# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 44/December 1893/Literary Notices

Layout 4
The History and Theory of Money. By Sidney Sherwood, with Addresses by Dr. William Pepper and others. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 413. Price, $2.
The American people has heard more about the theory of money during the past summer than in a long time before. Much that has been said has been erroneous, and, unfortunately, the error has often been put forth so speciously that many of those who have not given the subject of finance serious study have mistaken the false for the true. During the early months of 1892, when the subject of money was also attracting considerable attention, a series of lectures was delivered in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, and the patronage of the bankers of Philadelphia. These lectures were given by Dr. Sherwood, of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, and, with certain supplementary matter, constitute the volume before us. The twelve lectures are evenly divided between history and theory; under the former head the principal topics are coinage, past fluctuations in the supply of the coin metals, the development of credit, the history of the Bank of England, and the history of American currency. The first lecture on theories is also historical, while the remaining five are devoted wholly to monetary theories now current. Dr. Sherwood affirms that the practical law of value of money is the law of demand and supply. Governments can, within narrow limits, make money more or less desirable and more or less plenty, thus affecting its value. He presents the argument both for and against a large volume of currency, and then sets forth certain important facts that bear upon this matter. Paper money he describes as a promise to pay. In treating of banks of various kinds he states that there is a growing tendency to divorce note-issue from the deposit and discount functions of banks; that the latter functions are constantly becoming more important, while there are tendencies both for and against the extension of the former. The eleventh lecture deals with the monetary question of greatest current interest—the Battle of the Standards, or monometallism versus bimetallism. Dr. Sherwood gives the arguments of both parties in the controversy, and states his conviction that bimetallism based on an agreement of the chief commercial nations would be advantageous, but attempted by one nation alone would be disastrous. France maintained it only so long as certain accidental conditions existed. The policy of the United States under the Sherman law is not bimetallism. The subject of the closing lecture—monetary panics—is also a timely one. The lecturer points out seven causes of panics, and states the measures taken by financial institutions for allaying them. Each of the lectures was followed by a discussion, which is reported. Appended to the volume are a syllabus of the lectures and a list of books for reading. Addresses made by Dr. William Pepper, Mr. William H. Rhawn, and others, at the opening and closing of the course, are also included.
Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies of the Northern United States and Canada. By Samuel Hubbard Scudder. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 206. Price, $1.25.
The Life of a Butterfly. By S. H. Scudder. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 186. Price, $1.
The former of these small volumes is a manual for amateur collectors. The author has aimed to guard against alarming the beginner by its size, and to give quite full life-histories of the butterflies that are included in it. It is described further in his own words as follows: "I have accordingly selected the butterflies—less than a hundred of them—which would almost surely be met with by any industrious collector in the course of a year's or two years' work in the more populous Northern States and in Canada, and have here treated them as if they were the only ones found there. I have omitted many species which are common enough in certain restricted localities (such, for instance, as our White Mountain butterfly), and included only those which are common over wide areas. As the earlier stages of these insects are just as varied, as ​interesting, and as important as the perfect stage, descriptions are given of these under the guidance of the same principle." The work opens with a short introduction to the general study of butterflies, which is followed by keys to the various groups, based respectively on the perfect butterfly, the caterpillar, and the chrysalis. The body of the work consists of concise descriptions arranged systematically, each comprising first a description of the butterfly, the caterpillar, and the chrysalis, then some account of the eggs and habits of the species. An appendix furnishes instructions for collecting, rearing, preserving, and studying, with cuts of apparatus.
In The Life of a Butterfly, Mr. Scudder has described one of the most conspicuous American—butterflies the large orange and black milkweed butterfly—and at the same time he has, by introducing comparisons, given some account of the lives of the other members of its tribe. The several habits of the chosen type are also used to illustrate such general scientific topics as the struggle for existence, mimicry, distribution, classification, etc. Four plates, showing the type insect and its important parts, are given.
General Greene. By Francis Vinton Greene. Great Commanders Series. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 332. Price, $1.50.
