Popular Science Monthly/Volume 17/August 1880/Literary Notices
SPENCER'S "EDUCATION." CHEAP EDITION.
Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. By Herbert Spencer. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 283. Price, 50 cents, paper covers.
This little work has now been twenty years before the public, and during that time has gradually made its way to all parts of the civilized world. It has been rendered into the principal languages of Europe, and is well known by complete or partial reproduction in India, China, and Japan. The eminent directors of public education in different countries have taken the initiative in procuring its translation.[1] The principles it develops have been avowedly followed in numerous instances in shaping the policy of public instruction, and in organizing educational institutions; and it has exerted a strong influence upon the mental and moral culture of families, and upon the intellectual life of individuals. Desirous of still further extending an influence so well approved, Mr. Spencer a year or two ago issued a cheap edition of the book in England, and the American publishers have now wisely imitated his example.
We do not propose here to notice the book in the usual manner, as most of our readers are no doubt quite familiar with its contents. But this is a suitable occasion to recall the circumstances of its origin; and the more so as thereby some explanation will be afforded of its remarkable influence and success.
The four parts which compose the volume were originally contributed by Mr. Spencer to several English periodicals from 1854 to 1859. The period in which they were written, 1850 to 1860—from his thirtieth to his fortieth year was the most fruitful in his intellectual career, and may be characterized as preëminently the creative and constructive decade of his life. It was the time of the rapid development and organization of his great ideas. It was then that he arrived at the conception of evolution as a universal law and the basis of a new philosophy; and that he drew up a detailed plan of the reorganization of knowledge from the new point of view. The period referred to was one of transition, or rather of maturing, for from early years the subject of progress and development in nature and society had taken a strong hold of Mr. Spencer's mind. All his publications during these ten years are colored and pervaded by the dominant conception of evolution. His work took a wide range, chiefly in the form of elaborate articles printed in leading periodicals. Between 1850 and 1860 he published no less than twenty-five of these essays on a great variety of subjects elucidating the principles of evolution, and illustrating their biological, social, intellectual, moral, and political applications.
Among the subjects then dealt with, Mr. Spencer's thoughts were especially and powerfully attracted to the working of evolutionary law in the sphere of mind. This was a new point of view in mental science. While metaphysicians were confining their studies mainly to mind as an abstraction and in its highest form, Mr. Spencer was drawn to its study in the aspect of growth, and as an endowment of growing organisms. Mind, as conditioned by a nervous substratum and unfolding with it—the genesis of the psychical faculties in all grades of organic manifestation—the law of mental progression from the lowest to the highest animate creatures—these were the problems that absorbed his attention. They were considered in various detached papers, but the subject was also dealt with elaborately and systematically in his treatise on the "Principles of Psychology," published in 1855. Mental phenomena were here first methodically elucidated from the evolution point of view. The development of intelligence was traced upward through the organic series from its lowest rudimental forms through successively higher complications, with the view of determining how the highest forms are produced and the highest intelligence constituted. Ascending from reflex action in the lowest types up through instinct, memory, reason, feelings, and the will, Mr. Spencer then reversed the course of inquiry, and showed by subjective analysis how the highest intelligence may be resolved, step by step, from its most complex into its simplest elements. The work was throughout so original and so closely reasoned as to make an epoch in the advance of mental science; and John Stuart Mill declared it to be "the finest example we possess of the psychological method in its full power."
Thus occupied in working out the laws of mental unfolding, it was impossible that Mr. Spencer's thoughts should not have been strongly attracted at this time to the subject of education. Descended from a race of schoolmasters, skillfully taught by his father and uncle on rational principles, and alive to the gross deficiencies of current teaching, he was predisposed to take an interest in all questions of mental cultivation. But the special direction of his studies now forced the subject upon him in a new and most important aspect. Education as a leading out of the faculties is essentially a problem of the growth of the faculties; and no new light could be thrown upon the processes and order of mental evolution without at once and powerfully affecting the practice of the art of education.
