H 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 25^ 



dealing chiefly with questions affecting the teaching of modern 

 languages. Among the latter was a suggestive treatment of the 

 modern-language seminary system, by Prof. H. S. White of Cor- 

 nell University. 



The purpose of the seminary is to guide the student towards in- 

 dependent investigation ; but, in order to do its work properly, the 

 student must first have gone through a preliminary training of no 

 inconsiderable character ; and, in the second place, the seminary 

 must be well equipped with the standard editions of the best au- 

 thors, pamphlets, manuscripts, documents, photographic reproduc- 

 tions of important scenes and monuments, epigraphical material, 

 and the like. In the method of teaching, all study of authors must 

 be based upon a study of the times in which an author wrote. 



Professor Kroeh of the Stevens Institute presented a paper on 

 methods of teaching modern languages. After enumerating the 

 various methods which have found followers, and discussing their 

 merits and disadvantages, he pronounced himself in favor of the 

 so-called * natural method.' The basis of all languages, whether 

 literary or scientific, is the phraseology of every-day life, and this 

 can be learned only by imitation. The ' natural method ' proceeds 

 on this principle. But the imperfect training of the ear, or rather 

 the total absence of such training in our schools, causes great diffi- 

 culties in carrying out this method. The education of young people 

 is still conducted almost e.xclusively through the eye by means of 

 books. There is so little oral instruction, that the pupils not only 

 do not hear accurately, but have to learn the art of paying atten- 

 tion. 



One of the best papers, partaking of this general character, was 

 that by Prof. Albert Smyth of the Philadelphia High School, on 

 American literature in the classroom. " It is certainly discreditable 

 to us that we have done so little towards a faithful and affectionate 

 study of what is purely native and national in our American writ- 

 ings. The text-books, with one or two exceptions, designated for 

 use in schools, show no critical utility and no sense of proportion. 

 This is due to the neglect of the study in the higher classrooms. 

 There are two objects to be reached by a proper attention to this 

 branch : in the first place, it may be highly serviceable in education, 

 because it, more than any other, admits of a complete severance 

 of literature from philology ; second, the study would ultimately 

 assist in the development of that literature, and would discipline in 

 it the critical faculty, for it must be admitted that America has not 

 participated in the splendid progress of criticism in Europe during 

 the last twenty years. We are poorest of all in criticism, and when 

 we think of the high service the trained and faithful interpreters of 

 poetry render to a nation, it would be hard for us to overrate the 

 good results that may follow the extension of the English curric- 

 ulum to include the genesis and brief history of American author- 

 ship. It is our precious property to hold the literature of our nation 

 true to the higher ideals of life and its purpose." 



There were two papers discussing dialects, by Professor Primer of 

 Charleston, and Sheldon of Harvard University. The former dealt 

 with ' Charleston's provincialisms,' also called ' Charlestonese ' by 

 the people in the South : the latter gave specimens of a Canadian 

 French dialect spoken in Maine. In discussing the latter. Professor 

 Elliott of the Johns Hopkins University spoke of the importance of 

 such investigations at the present moment. In a generation or two, 

 all traces of these old dialectical variations, whether in Canada or 

 the South, will probably have disappeared, and, unless they are 

 now accurately noted down from the lips of those speaking these 

 dialects, they will be lost forever to scholars and students of dia- 

 lectology. 



Among the technical papers may be mentioned Professor Col- 

 litz's (of Bryn Mawr College) exhaustive essay on the origin of the 

 so-called weak verbs in the Teutonic languages, and Dr. Goebel's 

 review of Paul's ' Principles of Sprachgeschichte.' Professor 

 Tolman of Ripon College, Wisconsin, read a paper on the style of 

 Anglo-Saxon poetry. He compares the poetry to "a spirited horse, 

 who takes a few bounds forward, and then stands prancing." 

 Anglo-Saxon poetry is always more than lively, it is intense. 

