Popular Science Monthly/Volume 40/November 1891/Literary Notices
The Question of Copyright. By George Haven Putnam New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 412.
This convenient and timely book contains a summary of the copyright laws at present in force in the chief countries of the world, together with a report of the legislation now pending in Great Britain, a sketch of the contest in the United States, from 1837 to 1891, in behalf of international copyright, and certain papers on the development of the conception of literary property, and on the probable effects of the new American law. To the author's view, the American act of the present year, providing copyright for aliens, can hardly be accepted as final legislation, and will doubtless at some no distant date call for further consideration as to some of its provisions. It leaves us still, in recognition of the claims of literary workers, very much behind the other nations of the civilized world. The result of fifty-three years of effort, it brings this country to the point reached by France in 1810, and by Great Britain and the states of Germany in 1836-'37. Under the provisions of the Berne Convention of 1887—which probably represents the final stage of international copyright in Europe—by fulfilling the requirements of their domestic copyright laws, authors can now at once secure, without further conditions or formalities, copyright for their productions in all the states belonging to the International Union. This union comprises nearly all the countries of Europe, with Tunis, Liberia, and Hayti. "It is not probable," says Mr. Putnam, "that another half-century of effort will be required to bring public opinion in the American Republic up to the standard of international justice already attained by Tunis, Liberia, and Hayti."
The Prison Question. By Charles A. Reeve. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. Pp. 194. Price, $2.
This book gives a theoretical and philosophical review of matters relating to crime, punishment, prisons, and reformation of convicts; considers mental, social, and political conditions as they bear upon these things; and presents the author's views about the causes and the prevention of crime and the production of criminals. We do not have to accept the author's views specifically to recognize that he has thought carefully and deeply on the subject, and has reasoned upon it without undue prejudice. The fundamental principles of the book were first presented by him in a public lecture, about twelve years ago, and have been urged in various papers read before the National Prison Congress. The purpose of the book is to group some important well-established facts and apply them to the subjects of prisons and reforms, in such order as will interest so much of the general public as can be reached, and so aid in creating a public opinion that can intelligently and practically deal with and dispose of the defective classes and the causes that produce them. The author believes that an impractical theology on the one hand, and a blind agnosticism on the other, alike operate to prevent a true solution of the problems of criminality. From a false position no step can be taken in advance without plunging into falsities. The only practical steps are such as lead to a true position. These the author tries to point out, by studying the criminal's mind and the factors that operate upon it—among which are physical and mental energy, theology, natural forces, marriage, society, and other surrounding influences—as they tend to develop, restrain, perpetuate, or procreate criminal tendencies. A very important place is given to heredity, and, by consequence, to such regulation of marriage as will best prevent the transmission of criminal appetites. The relations of government, legislation, punishment, and prisons to the criminal are considered; reformation receives a hopeful word; but the measures to which real importance is attached are those that appertain to prevention.
The Sturgeons and Sturgeon Industries OF the Eastern Coast of the United States, with an Account of Experiments bearing upon Sturgeon-culture. By John A. Ryder. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 50, with Plates.
The studies embodied in this monograph were made by the author in the spring of 1888 at Delaware City, Del., a very important center of the sturgeon-fishery. Notwithstanding the results of the effort were in some respects unsatisfactory, a number of novel facts were collected and experiments were carried out which must be of great significance in any further attempts at the artificial propagation of these fishes. The embryological data have been drawn partly from the author's own experiments and partly from the work of other authors. The embryos of the common sturgeon here illustrated are believed to be the first of that species that were ever figured. The important fact was determined that the common sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) is the only species which is at the present time of commercial value in the fishery of the Delaware. A few specimens of Acipenser brevirostris were obtained—a species which has not been certainly recognized since Le Sueur's time. The only profitable fishery of the common sturgeon—unless the Florida sturgeon should prove to be of the same form—is on the eastern coast of the Delaware River and Bay. A considerable amount of capital is invested in the business. The experience of the dealers and fishermen shows that a steady falling off has occurred in the catch within a few years. This and other facts prove that it is high time that something was being done to stay the extinction of the fish. The only means of maintaining and increasing the industry is through artificial propagation; and the author has every reason to think that this may be successfully accomplished at a comparatively insignificant outlay.
The Diseases of Personality. By Th. Ribot. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 157. Price, 75 cents.
