comparative employment of men, women, and children at two periods of time, and is made in accordance with a joint resolution of Congress. The work now being performed by the department is more varied and extensive than at any other period of its existence. It includes an investigation relating to the effect of machinery upon labor and the cost of production; a report upon wages paid in leading countries; inquiries into various aspects of the liquor traffic; and inquiries relative to the municipal ownership of gas, electric, and motor plants; to the condition of the Italians of Chicago; and into the economic progress of the negroes.
The Journal of Osteopathy is a periodical devoted to osteopathy, or a new system of healing without drugs, which seems to have found favor with considerable numbers of people, and has been recognized by law in four States. It is published monthly at the American Institute of Osteopathy, Kirksville, Mo., at $1 a year.
The Story of Oliver Twist, condensed for home and school reading, by Ella Boyce Kirk (Appletons, 60 cts.), has recently come to us. It is part of a series of "home-reading books" designed to supplement the ordinary school work of the child, and is one of the results of what was originally the university extension movement, but which could now more appropriately be called the school-extension movement, as its principles have been applied all along the line down almost to the kindergarten. The author thus describes her book: "I have tried to present one of Dickens's most popular stories as nearly as possible in the form (judging from his Child's History of England) that he would have put it if he had written it for young readers. I have used his language, I have not presumed to change or modify his expression, but everything that a child would be likely to skip has been elided. The action is thus accelerated to suit the most impatient reader."
Education from a Publisher 's Standpoint, an address delivered before the National Educational Association on July 7th, by Mr. Gilman H Tucker, takes the ground that the work of the publisher is closely bound up with that of the teacher, and that cooperation and sympathy are the necessary watchwords. Mr. Tucker is Secretary of the American Book Company, and hence an authority on text-books. The address is published in a small pamphlet of twenty-three pages.
In The Mother's Council, or the Kindergarten in the Nursery, Mrs. Louise Pollock attempts to arrange a course of mental and physical training for use by the mother or nurse in the nursery. It is based on Froebel's Mother Book of Song and Play. The applications begin when the child has reached the age of three months; the first one consisting of the swinging of a yarn ball in front of the child's face, and singing the following inspiring melody:
Here, there, here, there,
Coming, going,
Forward, backward,
The little ball comes, it goes.
The book also contains a number of "Educational Rules," the first of which is, "Be careful what habits a child acquires during the first month of his life. Do not rock or walk him to sleep, unless you wish to do it for years to come." This is undoubtedly good science, but rule 29, which follows, is somewhat doubtful in this respect. "If the house is so constructed that you can not conveniently have your head to the north while sleeping, the next best way is to sleep with your feet to the west. The electrical currents come from the east, and it is best they should reach you from head to foot, rather than vice versa."
The American X-Ray Journal, monthly, Heber Roberts, M. D., editor, is devoted to practical X-ray work and allied arts and sciences, with special reference to the physical improvement of man. Published at St. Louis, Mo., $1 a year.
The Annual Report of the State Geologist of New Jersey for 1896 contains the reports of progress by R. D. Salisbury and G. N. Knapp on the survey of the surface formations, and of H. R. Kümmel on the Newark system or New Red Sandstone; and reports by J. E. Wolff on Archæan Geology (Sussex County), Lewis Woolman on Artesian Wells (Stratigraphy of the Fish House Black Clays); C. C. Vermeule on the Flood of February 6, 1886, in Northern New Jersey; C. C. Vermeule on the Drainage of the Hackensack