Some splendid fighters have come of Quaker stock, and Nathanael Greene was a notable one of these. His comparatively short life was a most valuable one to this country, and to-day his statue stands with that of Roger Williams to represent Rhode Island in the Capitol at Washington. His life up to thirty-three years of age was uneventful. Then the Revolution broke out, and the Assembly of his colony elected him brigadier general to command the Rhode Island militia. The choice was amply justified by Greene's career, first as a thorough organizer in camp near Boston, then as the friend and trusted subordinate of Washington in the operations about New York and Philadelphia, as quartermaster general, and most of all as the strategist, ever active and vigilant, who manœuvred the British out of the Carolinas. The volume before us gives a vivid and detailed account of his part in the struggle for independence. The descriptions of battles are clear and precise and all important ones are illustrated with maps. An engraving from the portrait of Greene by Charles Wilson Peale forms the frontispiece of the volume.
Geology. By A. J. Jukes-Browne. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 248. Price, $1.
This is one of the volumes of Whittaker's Library of Popular Science, and its simple style amply justifies its appearance in such a series. It is a small book, containing only the information that would be desired by an intelligent person who did not care to make a study of the subject. Its twenty-one short chapters are divided into three groups: the first telling how rocks are made, and what they are made of; the second telling how the rocks were brought into the positions they now occupy; and the last describing the rocks of different ages, and the fossils which serve to identify them There are ninety-four illustrations.
A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century. By W. E. H. Lecky. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Five volumes. Price, $5.
In this work Mr. Lecky develops a profoundly interesting chronicle. Not only does it present much that is novel to those whose ideas of the subject have filtered through English media, but it reveals the forces which have aided in the evolution of Irish character.
The typical traits of the Irish are often carelessly ascribed to racial differences. The influence of the Celtic element is not easily traced and is apt to be overestimated. What are termed distinctively Irish evils characterize chiefly the counties settled by Englishmen. Religion has been a more potent factor in modification, while the climate and situation of the country have had an important share in the formative process.
The suppression of her industries contributed largely to the downfall of the nation. The policy of England, however, was essentially the same toward Scotland and America, but Ireland was for various causes more completely in her grasp. It is difficult to read unmoved the struggles of this ​unfortunate people. Not only was their land confiscated, all commerce and manufacture legally restricted, their religion made a crime, but premiums were put upon bribery and treachery. The feeling in England was carried to such an extreme that petitions were presented to prohibit Irishmen from catching herrings, because they might forestall English markets! According to Burke, "the Irish were treated as a race of savages who were a disgrace to human nature itself," and even the poet Spenser advocated their subjection by systematic starvation. The object of English rule seemed at first to wipe out the Irish race rather than their religion; later, it assumed the phase of a war of creeds.
It is shown by Mr. Lecky that the Irish were naturally tolerant. They harbored Quakers and Huguenots, sheltered Protestant clergymen, and did not indulge in the burning of witches. The English, on the contrary, were relentless persecutors, and although there was no summary destruction of Papists in Ireland, such as there had been of Protestants in Spain, yet the results of legislation were further reaching and more pernicious. "The law did not suppose any such person to exist as an Irish Roman Catholic." Every office and profession was closed to him; it was even a penal offense to pick up the crumbs of learning as an usher in a school. Land he could not buy, nor own a horse over the value of five pounds. He could not appoint a guardian for his own child, and if he married a Protestant, the ceremony was null and the priest who performed it could be hanged. The degradation of the Irish by this penal code was unparalleled, since it affected not a minority but three fourths of the population and was in force nearly a century. A perusal of the laws in the light of the present day is enough to make one blush for English ancestry. Judged even by the intolerance of the age, they were excessive and short-sighted, and form an indelible blot upon English government. The disputed character of Irish history necessitates frequent reference to original materials; these include the correspondence and records of the English and Irish Governments and a vast number of private papers and letters. The reader is thus enabled to judge the truth for himself, and, far from finding the narrative a dull one, is almost persuaded that he is in the current of events.
The limits of this work do not correspond to those of the History of England, previously issued. They include the rebellion of 1798, the legislative union of 1800, and the events of the two succeeding years, as properly belonging to the same epoch.
The Physiology of the Senses. By John Gray McKendrick, M. D., and William Snodgrass, M. B. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 318. Price, $1.50 net.
