September 20, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



205 



The descent of man from some ancestor common to him and the 

 anthropoids is advocated, but it is argued that the law of continuity 

 does not require that the human mind has been developed by the 

 same causes that account for man's physical structure. As the 

 glacial age introduced into the earth's history a new cause, with 

 new effects, so a new agency is needed to explain the appearance 

 of the higher faculties, which are not necessities of our earthly ex- 

 istence, and " appear almost suddenly and in perfect development 

 in the higher civilized races." A new cause manifested itself first 

 in organic life, next in sensation and consciousness, and last in a 

 rational and moral being; and these manifestations of life " prob- 

 ably depend on different degrees of spiritual influx." The Dar- 

 . winian theory, carried to logical conclusion, does not, in the judg- 

 ment of Dr. Wallace, oppose, but lends decided support to, the 

 spiritual nature of man. 



Such are the principal topics of interest. Others, as, for exam- 

 ple, an offered solution of complex modes of cross-fertilization of 

 plants, might be mentioned. A regret may be expressed, that, in 

 treating of variability, the author has confined himself too much to 

 variation in mere proportions of form and color ; also, that, on the 

 subject of habits and instincts, he has not taken into consideration 

 the quickness and permanence of sense-association and of asso- 

 ciated impulses in animals, remarkably illustrated, for instance, in 

 the dog-and-goose incident from the Reznce Sczentifigue lately 

 given in our pages. But the work is as comprehensive as might 

 be expected in view of its special purpose. 



The Child and Child-Nature. By the Baroness Marenholtz- 

 BUELOW. Tr. by Alice M. Christie. Syracuse, N.Y., 

 C. W. Bardeen. 8°. $1.50. 



The object of this work is to explain and defend the system of 

 education devised by Froebel, and especially the series of exercises 

 and songs that he invented for mothers to use in training their 

 children. The authoress is deeply impressed with the failings of 

 humanity in the present age, and especially with its moral defects, 

 and thinks that the only way to counteract them is by the reform 

 of education. Frocbel's system she believes to be the right one, 

 and she has devoted many years to the work of propagating it. A 

 considerable part of this book is taken up with an exposition of 

 Froebel's peculiar philosophy, which we have always found repul- 

 sive, but which seems to have a strange attraction for some minds. 

 Froebel's theory is that education must proceed according to the 

 universal law of development, which is " the reconciliation of op- 

 posites," or " the law of balance." What this so-called law really 

 is, it is hard to find out, though in one place we are told that 

 "Newton calls the law in question the law of gravitation." Then 

 we are treated to remarks about " the continuity and inter-connec- 

 tion of all things in the universe," and so forth ; but what all this 

 flummery has to do with the education of children we are unable 

 to see. Being at last out of this quagmire, the authoress proceeds 

 to explain the practical methods of teaching devised by Froebel, 

 beginning with the kindergarten, but devoting most attention to 

 the exercises designed for the use of mothers at home. In most of 

 these exercises the child makes a kind of figure with his hands 

 which is supposed to represent some natural or artificial object, 

 and the mother then sings a song. The resemblance, however, 

 between the figure made with the hands and the object it is said 

 to represent is not apparent to us, while the songs as they appear 

 in English are little better than nonsense. Besides these exercises, 

 which are to be systematically practised, Froebel wished to place 

 the young child under a mass of other regulations, and even to 

 regulate and systematize the mother's caresses. What merit there 

 may be in his devices, only actual trial can determine ; but we 

 should think that such artificial treatment at the very beginning of 

 life must seriously hamper the natural and spontaneous develop- 

 ment of the child. We are not surprised, therefore, to find the 

 authoress remarking of the book in which this system is set forth 

 — the " Mutter und Koserlieder " — that she has learned by re- 

 peated experience " that in no way is so much opposition to Froe- 

 bel's system excited as by any endeavor to propagate this book." 

