380 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1880. Hon. John Eaton, 

 Commissioner; 8vo. pp. 914. 



The eleventh annual report of the Commissioner of Education, covering the 

 year 1880, has been received. 



We learn from it that the present year has been marked by a great increase in 

 the amount and value of the information received at the office with reference to the 

 conduct of education in our own and in foreign countries, and by a correspond- 

 ing increase in the public demand for the distribution of information. The means 

 allowed the Office for carrying on the interchange of intelligence are entirely in- 

 adequate, whether regard be had to specific inquiries or to information which 

 should be published in the general interest of this department of public affairs. 



Seven circulars of information and six bulletins have been published during 

 the year, comprising among others the following subjects : College libraries as 

 aids to instruction; rural school architecture, with illustrations; English rural, 

 schools, with illustrations ; a report on the teaching of chemistry and physics in 

 the United States ; vacation colonies for sickly school children ; the Indian School 

 at Carlisle Barracks; industrial education in Europe; medical colleges in the 

 United States. 



The number of American correspondents of the Office, including officers of 

 State and local systems and institutions of learning, is 8,231, or more than four 

 times the number at the beginning of the present decade. To the material derived 

 from these sources must be added the foreign matter, reports and periodicals, all of 

 which must be examined and summarized for the report. 



In introducing the statistical summary the Commissioner explains the scope 

 and value of a perfect system of tabularization and points out some of the defi- 

 ciencies in the plans pursued in various States and localities. Great improve- 

 ment in this respect is noticeable in the returns and reports received at the Office, 

 and every year increases the value of the figures for purposes of study and gener- 

 ahzation. So far as practicable the statistics in the present report include a com- 

 parative view of education for the decade ending 1879-80. 



The total school population in the States for 1880 is 15,351,875; number en- 

 rolled in public schools, 9,680,403; average daily attendance, 5,744,188, four 

 States not reporting. The school population of the Territories is 184,405, Idaho 

 and Wyoming not reporting; enrollment in public schools, 101,118; average 

 daily attendance 61,154, two Territories not reporting. The percentages of en- 

 rollment and average daily attendance are highest in Massachusetts and lowest in 

 Louisiana. 