It is the aim of this book, which is one of the series issued under the name of University Extension Manuals, to give a succinct account of the functions of the organs of sense in man and the higher animals. The authors have refrained from discussing with fullness of detail either the comparative physiology of the senses or the numerous interesting questions of a psychological character that are connected with the study of the sensory mechanisms. The volume has been written so as to be readily understood even by those who have not made physiology a special subject of study. Some comparatively simple experiments have been given, by which the reader may test certain of the statements for himself. The last chapter is of a speculative character, being an attempt to elucidate the nature of the physiological basis of sensation. The volume is illustrated with one hundred and twenty-seven figures.
British Forest Trees and their Sylvicultural Characteristics and Treatment. By John Nisbet, D.Œc. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 352. Price, $2.60.
One more evidence of the growing attention that is being paid to forestry is furnished by the appearance of this work. It is devoted to what may be called the larger considerations of sylviculture, such as the choice of kinds of trees for plantations, the mixing of different kinds, so that they will help and protect each other, the proper density of forests, underplanting, etc., details of such matters as sowing, planting, and tending being omitted. The greater part of the volume is devoted to special considerations regarding the growth of individual ​species of British forest trees. Among those classed as minor species not usually forming pure forests in Britain are five conifers introduced from North America. Something is told also in regard to the yew, juniper, hazel, alder, buckthorn, and hawthorn among useful shrubs.
Lecture Notes on Theoretical Chemistry. By F. G. Wiechmann. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 225.
A large body of notes, corresponding to an extended course of lectures, is given in this book. Many of the facts, laws, and processes which it includes are stated with much fullness and are accompanied with illustrative examples. As indicated by the title, the work is confined to theoretical chemistry, and much of the history of chemical theory is included in it. A chapter is given to solutions in which the recent work on that subject finds a place. Thermochemistry receives due attention, and there are short chapters on photo-chemistry and electrochemistry. Considerable prominence has been given to stoichiometry, but for problems in this subject students are referred to special manuals. The author is instructor in chemical physics and chemical philosophy at the School of Mines, Columbia College.
The Birth and Development of Ornament. By F. Edward Hulme, F. L. S., F. S. A. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1893. Pp. 340. Price, $1.50.
This book is an attempt to put into small compass and cheap form a general view of the origin and growth of the use of ornament. The opening paragraph follows: "The Birth of Ornament! Countless centuries before man appeared upon the earth, the Creator of the universe had gazed upon the work of his hands, and declared that all had reached his lofty ideal." Certainly the author can not be accused of too modern a starting point, and he further on puts this beyond question. "Hence we claim for our subject nothing short of infinite antiquity, nothing less than divine authority." The first chapter deals with the value of a knowledge of past ornamentation, the study of principles, and various other general matters. Chapter II really opens the subject, with a consideration of Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Phœnician art. Chapter III deals with Greek and Roman art Chapter IV, division of the Roman Empire: Byzantine, Romanesque, and Early English Art; Chapter V, Causes of the Decay of Gothic Art, and the Renaissance; and Chapter VI, The Art of Islam, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Peruvian, and, finally. Art among the North American Indians and the Primitive Savages. The work seems to be the result of a large amount of labor and time. It is very well illustrated with examples from the various periods, and abounds in quotations from such authorities as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Guizot, Ruskin, and Wilkinson. It contains a useful index.
A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry. By T. E. Thorpe, D. Sc., F. R. S., assisted by Eminent Contributors. In Three Volumes. Vol. III. O-Z. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 1058. Price, $20.