 She, however, is enthusiastic in its favor, and those who wish to 

 understand the system it advocates will find it elaborately set forth 

 in her book. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



Among the popular scientific articles to be published in The 

 Century during the coming year will be reports of the latest studies 

 and discoveries made at the Lick Observatory in California, fur- 

 nished by Professor Holden. Professor Putnam of Harvard has. 

 written a series of papers for the same magazine on prehistoric 

 America, in which he will give the result of his own explorations 

 of caves, burial-places, village sites, etc. A detailed account of the 

 strange earth-work known as the Serpent Mound of Adams 

 County, O., will be printed, and the illustrations of some of the 

 papers will include a number of terra-cotta figures of men and 

 women in a style of modelling heretofore unknown in American pre- 

 historic art. 



— The Appletons have published " A First Book in Americatv 

 History," by Edward Eggleston, intended for beginners in histor- 

 ical study. It is really a series of biographies of men more or less 

 prominent in American annals, beginning with Columbus and end- 

 ing with Lincoln, the author believing that children cannot follow 

 the political development of a nation understandingly, and that bi- 

 ography is for them the natural door into history. There is much 

 truth in this view, and Mr. Eggleston has been pretty successful in 

 carrying it into practice, the men whose lives he relates being not 

 only leading actors in American history, but also representatives of 

 American character. The style in which the stories are told is 

 likely to interest children, and the numerous illustrations in the 

 book add to its interest and instructiveness. There is, however, 

 no attempt to connect the various lives recounted so as to make a 

 continuous narrative, and the reader gets no idea of the course of 

 American history as an organic whole. In short, the book is not 

 history, but only an introduction to history, and as such it has con-- 

 siderable merit. 



— " Pensions for All " is the title under which Gen. M. M. Trum- 

 bull will give a severe lashing to the treasury raiders, in the Octo-- 

 ber Poptilar Science Monthly. The writer was a general in the- 

 civil war, and is anxious for the honor, as well as the due rewards,, 

 of the former soldiers, and he expresses the fervent wish that the 

 " pension temptation " may not " change the character or diminish 

 the fame of the Grand Army." Dr. M. Allen Starr will have an 

 article on " The Old and the New Phrenology," showing, with the- 

 aid of illustrations, what has been definitely learned about the loca-- 

 tion of the various mental faculties in the brain, and how the errors 

 of Gall and Spur/heim have been exposed. A lively picture of' 

 "Evolution as taught in a Theological Seminary" will be given by 

 RoUo Ogden. The writer finds his material for criticism in the 

 lectures on dogmatic theology given in the Union Theological 

 Seminary. Professor J. Howard Gore will contribute an article on 

 " Anthropology at Washington," describing the investigations of 

 the customs and history of the Indians and Mound-Builders which, 

 are being made by the government scientific bureaus. 



— It is not generally known that there was an American gov- 

 ernor of Emin Bey's province in Africa, which has recently at- 

 tracted so much attention, owing to Stanley's relief expedition.. 

 Colonel H. G. Prout, who is now editor of the Railroad Gazette,. 

 was the immediate successor of General Gordon as governor of the 

 Equatorial Province, and was one of his most trusted friends. It 

 is announced that in the November Scribner Colonel Prout will 

 fully describe Emin Bey's province, and will give many interesting 

 recollections of General Gordon, with extracts from some unique 

 private correspondence, and with a number of facsimiles of Gor-. 

 don's letters and maps. 



— The Rev. A. K. Glover will shortly publish a small volume- 

 entitled "The Jews of the Far East, or the Jews of the Extreme 

 Eastern Diaspora," with the original Chinese texts of the inscrip- 

 tions discovered at Kaifung-tu. 



— D. C. Heath & Co. will publish in September a translation of 

 " Lindner's Empirical Psychology," by Charles DeGarmo, Ph.D., of 

 the Illinois State Normal University. As the name implies, it is 

 based on common experience rather than on metaphysical theories. 

 It is written from the Herbartian standpoint, and is of interest 

 from the light it throws on the science of teaching. The common 

 complaint is that our ordinary abstract and verbal systems of psy-v 



