January 3, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



zo 



with the proviso that more was known than 

 was found in most anatomical, text-books.) 

 But in these studies the living hand has been 

 used, and although our contention still in 

 the main holds good, it is to be admitted that 

 a priori we really did not know how closely 

 the movements made on a dead body repro- 

 duced the conditions which were the result of 

 m.otions from within. The work has been very 

 thorough, much attention being given to in- 

 dividual bones. Some of the views strike us 

 as quite original. Thus we do not remember 

 to have seen, in any of the monographs on 

 this subject the position of the carpal bones 

 in palmar and dorsal flexion shown directly 

 from either the front or the back as in the 

 usual view of the wrist. The objection which 

 naturally presents itself, when such a course 

 is proposed, is that the foreshortening of the 

 flexed bones and the hiding of more or less 

 of one row under the other would make the 

 figure worthless, but this objection has by skill 

 in technique been well met. The illustrations 

 are admirable, and are made still more practi- 

 cal by being almost always accompanied by an 

 outline drawing. 



The results in the main are these : In lateral 

 motions of the handwe may accept the theory 

 of two oblique axes crossing- each other at 

 about the middle of the wrist with the proxi- 

 mal and distal angles larger than the lateral 

 ones; but in flexion and extension we must 

 assume a single transverse axis. A point em- 

 phasized is that the mid-carpal joint is a very 

 important one. This is not new to anatomists, 

 but we doubt if it is very familiar to the aver- 

 age student of anatomy. The work in short 

 is both an interesting and a valuable one. 

 Thomas Dwight. 



The Teaching of Mathematics in the Higher 

 Schools of Prussia. By J. W. A. Young, 

 Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the University 

 of Chicago. New York, Longmans, Green 

 & Co. 1900. Pp. xiv + 141. 

 The feeling that German schools have some- 

 thing well worth the American teacher's atten- 

 tion is not at all new. It has been said and 

 written for a century, and withiri a few years 

 it has given rise to the publication of several 



works of genuine merit, not to speak of numer- 

 ous books and articles of no merit whatever. 

 Of the former class this one by Professor 

 Young is unique in that it is the first to devote 

 itself entirely to the mathematical phase of 

 education. Furthermore, it is somewhat 

 unique in being a well-balanced, practical book 

 for practical and well-balanced teachers. It 

 tells one what one wishes to know. Not many 

 Americans have been able critically to ex- 

 amine the subject of mathematics in Prussia. 

 Here is a book that answers just the questions 

 the intelligent teacher would ask if he were 

 there, that gives him courage to face the issues 

 of the present, and that should make him 

 confident of the future. And it does all this, 

 not by preaching American or German suprem- 

 acy, but by intelligently pointing out the 

 superior features of German education and by 

 showing us our lines for improvement. 



The real interest in the book is not so much 

 in the carefully selected general information, 

 for this it is not difficult to find in standard 

 works like those of Baumeister and Eussell, 

 but in the consideration of the two questions : 

 Are the Prussian schools doing better work in 

 mathematics than the American? If so, how 

 is this accomplished? 



When we consider that we give about ten 

 per cent, more time to mathematics than they 

 do, that they recognize less home study than 

 we, and that their children leave even the clas- 

 sical gymnasium knowing more of mathe- 

 matics than do our high-school graduates in 

 scientific courses, there can be only one answer 

 to the first question. 



The reasons for this state of facts are,briefiy, 

 the following: (1) The teachers in the gynma- 

 sia are men, and they enter the profession as a 

 life work. (2) These men are university grad- 

 uates, with at least two additional years of 

 professional training. They have been rigidly 

 examined, not by school teachers whose politi- 

 cal pulls have given them place, but by univer- 

 sity professors, specialists in their various sub- 

 jects, appointed by the state. And in addi- 

 tion to all this, they have had at least one 

 year of probationary teaching. Their exami- 

 nations for the elementary classes include the 

 calculus, and those for the high school grades 



