The Grammar-School Reader. A Monthly Magazine. Vol. I, No. 1. Chicago and Boston: Interstate Publishing Company. Pp. 48. Price, 15 cents; §1 a year.
This Is the highest of a series of three monthly readers which the Interstate Publishing Company have projected. The other readers of the series are the Primary, twenty cents a year, and the Intermediate, thirty cents a year. The present number is filled with lively articles and stories. In the department, "Ways to do Things," is an illustrated paper on "Knots, Hitches, and Splices," which the young constituency of the "Readers" might turn to practical advantage.
The Hygiene of Nature; or. Natural Selection and Immunity from Disease. By Dr. Romaine J. Curtiss. Joliet, III. Pp. 18.
An argument to show that Nature removes epidemics and such diseases as work great destruction for a course of years and then nearly disappear, by her own processes, constituting a natural selection, while sanitation is not entitled to the credit it claims for the extinction of such disorders. Applying his doctrine to the history of the epidemics of the middle ages, and to the shortness of life during that epoch. Dr. Curtiss says: "We find that when an epidemic prevailed it destroyed everybody who had not sufficient vital resistance. . . . Those who could sufficiently resist the disease, or who could acquire a resistance, lived and bequeathed the resistance to their children. In time, by this process, each generation acquired more and more resistance to each of the epidemics, and in time there was nothing left for the parasites of the great European epidemics to do except to acknowledge the survival of the fittest, whose name is Man." This immunity may be lost by atavism; and, when so lost, there will be a liability to the recurrence of great epidemics.
Easy Lessons in French. According to the Cumulative Method. By Adolph Dreyspring. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 142. Price, 70 cents.
We have already expressed appreciation of the merits of Professor Dreyspring's "Cumulative Method" in German, and of the happy application which—so far as books can go—he has made of it. With that application living in the schools, it was, as the author well says, a foregone conclusion that the system should in time be adapted to the acquisition of the French language. The present book represents the first step in such adaptation. The distinctive features of the method are presentation of the normal phases of the language first; selection of its elementary material, with special reference to what is usually in sight; development of the first needs of speech, as manifested by the simplest ordinary inquiries; unfolding the language out of itself; a vocabulary within reasonable bounds; a constant revolving of the accumulating material under ever varied forms and new combinations; and special care to interest the student and to preserve his enthusiasm for the study. The author maintains that his method is a decided revolt from the old practices, and that, as an initiatory step, it strenuously avoids the declensional and verbal pabulum usually administered to students. It opens its attacks upon points in the language offering the least resistance, such as nouns, adjectives, and prepositions, with the connective is; and it gives the preference to the descriptive power of speech over the volitive. Illustrations are given as aids to the lessons, and to make them more attractive and impressive. In the use of the work, the author insists on repetition, distinct and loud reading, and faithful practice of the verb-drill; when, he believes, its merits will not fail to be recognized.
The Three Systems of Life Insurance. By Mervin Tador. Chicago: Bureau of Life-Insurance Information. Pp. 236. Price, §2.
The author of this book is Actuary of the Insurance Department of Illinois, and Manager of the Bureau of Life-insurance Information. He has written it, he says, for the general public and for life-insurance agents and solicitors; and upon the suggestion of many letters which have been received at the Bureau, asking for information in a wide range of inquiry upon subjects involving the elementary principles of life insurance. The "three systems" mentioned in the title are designated as "The Level Premium," "The Natural Premium," and "The