Spencer's "Education," produced at this period, was written from the point of view here indicated. It contains no formal statement of the evolution theory, but it conforms to the main doctrine throughout. The key-note and controlling idea of the book is, that Nature has a method of intellectual, moral, and physical development, which should afford the guiding principles of all teaching. The book is a plea for nature in education, and a protest against tutorial aggression, and meddlesome overdoing on the part of teachers and parents. The chapter on "Intellectual Education," which was written first and published in 1854, treats of school processes in relation to the law of development of the faculties as it takes place naturally. Education is regarded as rightly carried on only when it aids the process of self-development, and it is urged that the course of study in all cases followed should be from the simple to the complex, from the indefinite to the definite, from the concrete to the abstract, and from the empirical to the rational, in harmony with the course of evolution at large. In the chapter on "Moral Education" the subject is again regarded from the point of view of natural development. The general truth here insisted upon is, that the natural rewards and restraints of conduct are those which are most appropriate and effectual in modifying character. The principle contended for is that the moral education of every child should be regarded as an adaptation of its nature to the circumstances of life; and that, to become adapted to these circumstances, it must be allowed to come in contact with them; must be allowed to suffer the pains, and obtain the pleasures, which do, in the order of nature, follow certain kinds of action. "Physical Education" is again an argument from the biological side for the unhindered development of the bodily powers against the artificial restraints and repressions of school regulation; and it maintains that, during the earlier portion of life in which the main thing to be done is to grow and develop, our educational system is much too exacting. The last essay written, "What Knowledge is of Most Worth" (1859), is placed first in the volume, and is a vindication of the study of nature and the rightful supremacy of science in education. A memorable passage illustrates the change that must take place in the study of history when social phenomena come to be dealt with by the method of development.
Now, while, as we have already said, there is no formula of evolution in the book, and even the word occurs in it but rarely, yet Spencer's "Education" so entirely conforms to the doctrine, that, if it were rewritten to-day, it would hardly require revision in this respect. Mr. Spencer was, in fact, master of the new method at that time. If the reader will refer to the prospectus of Spencer's "System of Philosophy," which is prefixed to the volume, he will see how completely its author's views were matured, both in respect to the conditions, laws, and causes of evolution—the fundamental principles of the subject—and also of that detailed reconstruction of biological, psychological, sociological, and ethical science which evolutionary doctrine necessitates. The whole logical plan was traced out in its steps of dependence, and even in its proportions, with such singular accuracy, that he has hardly deviated from it in the twenty years subsequently devoted to its execution. The work on education was written while these views were taking definite shape in Mr. Spencer's mind, and half of it was written after his philosophical scheme was perfected. It was, of course, in advance of its time, and belonged to a stage of thought not yet reached either by the public mind generally, nor even in the enlightened circles of science. There was, as yet, but little talk of evolution, and when referred to it was generally derided by everybody as a vagary. Yet to Mr. Spencer's mind at this time evolution was not only a great truth, overwhelmingly demonstrated by concurring evidence from many sources, but it had become a principle of reorganization in large spheres of knowledge, and a new guide in the practical affairs of life. How thoroughly he had made the field his own, and how far in advance he was of even advanced thinkers, are sufficiently shown by the fact that, when Mr. Spencer tacitly based his treatment of education upon evolution doctrines which he had already wrought into an explicit and complete system, Mr. Darwin had, as yet, published nothing upon the subject.
We have here, unquestionably, one of the main causes of the success of this book. It anticipated and conformed to ideas that have since become widely popular. It has been increasingly appreciated because it has been found to harmonize with the striking results of advancing thought within the last twenty years. It has afforded trustworthy help in a time of transition when help is most urgently needed. Though a book of principles, it proved to be the most practical of educational manuals, because its principles were applicable to all circumstances, and it has become an authority because its indications have been attested by common sense, and verified as true by experience.
It is well, then, that we are to have a cheap edition of this instructive book, and all the better that it is in good print and in an attractive form. It ought to be extensively circulated among teachers and educational officials in this country, because, with our favorite system of State instruction, we are strongly inclining to the evils against which this book so powerfully protests. The machine-education of great school establishments is a system of external coercion which everywhere tends to thwart spontaneous natural development, and to hinder instead of facilitating self-education. It is the small minority of thinking persons in each country that has called for and commended Mr. Spencer's work; the great multitude of teachers know little of it. And, while as victims of a great mechanical system they are left but small liberty in the application of principles, and none at all of principles that contravene the official mechanics of the schoolroom, it is, nevertheless, desirable that they should be made to understand, as clearly as possible, the drawbacks of the system under which they work.
