LITERARY NOTICES. 



565 



exercise the pupils in talking about objects, 

 and in reading from the blackboard, before 

 putting the reader into their hands. Pictures 

 of the objects named accompany most of the 

 lessons, and when long sentences are reached 

 they are broken into short sections at nat- 

 ural pauses, each standing in a line by itself, 

 in order that the pupil's mind may not be 

 required to take in too much at once. 



Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi has published, 

 under the title Physiological Notes on Pri- 

 mary Education and the Study of Language 

 (Putnam, $1), four essays, of which three 

 appeared in " The Popular Science Monthly " 

 for 1885 and 1886, and the fourth in " The 

 Teacher " during 1888. Two of these essays 

 describe "An Experiment in Primary Edu- 

 cation," being a record of the method em- 

 ployed in training the intellectual faculties, 

 especially the perception and memory, of a 

 child between the ages of four and six and a 

 half years. The next essay, entitled " The 

 Flower or the Leaf," is a reply to a criticism 

 by Miss E. A. Youmans on the method of 

 teaching a knowledge of plants employed in 

 the afore-mentioned " Experiment." The 

 subject of the paper which concludes the 

 volume is " The Place for the Study of Lan- 

 guage in a Curriculum of Education," and 

 embraces a consideration of what special 

 influence language study has upon mental de- 

 velopment, what is the age at which this 

 influence should be exerted, and what rela- 

 tive proportion language and other subjects 

 should have in a general curriculum. 



One might suppose The Geography of 

 Marriage (Putnam, $1.50) to be a survey of 

 the diversified natural features of the state 

 of matrimony. But, under thi3 title, Mr. 

 William L. Snyder offers a law-book written 

 in such a popular style as to make it, aside 

 from its subject, attractive and useful to the 

 lay reader. In a score of chapters he com- 

 pares the provisions of the marriage and 

 divorce laws of the States of the Federal 

 Union as to who may marry, what consti- 

 tutes a valid marriage, clandestine and run- 

 away marriages, bigamy, divorce, and vari- 

 ous other features of the subject, taking oc- 

 casion to point out the evils arising from the 

 differences among these laws in different 

 parts of our country. Of the two ways of 

 securing a uniform law which have been 



proposed, he favors concerted action by the 

 States rather than a constitutional amend- 

 ment giving up the control of this matter to 

 Congress. A summary of the marriage and 

 divorce laws existing in this country, ar- 

 ranged by States, concludes the volume. The 

 index, which covers the general part of the 

 book tolerably, is very meager with respect 

 to this summary. 



The fifth volume in the series of " Eng- 

 lish History by Contemporary Writers " tells 

 the story of The Crusade of Richard 1 

 (1189-'92), and the materials were selected 

 and arranged by T. A. Archer (Putnam, 

 $1.25). There is an ample number of ac- 

 counts of this expedition, some by contem- 

 porary writers who were in Palestine when 

 the events narrated occurred ; others by con- 

 temporaries who remained at home; and, 

 still others by writers of the next genera- 

 tion, some of whom had visited the scenes 

 of the crusade. Accounts of the authors 

 and books from which extracts are taken, 

 and notes on various customs and things of 

 the time, are appended to the volume. Pict- 

 ures of war-engines, fortresses, etc., illus- 

 trate the text. The volume lacks an index. 



Mr. D. H. Montgomery has made a book 

 which claims to embody The Leading Facts 

 of French History (Ginn, $1.25), and is evi- 

 dently intended to serve either as a text- 

 book or for general reading. It begins 1 

 with a reference to the cave-men and the • 

 latest event which it records is the election 1 

 of President Carnot. The narrative is popu- 

 lar and picturesque in style, and is enlivened 

 with numerous anecdotes. Many additional 

 bits of information and the pronunciation of 

 all difficult names are supplied in foot-notes. 

 Fourteen maps, mostly in colors, show the 

 changing boundaries of France throughout 

 the history. A list of dates, a genealogical 

 table of French sovereigns, and a list of 

 books on French history, are appended to 

 the volume. 



Six Species of North American Fishes, 

 published by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 under the head of " Natural History Illus- 

 trations," contains representations of the 

 figures and details of five species of mi- 

 nor fresh-water fishes and the pickerel, as 

 they were prepared under the direction of 

 Profs. Agassiz and Baird, from drawings 

 by A. Sourel, with explanations by President 



