Reports. Home for Aged Jews of Chicago, 1894-1896. Pp. 62.—Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. Year ending August 31, 1896. Pp. 274.
Ridgway, Robert. Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago. United States National Museum. Pp. 11-2.
Scott, William B. An Introduction to Geology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 573. $1.90.
Setchell, William A. Laboratory Practice for Beginners in Botany. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 190. 90 cents.
Sharpe, R. W. Contribution to a Knowledge of the North American Fresh-water Ostracoda. Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. Urbana. Pp. 72, with plates.
Starr, Frederick. Stone Images from Tarascan Territory, Mexico. Pp. 4, with 3 plates.
Stone, W. E., and Baird, W. H. The Occurrence of Raffinose in American Sugar Beets. Purdue University. Pp. 9, with plate.
Tarr, Ralph S. Elementary Geology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 499. $1.40.
Tubeuf, Dr. Karl Freiherr. Diseases of Plants induced by Cryptogamic Parasites. English edition, by W. G. Smith. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 598.
Walsingham, Lord, and Dnrrant, John n. Rules for regulating Nomenclature (in Entomology). New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 18. 20 cents.
Wines, F. H., and Koren, John. The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 342.
Work in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Pp. 8.
Horticultural Extension Schools.—Experiments in methods of extension teaching as applied to horticulture have been made by Prof. L. H. Bailey in connection with the Cornell University Experiment Station, through itinerant or local experiment, readable expository bulletins, the itinerant horticultural school, elementary instruction in rural schools, and correspondence and reading courses. The greatest good as yet accomplished seems to have come through the bulletins. These have taken the form of surveys of the status of certain industries, with especial attention given to floriculture and ornamental gardening. Besides the consecutive teaching of horticultural schools, Nature study and object lessons were taught in a series of schools, with the object, besides imparting specific horticultural information, of awakening closeness of observation and careful reasoning from it on the part of the attendants. Observation lessons constituted one of the most useful exercises in connection with these schools. Small objects, like leaves or roots or flowers or seeds, were put in the hands of all the attendants, and after they had examined them for a few minutes the instructor began to ask questions concerning them. This exercise drilled every participant in observation and in drawing proper inferences from what he saw, and was productive of the greatest interest and good. Such schools serve better as the culmination of a series of extension efforts than as a primary or preliminary means of awakening the rural communities. Another series of lessons had the determination of the manner in which pupils could be reached by means of object-lesson teaching, and the amount of interest they would be likely to manifest in agricultural matters in case it should ever be found desirable to introduce such teaching as a part of the distinct school work. The conclusion is drawn by Prof. Bailey, from this experimental work, that the farmers, as a whole, are willing and anxious for education. They are difficult to reach, because they have not been well taught, not because they are unwilling to learn.
Effect of Veils on Eyesight.—In experimenting upon the effect of the wearing of veils upon the eyesight. Dr. Casey A. Wood, of Chicago, selected a dozen typical specimens of veils and applied the ordinary tests of ability to read while wearing them. These tests showed that every description of veil affects more or less the ability to see distinctly, both in the distance and near at hand. The most objectionable kind is the dotted veil. Other things being equal, vision is interfered with in direct proportion to the number of meshes per square inch. The texture of the veil plays an important part in the matter. When the sides of the mesh are single, compact threads, the eye is much less embarrassed than when double threads are employed. The least objectionable veil