The extensive circulation of this book, both among teachers and parents, would be highly promotive of rational education; and liberally disposed people would do an effective philanthropic work by purchasing it at wholesale and donating it to those who are not familiar with its views.
It may not be improper to add, in these times of wholesale piracy of the valuable works of foreign authors, that Mr. Spencer will continue to be paid by the publishers on this cheap edition of his "Education" just as he has been paid by them from the beginning on all his other publications.
New Departures in Collegiate Control and Culture. By Rev. Caleb Mills. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 50. Price, 30 cents.
The Rev. Caleb Mills, a graduate of Dartmouth College and of Andover Theological Seminary, was for forty years Professor of Greek at Wabash College, Indiana. He became the first Superintendent of Schools in that State, and so impressed his views upon its people as to earn the flattering title of "Father" of the Indiana common-school system. He died last October, and left this essay on the higher education as a last message to scholars and the people, and his friend Henry B. Carrington has seen it through the press in a very careless way.
The paper is mainly an argument on college methods with reference to alleged modern improvements in the studies and the management of these institutions. Mr. Mills clings tenaciously to the traditions, and strenuously resists all the new-fangled notions about optional studies and the introduction of modern languages, scientific branches, and practical knowledge into the collegiate curriculum. Only classics and the dead languages, he maintains, can give a liberal education, or that mental discipline which is the real object to be gained in all higher study.
Mr. Mills appears to think that it is the duty of colleges to go on to the end of time threshing the old Latin and Greek straw, although it has long since ceased to yield the grain that is commonly supposed to be the object of threshing. He seems, in fact, to think it a great point gained that the old dead straw no longer furnishes anything that can be utilized. Grain and bread and nourishment are sordid and vulgar things, which the thresher should no longer think of, and so the more empty and useless the husks the better. The real thing is the muscular exercise in the use of the flail, the noble discipline of his arms; for, when he has vigorously pounded the Greek and Latin litter for some years, he will get wonderful vigor for other forms of exercise.
Mr. Mills has various animated passages in denunciation of college reforms, but we can not see that he contributes anything important to the argument. The coolness with which he throws aside all modern knowledge, as of little or no account in higher education, is something surprising, and shows the havoc that forty years of Greek may make with a man's common sense.
Mr. Mills is greatly concerned about the use of the Bible as a college text-book; and the question of its more general employment in this way he declares to be "a live issue," which involves little less than the destinies of the nation. One of the bad signs of collegiate degeneracy is a neglect to use the Bible as a text-book. He informs us that reliable statistics show that "of forty-six colleges reporting, eighteen use it in a proper sense as a text-book and twenty-eight do not. Of twelve New England colleges, three use it and nine do not. Of twenty-two Western institutions, nine use it and thirteen do not give it a place in their curriculum."
Among the reasons for making the Bible a text-book in our colleges, Mr. Mills thinks that it would raise us in the estimation of the pagans, whose example in this respect he thinks it scandalous that we have failed to follow. He says: "Were an American Christian to go into the Mohammedan university at Cairo, with its ten thousand students, nothing there witnessed would impress him so deeply as the fact that so much time is occupied and so much attention given to the study of the Koran; and a like impression would be created were he to make a similar visit to a corresponding institution in the sacred city of Benares, and witness the exercises of that Brahmanical college, and listen to the lectures of its learned pundits on the Shasta literature and religion; if, then, returning to his native shores, he should make a corresponding exploration of some of our colleges, proud of their number of students and the spread of their curricula, and ask the venerable presidents thereof, Why has not the Bible place, if not a prominent one, at least a position, in your course of study? what reply would he receive?"
The Morals of Evolution. By M. J. Savage, author of "The Religion of Evolution." Boston: George H. Ellis. Pp. 191. Price, $1.