The idea of personality is easily handled by metaphysicians who assume an ego. The school of experimental psychology, however, which claims M. Ribot, views this as no simple task, but rather the reward of arduous research. In the present volume, therefore, the author seeks through investigation of those cases in which the sense of personality is disorganized to discover a clew to its nature. In order to know human personality we must analyze it, but it must be remembered that the phenomena separated for purposes of analysis are interdependent. The various disorders of personality may be classified as organic, emotional, and intellectual. The sense of individuality in the normal body, its fluctuations dependent upon alterations in general or local sensibility, the egoistic sense in monsters and twins, show "as the organism, so the personality." Emotional manifestations peculiar to impaired nutrition, sexual aberration, and perversion of the higher instincts are found to confirm the same proposition. Intellectual vagaries of all kinds, due to sensorial derangement, hallucinations, the phenomena of hypnotism and of mysticism, furnish the corollary that ideas are only a secondary factor in changes of personality.
Regarding personality as "the highest form of psychic individuality," the nature of consciousness and the individual is involved.
Instead of the subjective notion that consciousness is "a basic property of soul," M. Ribot finds it "a simple phenomenon super-added to activity of the brain, appearing and disappearing according to circumstances." States of consciousness are coincident with disassimilation of nervous tissue, so that we may predict that they depend upon a certain state of the nervous system. But we do not yet understand all of the physiological conditions of consciousness.
If individual be defined as that which is not divided, we are obliged to descend very low in the organic world to find an example. "Every protoplasmic mass which attains a few tenths of a millimetre spontaneously divides itself. Protoplasm in the individual state is therefore limited in size." Scientists may find a rudimentary consciousness in the unfolding, absorbing, and dividing of the lowest organism; but M. Ribot considers this an irritability common to living beings, which is developed into the general sensibility of more complex forms. In colonies of Hydractinia, or in Agalmidæ, where locomotion is centralized, we meet with a co-ordination which is the germ of personality. Gradually, as the nervous system becomes more prominent, psychic individuality is constituted. In any given time the sum of nervous actions in man will far exceed the sum of the states of consciousness. Thus conscious personality is but an abstract of what takes place in the nervous centers. "Why certain nervous actions become conscious, and which are they?" is yet unanswerable. Different states of consciousness succeed each other and depend upon nervous activity. Pathology confirms the fact that the feeling of the ego changes with the bodily condition. The problem thus becomes biological, and psychology must wait, therefore, for a fuller knowledge of the genesis of organisms.
Studies in Evolution and Biology. By Alice Bodington. London: Eliot Stock. Pp. 220. 50 cents.
A perusal of this book shows extensive reading on the part of the author, and a clear conception of the principles of evolution. Some of the chapters are very interesting. It is difficult, however, to see the purposes of the book: as a help to the working student it is far too meager, and lacks references to original material; as a popular book for the uninformed it is too condensed to be of much use. At the outset a list of books is given for consultation, and this will strike one as a curious collection for the purpose. In the preface the author says, "I am at a loss to imagine why it is considered almost wrong to write about physical science without having made original experiments." The advantage of having made original experiments leads a writer to greater exactness, and, above all, to appreciate the relative value of statements and facts. Her allusions to the fixed ascidians as being comparatively free from vicissitudes and dangers in contrast with locomotive forms derived from the same stock, is misleading. The helpless creature nibbled at by fishes, infested by extraneous growths, unable to fight or flee, is seriously handicapped in the struggle for existence.
We know of no evidence to show that the duration of life of a species is governed other than by the law of natural selection. An interesting article, by Prof. Verrell (Science, vol. i, p. 303), would have given the author some hints as to the probable cause of the rapid disappearance of the larger vertebrates in past times. An allusion is made to the divergence of the Ainos from the Japanese, whereas the Ainos covered the islands of Japan before the Japanese were crystallized into a nation.
Silly flights of fancy are quite out of place in a serious work of this nature; but the attempt to enliven a dignified discourse by lugging in extracts of poetry or nonsense is peculiarly English, and so must be endured.
