630 



JSCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XXII. No. 568. 



earthquakes or glaciers; the other a bold and 

 stimulating guide in every branch of research 

 concerning the evolution of the earth. 



B. K. Emerson. 

 Amheest, Mass. 



The Students' Laboratory Manual of Physical 



Geography. By Albert Perry Brigham. 

 • New York, Appleton. 1904. 



This is an expansion of the ' Teachers' 

 Guide and Laboratory Exercises' published 

 in 1903, and like it designed to accompany 

 Gilbert and Brigham's ' Introduction to Phys- 

 ical Geography,' to which it is very closely 

 adjusted. It is about half as large again as 

 the 'Teachers' Guide,' but omits the lists of 

 books. It is purely for the student and 

 implies the additional use of the guide by the 

 instructor. 



Any one using the text referred to will find 

 this an admirable guide for its illustration by 

 map and exercise. It contains many suggest- 

 ive questions that must help the inexperienced 

 teacher toward modern points of view. This 

 is particularly true of the questions on map 

 reading, which are good and abundant, as they 

 ought to be. Eor class use they may need 

 some selection apart from selection of exer- 

 cises, if thorough work by the student himself 

 is to be done. Thus the exercise numbered 

 13, contoured maps, has material for three 

 one hour exercises with pupils in the ' early 

 stages of the high-school course,' if the re- 

 viewer's experience is to be trusted. Drawing 

 .a section for the first time, for instance, is no 

 side issue, but quite a task in itself. Along- 

 side this exercise 263b, C. S. Chart No. 3,089 

 is wonderfully short and easy, tTiough for 

 students well advanced toward the end of their 

 coiirse. The practical exercises are still fur- 

 ther from definite form. It would be a hard- 

 ship to put this book into the hands of the 

 ordinary teacher of the subject, who is almost 

 invariably too crowded for time and too in- 

 competent in the subject matter to rearrange 

 the exercises in practical form, and require 

 her to use it with her classes. No doubt the 

 class would get advantage of it. 



It might be supposed that the wide use of 

 laboratory manuals for physics and chemistry 



might guide us in some measure in preparing 

 one for physical geography. Many of these 

 are models in their , clear statement of what 

 materials to use, what to do with them and 

 how to do it. This definiteness is of great 

 importance. First-year pupils in a high 

 school will find the latitude exercise in this 

 volume, with its generalities, its principle, its 

 geometry and trigonometry, very discouraging. 



The description of field exercises for use in 

 unknown localities has generality and vague- 

 ness imposed on it by necessity. It is difficult 

 to conceive of satisfactory accounts being 

 written for such work. Professor Brigham 

 has gathered together some excellent sugges- 

 tions, and that is all that can be done. The 

 variety of the local fields forbids adequate 

 general treatment. The point of view of the 

 work is modern and scientific, as would be 

 expected of its author. Teachers will find it 

 a safe guide to open their eyes and those of 

 their pupils to the real world about them. 

 Altogether we are left still awaiting an ade- 

 quate laboratory manual for physical geog- 

 raphy, but in the present volume is much 

 material that ought to figure in the book when 

 it is written, much material that ought to be 

 in the hands of teachers attempting laboratory 

 work or wishing to know how to do it. 



Mark S. W. Jefferson. 



Ypsilanti, Mich., 

 September 19, 1905. 



Elements of Applied Microscopy. A Text- 

 book for Beginners. By Charles-Edward 

 Amory Winslow, Instructor in Industrial 

 Microscopy and Sanitary Biology in the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pp. 

 183, with 60 text figures. New York, John 

 Wiley and Sons. 1905. 

 This manual is an excellent example of a 

 book prepared for a definite purpose and as 

 the result of experience in an institution 

 where independent work and special ideas 

 have a prominent place. 



As the author states in his preface the book 

 does not profess to compete, on the one hand, 

 with monographs or on the other with the pop- 

 .ular works on microscopy. It is, however, 

 specifically intended for the class in industrial 