We congratulate Mr. Savage, first of all, on his standpoint in the treatment of moral questions. He has at once taken' the advanced and unassailable ground that ethics is properly a branch of science to be investigated like all other kinds of knowledge, and that it forms no anomaly or sacred exception in relation to that common method by which truth of all kinds is sought and established. He is hampered by no restraints of authority in inquiring into the grounds and sanctions of right conduct, but discusses problems in the full freedom of reason and under the profound conviction that only in this way can an authoritative and well-based moral system ever be attained by man. And Mr. Savage uses his freedom with the best effect. He throws much light upon the practical aspects of the subject from the new point of view, and shows the adequacy of the canons of natural morality for guidance in the conduct of life. He makes no claim to work out a rigorous ethical scheme, but contents himself with a popular exposition of the principles of right and wrong action as they are affected by the progress of knowledge and those new views of the nature of man which evolution has forced upon the attention of the world. His style is familiar, his illustrations apposite, and his reasoning clear and forcible. His book will be found helpful and instructive to many minds, and the same thing may be said of the course of liberal sermons which he has delivered from the Unity pulpit in Boston, and which are printed as a series of neat tracts. The contents of the present volume at first took this form of pulpit discourses; and it is encouraging that at least one large congregation has been found sufficiently intelligent and liberal not only to tolerate, but to accept and appreciate them.
Brain and Mind; or, Mental Science considered in accordance with the Principles of Phrenology, and in Relation to Modern Physiology. By Henry S. Drayton, A. M., and James McNeill. New York: S. R. Wells & Co. 1880. Pp. 334. Price, 1.50.
The authors here give a restatement of phrenology, with a great many cuts of heads, and a claim that the phrenological system has been affiliated upon the principles of the later physiology. It is generally considered that the results of the most modern researches into the nervous system contravene phrenological doctrine as formerly expounded. How far they are capable of reconciliation we will not undertake to say, but if anybody is interested, and will get this book, he will be in possession of perhaps the latest attempt at harmonization.
Sea-Sickness. By George M. Beard, A. M., M. D. New York: E. B. Treat & Co. 1880. Pp. 74. Price, 50 cents.
In this little work Dr. Beard has made a careful study of this distressing malady, and advances a theory of its nature, which, he claims, harmonizes with all the facts, and a mode of treatment which is effective. He holds that it is a "functional disease of the central nervous system, mainly of the brain, but in some cases of the spinal cord also." The symptoms, which he says have never been before clearly described, he gives as headache, backache, nausea without vomiting, vomiting, pain in the eyes, constipation and diarrhœa, menstrual suppression, hopelessness and mental depression, temporary abnormal appetite, neuralgic pains, chilliness with flashes of heat, sleeplessness, and nervous exhaustion. These symptoms are all due to the agitation of the nervous system by the motion of the ship. This view of the disease is quite at variance with the popular and even professional one, which has regarded it as an affection of the stomach and digestive apparatus. Among the considerations brought forward by Dr. Beard in support of his view is the fact that the very young and the very old are seldom or never troubled with it. "It is," he says, "the disease of active cerebral life, between fifteen and sixty-five," being in this respect like sick-headache, which we now know to be a nervous affection. In further support of this theory, observation shows the delicate, finely-organized, and nervous to be more liable to sea-sickness than the strong and phlegmatic. The treatment advocated by Dr. Beard is based upon this view of the nervous character of the disease. It consists in giving such remedies before and during the attack as will reduce the sensitiveness of the central nervous system. He has given his treatment extensive trial, and avers that it has rarely failed. The remedy he has found best of any is the bromide of sodium in doses of thirty to sixty grains, three times a day for several days before starting, and during the voyage, until all danger is past. The remedy should at first be administered by a physician, and can afterward be intrusted to the patient. Dr. Beard especially warns against the use of purgatives, spirituous liquors, and morphine or opium. With the bromine-treatment he states that the patient may remain on deck or in his state-room indifferently, and may eat such things as he may desire. He is also much less liable to take cold at sea or just after landing.
The Throat and its Functions. By Louis Elsberg, A. M., M. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1880. Pp. 60. Price, $1.