The Progress Report on Irrigation in the United States, prepared by Special Agent Richard J. Hinton, on account of the shortness of time during which the survey had been at work when it was made (sixty-one days), does not include results of the investigation itself, but only the returns of correspondence with experts and persons interested in the subject, invited in order to show the conditions and development of irrigation as applied to the soil for the purposes of cultivation. The large number of letters received shows how extensive and growing is the interest in the subject, and promises that the office of the irrigation inquiry will soon have a record of all that has been done about it. As among our own people, practical irrigation appears to have begun with the Mormon settlement on the Great Salt Lake; but has been practiced by the Indians in Arizona and New Mexico for five hundred years. General irrigation really began in the United States with the foundation of the colony at Greeley in Colorado, in 1870, which was successful at once. Its development, slow till 1880, has been more rapid since then. One of the sequences of its adoption is the appearance of a tendency toward division of large holdings of land and its more or less rapid disposal in small bodies. Another incident is a movement among land, mortgage, and trust companies to form syndicates for developing the water-supply of the plains country, for the purpose, of course, of improving the security for their loans. Horticulture in California is said to be in great part the result of irrigation, as is illustrated in the great fruit farms at Riverside. Much stress is laid upon the value of the "undersheet water" of the Arkansas and Platte and other valleys, the results of the survey of which, by Chief-Engineer Nettleton, are noticed below. The curious fact is mentioned concerning this water that cultivation tends to draw it up. Thus at Fresno, where the first cultivators had to dig fifty feet for it, they now get it at from eight to twelve feet below the surface.
The Report of Artesian and Underflow Investigation between the ninety-seventh degree of west longitude and the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, presented by Edwin S. Nettleton, in response to a call by the Senate, is also a progress report, and relates to work done in November and December, 1890, in parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, covering particularly the valleys of the Platte and the Arkansas. Valuable features of the report are the plan and profiles showing in detail the location and relation of the surface of the underground water, as found in rivers, wells, springs, and pools, as well as the elevation of the surface of the country along the line surveyed. There appears to be usually sufficient rainfall in this region during the whole year, if it were properly distributed throughout the cropping season, to make agriculture reasonably certain without the aid of irrigation; and the people of the country believe that the hot and dry winds have more to do with shortages of crops than lack of rainfall. The capacity of the surface streams being limited (the Arkansas and South Platte are already made to give up most of their water before leaving Colorado), a valuable other resource for irrigation is derived from the use of the subterranean or "undersheet" water, with which the sand and gravel deposits in the river valleys of considerable width and unknown depth are charged. Much of this is obtained by means of open subflow ditches. In other cases it has to be pumped. In regions where this is not available, the people must depend upon deep wells of limited capacity, the storage and immediate use of storm waters, and the flow of artesian wells.
The Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of Japan, Vol. IV, Part I—published by a committee of four professors, three of whom are Japanese—contains seven articles on subjects of biology and physiology, all by Japanese writers. All are distinguished by great merit, but are of too technical a character to be susceptible of detailed notice in a popular journal. Prof. K. Mitsukari offers a study on the embryology of the turtle, in which many notable features hitherto overlooked are presented. Mr. Kamakichi Kishinonge describes the pulmonary lamellæ of certain genera of spiders and their development, which he suggests may be from some aquatic arthropod, as limulus. Mr. A. Oka describes a new species of fresh-water polyzoa. A new fungus enemy of the mulberry tree is described by Mr. Nobujiro Tanaka. The Irritability of the Stigma is shown by Mr. M. Miyoshi to have a relation to cross-fertilization. A paper by Mr. Masamaro Inaba on the Development of Suprarenal Bodies in the Mouse contains much of interest to physiologists. All these papers are abundantly illustrated in the highest style of lithographic art, with colors.
In his lecture on Les Progès de l'Anthropologie (Paris, De Saye & Son, printers), the Marquis de Nadaillac endeavors to refute the theory of evolution. It is no slight testimony to the solid foundation on which that theory has been established in our modern philosophy that so learned and earnest a writer has not been able to add one to the arguments which English students met and answered long ago.
Two studies of general interest in the American Journal of Psychology for April are those of Dr. E. W. Scripture on Arithmetical Prodigies and Mr. Ilerbert Nichols on the Psychology of Time. In his paper on Arithmetical Prodigies, Dr. Scripture first gives an account of the persons themselves, with a bibliography of the subject; and afterward undertakes to make such a psychological analysis of their powers as will help in the comprehension of them, and furnish hints to the practical instructor in arithmetic.
