28 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 262. 



Pedagogj' and Director of Practice iu the 



State Xormal School at Maukato, Minnesota. 



Isew York, The Macmillan Co.; London, 



MacmiUan & Co., Ltd. 1899. Price, $1.00. 



The strictly scientific contribution of this 

 book is rather small, but its practical value is 

 likelj' to prove very great. It is a resume of 

 many of the important results of recent studies 

 in child psychology and school hygiene, based 

 largely upon such authorities as the Americayi 

 Journal of Psychology, the Pedagogical Sem- 

 inary, the Child Study Monthly, the Educational 

 Review, and the standard books and papers on 

 child study and school hygiene. From a scien- 

 tific point of view the special contribution of 

 the book consists in the fact that it gives the 

 reaction of a practical teacher to the more 

 theoretical conclusions of psychologists and 

 students of hygiene. 



Among the topics considered are the senses, 

 motor ability, nervousness, fatigue, habits of 

 posture, habits of movement, growth and ado- 

 lescence, and school and home conditions. The 

 more common and simple tests of the senses, 

 of motor ability, nervousness and fatigue are 

 given ; and the commonplace teachings in re- 

 gard to education and health that result from 

 psychological study are presented in a way that 

 is likely to appeal to teachers. The keynote of 

 the book is stated by the author as implied in 

 two fundamental principles of education : "One 

 of these is that action is the first law of growth; 

 the other, that individuals vary enormously in 

 their capabilities for different kinds of mental 

 and physical action." 



Very few direct references to literature are 

 made in the body of the book, and the query 

 naturally arises whether in a work so largely 

 based on recent studies in psj'chology and hy- 

 giene even the popular demand for a clean page 

 justifies the omission of explicit reference to 

 authorities. To the scientific student, such a 

 lack is often exasperating, and in this case only 

 partially atoned for by the blanket acknowledg- 

 ment in the selected bibliography at the end; 

 and some ambitious teachers may wish to know, 

 for example, who besides the author have used 

 the tests for hearing mentioned in chapter 3 ; 

 upon the results of whose investigations of fa- 

 tigue are based the suggestions (pages 80-81) 



' which we may accept as practically proved' ; 

 how the author knows (p. 130) that children 

 grow more rapidlj' in summer than in winter ; 

 and where Euleuberg's table of scoliosis among 

 school children (given on p. 154) can be found. 

 The need of such references to authority is em- 

 phasized, for example, by recent investigations 

 upon fatigue which cast discredit upon Griea- 

 bach's method, and in many places throughout 

 the book the weight of the author's statements 

 would be increased by direct citation of au- 

 thority. 



Wm. H. Buenham. 



south american languages. 

 Der Sprachstoff der brasilianischen Chammatik 



dea Luis Figueira nach der Ausgabe von 1687. 



Von Julius Platzmann. Leipzig, B. G. 



Teubner. 1899. Octavo. LIT., 247. 

 Der Sprachstoff der Guaranischen Grammatik des 



Antonio Ruiz iihersetzt und hier und da erlau- 



tert von Julius Platzmann. Leipzig, B. 



G. Teubner. 1898. XX., 261. Octavo. 

 Chilidugu. Lachrymas salutares opera Bernardi 



Havestadt. Editionem novum immutatam cura- 



vit Dr. Julius Platzmann. Lipsiae, Teub- 

 ner. 1898. Pp. 78. 

 Los Indios Mataeos y su lengua por Juan Pelleschi, 



eon introduccion por S. S. Lafone Quevedo. 



Dos mapas. Buenos Aires. 1897. Pp. 246. 



The above mentioned publications are not fac- 

 similarian editions of authors such as Dr. Platz- 

 mann is in the habit of issuing, but explanations 

 in the form of translations and commentaries 

 of vocables and grammatic forms recorded in 

 books now difficult to obtain. Guarani and 

 Tupi are dialects of the same family verj' closely 

 related, and at the time these missionaries were 

 composing their works Guarani was heard not 

 only along the eastern border of Peru, but also 

 along the La Plata, in Paraguay and on the 

 coast of Brazil. 



According to the most reliable sources Luis 

 Figueira was born in the Portuguese province of 

 Alemtejo in 1575, entered the seminary of 

 Evora in 1592 and went over to Brazil in 1602. 

 He settled in Maranhao in 1607 to found mis- 

 sions for the conversion of the natives, and by 

 the year 1615 the knowledge he had acquired 

 of Guarani enabled him to compose his ' Arte 



