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AWEDSM 12: 1915 | 
second this information is used to suggest 
methods applicable to the special needs of 
American farmers. In 1913 the German farmer 
could borrow from his mutual credit association 
at 34 per cent., while his confrére in the Western 
States was paying from 6 to 10 per cent. for 
similar accommodation. The difference in the 
value of money in the two continents was, of 
course, partly responsible for this—a difference 
which the present enormous waste of capital in 
Europe will certainly reduce—but the advantages 
of the old-world farmer were chiefly due to his 
superior organisation. 
For the provision of personal or short-time 
credit, the combination of farmers into co-opera- 
tive credit societies is recommended. Seventeen 
States have already passed laws to facilitate the 
formation of such societies, but the scattered 
population on the large farms of the West renders 
the Raiffeisen type of credit bank, so successful 
in Europe, much more difficult to organise in 
America. As regards long-time loans to the 
landowning farmer, the State should grant these 
at reasonable rates of interest, and on the amor- 
tisation plan of repayment, by which equal pay- 
ments over the period covered by the loan both 
meets the interest and extinguishes the capital 
debt. The author has set out a mass of facts 
and figures with great clearness, and has further 
provided a very complete bibliography of the 
subject. 
The Statesman’s Year Book. 
Scott Keltie, assisted by Dr. M. Epstein. 
Fifty-second annual publication. Revised. 
Pp. Ixxxiv+1536. (London: Macmillan and 
Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 10s. 6d. net. 
THE editors of the “Statesman’s Year-Book,” 
gravely incommoded as they have been by the 
effects of the war, have met the situation success- 
fully. The statistics given for enemy countries 
and Belgium are for the most part of no more than 
historical interest, but they have been revised to 
the latest dates possible, and will be of value in 
the future for purposes of comparison. Special 
revision is stated to have been applied to the 
sections on Turkey, China, Greece, Spain, and the 
Panama Canal zone. The accounts of Chinese 
government and administration are very clear so 
far as they go, and the statistical tables for this 
country have been decidedly improved. To the 
introductory tables some pages have been added 
specifically dealing with the war. The dates of 
nineteen separate declarations of war between 
July 28, 1914, and May 23, 1915, are furnished. 
The list of principal events of the war might well 
have been fuller, but there is a useful catalogue 
of the principal official and unofficial war publica- 
tions. 
The coloured maps are all pertinent to the war 
—an ethnographical map of Central Europe, an 
historical map of Prussia, and a map illustrating 
the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 
1795), which is not very easy to follow. A map 
of the “World Colonial Powers concerned in 
War” is merely a map of the dominions of all the 
NO. 2389, VOL. 95] 
Edited by Dr. J. 

great European colonising Powers, including the 
Dutch. Attention has clearly been paid to the 
bibliographies, many of which are substantially 
more valuable than formerly; perhaps the selec- 
tion of works other than those quite recently pub- 
lished is still open in some instances to further 
revision. 
Lessons and Experiments on Scientific Hygiene 
and Temperance for Elementary School 
Children. By Helen Coomber. Pp. xXx + 163. 
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., I9Tq.) 
Price 1s. net. 
Many people have an idea that it is impossible 
to learn physiology without the complex para- 
phernalia of the modern laboratory. Some go 
to the other extreme, and imagine it is possible 
to become acquainted with the subject from books 
alone. Both are obviously wrong, and Miss 
Coomber’s manual will show how easy it is to 
teach the principles of elementary hygiene (ap- 
plied physiology) with quite simple materials, such 
as a few bottles, a spirit lamp, a chemical reagent 
or two, and material such as any butcher can 
furnish. Whilst thoroughly agreeing with the 
underlying idea of the book—that such teaching, 
to be effective, must be practical—one is a little 
doubtful whether the system of question and 
answer, which is adopted throughout, though most 
suggestive to the teacher, is really the best for 
the learner. Some little summary of the main con- 
clusions in each section should follow (or precede) 
the catechism and practical exercises. Indeed, 
the authoress oftens feels this herself, for some 
of the answers are prodigiously lengthy. Experi- 
ence will, however, show whether some short con- 
nected accounts will be advisable in future edi- 
tions. Any competent teacher could quite well 
supply the want if it is found necessary, and 
perhaps Miss Coomber thinks that this is the duty 
of the actual teacher rather than that of the writer 
of the present admirable little guide. 
W. D. H. 
Making the Most of Life. By Prof. M. V. O’Shea 
and J. H. Kellogg. Pp. ix+298. (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.; London: Maemillan and 
Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 3s. 6d. 
Turs is another of the many elementary manuals 
on physiology and hygiene which are being so 
prolifically produced in the United States. It is 
written clearly and to the point, and without any 
undue use of technical terms. How to live” 
healthily and long is the ambition of most of us; 
this makes all the more astonishing the colossal 
ignorance which prevails, even amongst otherwise 
well-educated people, of the most elementary 
rules of health. One cannot praise sufficiently a 
nation which seeks to make knowledge on such 
a vital question part of the education of every 
citizen. Useful lessons are drawn from the lives 
of such men as Gladstone, Tolstoi, Cornaro, and 
others; but the most important section of the 
book appears to us to be that devoted to the 
history of our microscopic foes, and the means 
to combat their attacks upon us. W. D. He 
