September 5, 1901] 



NA TURE 



443 



fuller official recognition of the need for variety in Poly- 

 technics and other institutions which do not come 

 necessarily under the designation of "science and art" 

 schools. 



The problem how to determine the curriculum of a 

 special school for youths of fifteen or sixteen destined for 

 the conduct of business in a merchant's or banker's office 

 becomes, therefore, one of considerable practical import- 

 ance, and a large part of this book is devoted to its 

 solution. Prominent among the conditions of success is 

 the practice of oral instruction in modern languages, 

 and constant conversational exercise as a necessary pre- 

 liminary to book work and the technicalities of grammar. 

 "The ear often remains untaught even after the eye 

 has grasped all there is to know of the grammar and 

 construction of the language." In this connection the 

 particulars given in the book respecting the travelling 

 scholarships of Germany and Switzerland and Belgium, 

 and other devices for acquiring practical familiarity with 

 the spoken language, are helpful and suggestive. The 

 authors very properly insist on the need of a thorough 

 acquaintance with arithmetic ; but they evidently attach 

 more importance to varied practical exercise in the art 

 of computing, and to its application to tariffs, freightage, 

 exchanges and other technicalities which have a visible 

 and immediate relation to markets and counting houses, 

 than to arithmetic as a science. The best experience on 

 this subject, however, points to the conclusion that the 

 learner whose attention has been directed, by means of 

 demonstrative lessons and by some instruction in algebra, 

 to the theory which underlies the truths of arithmetic, 

 is in a better position to apply his knowledge in after life 

 to business problems, whatever form they may happen to 

 take, than he who has prematurely loaded his memory 

 with rules and terminology relating to the details of com- 

 merce. On the subject of geography, and the effect of 

 climate and physical conditions upon the nature and value 

 of products, some hints are given which are well cal- 

 culated to suggest to teachers more practical and interest- 

 ing methods of teaching than are generally adopted in 

 geographical lessons. The authors are right also in 

 attaching importance to some knowledge of political 

 economy, a subject which receives a good deal of attention 

 in the higher commercial departments attached to the Real- 

 schulen of Germany. It is hardly recognised in England 

 yet that the elements of social economics and the general 

 conditions of industrial prosperity, the relative values of 

 different kinds of labour, the laws which govern the rate 

 of wages and the interest of money are subjects which can 

 be made very intelligible and attractive to young people 

 towards the end of their school life, and before entering 

 into the arena of business competition. Such knowledge 

 is not without a moral value of its own, for it reveals to 

 the learner the need of industry, forethought, punctuality, 

 self restraint and thrift, and goes far to show the relation 

 of conduct to real success in life. 



The particulars given in this book respecting the 

 College of Commerce and Politics in the University of 

 Chicago, the Higher Institute of Commerce at Ant- 

 werp, the School of Commerce in Neuchatel, and the 

 commercial courses of University grade at Magdeburg 

 Frankfort, Berlin,' Dusseldorf and Leipsic, may serve 

 to remind us of the fact that in England scientific pre- 

 NO. 1662, VOL. 64] 



paration for the profession of commerce has hitherto not 

 been recognised as a legitimate part of University work. 

 A step has indeed been recently taken, thanks to the 

 boundless munificence of Mr. Passmore Edwards, towards 

 the permanent establishment of a School of Economics 

 and of Commerce in connection with the renovated Uni- 

 versity of London. Much may be hoped from this novel 

 and interesting experiment. Inter alia it may have a 

 great effect on schools and other institutions of a lower 

 rank, whose pupils will hereafter graduate in the new 

 Faculty of Commerce. It is one of the offices of a 

 University to show how the higher professions may 

 be aided and quickened, and by setting up a lofty 

 standard of thorough and scientific preparation, to reveal 

 the true relations of academic culture to the qualities 

 which make successful merchants and captains of 

 industry. If this object be attained at the apex of our 

 educational structure in the Universities, the aims of 

 those who control the lower agencies, such as commercial 

 classes in Polytechnics and in secondary schools will 

 become clearer, and the practice of those institutions 

 will be freed from the narrowing influences which have 

 been long associated with the more ignoble type of 

 " commercial academy." 



The modest design described in the preface and the 

 title of this volume has, on the whole, been usefully and 

 sensibly attained. Those readers who seek the latest 

 information respecting the ideals of " commercial edu- 

 cation " which prevail in America and on the European 

 continent, and the machinery which exists for translating 

 those ideals into practice, will find much to interest them. 

 But those who are trying to make up their minds on 

 the larger problems— What is the place which special 

 knowledge of commercial subjects ought to hold in a 

 scheme of liberal education ? How are we to secure 

 that the higher claims of manhood and intelligence 

 shall not be sacrificed prematurely to the lower claims of 

 money-making and "getting on".' and What other 

 studies ought to be pursued concurrently with business 

 training in order to maintain the right balance of char- 

 acter in the future citizen ? — must look elsewhere for the 

 help and guidance they desire. 



THE BIRDS OF ICELAND. 

 Manual of the Birds of Iceland. By Henry H. Slater, 

 M.A., F.Z.S. Pp. xxiii -1- 150 ; 3 plates and map. 

 (Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1901.) Price 5^-. net. 



MR. Slater has very acceptably filled the want, which 

 many of us have felt, of a handy manual on the 

 birds of Iceland. Much information on the subject is to 

 be found scattered among Icelandic, Danish, German, 

 Latin and English books and periodicals (the bibliography 

 in the present volume comprises more than sixty titles), 

 and this has now been revised and condensed in a com- 

 pendious, handy form. .Added to this we have now the 

 personal observations made by the author in the occa- 

 sional visits he has paid to Iceland during the last fifteen 

 years, making altogether the most (indeed the only) com- 

 plete account of the birds of this out-of-the-way corner of 

 Europe which we possess. Without ministering to the 

 insatiable appetite of the egg collector by disclosing the 



