778 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 594. 



them would be undertaken more appropri- 

 ately and carried through more effectively 

 by specialists in these subjects, so that this 

 mention is allowed to suffice for the present 

 report. 



The commission also discussed the ques- 

 tion of geography, political and physical, 

 and was of opinion that conditions are not 

 yet ripe for the union of geography with 

 the natural sciences, but that, nevertheless, 

 the bases of geography in mathematics and 

 the natural sciences should be taken up in 

 connection with the instruction in these 

 subjects in the higher schools. 



It is apparent from the above sketch 

 that a movement of the first magnitude is 

 in progress in Germany for the fuller 

 recognition of the value of mathematics 

 and the natural sciences, on the one hand, 

 and for the reorganization within these 

 subjects of the subject matter taught and 

 the method of instruction, on the other, so 

 as to adapt the work more fully both to 

 needs and capacity of the pupil and to the 

 demands of the times. The writer does not 

 presume to classify the movement or esti- 

 mate its import in any but his own subject ; 

 in mathematics, however, the movement is 

 certainly of international significance. It 

 is one in spirit and aim with the movements 

 for the improvement of the teaching of 

 mathematics in France, in England and in 

 the United States, and while the Prussian 

 problems surely differ in detail from those 

 of other nations, the underlying principles 

 are the same. Our American conditions 

 are vastly different from those which the 

 commission could presuppose, and conse- 

 quently there could be no thought that the 

 commission 's results as such would be avail- 

 able in America, still the consideration of 

 the fundamental principles underlying this 

 thoughtful report of some of Germany's 

 most eminent scientists can not fail to lead 

 the American reader to ponder the same 



fundamental questions as modified by our 

 environment, and perhaps to stimulate him 

 to evolve some proposal looking towards 

 the accomplishment here of the same end — 

 as sorely needed here as in Germany — the 

 better adaptation of the instruction to the 

 needs and capacity of the pupil and to the 

 spirit and requirements of our twentieth- 

 century civilization. 



J. W. A. Young. 

 The Univeesitt of Chicago, 

 November 24, 1905. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Strandliniens Beliggenhed under Stenalderen 

 I Bet Syd0stlige Norge. Af W. C. Br0gger. 

 Med Tysk Eesume, 11 Plancher, 2 Karter 

 og 9 Figurer i Texten. Norges Geologiske 

 Undersfigelse, No. 41. Kristiania, i Kom- 

 mission Hos H. Aschehoug & Co. 1905. 

 The first step in the establishment of a rela- 

 tive chronology for prehistoric times was 

 taken by a Dane, 0. J. Thomsen, of Copen- 

 hagen, seventy years ago. Much of the sub- 

 sequent progress along this line has been due 

 to Scandinavians. Professor Br0gger's work 

 on the position of raised beaches in south- 

 eastern Norway during the stone and bronze 

 ages is of such a character as to indicate that 

 northern investigators are still among the 

 leaders in the kind of research that tends to 

 render our knowledge of prehistoric archeol- 

 ogy more accurate. 



That the climate of the kitchen-midden 

 period (first stone age in the north) in Den- 

 mark was warmer than at present, is now well 

 known. It has also been established by recent 

 investigations in both Denmark and Sweden 

 that the age of the kitchen middens of south- 

 ern Scandinavia corresponds to the period of 

 maximum postglacial submergence. 



A series of curves are plotted on a map so 

 as to pass through isochronal raised beaches. 

 The general course of these curves through 

 southern Norway, southwestern Sweden and 

 all of Denmark is from northwest to south- 

 east. They show the postglacial submergence 

 to have been greatest around Christiania, 

 where the raised beaches marking the maxi- 