This is one of the popular scientific lectures given under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences, and the subject, as befits such a course, is treated in a manner to make it clear to the unscientific. Dr. Elsberg describes the various parts of the throat and their function in speaking, and some of the instruments used in examinations of the throat, and closes his lecture with a description of Edison's phonograph, which he exhibited to his audience.
Alva Vine; or, Art versus Duty. By Henri Gordon. American News Company. Pp. 233.
This is a sketch, a fancy sketch, of what the author calls "a suggestive woman of the republic—a girl with a good physique, a cultivated mind, a large heart, capable of taking an interest in all that appertains to the welfare of the whole human family." It is a very fancy sketch.
A Study of some of the Starches. By Mrs. Lou Reed Stowell, M. S., Microscopical Laboratory, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Courier Steam Printing-House. 1880. Pp. 17. Price, 15 cents.
This is a brief description of the appearance under the microscope of some of the more common starches, with instructions how to study them. The starches considered are those of potato, arrowroot, wheat, barley, bean, pea, corn, rice, oat, buckwheat, sago, tapioca, turmeric, and ginger.
The Management of Children, in Sickness and in Health: A Book for Mothers. By Annie E. Hale, M. D. Philadelphia: Presley Blakiston. Pp. 110. Price, 60 cents.
No better fifty cents' worth of a book for mothers have we seen in a long time. It is full of just the kind of information that all mothers require to possess, and this information is imparted in a simple and sensible manner, so that it may be perfectly understood. The points of most importance are given emphatic prominence, and the subjects are treated throughout with excellent judgment. It is one of the little manuals that can not be too strongly commended.
Problems in Relation to the Prevention of Disease. By J. R. Weist, A. M., M. D. Richmond, Indiana: Telegram Printing Co. 1880.
This is the address of the President of the Indiana State Medical Society at its session of this year. Dr. Weist points out the great losses, commercial and other, that result from an ignorance and disregard of sanitary conditions, and insists upon the necessity of legislation in the matter. He contends that the aim of physicians must be more and more to prevent rather than cure disease, and urges the consideration by them of such problems as have direct bearing upon public hygiene, a number of which he briefly indicates.
The Problems of Insanity. A Paper read before the New York Medico-Legal Society, March 3, 1880. By George M. Beard, A. M., M. D.
Dr. Beard declares, probably with much truth, that psychology is to be the great absorbing study of the future, and, in the study of the human mind, a thorough understanding of insanity will not only be of the greatest help, but indispensable. Among the problems he indicates as demanding attention are the proper definition of the disease, the general causes of it and of its increase in modern life, its real or apparent increase among the poorer classes, its diagnosis, and the proper system of treating it. In considering its increase Dr. Beard points out as fruitful in results the increased friction of modern life, especially in the sphere of emotion, reaching the conclusion that the increase is "not so much among the most intellectual as among the least intellectual and highly emotional classes of civilization." The essay is throughout suggestive and well worth perusal by those interested in one of the most important fields of scientific investigation.
New Characters of Mosasauroid Reptiles. By Professor O. C. Marsh. Reprint from "The American Journal of Science." Illustrated.
The remains of mosasauroid reptiles, though first discovered in Europe, were of such rare occurrence as to offer only limited opportunities for study; but they have been found in abundance in this country, and the Museum of Yale College alone has a collection containing some fourteen hundred distinct individuals, representing several families and numerous genera and species. This profusion has enabled Professor Marsh to make a very thorough examination of the group, and he has been rewarded by the discovery of several new characters, the more prominent among them being the presence of a sternum probably common to all the forms, the possession of posterior limbs, and of hyoid bones.
Bulletins 1, 2, 3 (Vol. V.), of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1879.
These numbers make a volume of five hundred and twenty pages, comprising twenty-five articles, giving results of original work in the natural history, geography, physical features and resources of a portion of our Western Territories. Among others, Professors Riley, Cope, and White, Dr. Coues, Dr. Le Conte, and Mr. Henry Gannett, have each contributed to the volume.
A Guide to Modern English History. By William Cory. Part I., 1815-1830. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 269. Price, $2.