We congratulate the editor and the publishers upon the completion of this valuable work. So many subjects requiring extended treatment fall within the latter part of the alphabet that the concluding volume has grown far beyond the size of the other two, and its price has been increased by five dollars. The article on Sulphuric Acid occupies sixty pages, and treats fully each detail of the process of manufacture. Sixteen cuts, showing brimstone burners, steam jet pipes, Gay-Lussac and Glover towers, and other apparatus are given. Another subject demanding large space is the making of sodium carbonate, which is described with like fullness. The making of other compounds of sodium and the extraction of the metal itself also receive due attention. Under the head of Silver the extraction of that metal is described, and under Zinc we find the methods of extracting the metal and the composition of its alloys. The article on Water, contributed by Prof. Percy F. Frankland, is characterized by a large number of results of analyses of waters from sources of various geological characters and from various local supplies mainly in the British Isles. The composition of many saline and other mineral waters is given also. Modes of purify, ing water for drinking and for industrial purposes are described, together with a process of chemical analysis. Prof. Frankland also gives a special section on the ​bacteriology of water, and refers inquirers to half a page of authorities. Among the organic substances treated in this volume are the oils, paraffin, petroleum, starch, and sugar. The Vegeto-alkaloids, grouped under this head, are also found here. The Triphenylmethane Coloring Matters are another important group of organic substances treated in the present volume, the author of the article being Prof. Otto N. Witt, of Berlin. Alfred H. Allen, author of the Commercial Organic Analysis, contributes the article on Fixed Oils and Fats; Prof. W. A. Tilden, those on the Essential Oils, Terpenes, and Resin; the one on Sugar is by Messrs. J. A. R. and B. E. R. Newlands; that on Russian Petroleum is by Boverton Redwood; and that on American Petroleum by Prof. S. P. Sadtler, of the University of Pennsylvania. Among the more purely scientific articles are those on Specific Gravity, Solution, and Spectrum Analysis; while others whose technological character are more marked are Paper, Pottery and Porcelain (by William Burton, Esq., of the Wedgwood Works), Photography, Soap, Tea, and Wine. The contributions of the editor (unsigned articles) are many and important. When so much chemical knowledge is spread before us, perhaps we ought not to expect Prof. Thorpe to know what Americans mean by saleratus, or even the current spelling of the word (p. 364); and it is still less material that he allows his contributor, John Heron, Esq., to annex Long Island to New Jersey (p. 579).
A Guide to Stereochemistry. With an Appendix: Models for Use in teaching Organic Chemistry. By Arnold Eiloart, Ph. D., B. Sc. New York: Alexander Wilson, 26 Delancey Street, Agent. Price, $1 net; postage free.
The scope and purpose of this book may be best indicated by the following quotation from the author's preface:
"Although no new branch of chemistry is found more interesting by chemists and students than that which treats of the arrangement of atoms in space, so that lectures on the subject are everywhere welcome, yet it has been difficult to give guidance and permanence to this interest. . . . It seemed desirable in attempting to supply such a book to make it as compact as possible without stripping the subject of the charm so natural to it. In this Guide, therefore, established facts have been promptly accepted as such. . . . Living issues appropriate the pages thus gained, so that more than the usual proportion of space is occupied by the later and more daring developments of stereochemistry; the theories concerning the space-relations of nitrogen are a case in point. At the same time especial care has been taken to notice the criticisms of those hostile to such innovations."
It should be added that this work, while it may be used as a text-book by students, will also be read as a critical and historical review of the subject.
The American Book Company adds Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice to its series of English Classics for Schools. An account of the sources whence the play was derived, a notice of the occasion on which it was written, suggesting that it was designed to take advantage of current sensational events, and an analysis, are given in the introduction.
The Letters from Queensland (Australia), reprinted from the special correspondence of the London Times by Macmillan & Co., contains, besides sketches of travel and scenery and incidental observations of Chinese and Kanaka labor, valuable information and statistics about the sugar industry and mineral wealth of the colony, cattle and sheep raising, and a political chapter on the Separation Question, or the question of the division of the colony by the separation of North Queensland.
Moses or Darwin? A School Problem for all Friends of Truth and Progress, is the title of three papers on Evolution and Darwinianism which were originally delivered as lectures by the author, Dr. Arnold Dodel, at Zurich and St. Gall, Switzerland. Their immediate purpose was to direct the attention of the public "to the calamitous gulf lying between the higher and the common schools"—which he further describes by the words "Truth for the few" (higher school pupils, to whom the scientific doctrines of evolution are taught) and "Errors for the many" (lower school pupils, who are taught "the Mosaic myth"). The translator and American editor, Frederick W. Dodel, furnishes a preface, in which is a disquisition on School ​Reform in the West, the burden of which is the installation of science and the elimination of all religious teaching in all the schools. (The Commonwealth Company, Boston.)
The character of the Essays included by Mr. Henry Smith under the general title of Religion of the Brain is indicated by the frontispiece, which pictures an ivy-grown tree with the motto, "The Ivy has nearly killed the tree. Theology has all but destroyed religion. Science will kill Theology, then Religion will revive." Submitting to theological teachings during half of his life, he professes to have found them barren. Then he turned to science, and, while it took from him the hope of heaven, it taught him how to make this life happy; it took from him theology, and gave him natural religion. He sets forth in this book how he accepts the teaching of science and declines that of theology. (Watts & Co., London. Price, 2s. 6d.)