 Among the peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon poetry, the great scarcity 

 of similes is worthy of note. On the other hand, as a kind of com- 

 pensation for this defect, we have an abundance of striking poetical 

 synonymes. For instance, the ocean is called such names as ' the 



whale's home,' ' the fish's bath,' ' the swan's road," 'the sail road,' 

 ' the course of the flood, s. ' the cup of the waves.' Another striking 

 feature of this poetry is the idealization of the sensual and common. 

 In conclusion, Professor Tolman said that he doubted whether the 

 world has ever seen a purer literature than that covered by Anglo- 

 Saxon poetry. 



The proceedings were enlivened by spirited discussions. Be- 

 fore the sessions closed, the convention heard the report of a com- 

 mittee appointed to consider the question of petitioning Congress 

 for a removal of the tariff on foreign books. The committee favored 

 a personal presentation of the subject before the proper Congres- 

 sional committee, and gave the following as the reasons why the 

 tariff should be removed : — 



" The revenue derived from the tax is very inconsiderable, and is 

 wholly unnecessary to the maintenance of government. The 

 theory of protection to domestic industry does not enter into the 

 question. American authors do not desire protection for the reason 

 that books are not merchandise and do not compete with one an- 

 other. Buyers of books are not governed as ordinary' buyers by 

 consideration of price, but by consideration of taste or personal 

 fancy and of special availability for special ends. One book is 

 bought in preference to another, not because it is cheaper, but be- 

 cause it is better. The tax upon foreign books bears heavily upon 

 the class which is least able to meet the financial burden ; viz., the 

 professors, teachers, and students. Foreign works, whether in 

 English, French, or German, are absolutely indispensable to these 

 people, and we regard such a tax as is now put upon them as di- 

 rectly harmful to the cause of knowledge and culture of our coun- 

 try. By this book-tariff the ' tools ' of our profession are made un- 

 necessarily expensive." 



After the election of officers, headed by James Russell Lowell as 

 president, the association adjourned, to meet again during the cur- 

 rent year in Cincinnati. The delegates were entertained during 

 their stay by the Historical Association, the Penn Club, and the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



SCARLET-FEVER REPORT.'— III. 



R. Stansbury Sutton, M.D., LL.D., Pittsburgh, Penn., says, " I 

 know to a certainty, that, when I was a general practitioner, I con- 

 veyed the disease from a babe who died, to an adult woman who re- 

 covered. I recall an instance where the little patient played with 

 the cat. The cat carried the infection to other children in a 

 neighboring house, they having caught and played with it, stroking 

 its fur." 



Adolph Koenig, M.D., Pittsburgh, Penn., cites the case of a 

 physician who visited his home during his attendance on a course 

 of medical lectures, some hundreds of miles distant. While at home 

 he came in contact with a younger brother suffering from scarlet- 

 fever. About one week after his return to college he was attacked 

 with scarlatinous sore throat, accompanied with fever, and lasting 

 a number of days. He is decidedly in favor of compulsory reports 

 to be made to boards of health, the State to assume the expense ; 

 and the legally qualified physician is the only person capable of 

 making such a report. Laymen would undoubtedly often confound 

 other eruptive fever with scarlet-fever. 



J. F. Kennedy, M.D., Des iVIoines, lo., secretary State Board of 

 Health, reports a fatal case of scarlet-fever in the family of a 

 washerwoman, traced to infected clothing. He regards the disease 

 as communicable from the patient until desquamation has fully 

 taken place, the patient thoroughly bathed, and his person and 

 clothing disinfected. From thirty to thirty-five days would be 

 about the period of danger, dating from the beginning of the attack. 

 A case was reported to the State Board of Health in which scarlet- 

 fever was alleged to have broken out in a family, having been con- 

 tracted from a dress which had been worn two years previously by 

 a child who at that time died of the fever. Attending physicians 

 should be required to report all the facts connected with each case 

 of the disease that comes under their care, especially the cause and 

 source of infection. Dr. Kennedy says, " I have for several years, 

 in cases of scarlet-fever and diphtheria, used as a prophylactic zinc 

 ferri chlor. and glycerine, equal parts, and giving according to age, 

 to all exposed, from ten to forty drops in water every three or 



' Continued from Science of Jan. 6, 1888. 