This book, the author says, has grown out of an attempt made a few years ago to give some account of English politics to a foreign guest, who was not a Christian or a European, but who at the time was reading English history for examination. Without attempting to adhere to the plan of adapting statements to so remote a mind, the author has thought it good to explain many terms which in ordinary books are assumed to be understood; and he has done it very successfully, in a plain, pleasant style, under the form of a running review of the principal events and political movements of the period embraced.
Introduction to the Study of Sign-Languages among the North American Indians, as illustrating the Gesture-Speech of Mankind. By Garrick Mallery, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel United States Army. Issued by the Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1880.
This is the second of an important series of papers on American ethnology; the first, issued some time since, being an "Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages," by Professor J. W. Powell. A third is to follow on "Mortuary Observances and Beliefs concerning the Dead," by Dr. H. C. Yarrow, of the United States Army.
The study of anthropology is growing rapidly in importance and interest in this country. Vast collections of whatever may illustrate it are being made, and these thoroughly scientific papers will facilitate and direct the work. They are among the most valuable issued by the Smithsonian Institution.
Camps and Tramps in the Adirondack, and Grayling Fishing in Northern Michigan: A Record of Summer Vacations in the Wilderness. By A. Judd Northrup, Syracuse, New York: Davis, Bardeen & Co.; New York: Baker, Pratt & Co. 1880. Pp. 302. Price, $1.25.
The author has undertaken in this little volume to describe his life in the woods, his adventures and talks, exactly as they occurred, without invention or exaggeration, and to give truthful pictures of actual summer life in the Adirondacks. By introducing the companions of his journeys, actual men of education and refinement, but who left the shop and the school behind them for a holiday, he has made his story an entertaining one.
Annual Report of the Wisconsin Geological Survey for 1879. ByJ. C. Chamberlin, Chief Geologist. Madison, Wisconsin: State Printer, 1880.
We learn from this brief report that the work of the survey is approaching completion. Two volumes of the reports are now in the printer's hands; and a third, which, however, will be Vol. I. of the series, will shortly follow, and will be devoted to the general geology of the State.
Deutsch-Amerikanische Apotheker-Zeitung. Edited by Dr. George W. Rachel, and published by the Pharmaceutical Publishing Company, 5 Gold Street, New York. Pp. 16. Illustrated. Price, $2.50 a year.
"The Deutsch-Amerikanische Apotheker Zeitung" (German-American Druggists' Gazette) is a semi-monthly journal which has been started in the interest and as the organ of the German apothecaries, chemists, and physicians, of the United States. It promises original articles and correspondence from writers of recognized standing in their respective fields, notices and reviews of all that is new in the branches of science to which it is devoted, for which the American and European press will be consulted, market reports of drugs and chemicals, and free discussions. The numbers before us are filled with articles and paragraphs of scientific merit, comprehensive in scope, varied in character, and abreast with the times.
Silver in its Relation to Industry and Trade: The Danger of demonetizing it. The United States Monetary Commission of 1876: Review of Professor Francis Bowen's Minority Report. By William Brown. Montreal: Printed by the Lovell Printing and Publishing Company. 1880. Pp. 134. Price, 60 cents.
The purpose of this work is to present the arguments in favor of retaining silver money—"the money of industry," as the author calls it—in such a manner that they shall be plain to ordinary minds, and that interest in the discussions on the subject shall be shared by the people at large.
The "Naturhistorische Verein für Wisconsin," which has existed as an unincorporated society in the city of Milwaukee for twenty-two years, has been incorporated as the Natural History Society of Wisconsin, for the purpose of investigating the facts pertaining to the natural history and ethnology of the State. Its first year's report, in the German language, contains notices of the papers read at the several meetings of the Society, and an essay on "Life on the Prairie," by Dr. Emil Ulrici. Dr. Ulrici also sends us a paper (in German), of which he is the author, on "the settlements of the Normans in Iceland, Greenland, and North America, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries."
Diagram of the Progress of the Anthracite Coal Trade of Pennsylvania. With Statistical Tables, etc. By the Messrs. Sheafer. Pottsville, Pa. 1879.
On Fluid Extracts as prepared for the Coming Pharmacopoeia. Detroit. 1880. Pp. 7.
