October 23, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



601 



the sense is spoiled by using run for rim ; p. 92 

 the statement is made that corn has no gluten ; 

 p. 105 Austria is said to be in the Baltic basin ; 

 p. 106 Chile is given just one climate, the 

 Mediterranean, and is said not to be hospitable 

 to the potato, the country in which the potato 

 originated; p. 119 Japan is credited with one 

 sixth of her land under cultivation. The 

 Japanese are much more modest in reporting 

 the arable area ; pp. 288 ff coffee, tea and cacao 

 are treated as condiments; p. 292 ff San Do- 

 mingo is wrongly used as the name of a coun- 

 try; p. 293 a wrong date is given for the aboli- 

 tion of slavery in Brazil; p. 296 Havre is 

 given as the world's greatest coffee market; 

 p. 307 diacritical marks are omitted from the 

 Portuguese form of St. Thomas; p. 330 ff 

 pilagic does duty for pelagic; p. 3Y5 Maderia 

 for Madeira; p. 378 ff the final letter is 

 omitted from Pittsburgh; p. 378 steamboats 

 are given credit for plying to Minneapolis; p. 

 403 has the great falls of Iguazu on the Parana 

 River ; p. ■ 441 the form Austro-Hungary is 

 used, and in another place Austro for Austria ; 

 p. 449 Estremaduro for Estramadura; p. 454 

 states that the Philippine forests belong to the 

 United States government; p. 454 the Philip- 

 pines are stated as " tree poor," an astonishing 

 statement; p. 445 the tropical cedar used in 

 making cigar boxes is said also to be used in 

 making lead pencils; p. 498 we learn that 

 '■ wool is covered with minute scales, whereas 

 hair is smooth " ; p. 584 Spain, etc., given 

 credit as the source of most of our sulfur 

 supply ; p. 617 " plate glass . . . passed between 

 rollers which give it the beautiful smooth sur- 

 face " ; p. 619 " the ancients were better artifi- 

 cers in copper than are the moderns " ; p. 627 

 aluminum is said to be a more efficient " trans- 

 mitter " of electricity than is copper ; p. 637 a 

 legend, says " silver production is unusual in 

 that it does not increase." The graph above 

 the legend shows an increase from 72 to 220 in 

 the period covered. 



There are many examples of inaccuracy 

 which may be due to loose wi-iting. Such, for 

 example, as p. 172, where the whole Parana 

 valley is made a sheep district like that in 

 Australia; p. 285 vacuum pans are used be- 



cause there is less danger of burning; p. 311 

 vanilla " is an orchid-Zi^e vine " — but why 

 continue? There are scores of these faults, 

 little and big, which should not have gone out 

 even in a first edition. 



Such errors, while a serious blemish, are not 

 permanent handicaps. Careful editing may 

 remove them. The spirit of the author is so 

 good, his interpretations so suggestive, that 

 when a revision is made the book will stand as 

 the best text-book presentation so far pub- 

 lished in this country, of the complex and diffi- 

 cult field of industry and commerce, from the 

 geographic viewpoint. The book can be used 

 with advantage as a text in college classes, 

 where the teacher, if a geographer, may easily 

 accentuate to his taste the purely geographic 

 elements involved. 



J. Paul Goode 



University op Chicago 



THE COMMITTEE ON GENEBAL SCIENCE 



OF TSE NATIONAL EDUCATION 



ASSOCIATION 



The returns which have come in thus far 

 indicate that the schools should give informa- 

 tion from the whole field of science — not 

 neglecting astronomy. The public needs un- 

 mistakably require a new organization of sci- 

 ence instruction according to projects. The 

 problems of life are not differentiated after 

 the manner of specialized science. Pupils 

 in both elementary and high schools are in a 

 much more primitive state of mind in regard 

 to all science than our school programs would 

 indicate. Many are apparently blind and deaf 

 to nature's most evident teachings. They are 

 in the depths of superstition about common 

 things even while surcharged with academic 

 formulas regarding things scientific. Our 

 secondary schools persist in articulating with 

 that which is above them rather than with the 

 elementary school. Few persons appear to 

 know that they have the answers to most of 

 their questions readily accessible in diction- 

 aries, encyclopedias and readable books. Ap- 

 parently we have deprecated the teaching of 

 science from books too long and too success- 