The most important paper in Part XVIII of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research is that of Mrs. Henry Sidgwick on the Evidences for Clairvoyance. Other curious studies are those of Baron von Schrenck-Notzing on Thought-transference; Mr. Thomas Barkworth on Automatic Writing; and M. Léon Marrilier on Apparitions of the Virgin in the Dordogne. Prof. William James's Principles of Physiology is reviewed at length by F. W. H. Myers. London.
Dr. William W. Parker, of Richmond, Va., endeavors, in a paper on Instinct in Animals and Intelligence in Man contrasted, to show that there can be no comparison between the two, but that the matter is one of contrasts and antitheses: that in the animal, intelligence is limited; in man unlimited; that man's highest qualities or perceptions have no existence even in embryo in animals; and that "not one, not a thousand, links can bridge the chasm between the intelligence of animals and the intelligence of man."
Insects and Insecticides, a practical manual concerning noxious insects and the methods of preventing injuries, is designed by the author, Clarence M. Weed, who is also his publisher (Hanover, N. H.), for the use of the farmer, fruit-grower, floriculturist, and housekeeper. It has been prepared to furnish these persons with a concise account of the more important injurious insects with which they have to contend, together with a summary of the latest knowledge concerning the best methods of preventing or counteracting the injuries of the pests. For this the author has drawn from the investigations of our leading entomologists. He has tried to make the discussions of life-histories and remedies plain and simple. The insects are classified according to the plants or parts of plants on which they ravage—as those affecting, severally, the larger fruits, the smaller fruits, shade trees, ornamental plants, and flowers, vegetables, cereal and forage crops, and domestic animals and the household. Price, $1.25.
In Los Animales Parásitos introducidos por el Agua en el Organismo (London, Burns & Gates) a full account is given by Dr. Rafael Blanchard of the parasitic animals introduced into the organism by water. The work is of convenient size, is neatly printed and abundantly illustrated, and will be of great value to the Spanish readers for whom it is intended.
Mr. Edward Trevert, author of several hand-books on electricity, batteries, and dynamos, has prepared a manual on Electricity and its Applications, which is published at Lynn, Mass., by the Rubier Publishing Company (price, $2). It is written to supply a demand which the author finds to exist, particularly among amateurs and students, for more information relating especially to the practical part of the science. It treats (giving facts rather than theories, and avoiding technicalities) of voltaic batteries, dynamos, the electric arc and arc lamp, electric motors, field magnets, armatures, the telegraph and telephone, electric bells, the induction coil, incandescent lamps, electrical mining apparatus, the electric railway, electric welding, plating, and gas-lighting apparatus, other electric inventions, electric measurements, and gives resistance and weight tables and an illustrated dictionary of electrical terms and phrases.
In his Introduction to Dynamics (Longmans) Mr. Charles V. Burton has included kinematics, kinetics, and statics, because of the difficulty, in writing a book for young students with no previous knowledge of the subject, of making a satisfactory division of it. Absolute systems of units have been used, and the C. G. S. system has been given the most prominent place. Price, $1.50.
In Optical Projection (Longmans) a treatise is given of a practical character by Mr. Lewis Wright on the use of the lantern in exhibition and scientific demonstration through its entire range. The author has practiced optical projection as a hobby for many years, and in his experiments has discovered many ways of improving the application of the art and enlarging its scope. His treatise is comprehensive, and includes, besides an exposition of the philosophy of projected images, descriptions of the parts of the lantern, and of the lights susceptible of being used with it, and accounts of the demonstrations of the apparatus in representations of experiments in molecular and mechanical physics, physiology, chemistry, sound, reflection, refraction, dispersion, and color of light, the spectrum, interference, polarization, heat, and electricity. Price, $2.25.
