceptions of physical quantities and 

 avoid ambiguities. The explanations are 

 clear and lucid, and the manner of the book 

 is modern. 



The Natural Elementary Geography of 

 Mr. Jacques W. Redway f represents the 

 latest methods in the study and teaching of 



* Physics : The Student's Manual for the 

 Study Room and Laboratory. By Leroy C. Coo- 

 ley, Ph. D. American Book Company. Pp 448. 



t Natural Elementary Geography. By Jacques 

 W. Redway. American Book Company. Pp. 144. 

 Price, 60 cents. 



the science, and is composed in accordance 

 with the recommendations of the Committee 

 of Fifteen. The central idea of the treat- 

 ment pursued in it is man, his history, cus- 

 toms, industries, and geographical relations ; 

 and the different countries are described ac- 

 cording as they relate to man. In the be- 

 ginning the pupil is started from home and 

 is taken eastward to the Atlantic and then 

 westward to the Pacific, while the character- 

 istic features of the country he passes over 

 and the settlements are insisted upon and 

 made plain. He is then taken across the 

 ocean and to other countries, and they 

 are described nearly in the order of the 

 closeness of their relations with us. For 

 the United States the old arbitrary divisions 

 based on location are subordinated to divi- 

 sions according to elevation, climate, and 

 industries. In Europe the divisions are ac- 

 cording to racial lines. The maps are phys- 

 ical and political, so adjusted as to scale as 

 to give correct ideas of the comparative 

 areas of countries. The illustrations are all 

 intended to instruct and are excellent. 



This little work,* one of a series entitled 

 Home-Reading Books, is rather difficult to 

 place. It is in the first place as fascinating 

 as a fairy tale, and in the second so instruct- 

 ive as to be repellent to the mind of the 

 average youth. It is an attempt to interest 

 the child in a class of life which abounds in 

 every pond and stream namely, the protozoa. 

 Each of these apparently characterless little 

 masses of protoplasm, with far less intelli- 

 gence than the average clam, assumes under 

 the treatment of Miss Bayliss a personality 

 almost as distinct as that of our human neigh- 

 bors. In Chapter I, which is devoted to 

 rhizopods, the leading member is the amoeba, 

 introduced as the " slowest thing on earth." 

 The whiplashers are visited in the second 

 chapter. Then come the ciliata, succeeded 

 by an amusing chapter on protozoan philoso- 

 phy. There are eleven chapters, the last of 

 which, The Greatest Joke of All, might have 

 been appropriately labeled As Others See 

 Us, being an examination under the micro- 

 scope of the human youth conducted by the 



* In Brook and Bayou, or Life in Still Waters. 

 By Clara Kern Bayliss. Illustrated. New York: 

 D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 175. Price, 60 

 cents. 



