Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/587

Rh exercise the pupils in talking about objects, and in reading from the blackboard, before putting the reader into their hands. Pictures of the objects named accompany most of the lessons, and when long sentences are reached they are broken into short sections at natural pauses, each standing in a line by itself, in order that the pupil's mind may not be required to take in too much at once.

Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi has published, under the title Physiological Notes on Primary Education and the Study of Language (Putnam, $1), four essays, of which three appeared in "The Popular Science Monthly" for 1885 and 1886, and the fourth in "The Teacher" during 1888. Two of these essays describe "An Experiment in Primary Education," being a record of the method employed in training the intellectual faculties, especially the perception and memory, of a child between the ages of four and six and a half years. The next essay, entitled "The Flower or the Leaf," is a reply to a criticism by Miss E. A. Youmans on the method of teaching a knowledge of plants employed in the afore-mentioned "Experiment." The subject of the paper which concludes the volume is "The Place for the Study of Language in a Curriculum of Education," and embraces a consideration of what special influence language study has upon mental development, what is the age at which this influence should be exerted, and what relative proportion language and other subjects should have in a general curriculum.

One might suppose The Geography of Marriage (Putnam, $1.50) to be a survey of the diversified natural features of the state of matrimony. But, under this title, Mr. William L. Snyder offers a law-book written in such a popular style as to make it, aside from its subject, attractive and useful to the lay reader. In a score of chapters he compares the provisions of the marriage and divorce laws of the States of the Federal Union as to who may marry, what constitutes a valid marriage, clandestine and runaway marriages, bigamy, divorce, and various other features of the subject, taking occasion to point out the evils arising from the differences among these laws in different parts of our country. Of the two ways of securing a uniform law which have been proposed, he favors concerted action by the States rather than a constitutional amendment giving up the control of this matter to Congress. A summary of the marriage and divorce laws existing in this country, arranged by States, concludes the volume. The index, which covers the general part of the book tolerably, is very meager with respect to this summary.

The fifth volume in the series of "English History by Contemporary Writers" tells the story of The Crusade of Richard I, (1189-'92), and the materials were selected and arranged by T. A. Archer (Putnam, 81.25). There is an ample number of accounts of this expedition, some by contemporary writers who were in Palestine when the events narrated occurred; others by contemporaries who remained at home; and still others by writers of the next generation, some of whom had visited the scenes of the crusade. Accounts of the authors and books from which extracts are taken, and notes on various customs and things of the time, are appended to the volume. Pictures of war-engines, fortresses, etc., illustrate the text. The volume lacks an index.

Mr. D. H. Montgomery has made a book which claims to embody The Leading Facts of French History (Ginn, $1.25), and is evidently intended to serve either as a textbook or for general reading. It begins with a reference to the cave-men and the latest event which it records is the election of President Camot. The narrative is popular and picturesque in style, and is enlivened with numerous anecdotes. Many additional bits of information and the pronunciation of all difficult names are supplied in foot-notes. Fourteen maps, mostly in colors, show the changing boundaries of France throughout the history. A list of dates, a genealogical table of French sovereigns, and a list of books on French history, are appended to the volume.

Six Species of North American Fishes, published by the Smithsonian Institution, under the head of "Natural History Illustrations," contains representations of the figures and details of five species of minor fresh-water fishes and the pickerel, as they were prepared under the direction of Profs. Agassiz and Baird, from drawings by A. Sourel, with explanations by President