Photometric Researches. By William H. Pickering. Cambridge: John Wilson & Son. 1880. Pp. 14.
Therapeutic Action of Mercury, pp. 27, and Mechanical Therapeutics, Chemistry, and Toxicology of Mercury, pp. 19. By S. V. Clevenger, M.D. Chicago. 1880.
The Felsites and their Associated Rocks north of Boston. By J. S. Diller. Pp. 13.
High Schools. By B. G. Northrop. Syracuse: Davis, Bardeen & Co. 1880. Pp. 26. 25 cents.
The School Bulletin Tear-Book for 1880. An Educational Directory of the State of New York. Compiled by C. W. Bardeen. Syracuse: Davis, Bardeen & Co. 1880. Pp. 36, with Map. $1.
Memoirs of the Science Department, University of Tokio, Japan. Vol. II. On Mining and Mines in Japan. By C. Netto, M. E. Tokio: Published by the University. 1879. Pp. 54. Illustrated.
On the Ethers of Uric Acid. Second Paper. Dimethyluric Acid. By H. B. Hill and C. F. Mabery. From "Proceedings of the American Academy." Pp. 11.
The "American Journal of Philology." Edited by Basil L. Gildersleeve. Vol. I. . No 2. Baltimore: The Editor, May, 1880. Pp. 126. Quarterly, $1 per number, or $3 a year.
Bromide of Ethyl as an Anæsthetic. By J. Marion Sims, M. D., LL. D. Read before the New York Academy of Medicine, March 19, 1880. Pp. 22.
A Defense of Free Thought, together with a Theory of the Origin of Morals and Religion, and some Speculations on Immortality. By an Agnostic. Galveston, Texas. 1880. Pp. 52.
Annual Report upon the Surveys of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes, and the Mississippi River, in charge of C. B. Comstock. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1879. Pp. 180.
The Fifty-sixth Annual Report of the Officers of the Retreat, for the Insane at Hartford, Conn. Hartford. 1880. Pp. 36.
Hearing by the Aid of Tissue Conduction. The Month-Trumpet and the Audiphone. By Samuel Sexton, M.D. New York. 1880. Pp. 8.
Researches on Hearing through the Medium of the Teeth and Cranial Bones. Reprinted from the "Philadelphia Medical Times." Pp. 4. And The Perimetric Dimension System. A General System of Measurement for Urethral, Uterine, Rectal, and other Instruments, and an Adaptable Metric Gauge. By Charles H. Thomas, M. D. Philadelphia. Pp. 4.
Percy's Pocket Dictionary of Coney Island. With Map and Illustrations. New York: F. Leypoldt. 1880. Pp. 120. 10 cents.
Graded Selections for Memorizing. By John B. Peaslee, A.M., Ph.D. Cincinnati and New York: Van Antwerp. Bragg & Co. Pp. 192. 50 cents.
The Liberal Hymn-Book. Edited by Eliza Boardman Burnz. New York: Burnz & Co. 1880. 25 cents.
University of Tokio. The Calendar of the Departments of Law, Science, and Literature. 1879-'80. Tokio: Z. P. Maruya & Co. Pp. 163.
Some Thoughts concerning Education. By John Locke. With Introduction and Notes. By the Rev. R. H. Quick, M.D. London: Cambridge Warehouse. 1880. Pp. 140. 90 cents.
Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Water Department of the City of Philadelphia for the Year 1879. Philadelphia. 1880. Pp. 100.
The Principles of Nature, etc. Also an Exposition of the Spiritual Universe. Given inspirationally. By Mrs. Maria M. King. Vols. II. and III. Hammonton, N.J.: A. J. King. 1880 Pp. 261 and 268. $1.75 per vol.
- ↑ A noteworthy illustration of this has come to hand since the present article was put in type. The first part of Spencer's "Education"—"What Knowledge is of Most Worth?"—has just been translated into modern Greek by the late Minister of Education in Greece. It is significant that, while the New World colleges are neglecting and resisting modern knowledge, that the traditional ascendancy of ancient classics may be maintained, the Greek authorities, on the old, sacred, classical ground, are modernizing their education upon the principle that, in the hierarchy of knowledges, science is supreme.