A series of studies in History, Economics, and Public Law has been begun by the University Faculty of Political Science of Columbia College, to be conducted under the editorial direction of Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman. The monographs are to be chosen mainly from among the doctors' dissertations in political science, including only such studies as form direct contributions to science and are works of original research. They will appear at irregular intervals, and will be paged both consecutively and separately. The first of the list to appear is a study by Walter F. Wilcox on The Divorce Problem. The argument of it is that legal provisions of whatever sort have little direct and permanent influence on divorce. The whole ideal and tendency of our modern civilization are to teach every individual self-direction and self-government. No legal reform can do such work. The main work of the state should be as an educator of public opinion; and law may contribute by holding up a standard of morality in advance of the average standard. Other correctives may be sought in education and the Church, or ethical society. The second paper in the series is The History of Tariff Administration in the United States, from Colonial Times to the McKinley Bill, by John Dean Goss. The author suggests that if our tariffs had been simply for revenue the problems of the best methods and rates would have been solved long ago; but the adoption of the policy of protection, the very logic of whose honest application compelled the taxation of an almost innumerable list of articles and the general introduction of ad valorem rates, vastly complicated the problem. It has brought in devices to deceive the Government, and "this seems to be the legitimate outcome of any system of ad valorem duties," while the introduction of the consignment system has thrown the business of importing largely into the hands of unnaturalized foreigners. But there has been, on the whole, a steady development toward more stringent supervision, regulation, and control over the importer.
The Hon. Andrew S. Draper, State Superintendent of Public Instruction of New York, desiring to get a view of the workings of the Prussian educational system from the observations of an expert, commissioned Mr. James Russell Parsons, Jr., an experienced officer of the public schools, on his being appointed United States consul at Aix-la-Chapelle, to examine the schools of the country and report upon them. The fruits of Mr. Parsons's observations are now published in the volume Prussian Schools through American Eyes, by C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y.
Problems of the New Life is the title of a book of essays on social and labor questions by Morrison I. Swift, and published by him at Ashtabula, Ohio, The author writes with much ability from the point of view that the social organization is wrong, and a remedy is to be sought by agitation. The first paper is on The Social Ordeal of Christianity, and the burden of it is that the Church has failed to regenerate society. The ethical culture organization is contrasted with it as having recognized the progressive tendency of the time and placed itself in the current with it. In the paper on The Old and the New Life exception is taken to the attention given to mental culture as at the expense of physical development, and the accepted criterions of social esteem are decided to be wrong. Other essays concern Education and Power, The Extension of Culture, Nationalism, The Awakening of the Farmers, The Growing Revolution, etc. The conclusion of the last is that "the death of the old order is declared."
In Politics and Property, or Phronocracy (G. P. Putnam's Sons), a compromise is proposed by Slack Worthington between democracy and plutocracy. Causes are recognized for the existence of discontent and strife, but it is also seen that they can never be entirely annulled; that poverty can never be eradicated from society any more effectually than disease from the human body. But it can be ameliorated by the timely enactment of intelligent laws. The author opposes both plutocracy on the one hand and socialistic tendencies of all kinds on the other, and advocates a reasonable or conservative position between the two, which he calls Phronocracy, or the rule of reason, prudence, and understanding. He holds that the property rights of men shall, to a reasonable extent, be fully recognized and sedulously protected, but that the masses have grievances that must not be ignored. He further advocates the curtailment of the elective franchise by property and educational qualifications.
The American Citizen (D. C. Heath & Co.) is intended by the author, Mr. Charles F. Dole, to supply in part the growing demand for the more adequate teaching of morals in schools, especially with reference to the making of good citizens, and to show in this case the practical application of the precepts to the duties of life. It aims, not merely to state the facts about the government of our country and our social institutions, but also to illustrate the moral principles that underlie the life of civilized men. The work is intended for youth in the higher schools, and for adults who may wish to make a beginning in the study of citizenship; and the author hopes to leave such an impression as to lead his more thoughtful readers to take up a more thorough course of study.
The publication (by Macmillan) of the Encyclopædia Britannica's article on War in a separate volume gives the author, Colonel F. Maurice, opportunity to insert a few remarks on the probable influence on tactics and warfare generally of the latest improvements in destructive agencies, of which the most important are smokeless powder and the introduction of "high explosives" into shells. The general effect of the former element will probably be to render a defensive position more difficult to approach, while the assailants will continue to be completely exposed to view. The effect of high explosives will be to put it within the power of field artillery to demolish permanent fortifications in all their forms; and even field defenses, earthworks, and the like, are destined to lose much of their value from this new development. But there are inconveniences in the use of these agents that will to a certain degree compensate for the advantages their possessors will enjoy. Strategy will be affected by the application, because it will be possible to carry out great movements with less regard to the influence of fortresses than was formerly necessary. But the difficulties involved in the constant replacement of material will also seriously affect the system of supply of armies in the field. The change in tactics will tend to favor offense rather than defense. To the amended original article of the Britannica are added an essay on Military Literature—a subject which is declared to occupy a field almost unknown to most English readers—and a list of books "of which it may be useful to know the correct titles."
