Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/578

562 lobster boiled, the morn from black to red began to turn."

The author holds that if all were scientists the world would be badly off; spirit would be dried out by system. This is the time-worn libel upon science—science, that breathes a soul into rocks, reads the romance of flower shapes, and gets color and fragrance from a lump of coal!

Even though repudiated, science has informed much of the book with beauty, and it may be commended to country lovers as a dainty calendar of the seasons.

Alexander Winchell's Walks and Talks in the Geological Field has been adopted by the Chautauqua Circle as one of its textbooks, and a special edition of the book has been made for this purpose (Flood, $1) It has been revised and edited by Prof. Frederick Starr, of the University of Chicago who has aimed to retain all the geological material of the original edition, and in the author's own words. Marginal comment has been introduced as a convenience to the reader, and a few footnotes have been added. The editor speaks of this book as intended by its author to hold a position between text books and books of light reading. It is written in an easy, conversational style, and is free from unnecessary technicalities. Although its forty-nine chapters have independent and picturesque titles, their scope and arrangmentarrangement [sic] is such that the editor is able to group them under these general heads: surface geology, strata, igneous agencies, economic geology, fossils, beginnings of the earth, and history of life and the growth of the continent. A number of illustrations have been introduced.

A very handsome book is Cheiro's Language of the Hand (the author, 432 Fifth Avenue, New York, $2). It is in square octavo form, with many illustrations, and is printed with large type and wide margins. It begins with a defense, which is followed by definitions of the square, conic, and various other shapes of hands, definitions of various kinds of fingers, of the "mounts" of the hand, etc. Then follow the meanings that the author assigns to the lines, stars, and other markings on the hand. There are a number of plates at the end, showing impressions of the hands of celebrated persons, and an appendix of testimonials from persons who have had their fortunes told by the author.

The first volume of The Tannins, issued three or four years ago by Prof. Henry Trimble, has now been followed by a second (Lippincott, $2). It is devoted to the results of investigation by the author on the astringent principles from nine species of oaks and one species each of mangrove, canaigre, and chestnut. The oak barks include a species from England and one from India. A bibliography is appended, which, with that in Volume I, makes up a total of nearly one thousand titles. There are thirty-three illustrations, showing leaves, acorns, and apparatus.

The First Lessons in Reading of Elizabeth H. Fundenberg (American Book Company, 25 cents) is based on the principle that the first teaching should connect the words already known to the ear with their written or printed forms, leaving the letters and the sounds they represent to a future step. Accordingly, the sentence or word method has been adopted, to give way to the phonic-word method when the child has become familiar with the printed and written forms of a considerable number of the words which are in his oral vocabulary. The Teachers' Edition (50 cents) comprises a manual in which each lesson is developed, together with outlines for slate and board work; also full instructions on phonetics and rules for pronunciation and spelling.

A second edition of Introductory Lessons in English Grammar, by the same author, is also published by the American Book Company. This is designed for intermediate grades, and will serve better when used to supplement the preceding than if offered by itself as a first course in grammar. Although well arranged, clear, and complete, it savors enough of technicality to arouse perhaps that unreasoning distaste for grammatical study which it is better the young student should never possess.

The Conversational Method in French of M. J. Victor Plotton is the fruit of an experience of many years, and is a system in which successful results have been obtained by those who have used it. Its aim is to teach speaking rather than reading, and it proceeds by carefully graduated lessons to take the pupil along unconsciously, as it