Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 32.djvu/878

856  K. Smith. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 170. 80 cents.

Stewart, Balfour, and Gee, W. W. Haldane. Practical Physics. Vol. 1. Electricity and Magnetism. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 221. 60 cents.

Swedenborg. Emanuel. The Soul: or Rational Psychology. Translated and edited by Frank Sewall. New York: New Church Board of Publication. Pp. 388. $3.

Theosophical Publication Society. Theosophy and the Critics. London: George Redney. Pp. 13.

Todd, David P. Preliminary Report (unofficial) of the Total Solar Eclipse of 1887. Amherst (Mass.) Observatory. Pp. 16.

"The Truth-Seeker Annual and Freethinker's Almanac, 1888." New York: Truth-Seeker Office. Pp. 118. 25 cents.

Tuckerman, Frederick. M.D. Amherst, Mass. Note on the Papilla Foliata and other Taste Areas of the Pig. Pp. 5. The Tongue and Gustatory Organs of Fiber Zibethecus. Pp. 7, with Plates.

Tylor, E. B. Anthropology. (International Scientific Series.) New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 448.

Van Dyke, Henry, D.D. The National Sin of Literary Piracy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 23. 5 cents.

Varona, Enrique José. Conferencias Filosoficas (Philosophical Lectures). Second Series. Psicologia (Psychology). Havana. Pp. 474.

Von Rosenberg, Leo. The Vosburg Tunnel. A Description of its Construction. 35 Broadway, New York. Pp. 56, with Plates.

Woodward, C. M. The Manual Training School: its Aims. Methods, and Results, etc. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 374. $3.



Out-Door Play for School-Girls.—Professor W. E. Anderson, in a paper on "The Physical Side of Education," forming part of the Wisconsin State Board of Health Report for 1887, makes a plea for the indulgence of school-girls in play. He says: "Our school-girls lead a life without play, in the real meaning of the term. Muscular exertion is confined entirely to locomotion, or to movements requiring exercise of the lower part of the body. The restrictions of dress are such that movement above the waist is out of the question. The vital organs are restricted by dress, fashion, and occupations supposed to be suitable to the sex. Notice the difference between the movements of boys and girls of the same age, and attending the same class. While the boys can engage in every species of activity, and practice some sports perhaps too grotesque to be permissible for the opposite sex, the girls of sixteen are satisfied with a stately walk around the block, two under one shawl, conning the next lesson to be heard after school is called. All this is certainly a perversion of what Nature requires. There is no reason why such different dispositions should be manifest between the sexes at this age. The avoidance of play or exercise, and the conventionalities of dress, explain in a large part the want of full and natural development so characteristic of the female sex at the age when they should present in every respect of form, health, and color, the picture of human physical perfection. As it is, the majority of them at twenty years of age are already pale and faded, unnatural in color, wanting in spirit and force, and give evidence of retarded or obstructed development. Where exceptions occur it is usually owing to a violation of the régime of the school. Many of our district schools are supplied with a large, well-lighted, and well-ventilated hall. This hall might be used every day in the week for systematic plays designed or contrived to call into active exercise the senses and the whole muscular system. The running leap of the German gymnasium should form a feature of the sports of this hall. Girls could loosen their waistbands and adopt a style of dress which would enable them to exercise their shoulders and arms. They might find in this practice healthful sport, and a means of developing the tissues of the arms and shoulders, which would result in the development of that beauty of form so highly prized and so frequently simulated by artificial means. The muscles of the hands and arms can be exercised by the play of grace-hoops, cast by the use of two wands, and caught in the same way. The game of shuttlecock, requiring the use of a light bat, alternately in the right and left hand, calls into activity sight and touch. It would not be difficult to contrive games of which young people would not grow weary, and which would without question insure for our feeble school-girls a more durable tenure of good health and a larger stock of force and endurance. While the school ignores the necessity of play to the young, society gives it questionable recognition, and that most potent ruler of society—Fashion—finds in it opportunities for the display of her power. Tennis and archery are resorted to for amusement, and would yield most abundant good exercise were 