i88i.] 
Analyses of Books . 
75i 
common snails and slugs, where the generative organs are placed 
in the neck, and to the earth-worm, where they form the so-called 
saddle about the middle of the body. 
The author calls attention to the Lichtenbergian figures of 
positive and negative electricity in comparison with the human 
nervous and cerebral system. He places, again, the brain with 
the organs of sensation as one pole of a system, whilst the gene- 
rative organs form the opposite. As a second system he adduces 
the heart and circulatory system with the respiratory system and 
the vocal organ. The third main system of “ two-ended and 
two-sided ” activity is the muscular tissue. The author consi- 
ders that plants bear the same relation to the earth’s surface that 
hairs do to the animal. The vegetable world dates back to a 
remote past. Among physiologists it is possible to agree with 
those only who accept equivocal generation as a cosmogonic 
appendage. 
Having thus given a short sketch of some of the author’s 
leading doCtrines, we must pronounce the work as indeed sug- 
gestive, but somewhat deficient in clearness. 
On the Teaching of Science in Public Elementary Schools. By 
W. J. Harrison, F.G.S., Science Demonstrator for the 
Birmingham School Board. Birmingham : Herald Printing 
Office. 
We find in this pamphlet very much which commands our most 
hearty approval. The attempt to give even primary education 
a more re-al — we divide the word to remind the reader of its ety- 
mological meaning — instead of its present exclusively verbal 
character is deserving of every encouragement. It is generally 
supposed that the main motive which induced the Government 
of this country to undertake seriously the task of national edu- 
cation was the spectacle of other countries gaining ground on 
us, and seriously challenging our commercial and manufacturing 
pre-eminence. But both Government and nation forgot that no 
amount of the three R’s can, from the very nature of things, 
meet the exigencies of the case. The youth of this country 
should, we submit, be trained in the art of observation, so that 
they may learn a lesson from every objeCt and every faCt which 
they come across. This training has been till lately at least con- 
spicuous by its absence in every grade of English education from 
the village school to the university, and the many illustrious disco- 
verers and inventors to whom this country owes so much of its 
greatness have risen not by the aid of what they had learnt, but 
independently. Hence it is that we attach so great value to the 
attempts of which this pamphlet speaks. The writer is fully 