Karl Heinzen the author of a volume on The Rights of Women and the Sexual Relations, published by Benjamin R. Tucker, Boston, is described by Karl Schmemann, editor of this present edition, as "one of the most enlightened and humanitarian spirits of our time, whose libertarian and reformatory labors were not limited to his German fatherland and our republic, but extended to the entire civilized world by their unique and masterful many-sidedness." The author advocates, with great freedom and little reserve, the complete emancipation and independence of woman, with "liberty to choose her companion and liberty to change."
Instead of a Book is published by the author, Benjamin R. Tucker, because, he says, he was "too busy to write one"; that is, to give orderly arrangement, finish, symmetry, and due subordination to his thoughts on the cause he champions. He has been for twelve years editor of a journal called Liberty, in which he has expounded the principles of "Philosophical Anarchism." Pending the arrival of the man having time, means, and ability to produce the book that is desired in maintenance of this cause, he has put forth "as a makeshift" a partial collection of his writings for his journal. The volume opens with a paper on State Socialism and Anarchism, which represents, in a way, a summary of the entire scope of the work. In the sections, or groups of essays following this, the fundamental principles of human association (as he regards them) are dealt with; applied to the two great economic factors, money and land; the "authoritarian social principles that go counter to them" are dealt with; and the methods by which the championed principles can be realized are discussed. Other articles, less subject to classification, follow. While the work is highly objectionable from the conservative point of view, it is not at all wanting in vigor and earnestness. ($1.)
In preparing his Standard Arithmetic for schools and academies, President William J. Milne of the Normal College at Albany, has aimed to secure together in the student skill in numerical computations and a proper understanding of the reasons for the steps in the explanation of processes and the solution of problems. Either can be acquired without the other, but the student will not then be a full arithmetician, while with both he is qualified for any work. The book, therefore, contains examples to promote accuracy and rapidity, and exercises to train the analytical powers and develop the reasoning faculties. Business methods of computation are preferred to the processes of the schools. (American Book Company.)
Mr. R. Lachlan's Elementary Treatise on Modern Pure Geometry, and the Elementary Treatise on Pure Geometry of Mr. J. W. Russell, cover substantially the same ground in very similar manners. Pure geometry is defined in the new regulations for the Cambridge Tripos as "namely, Euclid; simple properties of lines and circles; inversion; the elementary properties of conic sections treated geometrically, not excluding the method of projections; reciprocation; harmonic properties; curvature." Mr. Lachlan has brought together in his treatise all the important propositions—bearing on the simple properties of lines and circles—that might fairly be considered within the limits of this regulation; and has at the same time endeavored to treat every branch of the subject as completely as possible, in order to attract a larger number of students to the science. Mr. Russell has attempted in his treatise to bring together all the well-known theorems and examples connected with harmonies, anharmonies, involution, projection (including ​homology), and reciprocation. In order to avoid the difficulty of framing a general geometrical theory of imaginary points and lines, the principle of continuity is appealed to. The properties of circular points and circular lines are then discussed, and applied to the theory of the foci of conics. This work is also well furnished with examples. (Macmillan & Co. Price, $4.25 and $2.60.)
The Primary Lessons and the Advanced Lessons in Human Physiology, by Prof. Oliver P. Jenkins, are successive volumes in the Indiana State series of common-school textbooks. The author insists that the books be used only as a guide to the study of the human body, and not as the object to be studied. "If this or any other elementary book in physiology is used simply as a book to be learned and recited, the time spent on it is worse than wasted." The author shows that many parts of the body can be put directly under study and their operations carefully observed and analyzed, while the lower animals can furnish the rest of the illustrations. The body should also be observed in action. Charts and drawings have their place in the teaching, but "they should come after the objects and never before, and certainly should not stand for them." In the second book of the series—Advanced Lessons—directions are introduced for the practical demonstration of many anatomical and physiological facts. Recognizing the change that has come in recent years over the tone and spirit of physiological thought and discussion, the author has endeavored to infuse enough of this spirit into his work "to introduce even the young student into its influence." (Indiana Schoolbook Company, Indianapolis.)
