732 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 358. 



provision which is made by school systems for 

 bathing. The first aim is for physical exercise 

 and health ; when this is the aim a swimming 

 tank is provided.* * * The second aim is to 

 produce cleanliness and to teach cleanliness. 

 The most satisfactory means to attain the second 

 aim seems to be that of the shower-bath. In 

 some schools a bath-tub is employed, but this 

 cannot be used as economically in regard to 

 time as the shower-bath ; it must also be 

 cleaned after each using. It will be understood, 

 of course, that dressing rooms are necessary in 

 connection with the baths. * * * The testi- 

 mony of those who, under the conditions above 

 mentioned, have instituted school baths is 

 strong with reference to the physical and moral 

 results arising therefrom.. * * * 



The writer is strongly in favor of swimming 

 tanks in all high schools; such baths, after an 

 ordinary cleansing shower bath, apart from 

 bringing into play every muscle of the body, 

 exert a general tonic effect and could be thrown 

 open in the afternoons and evenings to adults, 

 and thus subserve the purpose of public baths, 

 of which there is a lamentable lack. 



The chapter on eyesight and hearing is 

 especially strong and suggestive of good results. 

 The author, after referring to proper and suffi- 

 cient lighting of the school room, points to the 

 interesting investigations of laval, Cattell and 

 Sanford, how vision may be impaired by texts 

 printed in too small letters, the alterations 

 needed in the forms of letters, the proper size 

 of type for school books, color and surface of 

 the paper for school books, the size of writing 

 on the blackboard, the objection to the use of 

 slates, color of writing ink, postures, use of fine 

 maps, duty of parents in preventing children at 

 home from reading excessively at night, or in 

 the waning light, or sewing with black thread 

 on black cloth with defective illumination. 



The author's views on defective hearing are 

 also extremely sound when he says, " if we are 

 to educate children, it is supremely wise to 

 know as many of their physical defects as pos- 

 sible, and especially is this true as regards de- 

 fects of the two most important avenues of 

 sense, the eye and the ear ; for only by means 

 of this knowledge can the teacher work intelli- 

 gently and avoid unnecessary strain on the part 



of the pupil and waste of effort on his own part. 

 Careful investigations point to the broad fact 

 that about 20 per cent, of school children pos- 

 sess some defect of hearing. It will be seen 

 that the child of average ability who has some 

 undetected defect of hearing will frequently be 

 done an injustice and rated as dull or inatten- 

 tive, not through any fault of his own, but be- 

 cause of a lack of knowledge on the part of the 

 teacher of the true cause." 



These abstracts sufficiently indicate the 

 thoroughness which characterizes this most use- 

 ful book. 



Geo. M. Kobeb. 



Geoegetown Univeksity, 

 Washington, D. C. ^ 



Manual of the Flora of the Northern States and 

 Canada. By Nathaniel Lord Britton, 

 Ph.D., Director-in-Chief of the New York 

 Botanical Garden ; Emeritus Professor of 

 Botany in Columbia University ; Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the New York Academy of Sciences. 

 New York, Henry Holt and Company. 1901. 

 Duodecimo. Pp. x + 1080, 

 The appearance of a new manual of botany 

 is an event of no small moment when it comes 

 from the hand of one recognized as an authority 

 in systematic botany. The ' Illustrated Flora 

 of the Northern United States, Canada, and the 

 British Possessions,' by Dr. Britton and Judge 

 Brown, in 1896-7-8, marked an epoch in North 

 American botany, and at once created an im- 

 perative demand for a handy field manual in 

 the form of an abridgment of the large work. 

 It is to meet this demand that the work before 

 us is intended. In its preparation Dr. Britton 

 has availed himself of the descriptions in the 

 ' Illustrated Flora,' which are transcribed with 

 little or no modification excepting the necessary 

 one of changing English to metric measure- 

 ments. Many species not described in the 

 ' Illustrated Flora ' are added, and not a few 

 genera, bringing the total number of species to 

 about 4,500 as against 4,162 in the original 

 work. When we remember that the latest edi- 

 tion of Gray's ' Manual ' contained descriptions 

 of 3,298 species, and Coulter's 'Manual,' 1,881 

 species, it is evident that the utmost brevity 

 has been imperative. Abbreviations are freely 