The little book, Stumbling-stones removed from the Word of God (Baker & Taylor Co.), is addressed by its author, the Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, not so much to those who accuse and assault the Scriptures as to believers. It is acknowledged that "even the most candid and reverent believer finds in the English Bible some difficulties or hindrances in the way of his understanding, if not of his faith." But, assuming that the error in this case lies in what he mistakes for the truth, as a mirage is mistaken for reality, or in his own vision, the true believer is advised that he "runs no risk in calmly and resolutely examining into any alleged difficulty or discrepancy in the Bible. If one encounters a supposed ghost on a dark night, the best way is to walk up to it and look it squarely in the face. To flee from a supposed apparition may leave a lingering doubt whether the ghostly illusion was a reality or not: a bold touch would have dispelled both the illusion and the doubt."
An edition of Eight Books of Cæsar's Gallic War is published by the American Book Company, under the editorial care of Dr. William Rainey Harper and Dr. Herbert Curling Tolman. Regarding Cæsar's Latin as not excelled by that of any Roman writer in richness and purity, and therefore as of that which most deserves to be studied, the editors have endeavored in this edition to present the facts of the language and illustrate the subject in a manner different from the traditional method. Among the new features of the edition are the indication of the first occurrence of every word by putting it in full-faced type; the insertion of "topics for study," based upon the portion read, after the several chapters; examples of inductive studies and list of topics for investigation; and others touching points of less prominent importance. A life of Cæsar, history of Gaul, Germany, and Britain, and a sketch of the method of Roman warfare, are given in the introduction in continuous narrative.
The Quarterly Register of Current History is a new publication, the purpose of which is to collect, arrange, and preserve notices of all current events of importance, as they are given in the newspapers, for future reference and information. Such matter is of the very kind that every one who would keep himself informed of current events would desire most to have at hand; and yet it is just this kind of knowledge that, immediately its day is over and the newspaper containing it is thrown away, is soonest and most irrecoverably lost. The Quarterly Register is intended to remedy this evil and supply the want. The first number contains a review of the whole year 1890. The succeeding numbers will give simply quarterly records. Evening News Association, Detroit, Mich. Price, $1 a year.
Geografia per Tutti (Geography for All) is the name of a fortnightly journal for the diffusion of geographical knowledge, published at Bergamo, Italy, by the Brothers Cattaneo, under the editorial direction of Prof. A. Ghisleri. It is a popular journal, intended to reach the entire reading public and keep them abreast of the latest discoveries. Among the articles in the opening number are some bearing on the interests of Italians in America, as that on New Orleans and the Italian Emigration, and one by Elisée Reclus on the Delta of the Mississippi. Sketches and portraits are also given of the famous Italian travelers, Gactano Casati and Romolo Gessi.
A Journal of American Archæology and Ethnology, edited by J. Walter Fewkes, and bearing the imprint of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., comes to us from the Hemenway Archæological Expedition. The present number, which is marked Vol. I, contains papers on A Few Summer Ceremonials at Zuñi Pueblo, with seventeen illustrations; Zuñi Melodies, with the music transcribed from the phonograph; and a Reconnaissance of Ruins in or near the Zuñi Reservation, with eleven maps, plans, and illustrations.
In Educational Papers by Illinois Science Teachers it is stated that science is not taught in the country schools, for two reasons. The average teacher holds a second-grade certificate, which does not represent any scientific acquirement; and the rural tax-payer is afraid that scientific instruction may cost. In larger villages and cities outside of Chicago an elementary training may be found in high-schools, and occasionally a graded science course is provided from the beginning. A Natural Science Section was formed by the Illinois State Teachers' Association in 1888. The papers published include those read at the sessions of 1889 and 1890. It is emphasized throughout that elementary science can not be taught by memorizing the zoölogical and botanical classifications of text-books. A natural object should be the first study, and generalization can be learned from the attempts to classify actual specimens. Among those easily obtainable are domestic animals, insects, common flowers, leaves, and table-salt. Elementary physics is best studied in the uses of the lever, cord and pulley, wheel, axle, and ventilation of rooms. In the closing essay upon the material for science study it is urged that the phenomena of life, as exhibited in familiar animals, are more interesting to the child than any facts of structure.