A Students Manual of a Laboratory Course in Physical Measurements, by Wallace Clement Sabine, is a guide to experiments. It was primarily written for one of the Harvard courses in physics, and the experiments detailed in it are based upon those performed in that course. It has been given the form of an abstract of the daily lectures preceding the laboratory work and describing the experiments to be performed, and is intentionally condensed. Efforts are made to explain all the corrections to be applied, and to call attention to all the precautions which should be taken in the accurate and proper performance of the experiments. On the other hand, in the majority of cases, the description is purposely not such as will admit of a mechanical and unintelligent interpretation. (Boston: Ginn & Co.)
The second part of Jane H. Newell's Reader in Botany contains selections for reading, adapted from well-known authors, on flower and fruit. In it Christian Conrad Sprengel is represented by passages on Cross-Fertilization and Fertilization of Tropæolum, Darwin in Cross-Fertilization, Heterostyled Flowers, and the Habits of Insects in Relation to Flowers, writers in the German Pflanzenleben in The Protection of Pollen, The Dissemination of Pollen by the Wind, and The Color of Flowers as a Means of attracting Insects; Wallace in Attractive and Protective Colors of Fruits; Gray in Fertilization of Orchids; Grant Allen and Byron D. Halsted in Weeds; F. L. Sargent in The Common Dandelion; Sir John Lubbock in Habits of Insects in Relation to Flowers; Miss Buckley in Epochs in the History of Botany; and four papers have no names attached. (Boston: Ginn & Co.)
The Orum System of Voice Education, for reading and conversation, recitation, dramatic expression, and Bible reading, by Julia A. Orum, is based on the system of James Fennell, as transmitted through his pupil, L. G. White, and Mr. White's pupil, James B. Roberts. The author has made its illustration and establishment her special work for sixteen years. The book is a transcription of her method of instruction in schools and classes which include children and men and women of various vocations. It is based upon physiological principles, and begins with the elucidation of the elemental functions of the body in the expression of sentences. (Published by the author at Philadelphia.)
The Manual of Current Shorthand—orthographic and phonetic—of Mr. Henry Sweet is intended to supply the want of a system of writing shorter and more compact than longhand, and at the same time not less distinct and legible. None of the systems most in use at the present time, the author affirms, fully meet these requirements, because they sacrifice efficiency to brevity. The present system is on a script basis instead of a geometrical one, like Pitman's—that is, is formed on its model of ordinary longhand, reduced ​to its simplest elements; it provides for the vowels, and is on an alphabetic and syllabic basis. (Macmillan & Co., $1.25.)
The seventeenth monograph of the Geological Survey is The Flora of the Dakota Group, a work on fossil botany by the late Leo Lesquereux (Geological Survey, $1.10). The specimens from which the descriptions in this work were written are mostly in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Cambridge, the museum of the University of Kansas, and the private cabinet of Mr, R. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, Pa. This was the last production of its author, and the chief events of his life are appropriately set forth in the editor's preface.
A monograph on the Gasteropoda and Cephalopoda of the Raritan Clays and Green-sand Mark of New Jersey, by Robert Parr Whitfield, is the eighteenth in the series of the Geological Survey, and forms also a part of the report on the Survey of the State of New Jersey. The material for this report was very meager, the gasteropods being represented in the several formations only by casts and the cephalopods largely by fragments. Fifty plates, each bearing from one to thirty figures, illustrate the text.
The United States Geological Survey has issued A Dakota-English Dictionary, by Stephen Return Riggs, a quarto volume of 665 pages. The author, who died in 1883, was a student of the language for missionary use for over thirty years, having prepared a grammar and dictionary that was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852. The present volume has been edited by James Owen Dorsey.
In the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1889-'90 it is shown that the property used for common schools had reached the value of $350,000,000, an average increase of $10,000,000 a year since 1870. In the same period the school attendance in the South Atlantic States had risen from six to twenty-two per cent of the whole population, and in the South Central States from seven and a half to twenty-three and a half per cent. The enrollment for the whole country is twenty-three per cent. This is a better showing than that of any other nation except Saxony. But many European states have a much longer yearly session than we have. Here, says the commissioner, is the place to show improvement in future years. Among the subjects on which special reports are presented are the educational congresses held in Paris in 1889, education in Scotland, the higher schools of Prussia and the school conference of 1890, temperance instruction, and the curricula of professional schools. Numerous other topics receive attention also, and there are the usual statistics.